Putnam patriot., 1924-11-21
THOMPSON TOWN OFFICERS
 UPHELD BY COURTS FINDING
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 nature. and that their penalties ex- ceea not twenty shillings for the Of- fence, and that they be not repug- nant to the Laws and Orders of this Colony Somewhat abbreviated in successive revisiens but otherwise unchanged. this provision was car ried down into the revision Of i902. where it read lSec. i90S1 Towns nay make such regulations for their welfare not concerning matters of criminal nature. net repagnant Co the laws of the state. as they may deem expedient. and enforce them by penalties not cegding five dol lars for each breach" Then fol- lows an interesting bit of legislative legerdgmain. interesting at least to one who watched behind the scenes: the legislature in 1915 tPub. Acts Chap 24e. ?. 2e7i3 repealed the jaw last quoted. and replaced i; with a grant to towns of few special DOW CTS; but in 1917. the error of it's way being made clear. if forthwith recanted, Pub. Acts. Chap. PIT. p. 236T1 repealed the law last enacted. and decreed that: Any town may make ordinances concerning matters not regulated by the general stat utes. which ordinances may provide for the imposition of fine not ex- ceeding twenty-five dollars for any violation thereof So the law stands, and it Is clear that. reading into the last. as of course one must. limiting clause sconcerning the well=ofdaring of their affairs or the Ike, there has been one lesisla- tive intent expressed from the first Co the last.
 Custom 10 Compensate Towns
 This statute is the Magma Gharta of town government. and without it towns would have been very weak instruments of government. One could not cnumerate the various acts which must be related back to this authority or else held Co convict the towns of leng and almost uninter- rurted lawlessness. More specih- cally, to it must be related the al- most universal custom Co compen- sate town officers where no specific statutory authority for so doing can Et AAAAHAs eAHa AHf EANtAlfAAA=a HAAANAfHitAAt town treasurers. and members of the boards of relief before 1885. Ger taiuly fl is difficult Co imagine any power which could be more neces- sary for the well~ordering of it's af fairs than that by which a town may make compensation to those whom t calls upon to give time and effort to the administration of it's affairs.
 Town school committees do moi, it is true. stand entirely in the same relation Co the town as certain of it's other officers. The duty to main tain sufficient and proper schools in the town is placed upon them and in its performance they represent the state. Newton V. Hamden. 79 Conn. 237. 240, State ex rel. Hunt ington. S2 Conn. 566. In the latter case. is suggestion that towns have no control over them: but that is certainly now open to question in view of the express power granted towns to later estimates submitted as q basis for taxatino under the provisions of Gen. Stat, Sec. l25l the control of the purse string has in the past proven itself no mean power. But. however that may be, the town owns the school property within it's limits, to 1t the school committee reports, and il IS the children Of the inhabitants whose welfare Is sought. Granted the committee is an agency of the law, vet in a very real sense 1t is also an agency of the town.
 Certainly, the proper care of the towns property made it matter of a .'prudential" nature that it's school committee perform ifs duties we'll : and if the town-which now by the 1 terms of the statute stands in the | stead of the old school districts be not regarded as in some sort the 1 representative of the welfare of is young inhabitants. why should the 1 school committee report to It's meet l ing? That in it's corporate capacity i it has q very direct interest m see ing that it's schools are properly i maintained is in fact expressly stat ed in Newton v Hamden, supra. p. 2s0. and that it is a proper exercise of the authority vested in t for it to compensate members of town school committees seems necessarily to follow from the ruling in that case. What was the purpose of the 1 Act of 1915 HOW appearing as Sec. ss3 of the General Statutes t is difficult Co see That it was meant | 10 apply much more broadly than to i school committees under the Town l Management chapter of the statutes is obvious: that it was mean. 70 ap- | ply at all to them Is doubtful, for ] they already had the power to ap- l point secretaries and have no use for treasurers At any rate. the compensation provision in il implies in the towns an existing power to make such payments and is merely regulatory of it's exercise; and, the power to compensate members al- ready existing, 1t would be going en- tirely too far to imply from those terms it's repeal; suppose the Town Management chapter had expressly provided for compensation to mem bers of the committee. would the enactment of this law ipso faeto eliminate that provisionF To ap- ply to this situation the maxim 'ex- pressio unius, exelusio alternis Is to force it beyond it's fair meaning
 Towa Had the Right
 The town, then had the right to provide for the compenstaion of members Of the town school commit ! tee. They were compensated, by or ders drawn upon the town treasurer . s.4f Ia.