their population. Each contains a county seat in which the court house is located. What are the county officers? 1. In all the counties except New York, where the County Court is merged with the Supreme Court of the State, there is a County Judge, who is chosen by the electors of the county and whose term of office is six years. His salary is fixed by law and paid from the county treasury. The judge acts as surrogate and administers the estates of deceased persons if there be no surrogate in the county. He holds county courts in his own county only, unless requested to hold court in another county by the judge of such other county. The jurisdiction of the County Court includes most of the actions relating to real property situated in the county, and actions to recover money where the sum does not exceed $2000. It acts in concurrence with the Supreme Court of the State in its jurisdiction over the persons and property of residents of the county who are lunatics, idiots, or habitual drunkards. In counties where the business requires it, and Kings County has two. 2. Counties having a population exceeding forty thousand may, and usually do, elect a Surrogate whose court is concerned entirely with the estates of decedents. The surrogate's term of office is six years, excepting in New York County, where there are two surrogates with terms of fourteen years. No county judge nor surrogate may hold office longer than until the last day of December next after he is seventy years of age. 3. There are likewise elected in each county a District Attorney, Sheriff, Clerk, Treasurer, and Coroners. Most of the counties have from one to five Superintendents of the Poor. These officers all hold office for three years, except in New York City. 4. In those counties in which the original form of county administration has not been largely superseded by a city government, there is a Board of Supervisors, consisting of one member from each township and ward in that county. In most of the counties the Supervisors are annually elected, but in some they are elected for two years. The board has stated meetings for the settlement of its ac counts, the apportionment of taxes, and the regulation of county affairs. It appoints a few minor officers. The board may divide or alter townships, or erect new ones, when such changes do not place parts of the same township in two Assembly districts. They have power to lay out new highways within the county, to grant licenses, to estimate the amount of taxation needed to defray county expenses, and to apportion the county tax among the towns and cities in which it is to be levied. The county was originally an aggregation of townships or wards, and each Supervisor represents his township or ward in the board. He is ex officio an overseer of the poor in his town, and a general manager of the business of his township, as well as member of the County Board. Are the counties of equal political importance? The counties, as such, have no representation in the State Legislature. New York County is the smallest, and has the largest population. St. Lawrence is the largest. Hamilton is next to the largest, and has the smallest population, having less than 6000 inhabitants. |