Mississippi Advisory Opinions June 06, 1991: AGO 000005178 (June 6, 1991)

AGO 000005178.

Dear Mr. Cooke:

Attorney General Mike Moore has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter states:

"Please be advised that I am writing you as attorney for the Iuka Special Municipal Separate School District Board of Trustees and after consultation with Honorable William C. Spencer, attorney for the Tishomingo County School District Board of Trustees.

As you are probably aware, the above-referenced school districts will consolidate into a new, single, county- wide school district which will take effect July 1, 1991. The election of trustees for the new district was ordered under Mississippi Code Annotated Section 37-7- 717(b). The Board of Aldermen of the City of Iuka and the Tishomingo County Board of Supervisors, pursuant to the aforementioned code section and Section 37-7-715, chose the optional method of election of trustees provided for in Section 37-7-707.

In reading Section 37-7-707 with Section 37-7-717(b), it was determined that the trustees would be elected by supervisor's districts with those trustees from supervisor's districts one and five elected for six years, those form districts three and four elected for four years, and the trustee from district two elected for two years. The election was held at the November, 1990 general election and five new trustees were elected.

We have now had the 1990 decennial census. The census figures for Tishomingo County indicate that supervisor's districts one, two, three and four will have to be changed. As the statutes require that each trustee be a resident and be elected form the supervisor's district in which he resides, will we have to conduct another election at the general election in November for the school trustees? If so, will the trustees who take office for the new consolidated school district on July 1, 1991 serve until December 31, 1991? Will the new trustees, if any are to be elected, take office on January 1, 1992, for terms of two years, four years, and six years according to the supervisor's district in which they reside? Again, to summarize the questions which I have raised, allow me to state them separately:

1. Will an election be required at the November, 1991 general election for the school district trustees of the new Tishomingo County consolidated school district?

2. Will the new school board members who will take office on July 1, 1991, each of whom was elected at the general election in November of 1990, serve only from July 1, 1991 through the end of the calendar year?

3. If a new election of trustees is required in November of 1991, will those trustees take office on January 1, 1992 with the trustees from districts one and five serving for six years, the trustees from districts three and four serving for four years and the trustee from district two serving for two years?

I would appreciate your attention to this request and would like a written opinion as to the questions raised herein at your earliest convenience."

This opinion is based on the presumption that the November, 1990 election was properly conducted pursuant to the applicable statutes.

We have previously opined that an individual elected to office is entitled to serve the remainder of his term even though the district lines have been legally altered so that such official no longer resides within the district he was elected to represent. See opinion addressed to Ms. Pearl Mills, dated December 13, 1989 (copy enclosed).

The fact that the offices in question have not yet come into being and the fact that the 1990 census indicates that the supervisors districts will have to be redrawn does not, in our opinion, invalidate the November, 1990 election. Therefore, in our opinion, the future trustees were duly elected and are entitled to serve their respective terms beginning July 1, 1991.

Sincerely,

MIKE MOORE, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY: Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General PC:mfd Enclosure