Montana Attorney General Opinion 15-155

Opinion No. 155 County Commissiollers - Employment -Public Policy-Relief. HELD: Chapter 44, Laws of 1933, does not authorize county commission- ers to employ themselves in poor relief, but authorizes payment of necessary expenditure. 114 OPINIONS OF THE A'l'TORNEY GENERAL Puhlic policy forbids commissioners elllploying themselve~. April 13, 1933. You have submitted the followiug question: "May the county commis- sioners of a county legally perform sen'ices in the administration of relief under the Reconstruction Finance Cor- poration, or any other similar agency lind receive compensation for it in ex- cess of the budget allowance for county commissioners? j\Iay the county com- missioners of a count~· legally perform sen'ices in the administration of such relief and pay th(;mselves necessary tra veIling or other expenses actua ll~' incurred by them in the administration of such relief, although in excess of the budget appropriation for expenses of county commissioners?" Chapter 44 Laws of 1933 gives the commissioners authority to employ the necessary help and to incur such ex- ]lenses as are necessary in the admin- istration of relief and to appropriate such funds as are necessary from the general fund notwithstanding the pro- visions of the budget act. This chap- ter does not expressly authori7,c the commissioners to employ themselves in administering relief. It has been held that county commissioners can not, as such, charge for services which al- though authorized by law are per- formed by them in another capacity. 15 G. .T. 454, Note 20, citing ~tate v. Horstad. 27 N. D. 533. H7 X. ,V. ::IRO, Ann. Cas. 1916 B, 1014. In the latter case it was said on page 384 of the Northwestern Reporter: "Public pol- ic~' condemns the employment by the hoard of their individual members as county agents or agents of the board. as to do so is to mingle primte inter- ests of the indiYidual commissioner with the performance of his duties in office". In this connection may I call your attention to Chapter 45, Laws of 1!)33, Section 1 of which reads: "The Gov- ernor of the State of Montana shall ap- point a commission of five members. who shall serve without compensation for the term of two years. This com- mission shall be known as the 'Mon- tana Relief Commission'. It shall ap- point committees in such counties of this state as shall ask and receive re- lief from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which county committees shall receh'e no compensation for their services". I do not know whether a committee has been appointed in your county but it occurs to me tbat such committee might be appointed under the provisions of this section to ad- minister the relief funds acl\'anced by the Reconstruction l!~inance Corpora- tion.