District officer

“ In normal Provincial set-up, the District is regarded as a convenient unit of administration and a focal point for co-ordination, but in a large number of States, an analogous District organisation did not exist or existed only in name and the position of the District officer as the person responsible for administrative co-ordination in his area was scarcely recognised. The new units of administration organised in the newly set up Unions have still to acquire the requisite cohesion, and the necessary local tradition is still to be built up. ”

“ There is on record a circular of the Local Government in which the headman of a village is described as a Government official; to be to his village what the District Officer is to his district. That is disastrous. A headman is not an official of the Government. His whole value and meaning is that he is a representative of the people before Government. He expresses the collective views of the village and receives the orders of Government for them as a whole. He is their head, not a finger of Government. ”

“ It is impossible that any officer could be chosen more impartially. He is, in consequence of his election, the creature of no particular district or state, but the officer and representative of the Union. ”

“ The commissioner, with the approval of the President, is to divide each district into a number of sub-districts, not to exceed the number of counties or parishes in each State, and to assign to each sub-district at least one agent, either a citizen, officer of the army, or enlisted man, who, if an officer, is to serve without additional compensation or allowance, and if a citizen or enlisted man, is to receive a salary not exceeding $1,500 per annum. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The first need of the country school at the present time is to be adapted, by such supervision of the district as shall correlate the country school with the units of population resident in the country. In some places the district to be supervised by one superintendent should be not much larger than a township, in other places it might approach the bounds of a county, but in all instances the supervising officer should have the relation of an employed expert to the problems of the country. ”

“ Every county council shall appoint an officer of the council to be the returning officer for elections of councillors of the county and every district council shall appoint an officer of the council to be the returning officer for the elections of councillors of the district and an officer of the council to be the returning officer for elections of councillors of parishes or communities within the district. ”

“ For these reasons, I have always been convinced of the propriety of an intelligent accountable officer in each district, but I do not see to whom he can be responsible with so great propriety, or in other words, in whom the chief control can be so well vested, as in the gentlemen who live in the county, who are almost daily witnesses of what is doing, and are chiefly interested in keeping down the expenses, at the same time having their roads in good repair. ”

“ Each one of these districts has at its head a social secretary, and under him are the different officers in charge of the respective plants. Generally speaking, each local officer is supreme in his individual plant. He can adopt methods and means to suit the environment of his district, provided always that his methods mean success. ”

“ I do not want the office of the Judiciary so far from the people that it may feel entirely independent. I want every officer in this District held-accountable to the people, and, unless he discharges his duties faithfully, the people will put him out, and select another in his stead. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All State, district, county, precinct and township officers, by the constitution or laws made elective by the people, except school district officers, and municipal officers in cities, villages and towns, shall be elected at a general election to be held as aforesaid. ”

“ The eighty-three departments were subdivided into 374 districts. In every department was an elected administrative body for the management of its affairs; in every district an elected administrative body, subordinate to the administration of the department, for the management of affairs special to the district. These bodies were composed each of a general council and a permanent executive, styled the directory. In every district the former divisions, called communes, were left unaltered. ”

“ There is some confusion in administration and accounts, however, and it is sometimes difficult to determine the exact situation. The Federal District is represented in Congress by 2 senators and 10 deputies, and is credited with the rights and privileges of citizenship. On the other hand, the city is a garrison town and a district under the direct administration of the national executive, who appoints its chief executive, controls its police force, and exercises part control over its streets, squares and water front. ”

“ And it was expressly declared that it was not of the slightest consequence, in principle, by what means the officers of the District were 'placed in their position, whether they are elected by the people of the municipality, or appointed by the president or a governor. The people are the recognized source of all authority, state and municipal ”

“ This municipal assembly shall be the Council of Administration, which shall establish for the entire extent of its jurisdiction the rules of the common regime, and shall decide on all that concerns the municipal police, its internal security, sanitary policy, the management and use of municipal revenues, local expenditures, and generally all that is within the jurisdiction of the municipalities.
Art. 43. The active power shall be entirely, and for all the extent of the municipal district, in the hands of the mayor and his lieutenant, who shall be elected immediately by the primary assemblies. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The District Superintendents are men of energy and probity, but after all they are only mortal. What with accounts, inspections, reports, forms, and innumerable writings, they cannot exercise a constant vigilance and personal supervision over every part of their district. ”

“ On the other hand, the assembly is competent to appeal to the Home Minister from the governor's decision. The county head-man may also take upon himself, in case of emergency, any of the functions falling within the competence of the county assembly, provided that he reports the fact to the assembly and seeks its sanction at the earliest possible opportunity. In each district also there is a head-man, but his post is always elective and generally non-salaried. He occupies towards a district assembly the same position that the county head-man holds towards a county assembly. ”

“ Under the terms of the act of 1894 the governing authority in each is a council consisting of members elected for three years, women being eligible. There are no aldermen, and no (p. 187) mayor is chosen. The council elects its own chairman and other officers, and it meets at least once a month. Its functions, of which the most important is the control of sanitation and of highways, are discharged largely through the agency of committees. The district council possesses none of the police and judicial privileges which the borough councils commonly enjoy. ”

“ In urban districts where such control has not been claimed, and in rural districts, the county council may either maintain the main roads themselves or allow or require the district councils to do so. ”

“ PURPOSES.--The division of the county into districts, each with its own court of law, brings justice to the people's doors. It secures officers to every part of the county, thus affording better means for the punishment of crimes. It provides a speedy trial for minor offences and minor suits. It aids the higher courts by relieving them of a multitude of small cases. As each district has one or more polling-places, it secures convenience to the electors in casting their votes.
GOVERNMENT.--The functions of the civil district arc judicial and executive, and lie within a narrow range. ”

“ An similar amputation, however, in the department itself, has cut away all the ties by which the superior could control and direct his subordinate.—If the administrators of the department are suffered to influence those of the district, and those of the district those of the municipality, it is only, again, in the way of council and solicitation. Nowhere is the superior a commander who orders and constrains, but everywhere a censor who gives warnings and scolds. ”

“ But neither of these dignitaries has or had any powers of appointment comparable to, let us say, those of the mayor of Cleveland or of New York. In the general run of counties, [Pg 41] the executive is not a single officer but the governing board itself. Where the “town plan” is in vogue, as in certain Illinois counties, and throughout New York State, this body may be very large and unwieldy and is wholly incapable of supervising administrative detail, except through small committees, with the added division of responsibility which that implies. ”

“ I think it would be much better to put complete control and responsibility in the District Commissioners, and then provide a board of school visitors, to be appointed by the Supreme Court of the District or by the President, from the different school districts of Washington, who, representing local needs, shall meet and make recommendations to the Commissioners and to the Superintendent of Education—an educator of ability and experience who should be an appointee of and responsible to the District Commissioners. ”

“ The State argues that defendants have failed to show any factual basis whatever for realigning the Sheriff (as opposed to Wasco County) as a plaintiff. Defendants contend, however, that as a county officer the Sheriff is simply an agent of the County, and that with respect to the central issue in this case, the Sheriff has no choice but to take whatever position the County takes. Under Oregon law, the County Court is the governing body of Wasco County and exercises "general legislative authority [*14] over all matters of county concern." ORS 203.111. The Sheriff is a county officer. ”

“ For the election of the administrative bodies of the district and the department, as well as of deputies to the legislature, the system adopted was by two degrees. There were many primary assemblies, consisting of all active citizens in each department, each of which chose a certain number of electors, who in turn elected the administrative bodies of the districts and of the department, as well as the deputies who were to represent the department in the legislature. ”

“ So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants of full age in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the governor, they shall receive authority with time and place to elect representatives from their counties or townships to represent them in the general Assembly, provided that for every five hundred free male inhabitants there shall be one representative ”

“ Each district also has a “boss” or leader and a committee, and these leaders form the Executive Committee of the Hall. There is also a “captain” for each of the voting precincts, over 1000 in number, into which the city is divided. The patronage of the city filters down from the real “boss” of the Hall to the local precinct leader, the latter often having one or more small municipal offices at his disposal; he also handles the election money spent in his precinct. ”

“ These extensive portions are divided by the Hudson's Bay Company into four departments, and these departments are again subdivided into districts. At the head of each department and district a chief factor or chief trader generally presides, to whom all the officers within their respective jurisdictions are amenable. Those in charge of posts, whatever may be their rank, are subject to the authority of the person at the head of the district; and that person receives his instructions from the superintendent of the department. ”