Las Vegas optic., 1913-07-16
FDSSING ABOUT
THE HIGHWAY
Law
BONA ANA COUNTY ROAD BOARD
AND TREASURER HAVE DlF-
FERENT INTERPRETATIONS


county be transferred to the treas
urer Of the county road board, or
should it be left with the county
treasurer, on whom warrants should
De drawn By the county road board?
Such is a question that has been re-
ferred 10 Attorney General F. w.
Clancy. His reply win be Of interest
to every county road board in the
state, and is given below:
Santa Fe, N. NJ, July 12, 1918.
Mr.. Francis E. Lester,
secretary-Treasurer Of the County
Road Board,
Dear Sir.-I have before me your
letter of the 10th inst, which you
handed to me at the office of the
state engineer Ordinarily feel COM
pelled to refuse to give advice to any
county officers as under the law the
district attorneys are the legal ad-
visers and are entirely Independent
Of the attorney general. In the pres
ent case, however, 1 understand that
your district attorney has already
given an opinion substantially in ac-
cord with my own view and therefore
I write this letter, carbon copy Of
which / will send to the district at
torney for his information.
In your letter you say that at a
regular meeting Of your county road
board on July Z, 1918, there were pre-
sented two bills in favor of yourself
as secretary-treasurer Of the board,
Ter $685. and $2SS5 respectively.
Upon order Of the board warrants for
the rayment of these bills were drawn
ana vou enclose them for my informa-
tier They are numbered 125 and
13l md are signed by the chairman
and oeretary-treasurer Of the road
board aud attested by the signature
Of the ounty clerk, and are address
ed 10 the treasurer Of Dona Ana coun-
". You say that upon presentation
10 that officer payment was refused
You further say that payment Of Other
like warrants has been refused fol
the reason noted upon some of then
that the secretary-treasurer canno
draw funds.
You ask fte to advise your boar
whether these warrants are properl
drawn and If not IN what respec
they are defective, and if there is an.
good reason for the treasurer of tn,
county to refuse payment
am at loss to know any reason
why the treasurer should refuse Il
pay these warrants. The statute ere
ating your board in Section thereo
puts under the supervision and direc
tion Of the county road board the ex
penditure Of ali funds for road ant
bridge purposes and declares that tn,
methods for making such expendi
tures and accounting thereof shall b,
the same as those now or hereafte
required by law in the case of expen
ditures made by the boards of count.
commissioners These warrants aI
pear to have been drawn in the sam
manner as warrants drawn by orde
Of board Of county commissioners
and can see no reason why paymen
should be refused any more thar
should payment Of warrants drawn b!
order Of the county commissioners
The statement which you say ha
been made as to some warrants tina
the secretary treasurer cannot dra1
funds, has no application Such
reason might be made eqnally al
plicable to a warrant signed by tn
chairman of the board of county con
missioners and the county clerk, an
payable to the county CLERK
have heretofore taken the vie
thai the road funds should remain
the hands Of the county treasurer an
that the road board should draw wa
rants against it just as the couni
commissioners draw warrants and
these warrants now under consider
tion have been drawn, but am SON
what impressed with the view whi
mas been recently urged upon me th
the general intent Of the legislatu
as shown BY the act creating t
county road boards may have be
that the road and bridge fund shol
be transferred from the county ire
urer to the secretary-treasurer Of
road board If this is not SO tn
seems te no reason whatever
requiring the secretary
the road board to give bond. AS
this ! am not yet prepared to g
final opinion and I speak Of it
this time merely to show that !
not at present entirely satisfied y
the position / have heretofore tai