Court Opinion

ID: 9585822
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:04:12.636678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:15.342710
License: Public Domain

Hawkins, Justice,
dissenting. I dissent from the ruling of 'the majority in the first division of the opinion, and from the judgment of affirmance, for the reason that, by the act of 1955 (Ga. L. 1955, p. 2064), the office of one man Commissioner of Roads and Revenues for Clayton County was abolished, and a Board of Commissioners of Roads and Revenues, consisting of three Commissioners was created in its stead. While the act provides that the person formerly acting as sole Commissioner should become one of the members of the new Board of three Commissioners for the balance of the term for which he was elected as sole Commissioner, and should receive the same compensation, this does not alter the fact that the office of sole Commissioner was abolished, and a new Board of three Commissioners created in its stead. The Constitution (Code § 2-1915) provides that “No office to which a person has been elected shall be abolished . . . during the term for which such person was elected unless the same be approved by the people of the jurisdiction affected in a referendum on the question,” and no referendum as to the abolition of this office was provided for by the act of 1955. The case of Sayer v. Brown, 119 Ga. 539 (46 S. E. 649), relied on by the majority, is not applicable to the present case, for the reason that there the new act changing the five-member Board of Commissioners to three members by its terms continued and did not abolish the five-member board until the expiration of their current term.
I am authorized to say that Mr. Chief Justice Duckworth and Mr. Justice Head concur in this dissent.