Request By:
Mr. Jerry Parsons
Estill County Jailer
Courthouse
Irvine, Kentucky 40336
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The fiscal court has retained you as Transportation Officer for Estill County. You request our opinion on the following issues:
"1. Is fiscal court still in charge of hiring personnel or is it still the Transportation Officer's duty to do so?
"2. In 1986, if jailer is still Transportation Officer will salary be lowered to $12,000 per year, or will jailer still retain 1985 salary?
"3. Does Transportation Officer have to be a member of some law enforcement agency or can it be a private firm such as a security firm or private individual?
"4. Would Transportation Officer have to be bonded and specially trained to be employed by fiscal court?"
We assume Estill County has no jail, and that it has contracted with another county for furnishing of jail facilities for Estill prisoners. See KRS 441.025. KRS 441.510(3) provides that in any county where there is no jail, the fiscal court shall adopt a transportation plan which establishes the party responsible for transporting prisoners as necessary. In such situation (no jail) the fiscal court, among other options, may require the jailer to serve as transportation officer to be responsible for transporting that county's prisoners as necessary.
KRS 71.060, as amended in 1984 by H.B. 182, Section 1, provides that the jailer shall be responsible for the appointment and removal of all jail personnel, the number of jail personnel being set by the fiscal court in the jail budget. However, KRS 71.065 (eff. 7-13-84), Section 2 of H.B. 182, specifically provides that if in any county there is no jail, Section 1 of the bill, above mentioned, shall not be applicable and the jailer shall not be entitled to nor shall he appoint any jail personnel.
The answer to question no. 1 is that the fiscal court, not the jailer as transportation officer, would have the authority to hire, under the jail budget, any necessary personnel for your function. See KRS 441.025(2)(c), KRS 441.505 and 441.510.
Question No. 2 relates to your salary in 1986 as transportation officer. Under KRS 441.245(5), effective January 6, 1986, the salary for jailers, in any county where there is no jail and the jailer does not transport prisoners, shall be twelve thousand dollars ($12,000) per year. However, assuming that you will be transporting prisoners in 1986, your compensation for 1983 and subsequent years shall equal the prior year's compensation and may be adjusted by the fiscal court for the change in the prior year's consumer price index. KRS 441.245(4). Prior years' compensation refers to actual compensation paid. Nickell v. Thomas, Ky.App., 665 S.W.2d 927 (1984) 928.
Concerning question no. 3, the jailer, as transportation officer, must only qualify as jailer as mentioned in Section 99 of the Kentucky Constitution. He is only required to meet the qualifications for the office of jailer as outlined in § 100, Kentucky Constitution. The General Assembly can impose no additional qualifications. Braughton v. Pursifull, 245 Ky. 137, 53 S.W.2d 200 (1932).
In answer to question no. 4, the jailer, as transportation officer, would simply be required to execute the bond to the Commonwealth, as prescribed in KRS 71.010.