In Legal Terms - Fall 2000

Terms Bring New Faces, Questions

By the time this article is read, all newly elected county commissioners will have attended their first county commission meeting on November 14, 2000. Welcome to county government, and I look forward to meeting you and working with you over the next four years.

The first county commission meeting you attended is mandated by Alabama's general law. All county commissioners take office on the Tuesday following their election, and the first meeting of the new county commission must be held on that day. Code of Alabama 1975, § 11-3-1. Even though that is clear under the law, it has generated a flood of calls to the ACCA office with questions about the meeting, the oath of office, and a variety of other issues related to the new county government beginning its term of office. Over the next four years, there will be many more questions about county commission meetings and other aspects of the important role you now hold. Sometimes the question will be one already asked by someone else, because many of the concerns in your county are the same as those in the other 66. However, often your question will be unique and will end up educating me on yet another aspect of county government that I had not considered or contemplated. Unfortunately, not all of your questions can be answered with as much certainty as that of when your first meeting was to be held, and sometimes there will be no clear answer. In fact, sometimes it will be difficult to even articulate the right question to ask or determine what the real issue is.

The role of the county commissioner in the year 2000 is much different than it was in the past. While the county commission is still responsible for the construction and maintenance of the county roads and bridges, the term "road commissioner" no longer fits. Code of Alabama 1975, § 11-3-11 provides a partial list of the powers and duties of the county commission, and if you have not already looked at this section, you should. However, this list does not begin to cover all of the issues you will deal with during the next four years, and many cannot be located in any Code book, opinion, or case. In addition to the roads, you are responsible for the courthouse, and the jail, and the county budget. You are also responsible for providing services to the citizens in the county such as garbage collection and emergency services. You must be concerned with economic and industrial development, environmental issues, and even land use regulation - or more often the lack thereof. You will be asked by your constituents to provide many services that you are not authorized by law to provide, and you will be asked or "directed" by other governmental agencies or entities to perform certain functions under their rules. In fact, if you think about all you will encounter in the next four years, you will likely question what you were thinking when you decided to run for the office you now hold. It will at times be overwhelming and unfortunately, discouraging, but it will also be exciting and challenging, and in the end, one of the most rewarding jobs you ever hold.

Before I interviewed for my position as staff attorney at the Association, I skimmed through Title 11 of the Code of Alabama, entitled "Counties and Municipal Corporations" to get an idea of what kind of issues the job would entail. It seemed that there was an awful lot of territory covered in those three volumes of the Code, but in fact, it doesn't even scratch the surface. I have been here four years now, and have learned my way through Title 11 fairly well. However, there are 39 other titles to the Code of Alabama in addition to the two volume state constitution, and I have spent a lot of time looking through almost all of those other books. In addition, I have become quite familiar with hundreds of cases and attorney general's opinions directly affecting county government, and many new laws enacted since I started my tenure here. Nonetheless, there is still a new question asked and a new issue to research almost every day.

Working with the Association is clearly the most interesting and educational job I have held in my fifteen years practicing law, and I look forward to the new challenges facing us all in the next four years. I hope that you will find your new position as county commissioner an interesting, educational, and rewarding experience, and I sincerely hope that you will never hesitate to call on me to help you find your way through the maze.