Good Afternoon: I have one of my municipalities that operates under a Town Board form of Government. Their code currently provides for a town clerk and a town treasurer and they have never taken action to have a combined clerk-treasurer as far as I am aware. The sitting clerk filed to be the treasurer and won the election on Tuesday, so the question has arisen whether they can hold both positions. My initial reaction has been that they could not, but I also understand that most of the dual office holding rules only apply to offices with different entities. It just seems that since both are elected positions, that a person could only hold one elected position at a time. Of course, their meeting to seat new members/officers is on the second Tuesday of the month, so we have a quick turnaround to get this figured out. I’m hopeful that someone else has already been through this and might have an answer to the question of whether someone can fill both of those elected positions or if the newly elected treasurer will be deemed to have vacated their clerk position upon swearing in as the treasurer. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Jared Harrison Harrison & Mecklenburg, Inc. 202 N. 6th Street P.O. Box 658 Kingfisher, OK 73750 (Phone) 405-375-6484 (Fax) 405-375-6413 Email: jared.harrison@hmlawoffice.com<mailto:jared.harrison@hmlawoffice.com> Website: www.hmlawoffice.com<http://www.hmlawoffice.com/> HM [AY8OaK+2H4ydAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC] CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail transmission, and any documents, files or previous e-mail messages attached to it, may contain information which is legally privileged and/or confidential, and is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, any review, disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the information contained in or attached to this transmission is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail transmission in error, please destroy it and notify us immediately at (405) 375-6484.

The dual office holding prohibition, 51 O.S. 6, applies to public offices under the laws of the State. It doesn't really matter if the two offices are within the same entity. The reason it's usually not an issue when both offices are within the same municipality is 11 O.S. 8-106, which allows for dual office holding within the same municipality as the governing body may ordain. So a person could not hold two public offices within the same City if it was not approved by the governing body. Here, the two positions are clearly separate public offices - so subject to the general dual office holding prohibition. The intriguing question would be whether the Council could bless this. In almost every other instance, that would be an easy question to answer. But in this case, the two positions are both elected positions. And while the two offices can be consolidated into one, any such consolidation would not be effective until the current terms of office for both of the elected positions expired. I'd argue that the specific controls over the general, and that the Council cannot approve by ordinance dual office holding when it would effectively result in the merger and consolidation of the two offices with one person. If so, then the moment the person gets sworn into the Treasurer position, they would vacate their position as Clerk. Of course, if they want to stay on as Clerk, they would need to not assume the Treasurer office. Just my opinion - I'm not sure if there is any AG our Court opinion that has directly addressed this. Matt On Fri, Apr 4, 2025 at 3:34 PM Jared Harrison via Oama <oama@lists.imla.org> wrote: > Good Afternoon: > > > > I have one of my municipalities that operates under a Town Board form of > Government. Their code currently provides for a town clerk and a town > treasurer and they have never taken action to have a combined > clerk-treasurer as far as I am aware. The sitting clerk filed to be the > treasurer and won the election on Tuesday, so the question has arisen > whether they can hold both positions. > > > > My initial reaction has been that they could not, but I also understand > that most of the dual office holding rules only apply to offices with > different entities. It just seems that since both are elected positions, > that a person could only hold one elected position at a time. > > > > Of course, their meeting to seat new members/officers is on the second > Tuesday of the month, so we have a quick turnaround to get this figured > out. I’m hopeful that someone else has already been through this and might > have an answer to the question of whether someone can fill both of those > elected positions or if the newly elected treasurer will be deemed to have > vacated their clerk position upon swearing in as the treasurer. > > > > Any help would be appreciated. > > > > Thanks, > > Jared Harrison > Harrison & Mecklenburg, Inc. > 202 N. 6th Street > P.O. Box 658 > Kingfisher, OK 73750 > (Phone) 405-375-6484 > (Fax) 405-375-6413 > Email: jared.harrison@hmlawoffice.com > Website: www.hmlawoffice.com > HM > > [image: AY8OaK+2H4ydAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC] > > CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail transmission, and any documents, > files or previous e-mail messages attached to it, may contain information > which is legally privileged and/or confidential, and is solely for the use > of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, any > review, disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the information > contained in or attached to this transmission is strictly prohibited. If > you have received this e-mail transmission in error, please destroy it and > notify us immediately at (405) 375-6484. > -- > Oama mailing list -- oama@lists.imla.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oama-leave@lists.imla.org >