(A) City Council shall establish the compensation of every elected city officer not later than the first Monday in May in the year in which the officer is elected. An elected officer’s compensation shall not be changed after his or her election or during his or her term of office.
(1) In order to equate the compensation of Mayors and Council members with the purchasing power of the dollar, the Department of Local Government computes by the second Friday in February of every year the annual increase or decrease in the consumer price index of the preceding year by using 1949 as the base year in accordance with § 246 of the Constitution of Kentucky, which provides that the Mayor in cities of the first class shall be paid at a rate no greater than $12,000 per annum and Mayors in cities other than the first class and Council members shall be paid at a rate no greater than $7,200 per annum.
(2) The City Council shall set the compensation of these officers in accordance with KRS 83A.070 at a rate no greater than that stipulated by the Department of Local Government.
(B) The City Council shall fix the compensation of each appointed city officer by ordinance and may change it by ordinance.
(C) The City Council shall establish the compensation of city employees in accordance with the personnel and pay classification plan ordinance of the city.
(D) All fees and commissions authorized by law shall be paid into the city treasury for the benefit of the city and shall not be retained by any officer or employee.
Case law reference:
The limits on compensation contained in the Kentucky Constitution are not absolute limits but rather increase or decrease in accordance with changes in the consumer price index. See Matthews v Allen, 360 SW2d 248 (1948).
Editor's note:
Compensation ordinances are not set forth in this code but are rather kept on file and available for public inspection in the office of the City Clerk.
Statutory reference:
Compensation, see KRS 83A.070 and 83A.075