Elements of Civil Government Part 5

OFFICERS.--County officers and towns.h.i.+p officers have duties similar in kind, but the former have charge of the larger interests. 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; in most of the New England States some of them are chosen in other ways.

The terms of county officers vary in different parts of the Union, being usually two, three, or four years; but in some States certain officers are elected for a longer term.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT: COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, OR BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.--In most States the public interests of the county are intrusted to a board of officers, three or five in number, called county commissioners. In some States the board consists of one or more supervisors from each towns.h.i.+p, and is called the board of supervisors.

In a few States the board consists of all the justices of the county, with the county judge as presiding officer.

The county commissioners, or board of supervisors, have charge of the county property, such as the court-house, the jail, and the county infirmary; make orders and raise funds for the erection of county buildings, and for the construction and improvement of highways and bridges; provide polling-places; make appropriations of money for public purposes; and act as the chief agents of the county in its corporate capacity. In some States they fix the salaries of county officers; in others they have power to form new towns.h.i.+ps and to change the towns.h.i.+p boundaries. In several States the functions of the board are almost wholly executive.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS, OR PROSECUTIN ATTORNEYS.--The county attorney, or prosecuting attorney, is the county's counsellor at law, and when requested gives legal advice to all the county officers.

It is his duty to prosecute the accused in the trial of crimes and offences, in the justice's court, the county court, and in some States in the circuit court or district court; to represent the county in all civil suits to which it is a party; and to act for it in all cases in which its legal interests are involved.

COUNTY SUPERINDENTENT OF SCHOOLS.--In some States there is no county superintendent of schools. In most States there is such an officer elected by the towns.h.i.+p school directors or by the people of the county, or appointed by the State superintendent of public instruction.

In a few States the county is divided into two or more districts, each having a commissioner of schools.

The county superintendent, or school commissioner, is the chief school officer of the county. He administers the public school system, condemns unfit school-houses and orders others built, examines teachers and grants certificates, holds teachers' inst.i.tutes, visits and directs the schools, instructs teachers in their duties, interests the people in education, and reports the condition of the schools to the State superintendent of public instruction. He is one of the most important officers of the county, a capable administration of his duties being of the greatest benefit to the whole people.

SHERIFF.--"The sheriff is the guardian of the peace of the county and the executive officer of its courts."[1] He preserves the peace, arrests persons charged with crime, serves writs and other processes in both civil and criminal cases, makes proclamation of all elections, summons jurors, and ministers to the courts of his county. In States having no county jailer, the sheriff has charge of the prisons and prisoners, and is responsible for their safe-keeping. When persons refuse to pay their taxes, he seizes and sells enough property to pay the sum a.s.sessed; and in some States he is the collector of all State and county revenue.

COUNTY TREASURER.--The duties of the treasurer are indicated by the t.i.tle of his office. He receives all county taxes, licenses, and other money paid into the county treasury. In most States he is custodian of the county's financial records, and of the tax-collector's books, and in others he collects all the taxes a.s.sessed in the county. He gives bond for the faithful performance of his duties, and pays out funds upon the warrant of the county commissioners. In most States having no county treasurer, the sheriff is keeper of the public money.

AUDITOR.--The auditor is the guardian of the county's financial interests. He examines the books and papers of officers who receive or disburse county funds; keeps a record of receipts and expenditures; draws all warrants for the payment of public money; and publishes a report of the county's financial transactions. In some States he receives the a.s.sessor's returns, apportions taxes among the people, and prepares the tax-collector's duplicate list. In States having no county auditor, these duties are performed by other officers.

COUNTY CLERK, OR COMMON PLEAS CLERK.--The county clerk, or common pleas clerk, is the recording officer of the county court, or probate court, and in some States of the circuit court. He issues writs, preserves papers, and records judgments. In many States he issues licenses, preserves election returns, and records wills, deeds, mortgages, and other important papers.

RECORDER, OR REGISTER.--In many States the county has a recorder, or register, instead of the county clerk, and in some States it has both.

The recorder, or register, makes a record in books kept for that purpose, of wills, deeds, mortgages, village plats, and powers of attorney. Some of these instruments must be recorded in order to make them valid in law. In some States having no recorder, these duties are performed by the towns.h.i.+p clerk, and in others by the county clerk.

SURVEYOR.--The county surveyor, or engineer, surveys tracts of land to locate lines, determine areas, and to settle conflicting claims. In some States his services are frequently needed in the transfer of real estate. In most States he makes plots of surveys, issues maps of the county, and has charge of the construction of roads and bridges.

CORONER.--The coroner investigates the death of persons who have died by violence, or in prison, or from causes unknown. He receives notice of the death; a jury is summoned; witnesses testify; and the jury renders a verdict in writing, stating the cause and the manner of the death. This inquiry is known as the coroner's inquest. In some States when the office of sheriff is vacant, the coroner performs the duties.

OTHER OFFICERS.--In some States there are superintendents of the poor, or infirmary directors, who have charge of the county infirmary in which the dependent poor are maintained; in others the towns.h.i.+p overseers of the poor support these unfortunates with funds furnished for that purpose by the county. In some States there is a collector who collects all the taxes of the county; a county jailer who holds prisoners in custody and has charge of the county buildings, under the commissioners' directions; and also a circuit clerk, or district clerk, who is the recording officer of the circuit court, or district court as it is often called.

JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT: COUNTY JUDGE OR PROBATE JUDGE.--The judicial power of the county is vested in the county judge, or probate judge, who in many States is its most prominent and important officer. He has jurisdiction of wills and estates, appoints administrators and guardians, and settles their accounts. In many states he grants licenses; presides over the legislative body of the county; makes orders opening roads and appointing overseers of the public highway: appoints officers of elections; holds examining trials; sits in the county court to try minor offences and civil suits for small amounts; and in a few States acts as county superintendent of schools.

In some States there is a probate judge, or judge of the orphan's court, in addition to the county judge.

[1]Thorpe's _Civil Government_.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

1. What is meant by unit of political influence?

2. What affairs are too extensive for a smaller community than the county?

3. Why is the county seat so called?

4. State the terms and the names of the officers of this county.

5. Why do the officers of the county need legal advice?

6. What is meant by the sheriff administering to the courts?

7. What are licenses?

8. Of what use is the treasurer's bond?

9. What is the collector's duplicate list?

10. What is a writ?

11. What is the plot of a survey?

12. What is a will? an administrator?

13. What is an examining trial?

14. Do you think the county judge or probate judge should act as superintendent of schools? Why?

QUESTION FOR DEBATE.

_Resolved_, That a poll-tax is unjust.

CHAPTER VI.

MUNIc.i.p.aL CORPORATIONS.

VILLAGES, BOROUGHS, AND CITIES.--The county usually has within its limits villages or cities, organized under separate and distinct governments. When the people become so thickly settled that the towns.h.i.+p and county government do not meet their local public wants, the community is incorporated as a village. Villages are often called towns, and incorporated as such, especially in the Southern States; but the word taken in this sense must not be confounded with the same word, denoting a political division of the county in New England, New York, and Wisconsin.

THE VILLAGE, OR BOROUGH.

INCORPORATION.--In most States, villages, boroughs, and towns are incorporated under general laws made by the State legislature. A majority of the legal voters living within the proposed limits must first vote in favor of the proposition to incorporate. In some States, villages are incorporated by special act of the legislature.

GOVERNMENT PURPOSES.--The purposes of the village or borough government are few in number, and lie within a narrow limit. It is a corporate body, having the usual corporate powers. Under the village organization, local public works, such as streets, sidewalks, and bridges, are maintained more readily and in better condition than under the government, of the towns.h.i.+p and county. The presence of the village officers tends to preserve the peace and make crime less frequent.

OFFICERS.--The usual officers of the village or borough are the trustees or councilmen, whose duties are mostly legislative; the marshal, and sometimes a president or mayor; a collector and a treasurer, whose duties are executive; and the recorder, or police judge, or justices of the peace, whose duties are judicial. The officers are usually elected by the legal voters, and serve for a term of one or two years. In many villages the president and the collector are elected by the trustees, the former from among their own number.

DUTIES.--The trustees or council pa.s.s laws, called _ordinances_, relating to streets, fast driving, lamps, water-works, the police system, public parks, public health, and the public buildings. They appoint minor officers, such as clerk, regular and special policemen, keeper of the cemetery, and fire-wardens; prescribe the duties, and fix the compensation of these officers.

The president or mayor is the chief executive officer, and is charged with seeing that the laws are enforced. In villages having no president or mayor, this duty devolves upon the trustees. The marshal is a ministerial officer, with the same duties and often the same jurisdiction as the constable, and is sometimes known by that name. He preserves the peace, makes arrests, serves processes, and waits upon the recorder's court. The collector collects the village taxes. The treasurer receives all village funds, and pays out money upon the order of the trustees.

The recorder or police judge tries minor offences, such as breach of the peace, and holds examining trials of higher crimes. His jurisdiction is usually equal to that of justices of the peace in the same State. In some States the village has two justices of the peace instead of the recorder, these being also officers of the county.