CHAPTER VII OF THE GENERAL LAWS. [CHAP. 681 OF 1892.] THE PUBLIC OFFICERS LAW. ARTICLE I. Appointment and qualification of public officers (§§ 1-15). III. Powers and duties of public officers (§§ 40-44). ARTICLE I. APPOINTMENT AND QUALIFICATION OF PUBLIC OFFICERS. SECTION 1. Short title and extent of application. 2. Definitions. 3. Qualifications for holding office. 4. Commencement of term of office. 5. Holding over after expiration of term. 6. Mode of choosing state officers, if not otherwise provided. 7. Appointment by the governor and senate. 8. Commissions of officers. 9. Deputies, their appointment, number and duties. 10. Official oaths. 11. Official undertakings. 12. Force and effect of official undertakings. 13. Notice of neglect to file oath or undertaking. 14. Effect of revision on terms of office. 15. Validation of official acts performed before filing official oath of undertaking. SECTION 1. Short title and extent of application.-This chapter shall be known as the public officers law, and applies to civil officers only. § 2. Definitions.-The term state officer includes every officer for whom all the electors of the state are entitled to vote, members of the legislature, justices of the supreme court, regents of the university, and every officer, appointed by one or more state officers, or by the legislature, and authorized to exercise his official functions throughout the entire state, or without limitation to any political subdivision of the state, except United States senators, members of congress, and electors for president and vice Appointment and Qualification of Public Officers. SS 3-7 president of the United States. The term local officer includes every other officer who is elected by the electors of a portion only of the state, every officer of a political subdivision or municipal corporation of the state, and every officer limited in the execution of his official functions to a portion only of the state. The office of a state officer is a state office. The office of a local officer is a local office. § 3. Qualifications for holding office. No person shall be capable of holding a civil office who shall not, at the time he shall be chosen thereto, be of full age, a citizen of the United States, a resident of the state, and if it be a local office, a resident of the political subdivision or municipal corporation of the state for which he shall be chosen, or within which the electors electing him reside, or within which his official functions are required to be exercised. § 4. Commencement of term of office.-The term of office of an elective officer, unless elected to fill a vacancy then existing, shall commence on the first day of January next after his election, if the commencement thereof be not otherwise fixed by law. § 5. Holding over after expiration of term.-Every officer except a judicial officer, a notary public, a commissioner of deeds and an officer whose term is fixed by the constitution, having duly entered on the duties of his office, shall, unless the office shall terminate or be abolished, hold over and continue to discharge the duties of his office, after the expiration of the term for which he shall have been chosen, until his successor shall be chosen and qualified; but after the expiration of such term, the office shall be deemed vacant for the purpose of choosing his successor. An officer so holding over for one or more entire terms, shall, for the purpose of choosing his successor, be regarded as having been newly chosen for such terms. An appointment for a term shortened by reason of a predecessor holding over, shall be for the residue of the term only. § 6. Mode of choosing state officers if not otherwise provided.—If the law shall not otherwise provide the mode of choosing a state officer, he shall be appointed by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate. 87. Appointment by the governor and senate.-An appointment to an office by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate, shall be made by communicating to the senate, while in session, a written nomination of a person for the office, designating the residence of the nominee, and if nominated to be an officer of a political subdivision of the state, designating also such subdivision, and if nominating two or more persons to the same office for different terms, designating the term for which each is nominated. If such nomination be of a successor to a predecessor in the same office, it may be made and acted upon by the senate after the expiration of the term or occurrence of a vacancy in the office of such predecessor, or at any time during the legislative session of the calendar year in which the term of office of such predecessor shall expire or in which the office shall become vacant. If the appointment be made before the expiration of the term of such predecessor, the term of office of the appointee shall commence upon the expiration of the term of such predecessor, or if made to fill a vacancy, upon the occurrence of such vacancy, or immediately if a vacancy already exist. If the senate shall reject such nomination, the clerk of the senate shall forthwith communicate, by writing, signed by the president and clerk of the senate, to the governor, the fact of such rejection. If the senate shall confirm such nomination the appointment shall be deemed complete, and thereupon duplicate certificates of the confirmation shall be made and signed by the president and clerk of the senate, who shall cause one to be delivered to the governor and the other to the secretary of state, who shall record the same in his office in a book kept for that purpose. (As amended by chap. 318 of 1893, § 1.) 8. Commissions of officers.-The commission of every offi cer appointed by the governor, or by the governor by and with the consent of the senate, shall be signed by the governor and attested under the seal of this state, by the secretary of state who shall make and record in his office a copy of such commission, and deliver the original to the officer appointed, by a messenger, if the governor shall so direct, and otherwise, by mail, or as the secretary of state shall deem proper. Commissions of notaries public may be signed by the secretary to the governor, and shall be sent to the county clerk of the county in which such notaries public respectively reside. Every other appointment of an officer, made by one or more state officers, shall be in writing, and signed by the officer or officers, or by a majority of the officers, or by the presiding officer of the board or body, making the appointment. Every such written appointment shall be deemed the com Appointment and Qualification of Public Officers. §§ 9-10 mission of the officer appointed, and if of a state officer, a duplicate or a certified copy thereof shall be recorded in the office of the secretary of state; if of a local officer it shall be sent to the clerk of the county in which the officer appointed shall then reside, who shall file the same in his office, and notify the officer appointed of his appointment. (As amended by chap. 41 of 1899.) § 9. Deputies, their appointment, number and duties.Every deputy, assistant, or other subordinate officer, whose appointment or election is not otherwise provided for, shall be appointed by his principal officer, board or other body, and the number thereof, if not otherwise prescribed by law, shall be limited in the discretion of the appointing power. If there is but one deputy, he shall, unless otherwise prescribed by law, possess the powers and perform the duties of his principal during the absence or inability to act of his principal, or during a vacancy in his principal's office. If there be two or more deputies of the same officer, such officer may designate, in writing, the order in which the deputies shall act, in case of his absence from the office or his inability to act, or in case of a vacancy in the office, and if he shall fail to make such designation, the deputy longest in office present, shall so act. If two or more deputies present shall have held the office for the same period, the senior deputy in age shall so act. Such written designation by a state officer shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state; and by any other officer, in the office of the clerk of the county in which the principal has his office. If a vacancy in a public office shall be caused by the death of the incumbent, the deputies shall, unless otherwise provided by law, continue to hold office until the vacancy shall have been filled in accordance with law. § 10. Official oaths.-Every officer shall take and file the oath of office required by law before he shall be entitled to enter upon the discharge of any of his official duties. An oath of office may be administered by any officer authorized to take, within the state, the acknowledgment of the execution of a deed of real property, or by an officer in whose office the oath is required to be filed, or may be administered to any member of a body of officers, by a presiding officer or clerk, thereof, who shall have taken an oath of office. The oath of office of a notary public or commissioner of deeds shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county in which he shall reside. The oath of office of every state officer shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state; of every officer of a municipal corporation, with the clerk thereof; and of every other officer, in the office of the clerk of the county in which he shall reside, if no place be otherwise provided by law for the filing thereof. (As amended by chap. 318 of 1893, § 1.) § 11. Official undertakings.-Every official undertaking, when required by or in pursuance of law to be hereafter executed or filed by any officer, shall be to the effect that he will faithfully discharge the duties of his office and promptly account for and pay over all moneys or property received by him as such officer, in accordance with law, or in default thereof, that the parties executing such undertaking will pay all damages, costs and expenses resulting from such default, not exceeding a sum, if any, specified in such undertaking. The undertaking of a state officer shall be approved by the comptroller both as to its form and as to the sufficiency of the sureties, and be filed in the comptroller's office. The undertaking of a municipal officer shall, if not otherwise provided by law, be approved as to its form and the sufficiency of the sureties by the chief executive officer or by the governing body of the municipality and be filed with the clerk thereof. The approval by such governing body, may be by resolution, a certified copy of which shall be attached to the undertaking. The sum specified in an official undertaking shall be the sum for which such undertaking shall be required by or in pursuance of law to be given. If no sum, or a different sum from that required by or in pursuance of law, be specified in the undertaking, it shall be deemed to be an undertaking for the amount so required. If no sum be required by or in pursuance of law to be so specified, and a sum be specified in the undertaking, the sum so specified shall not limit the liability of the sureties therein. Every official undertaking shall be executed and duly acknowledged by at least two sureties, each of whom shall add thereto his affidavit that he is a freeholder or householder within the state, stating his occupation and residence and the street number of his residence and place of business if in a city, and a sum which he is worth over and above his just debts and liabilities and property exempt from execution. The aggregate of the sums so stated in such affidavits must be at least double the amount specified in the undertaking. The failure to execute and* official undertaking in the form or by the number of sureties required by or in pursuance of law, or of a surety thereto to make an affidavit required by or in pursuance *So in the original. |