Oregon Advisory Opinions April 10, 1944: OAG 44-56 (April 10, 1944)
Collection: Oregon Attorney General Opinions
Docket: OAG 44-56
Date: April 10, 1944
Advisory Opinion Text
OAG 44-56.
Secretary, State Soil Conservation Committee.
Dear Sir: Under date of April 6, 1944, you requested my opinion whether in replacing an elected supervisor, who is a member of a soil conservation committee and who resigns in the middle of the year, a special election should be held to fill the vacancy, or whether the vacancy
may be filled temporarily by the remaining members of the Board, or whether the State Committee should appoint a supervisor for the unexpired term.
In this connection you refer to that part of section 109-309, O. C. L. A., which provides:
" * * * The term of office of each supervisor shall be three (3) years, except that the supervisors who are first appointed shall be designated to serve for terms of one (1) and two (2) years, respectively, from the date of their appointment. A supervisor shall hold office until his successor has been elected or appointed and has qualified. The selection of successors to fill an unexpired term, or for a full term shall be made in the same manner in which the retiring supervisors shall, respectively, have been selected. * * *"
Section 109-303, O. C. L. A., reads, in part, as follows:
"(1) 'District' or 'soil conservation district' means a governmental subdivision of this state, and a public body corporate and politic, but without power to tax, levy bonds, or make assessments, organized in accordance with the provisions of this act, for the purposes, with the powers, and subject to the restrictions hereinafter set forth.
"(2) 'Supervisor' means one of the members of the local governing body of a district, elected or appointed in accordance with the provisions of this act. Only landowners residing within the district may serve as supervisors."
Article VI, section 9, of the Constitution of Oregon, provides:
"Vacancies in county, township, precinct, and city offices shall be filled in such manner as may be prescribed by law."
Article V, section 16, of the Constitution of Oregon, provides:
" * * * if any vacancy occur in the office of United States senator or in any elective office of the state or of any district, county or precinct thereof, the same shall be filled at the next general election, provided such vacancy occur more than twenty (20) days prior to such general election."
Section 109-306, O. C. L. A., provides:
"A soil conservation district organized under the provisions of this act shall constitute a governmental subdivision of this state, and a public body, corporate and politic, exercising public powers, but without power to tax, levy bonds, or make assessments. * * *"
Section 81-2006, O. C. L. A., provides for appointment of successors to appointive officers.
Section 81-2007 provides for filling a vacancy in a county or precinct office by the county court, but I do not find any statutory provision expressly providing for the filling of a vacancy caused by the resignation of an elected supervisor of a soil conservation district other than is herein quoted from section 109-309, O. C. L. A., which provides that the selection of successors to fill an unexpired term or a full term shall be made in the same manner in which the retiring supervisors shall, respectively, have been selected. Said section further provides:
" * * * Candidates to fill pending vacancies in the board of supervisors shall be nominated and such election shall be conducted as nearly as practicable in accordance with the general election laws of the state, provided that no particular form of ballot shall be required and that the nomination of supervisors may be made by petition signed by at least ten (10) landowners or a majority of the landowners in any district having less than ten (10) such owners in the proposed district. The secretary of the board shall cause the names of all persons so nominated to be placed on the ballot as candidates and provide a blank line thereon wherein may be written in the name of any candidate voted for. The persons receiving the highest number of ballots shall be elected."
It is my opinion that the filling of such vacancies is controlled by that part of section 16, Article V of the Constitution of Oregon, herein quoted, and that part of section 109-309, O. C. L. A., last herein quoted. More specifically, I call your attention to that part of Article V, section 16, of the Constitution, quoted in this opinion, to that part of section 109-309, O. C. L. A., which provides that the selection of successors to fill an unexpired term or for a full term shall be made in the same manner in which the retiring supervisors shall, respectively, have been selected, and to the further provision of said section relating to the manner in which candidates to fill pending vacancies shall be nominated and such election shall be conducted as heretofore set out in this opinion.