Oregon Advisory Opinions January 01, 1962: OP 5362

Advisory Opinion Text

The Military Department may permit use of armories by governmental agen­cies without charge but must require civic and other organizations not agen­cies of government to pay rental and expenses connected with the use of the armory.

No. 5362 January 3, 1962 Major General Alfred E. Hintz The Adjutant General Military Department In view of the provisions of ORS 396.540 and 396.545 (chapter 454, Sec. 37 and 38, Oregon Laws 1961), you have asked whether the Military Department may lease space in state-owned National Guard Armories without charge to state, city and county agencies, or any other civic organizations.

ORS 396.540 authorizes use of arm­ories (1) by members and units of the organized militia, and, when use does not interfere with use of the fa­cilities by the militia, (2) by veterans' organizations and their auxiliaries upon payment of heat, lights, janitor service and other expense required by the use, and (3) by federal, state, county and municipal agencies or armed forces of the United States, or their reserve com­ponents, for official business. Subsec­tion (4) authorizes the rental of arm­ories for use by persons, firms, associa­tions or corporations not specified else­where in the section.

ORS 396.545 provides for the execu­tion of written rental agreements with persons, firms, associations or corpora­tions applying for rental of an armory, or armory space, and requires the agree­ments to include a provision for pay­ment of reasonable rental and the ex­pense of heating, lighting, janitorial and other services connected with such use.

Although no rental or other charge is required to be paid under ORS 396.540 when use is made of an armory for official business by a federal, state, county or municipal bureau, agency or department, or the armed forces of the United States or reserve components or reserve officers training corps units, ORS 396.545 (5) authorizes the Adju­tant General, in his discretion, to re­quire a contract or agreement and to prescribe its terms and conditions. It therefore follows that the Adjutant Gen­eral may permit the use of the arm­ory by these agencies free of charge or may prescribe the payment of rental and the expenses of such use as he, in his discretion, sees fit.

A different question, however, is pre­sented as to a civic organization not an agency, bureau or department of fed­eral, state, county or municipal govern­ment. A group of voluntarily associated persons organized to accomplish certain community interests or projects, how­ever laudable their purposes, would nevertheless come within the provisions of ORS 396.540 (4) and 396.545 (1) to (3). Since these provisions require pay­ment of rental and the expense of heat, lights, janitorial and other services con­nected with the use of the armory, the Adjutant General would be without au­thority to dispense with these payments and permit the use of the armory free of charge.

ROBERT Y. THORNTON,

Attorney General, By Catherine Zorn, Assistant.

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