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TO : BUD JOHNSON
-'1 FROM : WILLIAM L . WEST
SUBJECT : Can the County Home Rule Charter Contain Provisions
for Qualification of Office Holders?
Answer: Yes
Constitutional provisions allowing County Home Rul
'1 among other things : e provide ,
" (3 ) The provisions of section 6 , 8 , 9 , 10, 12 and 15 of
Article 14 of this Constitution shall apply to Counties
adopting a Home Rule Charter only to such extent as may
.,; be provided in said Charter. "
Section 8 of Article 14 provides for the creation of County officers
and says nothing about qualification . From this it is implies
1 that County officers may be elected or appointed and that qualifications
•
of those offices may be established .
1 . Appointive Offices . It a
3 County can provide that County offic s clear that a Home hr
ersmay appointed be rather
officer than elected . An appointivesubject
may obviously be made subject
to qualifications of the appointive group . It may be provided
in the Home Rule Charter that an appointive officer meet certain
qualifications but this would probably not prevent the appointive
body from establishing additional qualifications .
In any event the Commission , if it sees fit , may include within
the Charter minimum qualifications for an appointive office .
2 . Elective officers . The comments relative to appointive
officers apply . The difficulty with relation to elective officers
is a practical one of defining qualifications . It is relatively
easy to say, for purposes of an appointive office for example ,
that a sheriff shall have five years of administrative experience .
For purposes of an elective office it is much more difficult
to make such a qualification , since the electors are not in a
position to determine whether the candidate has met the qualifications .
Thus the qualifications for an elective candidate must be very
precise and very objective . Thus the qualifications should be
based on certification of a known group or authority , or upon
some other easily definable and objective standard .
A requirement or qualification , as has been suggested for the
sheriff for example , of five years of administrative work , might
suffice before an administrative panel making an appointment ,
but would not be sufficient for purposes of qualifying a candidate
for election .
Respectifully submitted,
Wm. L. West
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