Mississippi Advisory Opinions November 06, 1991: AGO 000005475 (November 6, 1991)
Collection: Mississippi Attorney General Opinions
Docket: AGO 000005475
Date: Nov. 6, 1991
Advisory Opinion Text
AGO 000005475.
DOCK 1991-0814
AUTH Phil Carter
DATE 19911106
RQNM Rowena Sykes
SUBJ Elections-Miscellaneous
SBCD 068
TEXT Ms. Rowena Sykes
Secretary/Deputy Clerk
Lowndes County
P.O. Box 1364
Columbus, Mississippi 39703
Dear Ms. Sykes:
Attorney General Mike Moore has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. You letter states:
I called your office Wednesday, October 9th and talked to Mr. Lanford, in request to Lowndes County administering the oath of office to the elected officials, sheriff deputies and deputy clerks a few days before January 2nd 1992.
Our reason for this request is due to the problem that we encountered the last term, not being able to have the supervisors' board meeting until all members were sworn in office. Justice court judges' court was delayed until later that morning. Deputy clerks could not carry out their duties until they were sworn in office. Lowndes County has grown, so we had problems the new year in the last term. We look to encounter the same problems this term, if we wait until the morning of January 2nd '92 to be sworn in office.
Our request is as stated and we are requesting December 27th 1991, if that is legal. If the request is granted, we ask that you send us a statement of permission in writing along with a code section if necessary.
In response to your inquiry, Mississippi Code Annotated Section 25-1-5 (1972) states:
The term of office of all officers elected at such election for any district office, in a district composed of more than one county, or any county office, or any office of a subdivision of a county shall commence on the first Monday or January next succeeding the election.
The legislature expressly requires that the first Monday in January, which will be January 6, 1992, is the date in which a term of office is to start, and no earlier. However, the Code is silent as to whether a person can be sworn into office before the day in which his term starts. It is the opinion of this office that an oath may be made before the first Monday in January. However, the officer shall not begin his term until January 6, 1992.
Sincerely,
MIKE MOORE, ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General
PCC:mfd