Mississippi Advisory Opinions February 10, 1988: 19880210 (February 10, 1988)

Advisory Opinion Text

Police Officer elected to the office of County Supervisor

Mr. Kenneth W. Fairly

Chief of Police

Natchez Police Department

Post Office Box 1423

Natchez, Mississippi 39120-1423

Dear Chief Fairly:

Attorney General Mike Moore has received your letter of request and has assigned it to the undersigned for research and reply. In your letter you state:

A police lieutenant of the Natchez Police Department was elected supervisor of the 4th District of Adams County in the past elections. He returned to duty after a leave of absence during which he made his race for office.

Can you advise me whether or not it is legal for him to serve as a police lieutenant on the Natchez Police Department and as a supervisor of Adams County, holding both jobs, drawing a salary from the City of Natchez and a salary from Adams County.

It is the opinion of this office that a individual can not hold the office of supervisor and police lieutenant simultaneously as such would constitute a violation of Article I, § 2 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890, which reads as follows:

‘No person or collection of persons, being one or belonging to one of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others. The acceptance of an office in either of said departments shall, of itself, and at once, vacate any and all offices held by the person so accepting in either of the other departments.

In addition, this office would invite your attention to In Re Anderson , 447 So.2d 1275 (1984) .

Very truly yours,

Mike Moore, Attorney General.

Ryan Hood, Special Assistant Attorney General.