Oregon Advisory Opinions January 13, 1966: OAG 66-4 (January 13, 1966)
Collection: Oregon Attorney General Opinions
Docket: OAG 66-4
Date: Jan. 13, 1966
Advisory Opinion Text
OAG 66-4.
Where county judge's judicial functions are transferred to other courts during his term of office, upon filing to succeed himself he runs for a four not a six year term.
District Attorney, Umatilla County
You state that (1) the jurisdiction of Umatilla County's county judge over probate matters was transferred to the district court some time ago; (2) his jurisdiction over juvenile matters was transferred to the circuit court by an amendment to ORS 3.130 enacted by the 1965 Legislative Assembly (chapter 618, § 5 (3), Oregon Laws 1965) so that he now has no judicial functions; and (3) the judge was elected in 1960 to a six year term and will file in 1966 for reelection. You inquire:
"The question is in filing for reelection, whether a County Judge, in such circumstances, would be filing for a four year term or a six year term?"
Your letter calls our attention to State ex rel. Wernmark v. Hopkins, (1958) 213 Or. 669, 326 P. (2d) 121, 327 P. (2d) 784, an opinion we believe to be directly in point. Your letter also refers to ORS 203.230 (1) a statute which, as you say, permits the county court in counties where the county judge has no judicial functions to
"* * * order the office of county judge abolished and create in lieu thereof a third county commissioner. * * *"
ORS 203.230 (1), in our opinion, merely permits the county court where the judicial functions of the county judge have been abolished to recognize the fact that thereafter the officeholder is filling an office having administrative powers only. State ex rel. Wernmark v. Hopkins, 213 Or. 669, 675, 679. The statute has no bearing on the term for which a county judge without judicial functions is elected.
The Hopkins case just discussed and which as we have said is directly in point, answers your question in our opinion. We see no conflict between the opinion and ORS 203.230 (1), a possibility you suggest. In Hopkins a county judge elected in 1954 when the office had no judicial functions wished to file a declaration of candidacy to succeed himself in 1958. The holding was that since his judicial functions had been removed in 1951, the office of county judge to which he had been elected in 1954 carried a term of four years because the term was no longer controlled by the six year provision as to judges contained in § 1 of Article VII (Am.) of the Oregon Constitution, but rather by the four year provision of the last sentence of Article XV, § 2, Oregon Constitution. Hopkins opinion, 213 Or. at 679. We see no difference between your facts and the facts in Hopkins. In both cases an incumbent judge is seeking reelection when he has no judicial functions. See also Opinions of the Attorney General, 1960-1962, pp. 356-357, citing and quoting from Hopkins to the effect that "* * * county judges in counties where their judicial functions have been transferred to the circuit court no longer hold a 'judicial office' * * *." And Opinions of the Attorney General, 1958-1960, pp. 315-316, also refers to Hopkins in the following language:
"The term of office of the county judge elected at the 1960 election shall be for a full term of six years for county judges performing judicial functions, Opinions of the Attorney General, 1956-1958, p. 232, and for a term of four years for county judges performing only administrative functions, State ex rel. Wernmark v. Hopkins, 213 Or. 669."
You are advised that Umatilla County's county judge if he files for reelection in 1966, will be running for a four year term.