Published: February 17, 2007

FRANKFORT — A state representative from Greenup County is sponsoring legislation that would clarify state law about elected officials serving at volunteer fire departments.

House Bill 107, sponsored by Rep. Tanya Pullin, D-South Shore, would insert a new paragraph in the state’s statute on incompatible offices, which generally restricts office-holders from taking positions with governmental agencies other than the ones to which they were elected.

The paragraph reads:

“Service as a volunteer firefighter in a volunteer fire department district or fire protection district formed pursuant ... shall not be incompatible with any civil office in the Commonwealth, whether state, county, district, or city.”

Currently, the law does not expressly prohibit service as both an elected official and a volunteer firefighter. However, it does not specifically allow it, either.

Pullin said she did not believe holding elected office was grounds to disqualify a person “civic-minded enough to want to be a volunteer firefighter” from doing so.

Conversely, she said she also believed volunteer firefighters should not have to give up serving the public in that fashion to run for office.

Pullin also said she felt the measure would be helpful to small fire departments. She said those agencies often have difficulty recruiting enough members to fill out their ranks, given the danger involved and the increased training required of volunteer firefighters.

One local governmental body to which the measure would seem to be directly applicable is the Greenup City Council. Two of the three new members who were elected to the council in November — Mark Harris and Lundie Meadows Jr. — serve on the town’s volunteer fire department.

Following the election, some — including council members who lost their re-election bids — questioned the legality of Harris and Meadows serving on the council and on the fire department. City Attorney Stephen McGinnis researched the matter and found that state law did not specifically address it.

Further muddying the waters was an opinion the city received from an attorney with the Kentucky League of Cities. The opinion, which carries no legal weight, stated “incompatibility issues clearly prohibit” a city council member from serving on a city-established volunteer fire department such as Greenup’s.

Pullin said the Greenup situation was not the impetus for the measure. She said she had spoken to a number of elected officials from throughout the state in similar situations.

“There are a lot of volunteer firefighters who are elected to various jobs,” she said.

Greenup County Coroner Neil Wright — himself an elected official and a volunteer firefighter — agreed. He said hundreds of Kentuckians serve the public in those dual capacities.

Wright said he spoke to Pullin about getting the law clarified.

“The bottom line is, people should not be penalized for wanting to serve the public, and the public should not be penalized for someone wanting to pull double duty,” he said.

Pullin said she discussed the matter with officials from the League of Cities, whom she said told her they believed her amendment would be a “good clarification” of the law.

Pullin’s bill originally contained language that would disallow any elected official from serving on the governing board or as “chief executive authority” of a volunteer fire department. However, she deleted that because she said she believed it made the bill confusing and could have hindered its chances of passage.