Request By:
Mr. Donald George
Marion County Treasurer
Courthouse
Lebanon, Kentucky 40033
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question concerns the payment of the telephone bills of the property valuation administrator. Your letter reads in part:
"In OAG 82-634 you concluded that the county must provide the P.V.A.'s office with necessary utilities and light fixtures and telephone, since the office could not function without those essential items.
"The Marion County P.V.A. and the Department of Revenue have construed this opinion to mean that the P.V.A.'s telephone bill must be paid by the county from an account other than 5-A-5. The 5-A-5 account is the one established by KRS 132.590(7)(8).
"The statute lists uses for these appropriated funds including 'other authorized expenses of the office'. I feel that the payment of P.V.A.'s telephone bill would fall into this category, making it an allowable expenditure from the 5-A-5 account."
In OAG 80-491, written to Bob Allphin, Commissioner of Revenue, published, Banks-Baldwin, we pointed out that the county is required literally to annually appropriate and pay each fiscal year to the office of the PVA the total formula contribution, pursuant to KRS 132.590(7) and (8). Under subsection (9) of that statute, the PVA files a claim annually with the county, after the appropriation of the formula contribution covered in subsection (7), for that amount of the appropriation specified in his approved budget for compensation of deputies and assistants, including employer's shares of FICA and state retirement, for the fiscal year. The amount so requested shall be paid by the county, out of its formula contribution, into the state treasury, and shall be expended by the Revenue Cabinet only for compensation of approved deputies and assistants and the employer's share of FICA and state retirement in the appropriating county. In addition, each PVA shall at the end of each month file a claim with the fiscal court, payable out of the county's formula contribution covered in subsection (7), for "expenses of his office other than personnel" incurred during the month which are payable from county funds. (Emphasis added). The fiscal court must order payment, out of the county's formula contribution appropriation, of the two categories of expenses of the PVA, in the manner recited above, provided that the total of all claims filed with the fiscal court does not exceed the total sum available by way of the county's formula contribution appropriation under subsection (7) of KRS 132.590.
You will note that subsection (9) of KRS 132.590 provides that the non-personnel expenses are those which are payable from county funds. This brings on the question as to whether the county is responsible for paying the telephone bills, for calls, under the non-personnel facet of claims pursuant to KRS 132.590(9).
We pointed out in OAG 82-634, published, Banks-Baldwin, that under KRS 132.410, and under the specific holding of
Burke v. Oates, 293 Ky. 563, 169 S.W.2d 608 (1943) 609, the county must provide the PVA's office with necessary utilities and light fixtures and telephone equipment, since the office could not function without those essential items. KRS 132.410 requires a county to provide suitable office room or rooms and suitable furniture. The court, in Burke v. Oates, wrote this:
"That the county is required by law to furnish light for the office is gathered from KRS 132.410, which requires the fiscal court to provide a suitable office and furniture for the tax commissioner. While light for the office is not specifically mentioned, the duty to supply light should be read into the statute by implication just as much as if it appeared in express terms since the office without light would be so useless as to be regarded as no office at all. The duty to provide the office includes the duty to provide the light and the light cannot be provided without light fixtures. "
The court, in Burke v. Oates, is saying in effect that the county must pay for the "utilities" of the PVA office, in order to make it functional. Using that concept, it logically follows that the utilities concept would include the telephone bills for calls, i.e., official calls.
Next, you ask, how does the county pay for such phone call bills of the PVA? The answer is found in OAG 80-491. The claim filed by the PVA for such bills must be paid out of the county's formula contribution appropriation, as covered in subsection (7), as a non-personnel expense payable from county funds, as explicitly mentioned in subsection (9).
CONCLUSIONS
Under the holding in Burke v. Oates, it is our opinion that the necessary and official telephone calls made by the PVA and his staff are required to be paid by the county. It would not make sense for the county to pay for the heat and electricity as utilities and not also include paying for the telephone bills. In today's modern times, the telephone has become a necessary utility for the orderly and functional operation of any government office. It appears to us that the legislative intent behind KRS 132.410 was designed to cover the office as an effective functional unit of government.
The Supreme Court of Alabama, in Opinion of the Clerk, Supreme Court, Ala., 361 So.2d 361 (1978) 363, ruled that a "utility" in the context of Rule 3(A) is "a service provided by a public utility. Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1976)." Further, the Supreme Court of Alabama, in Opinion of the Clerk, Supreme Court of Alabama, Ala., 350 So.2d 308 (1977), relating to a Supreme Court Rule governing the administration of courts and requiring counties to furnish and maintain courtrooms and offices for court officials and employees, including judges, clerks, registers and district attorney's "utilities and other necessary facilities" for state courts, ruled that a telephone company is a public utility. (Emphasis added). The court held that the counties must pay for telephone service, including long-distance toll charges, extension telephones and like facilities.