Opinion ID: 1916148
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: validity of commission's position

Text: Assuming the commission did properly meet and consider the factors mentioned in its answer, the answer recites factors which should not have been considered by the commission in making its decision, as will be explained. The law in this state with regard to the power of counties appears to be well settled. Counties are said to be political subdivisions created by sovereign power in accordance with sovereign will and exercising only such power as conferred on them by law. Alexander v. State, 274 Ala. 441, 150 So.2d 204 (1963). Counties have no inherent power and no duty except by statute. Laney v. Jefferson County, 249 Ala. 612, 32 So.2d 542 (1947). Even the authority to tax is not inherent in counties it is derived from the legislature. Newton v. City of Tuscaloosa, 251 Ala. 209, 36 So. 2d 487 (1948). In the instant case the Legislature of Alabama determined that the circuit judges were entitled to clerical or stenographic assistance and enacted a statute to that end. The legislature further provided that the judges would determine what clerical or stenographic services they needed. Further, the legislature told the county commission that the county would pay the salaries for such clerks or stenographers. The legislature, in the absence of a constitutional limitation, has plenary power to deal with counties, Y. W. C. A. v. Gunter, 230 Ala. 521, 162 So. 120 (1935). Matters of policy as to counties and county funds and how they shall be handled and preserved are matters of legislative policy. Covington County v. O'Neal, 239 Ala. 322, 195 So. 234 (1940). The state, through the legislature, may even appropriate county funds for public purposes. Jefferson County v. City of Birmingham, 251 Ala. 634, 38 So.2d 844 (1949). Title 12, Section 121, Alabama Code of 1940, as amended, (Recompiled 1958) establishes that certain claims are preferred claims against the county and shall be given priority in payment over non-preferred claims. In Brown v. Gay-Padgett Hdw. Co., 188 Ala. 423, 66 So. 161 (1914), the court, in dealing with this section stated: Legitimate county debts or obligations are of two classes: (1) Those which are prescribed and imposed by law, and are purely involuntary as to the county; (2) those which are merely authorized by law, and are assumed by the county with some measure of discretion, at least as to time or amount. Clearly the obligation created by the statute in the case at hand did not create a mere authorization for the county to spend moneythe statute reads shall be paid. . . out of the county treasury. . . . Thus a claim against the county of the first class was created by the statute at handa claim which is purely involuntary on the part of the county. Note also that under Section 121(2) expenses of the courts are listed as preferred claims. Thus there is little doubt that the obligation to pay each judicial secretary's salary enjoys a preferred status. In its answer in the instant case, the County Commission admits that it took into account voluntary, non-preferred expenditures in determining that it would not approve the salary schedule fixed by the court. Certainly logic requires that preferred claims should be paid in full before voluntary or non-preferred claims are paid. Thus it would seem that the County Commission, in considering these preferred claims in the same class as voluntary claims, acted in an unreasonable, if not illegal manner.