Mississippi Advisory Opinions February 01, 1991: AGO 000007635 (February 1, 1991)

AGO 000007635.

Dear Mr. Richardson:

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

"The question has come up about the number of hours we are supposed to work in a day. There is no confusion in this matter, but looking in the Code we cannot find any specific answer to this question. We would also like your answer or opinion on whether the Court Clerk can call one or two Election Commissioners in to work where it doesn't require all Commissioners in a matter.

We feel that in some instances it would save taxpayers' dollars just when we needed one or two rather than five."

We assume your first question relates to the amount of time commissioners must work in a day in order to be paid their per diem.

In response to your first question Mississippi Code Annotated Section 23-15-153 (1972) provides in part:

"(1) At the following times the commissioners of election shall meet at the office of the registrar and carefully revise the registration books and the pollbooks of the several voting precincts, and shall erase therefrom the names of all persons erroneously thereon, or who have died, removed or become disqualified as electors from any cause; and shall register the names of all persons who have duly applied to be registered and have been illegally denied registration: ...

(2) The commissioners of election shall be entitled to receive a per diem in the amount of Fifty Dollars ($50.00), to be paid from the county general fund, for every day or fraction thereof actually employed in the performance of their duties for the necessary time spent in the revision of the registration books and pollbooks as required in subsection (1) of this section subject to the following annual limitations: ...." ...

(4) the commissioners of election shall be entitled to receive a perdiem in the amount of Fifty Dollars ($50.00), to be paid from the county general fund, for every day, or fraction thereof, actually employed in the performance of their duties in the conduct of an election subject to the following per election limitations: (Emphasis added)

...

In response to your first question, we find no statutory provision that specifies the number of hours election commissioners are supposed to work. The above quoted statute provides that commissioners are to be paid fifty dollars ($50.00) for every day or fraction thereof actually employed in the performance of their duties for the necessary time spent in the revision of the registration books and pollbooks subject to the limitations on the number of days commissioners can be paid for purging activities. It further provides that commissioners are to be paid fifty dollars ($50.00) for every day, or fraction thereof, actually employed in the performance of their duties in the conduct of an election subject to the limitation on the number of days commissioners can be paid for actually conducting an election. It is, therefore, apparent that the Legislature has provided that commissioners are to be paid their per diem for any day in which they are engaged in the performance of their statutory duties of either revising the registration books and pollbooks or conducting an election regardless of the amount of time they actually work.

We assume your second question relates to the commissioners' purging duties.

In response to your second question please see the enclosed copy of an opinion addressed to Honorable Herscel Mitchell, dated February 13, 1990. In that opinion we stated that any official action can be taken only by the commission as a whole or a quorum thereof. We further said that, in our opinion, individual commissioners who perform work when a quorum is not present may be paid for such work provided "the commission determines, consistent with the facts, that in order to fulfill its' statutory responsibilities it is necessary for individual commissioners to work when a quorum is not present and the county board of supervisors, by lawful order, authorizes compensation for such work not to exceed the total number of days allowed by statute for revising the registration books and pollbooks".

Sincerely,

MIKE MOORE, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY:

Phil Carter Special Assistant Attorney General

PC:mfd Enclosure