Request By:
Mr. Dwayne "Pie" Jett
Bracken County Judge Executive
Brooksville, Kentucky 41004
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Bracken County jail has been closed since May 14, 1983. The fiscal court is now contracting with Mason County to house Bracken County prisoners, since Bracken County cannot remodel its jail and use it at this time.
Your specific questions relate to the transportation officer's living quarters.
Question No. 1:
Does the transportation officer have to live at the jail or can he live elsewhere?
KRS 441.510, where there is no county jail, permits the fiscal court to appoint a transportation officer, which may be the jailer, or the sheriff or someone else. However, regardless of the person appointed, under those three (3) choices. there is no statutory provision requiring the transportation officer to live at the closed jail, or any particular place. Under KRS 71.020, where there is a jail in operation, and where the jail is suitable for living purposes, the jailer, or one of his deputies, may reside in the jail. However, even if the jailer is the transportation officer, the statute does not apply, since it applies only to an operational jail.
Question No. 2:
Does the fiscal court have to furnish the transportation officer living quarters?
The answer is "no", since there is no statute authorizing the expenditure of county money for such purpose.
Question No. 3:
Can the fiscal court charge the transportation officer rent?
We assume you mean that the fiscal court has leased some available living space to the transportation officer. The answer is that the fiscal court can charge him a reasonable sum as rental for such available space. The rental should be determined after two competent appraisers report what would report what would constitute a fair rental for the living quarters in question. See