Pepper, 061389 MSAGO, 19890613

• Case Date: June 13, 1989
• Court: Mississippi

L. Glynn Pepper No. 19890613 Mississippi Attorney General Opinions June 13, 1989          L. Glynn Pepper          Tax Collector for Hinds County          P.O. Box 1727          Jackson, MS 39215–1727           Sir:          Attorney General Mike Moore has received your request for an Official Opinion of this office, and he has assigned it to the undersigned for research and reply. In your letter you state:

I have an employee who has just recently been elected to the Jackson City Council. He has asked to remain an employee of this office. He plans to use personal leave and/or not to be compensated for the time he is involved in serving in council meetings. Do you know of anything in the Mississippi Code of 1972 that would not allow him to remain an employee of this office?

         We enclose herewith for your consideration an Opinion issued to Mr. George Touart, City Councilman of the City of Pascagoula, dated February 9, 1987. We stated in this Opinion that the position of county tax collector is a position within the executive branch of government, and that a position of councilman is one within the legislative branch. Thus, an acceptance of an office in either department shall at once act as a vacation of the other. An employee of a county tax assessor is on the same footing as the tax collector, for purposes Art. 1, Sections 1 and 2 of the Mississippi Constitution . We are...