Mississippi Advisory Opinions August 14, 1984: 19840814 (August 14, 1984)

Advisory Opinion Text

Ms. Brenda R. Sigler

City Clerk of Picayune

203 Goodyear Boulevard

Picayune, Mississippi 39466

Re: Elections - Municipal

Dear Ms. Sigler:

Attorney General Edwin Lloyd Pittman has received your letter and assigned it to me for research and reply.

Your letter states:

“...Recently a petition was filed with our Mayor and Council requesting a special election to determine if our City shall adopt the Mayor-Council form of government. We are presently operating under the Council-Manager for of government. Pursuant to Section 21-8-3, Mississippi Code 1972, as amended, I certified the petition and presented it to the Mayor and Council, at which time they adopted a resolution calling for a special election to be held twenty-one (21) days from the day of the order.

This resolution met the requirements of Section 21-8-3 which states, “the Council or Board shall within ten (10) days order and provide for the holding of a special election in such municipality not less than twenty (20) days nor more than sixty (60) days from the date of making such order.” However, I could not meet the requirements of Section 21-11-11 which states “not less than three weeks notice of such election shall be given by the clerk.” The discrepancy between these two sections have posed a problem for us to determine when the election could be held...”

It is understood that the election date has been set and that the required public notice has been given, therefore, we regret that we cannot respond with an Official Opinion. Any rush opinion could neither validate nor invalidate the action of the municipal governing authorities and the ultimate resolution of the matter would be for a court of competent jurisdiction.

As a matter of information reference is made to the provisions of Section 1-3-69 of the 1972 Code which defines the term “for three weeks”:

§ 1-3-69 .-When a number of weeks is prescribed.

When publication shall be required to be made in some newspaper “for three weeks, ” it shall be sufficient to publish once each week for three weeks, even though there be not three weeks between the first and last publication; but there must be three weeks between the first publication and the day for the appearance of the party or other thing for which the publication shall be made; and this rule shall furnish a guide for any similar case, whether the time required be more or less than three weeks.

With kind regards, I am

Very truly yours,

Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Attorney General