Clark County Attorney v. Travis Thompson

Court of Appeals of Kentucky·Decided January 7, 2021·No. 2019 CA 001349·Unknown

Opinion

RENDERED: JANUARY 8, 2021; 10:00 A.M.

TO BE PUBLISHED

Commonwealth of Kentucky

Court of Appeals

NO. 2019-CA-1349-MR

CLARK COUNTY ATTORNEY APPELLANT

APPEAL FROM CLARK CIRCUIT COURT v. HONORABLE BRANDY O. BROWN, JUDGE ACTION NO. 19-CI-00147

TRAVIS THOMPSON AND THE CITY OF WINCHESTER, KENTUCKY APPELLEES

OPINION

AFFIRMING

** ** ** ** **

BEFORE: MAZE, K. THOMPSON, AND L. THOMPSON, JUDGES. THOMPSON, K., JUDGE: The Clark County Attorney appeals from a decision of the Clark Circuit Court which concluded that Travis Thompson may simultaneously serve as a duly elected magistrate on the Clark Fiscal Court and a police officer for the City of Winchester, Kentucky. Examining the record and applicable law, we conclude a Winchester police officer is a municipal employee,

not a municipal officer. Thus, we affirm, though our analysis differs from that employed by the trial court.

In August 2018, the then-Clark County Attorney wrote a letter to the Kentucky Attorney General’s office seeking an opinion as to whether a person may serve simultaneously as a City of Winchester police officer and a Clark County magistrate. At that time, Thompson was a candidate for a Clark County magistrate and was scheduled to soon become a Winchester police officer. The question was important because Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 61.080(3) provides that “[n]o person shall, at the same time, fill a county office and a municipal office.” It is undisputed that a magistrate is a county office, so the real issues was—and remains—whether a Winchester city police officer is a city officer or a city employee. Before the Attorney General’s office responded, Thompson took the oath of office to become a Winchester police officer in late August or early September 2018. In November 2018, Thompson was elected as a Clark County magistrate.

On January 3, 2019, the Attorney General’s office issued a letter, not a formal opinion, opining that the two positions “are neither constitutionally nor statutorily incompatible” because a Winchester police officer was an employee, not an officer. Unfortunately, the letter did not discuss contrary authority, including numerous formal opinions of the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General (OAG)

which refer to municipal police officers as municipal officers. The next day, Thompson took the oath of office as a Clark County magistrate.

A week later, the new Clark County Attorney sent a letter to the Winchester Chief of Police opining that Thompson could not serve as a magistrate and city police officer. The County Attorney sent similar letters in February and March 2019. In response, Thompson was removed from his police patrol duties and placed on “desk duty.”

In March 2019, Thompson filed a petition for declaration of rights, naming only the City of Winchester as a respondent, asking the Clark Circuit Court to declare that the “office of a City Police Officer is not an incompatible office with that of the Constitutional Position of Magistrate.” Winchester filed an answer opining that the two positions were not incompatible. Soon thereafter, the Office of the Clark County Attorney successfully moved to intervene, over Thompson’s objection.

Thompson soon filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, arguing that older authority deeming a municipal police officer to be a municipal officer was “dated and cannot be relied upon as guidance[.]” Winchester filed a response agreeing with Thompson’s position. However, the County Attorney filed a response in opposition to Thompson’s motion, generally asserting that precedent referring to a municipal police officer as a municipal officer remained binding.

In August 2019, the trial court granted Thompson’s motion, noting correctly that it was actually granting summary judgment to Thompson since matters outside the pleadings had been considered. See Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure (CR) 12.03. The court did not discuss, or even cite, authority stating that a city police officer is a city officer. Instead, the court found Thompson did not meet the multi-part definition of an “officer” in KRS 83A.010(10). That definition, which has not been amended since its enactment in 1980, is as follows:

“Officer” means any person elected to a position by the voters or any person appointed to a position which (a) is created by the Constitution, the General Assembly, or a city; (b) possesses a delegation of a portion of the sovereign power of government; (c) has powers and duties to be discharged which are conferred directly or by implication by the city; (d) has duties performed independently and without control of a superior power other than law; (e) has some permanency; (f) requires an official oath; (g) is assigned by a commission or other written authority; and (h) provides for an official bond if required by proper authority.

Particularly, the trial court held that it “strongly disagrees that a police officer performs duties independently and without control of a superior power other than the law.” The Clark County Attorney then filed this appeal.1

1 Thompson’s brief does not contain a proper counterstatement of points and authorities, as required by CR 76.12(4)(d)(ii). Although we have elected to not impose any sanctions, we caution counsel to comply fully with the appellate practice rules in the future. Our guide to appellate practice and a checklist for appellate briefs is available on our website. https://kycourts.gov/courts/coa/Pages/coa.aspx (last visited September 14, 2020).

The only issue before us is whether Thompson the Winchester police officer is a municipal officer or a municipal employee. That distinction is crucial because the prohibition bars serving as both a municipal officer and county officer, not against being a municipal employee and a county officer. As Chief Justice John Marshall noted nearly two hundred years ago, “[a]lthough an office is ‘an employment,’ it does not follow that every employment is an office.” United States v. Maurice, 26 F. Cas. 1211, 1214 (C.C.D. Va. 1823). See also 63C AM. JUR. 2D Public Officers and Employees § 2 (2020) (“There is a distinction between a public office and a public employment, and although every public office may be an employment, one can be a public employee or public servant without necessarily holding a public office.”) (footnotes omitted). Determining whether a particular position is an “office” has long vexed Kentucky courts. Black v. Sutton, 301 Ky. 247, 250-51, 191 S.W.2d 407, 409 (1945) (“The line of demarcation between public office and public employment is oftentimes dim and the distinction between them as marked by judicial expression is not always clear.”).

Resolving whether Thompson holds a municipal office requires us to analyze various statutory and constitutional provisions. As the proper interpretation of Kentucky statutes is an issue of law, our review is de novo. Delphi Automotive Systems, LLC v. Capital Community Economic/Indus. Development Corp., Inc., 434 S.W.3d 481, 485 (Ky. 2014). Of course, we also

review a trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment de novo. Feltner v. PJ Operations, LLC, 568 S.W.3d 1, 3 (Ky.App. 2018).

We begin by addressing what the trial court inexplicably ignored:

prior authority referring to municipal police officers as municipal officers. The Attorney General has consistently stated in multiple OAG decisions—without real analysis—that municipal police officers are municipal officers. Of course, an OAG is not binding on courts, though we often afford them “great weight.” Louisville Metro Dep’t of Corrections v. King, 258 S.W.3d 419, 421-22 (Ky.App. 2007). The Attorney General did not write on a blank slate as its sundry opinions were premised upon four appellate opinions.

The first, and primary, basis for the Attorney General’s conclusions—

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