1906-1908 Ind. Op. Att'y Gen. p. 195

TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE-MAY NOT APPOINT DEPUTY. May 27, 1907. Hon. Fassett A. Cotton, Superintendent of Public Instruction: Dear Sir-In response to your verbal request for my opinion as to whether a township trustee is empowered to appoint a dep- uty, and whether such deputy, so designated, is legally entitled to vote for the election of a county superintendent, I have to say that section 5900 Burns' Annotated Indiana Statutes provides that the township trustees shhll meet at the county auditor's office on the first Monday of June, 1899, at ten o'clock a. m., and every four years thereafter, and elect by ballot a county superin- tendent for their county. It has, however, been held that in case they fail to elect on that day, they may meet thereafter and hold such election. Wampler v. State, ex rel., 14:8 Ind. 557. Section 7584 of said statutes provides that: "Every clerk of the supreme or .circuit court, state and county auditor, state and county treasurer, the secre- tary of state, prosecuting attorney, recorder, sheriff of the supreme or circuit court, coroner, township assessor, surveyor and constable, may appoint deputies." The following section provides that such deputies, so ap- pointed, shall take the oath required of their principals, etc., and certain other officers are expressly authorized to appoint deputies; but there is no statute in Indiana authorizing township trustees to appoint deputies, and, while I have no doubt that a trustee may employ help in the performance of the duties of his office, it is my opinion that he is not empowered to appoint a deputy to act as trustee of his township, nor can he legally delegate to another the duty enjoined upon him by law, to meet the other trustees of his county at the county auditor's office and elect by ballot a county superintendent. It is my opinion that only trustees duly qualified as such, being present at the meeting to be held at the auditor's office, are authorized to vote for a county superintendent.