STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
OFFICE OF
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

January 24, 1969

Gerald Baldwin
State's Attorney, Custer County
Custer, South Dakota 57730

OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 69-3

The same individual may not at the same time be a member of the Board of County Commissioners and a board member of an Independent School District. SDC 1960 Supp. 15.2309

Dear Mr. Baldwin:

You have requested my official opinion in answer to this question:

"May an individual simultaneously serve as a County Commissioner and a board member of an Independent School District?"

The answer to this inquiry is NO.

SDC 1960 Supp. 15.2309 provides:

"No elective county, municipal or state officer or the holder of any other office, the duties of which are incompatible or inconsistent with the duties of a school office shall be eligible for that school office."

This statute precludes the simultaneous holding of the office of a member of the School Board of an Independent School District and a member of the Board of County Commissioners.

The application of this statute to a County Commissioner has never been presented to this office. However, the principle involved in such statute has frequently been considered by the office, and may be summed up in the terse statement of my predecessor in 1963-64 AGR 60 when he said:

"The above cited statute is specific in that no elective county, municipal, or state officer shall be eligible for a position on the independent school board . . ."

See also the prior opinions of this office in 1955-56 AGR 323, 1957-58 AGR 199; 1959-60 AGR 45; 1961-62 AGR 45; 1963-64 AGR 105 (on page 107) which have construed the statute consistent with this opinion.

Respectfully submitted,

Gordon Mydland
Attorney General