County of Santa Barbara v. Rucker

CONREY, P. J.

The appeals in these cases are from the several judgments entered therein. The parties have stipulated that all of them may be heard together upon the same briefs and arguments; the questions presented for consideration here being identical in all of the cases. In accordance with the suggestion of counsel, our references to matters of record will be confined to No. 1916,

County of Santa Barbara

v.

Rucker et al.

Appellant Rucker was elected to the office of supervisor of Santa Barbara County, for the fourth district thereof, at

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the general election of November, 1908, for the term of four years beginning with the first Monday of January, 1909. At that time section 4246 of the Political Code provided as follows: “In counties of the seventeenth class the county officers shall receive as compensation for the services required of them by law or by virtue of their offices, the following salaries, to wit: ... 15. Each supervisor, six hundred dollars per annum, and twenty cents per mile for traveling from his residence to the county seat; and a road commissioner, four dollars per day, not to exceed two hundred dollars per annum in the aggregate.” (State. 1907, p. 47.) By an amendment approved April 27, 1911, said section 4246 was amended so that subdivision 15 read as follows: “Each supervisor, six hundred dollars per annum and twenty cents per mile for traveling from his residence to the county seat; and as road commissioner, four dollars per day for not to exceed eighteen days in any one month;

provided,

that said supervisors shall receive no mileage when acting as road commissioner, but shall receive his actual traveling expenses while acting as such road commissioner, not to exceed the sum of two hundred dollars in any one year.” (Stats. 1911, p. 1148.) The constitution of California, at article XI, section -9 thereof, as adopted in 1879 and still in force, provides that “the compensation of any county, city, town, or municipal officer shall not be increased after his election or during his term of office; ...”