Board of county commissioners

“ GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A HEAD The long ballot has other results than the mere difficulty of intelligent voting. One of these is a GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A HEAD. While the board of supervisors or commissioners is nominally at the head of the county government, it has to work through the various administrative officers. These are also elected by the people, and may be of the opposite political party. At all events, they are independent of the board, not responsible to it, and may or may not work in harmony with it. ”

“ This statute plainly gives to the board plenary authority to subscribe for stock of a railroad corporation, and to issue county bonds in payment of the subscription, though whether such authority in any case may be exercised or not is made to depend upon the collateral question whether the result of a popular election has indicated an approval of the proposed issue. And the board of commissioners is the tribunal contemplated by the laws to determine whether the contingency of fact has occurred,-a determination necessary to be made preparatory to their issuing the county bonds. ”

“ Leahy, 11 Kan. 23. It may organize a county with six hundred inhabitants, or with any other number more or less than six hundred. It may organize a county whenever there shall be a sufficient number of persons to hold the county offices, and the legislature may provide for a less number of county officers than the usual number. Borton v. Buck, 8 Kan. 308; Commissioners v. State, 5 Kan. 688.'
In the fall of 1873 proceedings looking to the organization of Comanche county were had, which were in form in full compliance with the requirements of section 1, above quoted. ”

“ The Commissioners are free from local prejudices, unmixed in county politics, and constitute a permanent, unfluctuating board of inspection and [Pg 192] reference; whereas county and borough magistrates owe their appointment usually to political considerations and influence: politics are a subject of bitter warfare among them in most counties; local and personal prejudices and dislikes are more prone to affect them as local men ”

“ In the purchase of land for a poor-farm, the authority of the commissioners of a county is very clearly set forth. The mode of raising the money, and paying it over, are all definitely stated. These statutes set a limit, beyond which they cannot go. They are a guide, not only to the commissioners, but equally so to all persons dealing with them, who must see to it that their contracts are within the boundaries thus described. * * * Here we find the authority, and indeed the only authority, for the purchase and payment of money for a 'poor-farm' by the county commissioners ”

“ The county commissioners were the persons authorized by the act to ascertain and determine whether 'such assent' had been given; and necessarily so, because, on the ascertainment by them of the fact of 'such assent,' they were charged with 'the duty'-that is the language-of making the subscription, and the duty of issuing the bonds. They were equally charged with the duty of ascertaining the fact of the assent. The record evidence of their proceedings shows that their order for the election was made 33 days before the election was to be held ”

“ This board is usually constructed on one of two plans: Either it consists of three or five members, the county being divided into commissioner districts; or else it is constituted of the chairmen or other member of each of the several town boards. The former plan prevails in Minnesota, Iowa, and other states; the latter in Wisconsin, Michigan, most of Illinois, and in other states.
The commissioners have charge of county roads and bridges, county buildings and other county property, and the care of the county poor. ”

“ The said General Board of Commissioners, in Executive Council assembled, have this day chosen, and by these presents do hereby appoint and authorize Dr. Martin Robison Delany, of Chatham, County of Kent, Province of Canada, Chief Commissioner; and Robert Douglass, Esq., Artist, and Prof. Robert Campbell, Naturalist, both of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one of the United States of America, to be Assistant Commissioners ”

“ Moreover, even with regard to those areas specifically delegated to the county government by statute or constitutional provision, the Commissioners Court sometimes does not have the power to make decisions. Within the county government there are numerous departments which are controlled by officials elected independently of the Commissioners Court and over whom the Commissioners Court does not exercise control. The Commissioners view themselves primarily as road commissioners. ”

“ Like the members of the Etowah County Commission before the consent decree change, Russell County Commissioners were elected at large by the entire electorate, subject to a requirement that a candidate for commissioner reside in the district corresponding to the seat he or she sought. ”

“ Who would doubt, if these petitioners were the unquestioned commissioners of the county, that mandamus would lie to compel the clerk to recognize them, and record on the county books their proceedings as such? Does the fact that certain parties are contesting their rights as commissioners oust the court of jurisdiction, or forbid it to compel other county officers to recognize them? Must the office of county commissioners remain practically vacant, and the affairs of the county unadministered, pending a trial of a right of office between contestants? Surely not; public interests forbid. ”

“ The bonds recite that they were issued in conformity to law, and in pursuance of the election held on the 6th of April, 1869. It is true they refer to the wrong statute, but falsa demonstratio non nocet. The bad here does not hurt the good. The act of the commissioners was the act of the county, and the county is conclusively bound by what they have done. As between the county and a bona fide holder, no question involving the infirmity of the securities can be raised. ”

“ Commission government was for many years a fad in this country, and it has become discredited, so that of late we have been doing away with commissions and coming to single heads for departments having executive functions and some minor legislative functions, such as park boards, and police boards, and have been trying to concentrate responsibility in that way. In Erie County and throughout New York a commission elected by the people governs our counties. The board of supervisors is a commission government. It has never been creditable—always bad, even as compared with our city governments. ”

“ A careful examination of those decisions fails to support this position. The opinion that the act was invalid because it was special legislation, applicable only to certain counties, would seem, indeed, to be thus modified. But the adjudication that the constitution did not permit the appointment of commissioners to take the place of the justices of the peace for the county, and perform the duties of the county court, stands unimpaired, and as such is binding upon us. ”

“ Even under the most favorable circumstances there remains an important duty for a state commission to supervise the work of the county assessor or board of assessors to the end that the letter of the law may be obeyed with the utmost uniformity throughout the state. Such a commission must see that the county does injustice to neither individuals nor the state through inequal assessment and that the tax sales are in accordance with the law. ”

“ This tax was directed to be collected annually by the sheriffs of the respective parishes, or by collectors to be appointed by the commissioners. To carry out the act, three commissioners were appointed from each parish, and were styled the 'Board of Levee Commissioners,' with power to fill vacancies in the board, appoint officers, lay out the district into wards, with one inspector to each ward, and order the levees to be repaired and built. ”

“ When the legislature has declared how an officer is to be selected, and the officer is selected in accordance with that declaration, his acts, within the scope of the powers given him by the legislature, bind the municipality. But these special commissioners were not the only officers of the township whose acts gave currency to these bonds. If inquiry had been directed to the county and township records, the affidavit of the township assessor to the consent required would have been found ”

“ And so, county government everywhere was conceived in a spirit of negation. The people elect their boards of supervisors or county commissioners, hoping thereby to keep their fingers on the public purse through direct agents. The supervisors, in their turn, undertake to regulate the finances of the sheriff, the district attorney, the county clerk and the rest. But, lo, these officers are no subordinates of theirs; they are the people’s humble servants. The supervisors may set out upon a program of economy and efficiency, including, let us say, the standardization of supplies. ”

“ All municipal governments are but agencies of the superior power of the state or government by which they are constituted, and are invested with only such subordinate powers of local legislation and control as the superior legislature sees fit to confer upon them. The form of those agencies and the mode of appointing officials to execute them are matters of legislative discretion. Commissioners are not unfrequently appointed by the legislature or executive of a state for the administration of municipal affairs, or some portion thereof, sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. ”

“ Whether 'principal office' and 'business office' are synonymous is not entirely clear, and we are referred to no decision by the state courts throwing light upon this. But, supposing them to be synonymous, it does not seem to us that the report of the commissioners for stock subscriptions can have the effect of establishing the office in Cass county, for we find do authority in the commissioners to materially change the location of the principal office as formally declared by the organizers. ”

“ In sum, the Commissioners Court's functions and powers are quite limited, and they are defined and restricted so that their primary and preponderant impact is on the rural areas and residents. The extent of its impact on the city is quite limited. To the extent that there is direct impact on the city, the relevant powers, in important respects, are placed in the hands of officials elected on a one man, one vote basis. ”

“ We need not consider here whether an otherwise uncovered enactment of a jurisdiction subject to the Voting Rights Act might under some circumstances rise to the level of a de facto replacement of an elective office with an appointive one, within the rule of Bunton v. Patterson. For present purposes it suffices to note that the Russell County Commission retains substantial authority, including the power to appoint the county engineer and to set his or her budget. The change at issue in Russell County is not a covered change. ”

“ As relates to the commissioners, they are not named in the law, nor were they in any shape parties to the contract supposed to have been made, nor is the money declared to be for their use. They are a corporate body, it is true, and the members who compose it are chosen by the people of the county. ”

“ During the years 1897 and 1898, no less than seven different persons were selected as civil service commissioners, until a board was found willing to act upon the Mayor’s interpretation of the statute. One instance of the abuse of the law will suffice to show the methods resorted to, for the purpose of selecting a party man to fill a vacancy in office. An examination was held of applicants for the position of “foreman of street lamps repairs.” The man who passed at the head was a sixty day man. ”

“ Such commissioners, being duly sworn, shall perform all their duties in the manner and under the same regulations and restrictions as are provided in the case where they are performed by the county commissioners, and the subsequent proceedings, including the right of appeal, shall be the same. ”

“ Whenever it ceased to be the public interest, or the policy of government, to confide the choice of Canal Commissioners to the executive, it was the duty, as it was the right, of the legislature, to change the mode of appointment, and there could be no cause for complaint when they recommitted the selection to the people. ”

“ The consent decree specified that the commissioners elected in 1986 were to have the same duties as the four holdover commissioners. Ibid. (decree provided that the two new commissioners " 'shall have all the rights, privileges, duties and immunities of the other commissioners, who have heretofore been elected at large' ") . In August, 1987, however, the commission passed the Road Supervision Resolution, which authorized the four holdover commissioners to continue to exercise authority over road operations in their districts, but which assigned non-road duties to the two new commissioners. ”

“ When population shifts required that some towns receive a greater portion of seats on the county legislature, Rockland County responded with a plan that substantially remedies the malapportionment and that, by preserving an exact correspondence between each town and one of the county legislative districts, continues to encourage town supervisors to serve on the county board. ”