Mississippi Advisory Opinions May 07, 1999: AGO 1999-0220 (May 07, 1999)

Advisory Opinion Text

Hon. Wendell H. Trapp, Jr.

Mitchell, McNutt, Threadgill, Smith & Sams

P. O. Box 1200

Corinth, Mississippi 38835-1200

Re: Expenditures of boards of supervisors during last year in office

Dear Mr. Trapp:

Attorney General Mike Moore has received your request for an Official Opinion from this office and has assigned it to me for research and reply.

Your letter states and asks:

I represent the Board of Supervisors of Alcorn County. I have a question and would appreciate your opinion relative hereto. One of the members of the current Board of Supervisors does not have a democratic or republican opponent and is the sole candidate for supervisor of his district. Alcorn County operates under the “beat system.” Is the supervisor who is unopposed still subject to the various statutes dealing with certain restrictions on activities during the last year of the term in office? For instance, is the supervisor who is unopposed bound by the provision of Section 23-15-81 in the limitation of employees during the months of May through August; and in payment of wages and compensation to road workers, etc.? I shall greatly appreciate your thoughts.

All references to Sections hereinafter are references to sections of the Mississippi Code of 1972 .

Section 19-11-27 prohibits certain expenditures during the last months of supervisors' terms of office. Said section contains two exceptions, viz., purchases of machinery or equipment after renomination in the primaries of that year, and contracts, leases or lease-purchase contracts entered into pursuant to Section 31-7-13.

Section 65-7-95 prohibits awarding contracts for road or bridge construction that would “extend beyond thirty (30) days from the termination and end of the term of office of the members of the boards of supervisors awarding same.” Said section contains no exceptions.

Section 23-15-881 prohibits boards of supervisors from employing during the months of May, June, July and August of general primary election years “a greater number of persons to work and maintain the state highways, in any highway district, or the public roads, in any supervisors district of the county, as the case may be, than the average number of persons employed for similar purposes in such highway district or supervisors district, as the case may be, during the months of May, June, July and August of the three (3) years immediately preceding the year in which such general primary election is held.” Said section further prohibits boards of supervisors from paying for wages or labor during such months “a total amount in excess of the average total amount expended for such labor, in such highway district or supervisors district, as the case may be, during the corresponding four (4) months' period of the three (3) years immediately preceding.” The only exception in said section was for abnormal conditions existing in certain counties during calendar year 1955.

We find no general exceptions from said statutes for supervisors who are unopposed in the primaries and general elections, and therefore opine that with the sole exception of supervisors and contracts falling within the provisions of Section 19-11-27, the prohibitions of Sections 19-11-27, 65-7-95 and 23-15-881 apply to supervisors who are unopposed in the primaries and general elections.

Very truly yours,

Mike Moore Attorney General

Edwin T. Cofer, Special Assistant Attorney General