MEMORANDUM

To: From:

Metro Council Members William T. Warner F. Todd Lewis County Attorney Memorandum dated February 26, 2014 February 27, 2014

About: Date:

Honorable members: The referenced memo advised you not to permit Councilman David James to vote on any matter at the Metro Council meeting scheduled for this evening. The County Attorneys purported reason for recommending that action is that Councilman James concurrent positions as an elected Council Member and a campus security officer for the University of Louisville are incompatible under the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Councilman James notified the County Attorney that he was working to clear up any issue or question concerning his position with the University. And that is where this issue lay, if there is any issue at all: between Councliman James, and the University. KRS 61.090 makes patently clear that, if there are incompatible offices involved, then it is the first office (University Officer) which comes into question, not the second office (Councilman). In fact, as the County Attorneys letter to the Attorney General indicates, the authorities on the broader issue of incompatibility are far from conclusive. There is no authority either in KRS Chapter 67C, nor in any other statute, nor in Council Rules, for the Council to deny Councilman James his right to vote as a member of the Council. Indeed, all legal authority on the issue of how to resolve this issue up to and including the United States Supreme Courtis that the officer is to receive prior notice and have the matter resolved in orderly judicial proceedings. To do otherwise, and allow the executive of this government through the county attorney, to attempt to bypass the courts and directly impede this legislative body and its members, without judicial authority, is an outright violation of law and this Commonwealths Constitution. Should the Council proceed with a meeting without recording his vote ( and others), that meeting will be illegal, and any business conducted at the meeting will be null and void.