## ATXWRNEYGENERAL OF ?llYExAs
AUSTIN 

## il.

'I%ELIS

HonorableBill S. Watkins County Attorney Llano county Llano, Texas
Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-4548 Re: Construction,

of Article 6675a-10, Revised Civil Statutes.
We acknowledgereceipt of your request for an opinion of this departmenton the above captioned subject. .Yoy request is as follows:

"The Commissionof Appeals In Stovall vs. Shivers, 103 S.W; ,(2d)



### 363, very clearly covered the method of distributionof-generalroad and bridge money of a county In ~construlng Article 

### 6740;but In its last paragraph It stated (Aa to that portion'ofautomobile reglstratlonfees retained by Van 

### ZandtCounty, Article 6675a-10 expresslyprovides how same shall.be expended, and for that reason it Is obvious that.Atitlcle 

### 6740 has .noappllcatlon'tosame.' "Article 6675a-10 provides that automobilereglstratlon fees r&ained by a county shall be placed In the Road and Bridge Fuxid of the county and shall be used 'for the constructionand maintenance of lateral roads in such county under the superv$.slon of the County Engineer, If there be done, an@ If there Is no such Engineer, then the County CommIssIonerat Court shallhave authority to command the services of the Division Englnee~r

of the estate

Highway Department 'for the purpose 'ofsupervisingthe constructionand surveying of lateral roads in the~'r6spectlve counties.' "The Commissioners' Court has requested of me an opinion as to how this automobileregistration moriey should be divided among the four precincts.
"I have advlse,d

the Court that In my opinion Article 6675a-10 does not provide for the expenditureof this money In Lland County In view of the fact that we have no countyen&neer and do not desire to command the services of the District Engineer of the State HighwayHonorableBill S. Watkins, Page 2 

### o-4548

Department. That being the case Jt seems to me'that the law Is silent,

as to how this money should be divided among the four precincts. "Precinct

No. 1 of Llano County pays approximately 55% of the county taxes, has probablymore lateral roads than any other precinct snd is claiming the same portion of automobileregistrationfees as its per cent of taxes it pays. .Thethree other smallerpreclnc,ts are claiming this money should be divided equally among the four precincts.
"In view of the Importanceof this question to all the countles'of

Texas, I shall appreciatevery much

. .youroplnlonas to what method of dlvlslon of this auto- ,moblleregistration money among the four precincts should .be made."
It Is noted that you have advisedyour commlssloners8 court that Llano County,doesnot have authority:to.exp.e.nd the motor vehicleregistrationfunds retained by such county for the reason that Llano'County

has no County Engineerand It .does not desire,to command the services of the Division Engineer of the State Highway Department. It is apparent that youhave arrived ,atthis concluslon because of the portion of Article 

### 6675::10, supra,which reads as follows:

'* * * alI.'sald

monies shall be used forthe construction

and maintenanceof lateralro,ads.ln such county under the supervlslonof the county engineer, lf~therebe one,, and.lf,,there

Is no such engineer,the'countycommissioners'. court shall have authority to.commandthe services 'ofthe dlvlslon engineer of the State Highway Departmentfor the purpdse~

of"supervlsing

,the construction.and. surveyingof Iateral,roadsln the,lr respective counties:"
We believe that.

ln horder

to fully answer your request, it is necessary,thatwe dIscussArticle 

### ~6675g-10 wasIt relates to the advice you have given your commlssloners'~ court. We do not donstrue the hereinabovequoted.portlon of Article 6675a-IC,~supra,

as authorizingthe expenditureof such funds onlY~ under the supervisionof the county engineer ora'divlslon engineer of the State Highway Department. We are of the opinion that the Legislaturerecognized the fact that as a general rule members of commlsslonersl'

courts are not qualified to act as engineersfor road construction

work; that Is, they'arenot trained to survey roads, laYout grades, ascertaindrainage areas, establish adequate drainage structuresand 'perform the many,other technicalduties necessary for the~'proper' constructionof roads. Sev.eral counties of the state halve

been authorizedby\ special laws to employ county \ ,.;., ; .~HonorableBill S..Watklns, Page 3 o-4548

engineersaai ,the

various acts authorizingsuch officers require that they be qu&lified.t'b act as such. However, the uiaji+ty~of the counties ln this state.donot have authorityto employ a county engineer and.the Legislature,realizing the need for highly trained t+An+cal~exper~s for proper road .constructQn, merely 'autjhorlzed

the, +mnlsslon6rs1 'courts to call upon,

the division engineer of the State Highway Department to supervise the con- '&ruction and surveying of lateral roads.

You are, therefore, ~advised

that in our opinion the commlsslonerst

court Is not prohlblted from expending the motor vehlcle:reglsQ?ati~n funds retalned.by lt.becausethe courity does not have 'acoun$y~eriglneer nor, does the commissioners8 cotit de-- sire the assistapcii;of the cjlvlslon

eng.lneer

of the State Highway Departmen$:.Ifi

the commIssionerat court feels that It does not rieed',thls

assistance,then there la nothing In Article 6675a-10, aupr&to prevent the expenddtureof,such funds 'asthe needs of .the county for lateral roads may require.

We have re-framedyour question as follows: ~"What division of the automobileregistration funds r&abed by the county should be made to the, four commisslone~s~~ precincts?" Article 6675a-10, supra, provides that the reglstratidn funds retainedby the county should be used to constructand malntaln the lateral roads of such county. In the cade of Stovall vs~. Shivers, 103 S.W.:(2d) 366, the CommPselonof Appeals said:

"By Article 2342 of the Revised Statutes It is provided that,the several commissioners, together with the county judge, shall compose the ~~commlsslonersa court.' Such court de manifestlya unit, and is the agency of the whole county. The respectivemembers of the commissioners' court are thereforeprlmarlly representatives of the whole county, and not merely representatives of their respectiveprecSnct8. The duty of the commissioners1 court Is to transact the buSinSS8, protect the Interestand promote the welfare of the county as a whole. ~Amongthe.powers conferredupon such county bp Article 23514re the following: the power to lay out and establish,change and discontinueroads and highways,the power to build bridges and keep them In repair, and the pbner to exercise general control over all roads, highways, ferries and bridges In their county.'
It .lsclearly apparent that the commissioners' courts ye empoweredand the duty rests upon them to. constrUctand-maintain the roa~ds

of the county,ae a whole wkthout regard to precinct lines.
In view of the fact tiiat'io .1&~4&ty iePritOria1 limitatlon Is pIac&d upon the expenditureof the motor vehicle regls-

.Honorable Bill S. Watkins, Pa& 4 

### o-4548

tration funds retained by the ,county, by.Artlcle~



### 66i’5a-lo,

supra, you are advised that the.aoan&slonersl court tiay use those funds as the need of the county requires.

Trusting that the ,foregoing fully answers your Inquiry, we are Yours very truly AT!l'ORNEY

GENERAL OF TEXAS

RHC:ej:wc

APPROVED MAY 12, 1942 s/ Grover Sellers ;FogS;STANT

ENERAL " By s/ Richard H. Cocke Richard Ii.

Cocke Assistant

Approved Opinion,

Committeev s,f

RWF Chairman