Staggered elections for assessors and overseeers in plantations

MAINE STATE LEGISLATURE The following document is provided by the LAW AND LEGISLATIVE DIGITAL LIBRARY at the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library http://legislature.maine.gov/lawlib Reproduced from scanned originals with text recognition applied (searchable text may contain some errors and/or omissions) RlCHARD S. COHEN ATTORNEY GENERAL STA1"E OF MAINE DEPARTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AUGUSTA, MAINE 04333 Honorable John Martin Speaker of the House State House Augusta, Maine 04333 Dear Speaker Martin: January 12, 1979 JOHN J\1. R PATERSON DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL You have asked for our opinion on whether assessors and over- seers in plantations may be elected on staggered terms as are selectmen in towns, or whether legislation is required to authorize plantations to stagger terms of those officials. Although the answer is not entirely clear from the statutes, it is my opinion that plan- tations must annually select its assessors. Title 30 M.R.S.A. § 5607 provides that: "Organized plantations shall hold their annual meeting in March and choose a clerk, 3 assessors, treasurer, collector of taxes, constable, school committee, one or more surveyors of lumber and 2 or more fence viewers." Although the statute does not expressly establish the term of office for those officials, the implication from the language is that the plantation shall annually elect all those officials. The use of the verb "shall" in conjunction with the reference to "3 assessors" would seem to indicate that the obligation to select those assessors annually is mandatory on plantations. It is possible to argue, given the language of other provisions in Title 30, that plantations retain the discretion to select the terms of assessors and other plantation officials. Specifically, Title 30 M.R.S.A. § 5609 provides that laws relating to the "election, appointment, [and] qualification", of town officials applies equally to plantation officials. Although§ 5609 does not include a refer- ence to term of office it could be argued that the words election, appointment, and qualification encompass the term of office of plan- tation officials. Assuming that to be the case, the provisions re- lating to the selection of selectmen for towns in Title 30, M.R.S.A. § 2060, sub-§ 5, would then apply. Section 2060(5) provides that a town may set the term for which selectmen serve and in the event that the town chooses not to set that term, the selectman shall serve for one year. Since under Title 30 M.R.S.A. § 5610, assessors of planta- Page 2 tions are considered to be the selectmen, the authority of towns to set the terms for selectmen arguably applies to the term of assessors in plantations. Having stated this argument, however, it appears more plausible that the language in§ 5607 of Title 30 mandates that plantations annually select three assessors arid that plantations do not have the option of staggering the terms of such assessors. Since I under- stood you to ask this question for the purpose of determining whether clarifying legislation is necessary in the ab$ence of a clear provision in the statutes, I believe that, if you desire to authorize plantations to stagger the terms of assessors, an amendment to that effect in§ 5607 would not be inappropriate. JMRP: jg JOHN M. R. PATERSON Deputy Attorney General