"The surveyor really doesn't do anything"

Of course! If someone has a land dispute out West, they just shoot 'em! No need whatsoever for a County Surveyor.

Does increase the need for a County Coroner, though ...

"Some of these constitutional officers were created in the 19th century," said Adams County Commissioner Erik Hansen. "The surveyor really doesn't do anything. Why we still have an elected surveyor, I don't know."

Tim Thoms, the Adams County surveyor, has held a surveying license since 1980. He was elected in 2006 and makes $5,500 per year.

Thoms declined to comment for this story.

Read more: Adams County considers home-rule charter to govern county - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25160005/adams-county-considers-home-rule-charter-govern-county#ixzz2thzx5TRX
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
Follow us: @Denverpost on Twitter | Denverpost on Facebook

[sarcasm]Thanks Tim, really appreciate the professional support.[/sarcasm]

The requirements to be an elected official are rooted in their placement in the area they are to serve and not necessarily their education and professional backgrounds.

Their purpose is two fold, one to fill the office and two for attending to the duty of office.

There is always new office holders that were not completely trained before entering office and ready for projects the county tends to and in contrast they may be good at developing a budget to operate on and viceversa for others.

The newspaper reports of their yearly training adventures to teach them to work with the Capitol's needs are always an interesting read.

Locally the office of county surveyor was abandoned 30± years ago because the new official demanded office space, more power and a budget. All that was beyond the county's needs and a part of his misunderstanding of what the office's purpose in the chain of responsibility for special projects related to surveys that fall beyond what an ordinary RPLS or PLS is qualified to perform.

The need to preform the office's duty is in reality a rare occasion where there is an actual need to perform a survey and to keep a record of certain documents that the public and county clerks dismiss as important and not a part of their job description.

The good aspect of having someone in the local circle has many advantages as opposed to sending it to the State level immediately and cutting all local ties in participating n the resolving of the matter.

Since that decision was made across Texas on a county by county basis, many surveys and resulting drawings and descriptions have never seen the light of day and placed into public records.

When any public service is lost in the name of budget cuts, some relevant important need and record information will fall thru the cracks.

😉

The commissioners are power hungry. They are elected officials with no more actual authority than the other elected officials. Most of their responsibility is to address those things that are not statutorily the function of one of the other elected officials. So, if you remove an elected official and replace him/her with an appointed position, you then hand the responsibility for that role over to the commissioners as they control the appointee.

It is true that one does not have to meet all of the job requirements prior to filing for an elective office. This can get very upsetting to those who are actually qualified for the position but are not as well known or respected as some dumb bunny who just needs a job, any job.

We had a sheriff elected who promptly had to enroll in the appropriate schooling. I know a register of deeds who had never even been in that office for her own business when she filed for the position. She needed a job with benefits and she got it. The deputy had to cover for her time and time again for several years. We had a fellow run for county treasurer who had gone bankrupt twice. I'm sure the only votes he received were from people who had no idea who he was and he didn't get very many of those. Our current director of road and bridge drove a county road grader for about 20 years. That is a very common scenario.

County Guv'mit

It's really a hoot sometimes. One could laugh at some of things that happen if it weren't so darn sad.

One local County Commissioner down here (that I voted for) is a cousin of a fellow surveyor. He's a fairly knowledgeable guy from the construction industry with a degree in accounting. When he first took office (2009) he found his district didn't utilize any sort of software for accounting. It was all a bunch of spiral notebooks and antique ledger sheets...he was mortified.

We axed the Offices of County Surveyor in '79 or '80 in Oklahoma. The elected surveyor got office space, access to county records and one dollar for salary. Of course, professional fees were appropriate when he performed official county or court ordered work.

Most of them spent their days on the phone explaining to people that they couldn't call the County Surveyor and get their survey for free...A lot of counties had no surveyor because no one ran for office. Thirty or so years later, in hindsight, I don't think they should have abolished the office. There is a real need for them.

County Guv'mit

"Most of them spent their days on the phone explaining to people that they couldn't call the County Surveyor and get their survey for free..."

Thanks alot; now they call the college:-(