Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1946 )

THE ~7llTORNEY GENERAL
OF TEXAS
Hon. Ray Lackey
County Auditor
Yoakum County
Plains, Texas
Dear Sir: Opinion No. o-7215
Removal of County Seat.
Authority'of County Auditor
to serve as trustee of Rural
High School District
Your request of recent date for an opinion from this
department on the above subject matter is as follows:
"I would like an opinion from you on the following:
"May the County Seat of a County be moved by a two
thirds vote from the present position when it is located
within a five mile radius of the center of the county
and has been located here for a period of 35 years.
%ag the County Auditor serve as trustee of a Rural
High School District which is operating as an Independ-
ent District & having their own tax collector and asses-
sor and containing more than one hund,redsquare miles of
territory and electing their trustees at large over the
district."
The answer to your first question is found in the
provisions of Articles 1595, 1596, 1599 and 1600, V.A.C.S.
Article 1595, supra, read~s,in part, as follows:
"No county seat situated within five miles of the
geographical center of any county shall be removed ex-
cept by a note of two-thirds ;f all the electors in said
county voting on the subject.
Article 1596, supra, is as follows:
"When it becomes desirable to remove the county
seat of any county, the county judge of said county, upon
the written application of not less than one hundred free-
holders and qualified voters, who are resident citizens of
Hon. Ray Lackey, page 2 O-7215
said county shall make a written order upon the minutes
of said commissioners court for the holding of an elec-
tion at various voting precincts in said county on a
day therein named, which shall not be less than thirty
nor more than sixty days from date of order, for the
purpose of submitting the question to the electors of
said county. When a county seat has been established
for more than ten years, it shall reouire two hundred
freeholders and aualified voters to make said aoolica-
tion. In counties having less than three hundred and
fifty legal voters, to be determined by the number of
votes cast at the last preceding general election such
application may be made by one hundred resident free-
holders and qualified voters of said county. When a
county seat has been established for more than forty
years, if shall require a majority of the resident free-
holders and qualified voters of said~county to make the
application, said majority to be ascertained by the
county judge from the assessment rolls thereof. In
counties having not more than 150 qualified voters, such
application shall be held sufficient when it shall have
been signed by a majority of the resident freeholders
and qualified voters of said county, said majority to
be ascertained by the county judge, from the assessment
rolls thereof. In the event of the fallure, refusal or
inability of the county judge to perform any duty im-
posed upon him by this article such duty may be pzrform-
ed by any two county commissioners of the county.
(Underscoring ours)
Article 1599, supra, provides:
"The county judge or commissioners shall order said
election in each voting precinct in said county, which
shall be conducted as near as may be, as elections for
county officers. The officers holding the elections
shall make return thereof to the authority ordering said
election within ten days after the same was held, who
shall then proceed to open said returns and count the
same, and declare the result, which shall be entered upon
the records of said commissioners court, and shall also
state the name of the place from which, and the name of
the place to which, the same is removed. A certified
copy of such entry shall theTeupon be recorded in the
proper deeds of such county.
Article 1600, supra, reads as follows:
"When such entry has been made. the count-iseat,if
the election be held to move the county seat from a Point
- .
Hon. Ray Lackey, page 3 O-7215
within five miles of the neoarauhical center, to a woint
more or less than five miles from the geograwhical cen-
tar, or from a point more than five miles from the
geographical center, to any other point more than five
miles from such center, shall be removed to the olace
receiving the votes of two-thirds of allythe electors
voting on the subject; and such place shall thereafter
be the counts seat of such county. If the election be
held to move"the county seat from a point more than five
miles from the geographical center to a point within
five miles of such center, then the county seat shall beg
moved to the place receiving a majority of,all the elec-
tors in the county voting at such election, and such
place shall thereafter be the county seat of such county."
(Underscoring ours)
In view of the above quoted provisions it is the opinion
of this department that the county seat may be moved from a
point within five miles of the gsographic center of the county
to a point more or less than five miles from the geographic
center of the county by a two-thirds vote of all the electors
voting on the subject provided the provisions of the foregoing
Articles have been complied with. We are sending for your con-
sideration a copy of our Opinion No. O-1681 dealing with a
similar situation.
In answer to our request for additional information
concerning your second question, we received the following from
Hon. G. P. Beane, County Judge and Ex-Officio County School
Superintendent:
"In answer to your inquiry of April 25th relative
to Plains Rural High School District, I wish to state
that this School District is a rural High School Dis-
trict formed by grouping a number of rural common
school districts.
"The status of this district is hard to determine
since it pertakes of both the nature of an Independent
School District and a Common School District. In some
respects it is governed as an Independent School District
and in others, it is governed by the laws relating to
Common School Districts."
We, therefore, assume that the Plains Rural High
School was established under the provisions of Article 2922a.
Article 2922b states that all rural high school districts as
provided for by Article 2922a shall be classed as common
school districts.
.. -
Hon. Ray Lackey, page 4 O-7215
Therefore, your second question is answered in the
negative by our Opinion No. O-7191, a copy of which we are
herewith enclosing.
Yours very truly
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS
By s/J. C.Davl.s, Jr.
J. C. Davis, Jr.
Assistant
By s/John Reeves
John Reeves
JR:djm:wc
APPROVED MAY 8, 7~946
s/Carlos C. Ashley
FIRST ASSISTANT
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Approved Opinion Committee By s/BWB Chairman