PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The numerous changes in the laws have rendered necessary a revision of the Manual. The work has been re-written, enlarged and revised to date, and is believed to contain a correct statement of the law and practice governing the subjects treated. In order to accomplish this, a careful examination of the session laws, the decisions of the courts and the journals of proceedings of the several boards throughout the State have been made, and the results embodied in the work. The same general plan contained in the first edition has been continued in this, for the reason that it has met the hearty approval of the judges, lawyers, supervisors and others using the work, whose commendation is worthy of consideration, and whose experience and opinion command respect. Several chapters have been added upon those subjects which seem to be most necessary, such as Roads and Bridges, Defective Roads and Bridges, Municipal Debts, Railroad Aid Bonds, Town Meetings, etc., which occupy so large a part in the duties of towns, counties and their officers, together with the decisions upon these questions which are both numerous and important. These have necessarily crowded out many local laws which would have been gladly inserted. September 1, 1889. G. C. M. The references to the Revised Statutes are to the seventh edition. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. One of the marked tendencies of legislation in this State, for the past few years, is that of intrusting the direction and control of purely local affairs to local officers, leaving the State legislature to act in those cases which affect the whole State. This is manifest in the additional powers conferred upon town and county officers, the responsibility of towns for the acts and negligence of their officers, and particularly in the extensive legislative powers granted to boards of supervisors over matters formerly under the exclusive control of the State legislature. The statutes defining the powers of supervisors were formerly contained in a page or two of the session laws; now a volume is required for the same purpose. With the extension of power comes a corresponding increase in duties and responsibilities and a consequent demand for more intelligent, better qualified officers. The questions to be acted on by boards of supervisors are perplexing and complicated, and require, if properly decided, great care, discretion, sound judgment, and a thorough knowledge of the statutes on the subject. Such knowledge is not intuitive nor inherited. It cannot be acquired except by diligent effort and careful study, and they are a wise people that, having found a competent officer, retain him in his place as long as he will consent to serve. It is the aim of this work to give the law and the practice pertaining to the office of supervisor, as they exist on November 1, 1886. For this purpose a careful examination of the statutes, the decisions of the courts and the practice of the several boards of supervisors throughout the State has been made. The work is an enlargement of a brief used by the writer while serving as one of the supervisors of Oneida county, and is arranged in the way found by him to be most convenient for practical, everyday use. Judging from experience and from an examination of the published journals of the several boards of supervisors in the State, such boards are liable to err in two particulars: First. Blindly following in the steps of their predecessors without knowing whether or not the precedent followed is founded upon sound legal principles. Second. The assumption of more power than the law confers upon them. It cannot be too thoroughly understood that the board of supervisors possess only such powers as are expressly or by necessary implication given to them; that they are not invested with absolute powers over all legislative subjects; that within the limited field, expressly defined and marked out for them by the legislature, they are authorized to act, and beyond this they cannot go; that the first question to be settled by them in any given case is, not are we prohibited from acting in the matter but is there any statute conferring upon us the right to act therein? If no statute conferring such power to act can be found, then they have no right to act. The references in this volume to the Revised Statutes are to the seventh edition, by Banks Bros. Acknowledgment is hereby made to Hon. M. H. Merwin, Hon. W. B. Sutton, A. C. Miller, Esq., R. O. Jones, Esq., of Utica, N. Y., to Messrs. Wauful, Lewis, Marshall, of the Oneida county board of supervisors, to R. B. Maxfield, clerk of the board, Hon. W. D. Biddlecome, school commissioner, Geo. E. Dunham, and Mr. John Kohler, ex-county treasurer, for many valuable suggestions. To J. B. Cushman, of Utica, N. Y., one of the oldest and best qualified supervisors in the State, I am especially indebted for the benefit of his experience and the suggestions he has given, which have rendered his assistance invaluable. November 1, 1886. G. C. M. |