County officer

“ In any county having a population of less than 10,000 inhabitants, as determined by the most recent decennial census of the United States, the sheriff of the county, in addition to that officer's other duties, shall be the assessor-collector of taxes, except that the commissioners court of such a county may submit to the qualified voters of the county at an election the question of electing an assessor-collector of taxes as a county officer separate from the office of sheriff. ”

“ The county does little for the city dweller. It does not keep his house from burning or his pockets from being picked. It does not build the streets on which he travels nor perform any humane services which could stir his admiration. The sheriff is no neighbor of his nor does he hear of that officer from one year’s end to another, unless it be his rare fortune to be a party to some legal action. The newspapers, to be sure, are apt to give a great deal of space to criminal trials and feature the activities of the district attorney. ”

“ Every county officer shall be an elector of the county, and the county assessor, county sheriff, county coroner and county surveyor shall possess such other qualifications as may be prescribed by law. ”

“ In this court another county officer, called the district or State's attorney, prosecutes persons who are accused of crime; i.e., he finds evidence of the prisoner's guilt and causes this evidence to be given by witnesses at the trial.
Functions of County Government.—Public highways are also matters of more than local interest. When an expensive bridge is to be built, or an important road in which several communities are interested is to be constructed, the county government can best raise the money and manage the work. ”

“ Sheriffs shall be appointed in such manner as the general assembly may by law direct, and shall hold their appointments for the term of two years, unless sooner removed by sentence on impeachment, or by the governor on the address of two-thirds of the justices of the inferior court and of the peace in the county; but no person shall be twice elected sheriff within any term of four years; and no county officer after the next election shall be chosen at the time of electing a senator or representative. ”

“ In modern times the Quarter Sessions has become an administrative body quite as much as a court. The justices, who receive no salary, hold office for life, or during good behaviour. They appoint the chief constable of the county, who appoints the police. They also take part in the supervision of highways and bridges, asylums and prisons. Since the reign of Henry VIII., the English county has had an officer known as the lord-lieutenant, who was once leader of the county militia, but whose functions to-day are those of keeper of the records and principal justice of the peace. ”

“ It is a fatally ineffectual procedure. And when a dozen or nineteen officers, chosen by popular election, are thrown together, it is clear that every one of them is the legal peer of every other, since everyone acknowledges a common superior. And since the people are a rather too unwieldy body to look after the details of county business, each officer must be a law unto himself. And it is perhaps just as well that none of them has been designated as an official chief, since the facts of organization would refute and nullify any such arrangement. ”

“ The sheriff of a county is a very important officer. It is his duty to see that law and order are preserved within the limits of his county, that the penalties ordered by the judges are carried out, and to suppress all riots and uprisings in his district. ”

“ It remains simply to point out that since the organization of the state and county provides no organ of expression for local policy, the people in their infinite capacity to adapt themselves to a hard condition proceed to make a policy-determining body out of a strictly administrative officer, like the district attorney or the sheriff. ”

“ The usual officers of the county are the commissioners or supervisors, the county attorney or prosecuting attorney, the county superintendent of schools or school commissioner, the sheriff, the treasurer, the auditor, the county clerk or common pleas clerk, the surveyor, the coroner, and the county judge and surrogate, or probate judge. In the counties of many States one or more of these officers are lacking, and others have different names from those here given. In the Western and the Southern States county officers are elected by the direct vote of the people ”

“ Members of the county board of supervisors must be elected, but not necessarily by districts. All other county officers, except the superior court judges, may be either elective or appointive in a manner set forth in a county charter. ”

“ But everywhere the people have waived the right or privilege of a logical government when they have illogically insisted upon selecting their officers locally. When the district attorney, for instance, is chosen by the electors of the county he may be legally the state’s representative but he is practically a local officer in very much the same sense as the mayor. ”

“ No officer or employee of the county, in the classified service, shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or receive, or be in any manner concerned in soliciting or receiving, any assessment, subscription or contribution for any political party or political purpose whatever. No person shall, orally or by letter, solicit, or be in any manner concerned in soliciting, any assessment, subscription or contribution for any political party or purpose whatever from any person holding a position in the classified service. ”

“ The county seat was his destination and court was in session when he arrived and at the mid-day recess. This officer, upon dismounting, very warm and dusty, it being the latter part of June, found a large number of citizens assembled in front of the hotel, to whom he stated, that by order of General Canby, he was there to reconstruct the county and to inaugurate amicable relations between the government at Richmond and the good people of the county and thus prevent friction. ”

“ Directly or indirectly, the justices of the county court influenced the selection of all other county officers. The clerk of the court was elected outright, but others—including the sheriff, coroner, inspectors and commissioners for special duties, and militia officers below the rank of brigadier—were commissioned by the governor from lists submitted by the justices. ”

“ Incidentally it is made the duty of the judge of probate to appoint guardians for any persons needing them, such as insane persons, spendthrifts, and the like. He seems to be the friend of the weak.
County Surveyor.—To survey all public improvements for the county, such as roads, lands for public buildings, &c., there is an officer called the county surveyor. He is required to preserve his "field notes" in county books furnished for the purpose. Individuals frequently call upon him to settle disputes about boundary lines between their estates. ”

“ But the county shall never be made responsible for the acts of the sheriff. The governor may remove any officer in this section mentioned, within the term for which he shall have been elected; giving to such officer a copy of the charges against him, and an opportunity of being heard in his defense. ”

“ The power to remove is generally vested in the governor. The accused must be given an opportunity to be "heard in his own defense." Vacancies are generally filled by the county commissioners. They appoint some one, not one of themselves, to serve until the next election.
Qualifying.—Each officer before assuming the duties of his office takes the official oath. All of the officers except the commissioners and the superintendent of schools are required to give bonds. Copies of these bonds are preserved by the register of deeds, and the originals are forwarded to the secretary of state. ”

“ Where the pure town system prevails the county plays but little part in local administration, and in some States like Rhode Island there are, strictly speaking, no county officers, the county being merely a judicial district without corporate personality. ”

“ Local Government.—The general management of county affairs is in trusted to three commissioners elected by districts, but these commissioners are not permitted to incur extraordinary expenses or levy a tax exceeding five mills on a dollar without first obtaining the consent of the people at a general or special election. The
other county officers are a treasurer, clerk, register of deeds, attorney, surveyor, sheriff, assessor and superintendent of public instruction. ”

“ To appoint all county officers whose election by the electors is not required by the constitution, except county supervisors and the county auditor or comptroller, and for such terms of office as are provided by law. ”

“ Through their officers, the people of the township act freely together within the lawful sphere of the township. The common wants of the township are attended to by the people through their officers, who compose the centre around which all township action revolves.
A number of townships, having common wants, are erected into a county. The county officers and county court form the harmonizing centre of this larger organization.
A number of counties, having common wants, are erected into a State, with a State government. ”

“ Nothing in the way of inquiry, ascertainment, or determination as to that fact is submitted to the county officers. They are bound, it is true, to learn from the assessment what the limit upon their authority is, as a necessary preliminary in the exercise of their functions, and the performance of their duty; but the information is for themselves alone. All the world besides must have it from the same source, and for themselves. ”

“ 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. ”

“ So difficult is the case, in fact, that it would seem from reports emanating from different parts of the country, that county officers have long ceased to worry about the legality of most of their acts. A common practice is not to investigate the law at all but to look back over the work of predecessors and follow in their tracks—an easier and more natural method for the untrained mind than to seek legal authority for action at its fountainhead in the statutes. ”

“ III. A majority of the supervisors of any school commissioner district may increase the salary of said school commissioner; the increased salary must be levied upon the towns composing such commissioner district.
Q What must county officers do, before entering upon the duties of their office?
A. Take the oath prescribed by State Constitution in Art. XII,
Sec. I.
Q. What county officers are required in addition to the oath prescribed to execute a bond for the faithful performance of their duties?
A. Sheriff, county treasurer, surrogate and county superintendents of the poor. ”

“ For the assumption and discharge by county officers of certain of the municipal functions of the cities and towns within the county, whenever, in the case of cities and towns incorporated under general laws, the discharge by county officers of such municipal functions is authorized by general law, or whenever, in the case of cities and towns organized under section eight of this article, the discharge by county officers of such municipal functions is authorized by provisions of the charters, or by amendments thereto, of such cities or towns. ”

“ The powers, duties, qualifications, number, mode of selection and removal, terms of office, compensation, hours of work, protection, welfare and safety of its officers and employees, except that cities and towns shall not have such power with respect to members of the legislative body of the county in their capacities as county officers. ”

“ The prevailing practice of local election of officers and its logical sequence, local nullification, have done much to obscure the real interests of the state at the county court house, till the average run of citizens have long forgotten that the distinction exists; that officers like the sheriff, district attorney, public administrator and coroner are not strictly local officers at all but subordinates of the general state government. ”

“ Nowhere does the record state that because the people elected long strings of officers, the people therefore controlled those officers. All the while the services which government could render have become more and more numerous and the public needs of the people more pressing. And all the while too, the filling and holding of office for office sake has been vested with exaggerated importance, so that the county more perhaps than any other civil division has been the home of fictitious political “issues.” ”

“ 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. ”