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December 3, 2012 (Recessed Meeting) Page 1327 but if otherwise, the said board shall immediately inform the proper person, having the power of appointment of the fact of such vacancy." In this particular situation, the board has the power to appoint, but it is subject to the provisions of 161 -4 - excuse me -6(a). I'm trying to find my copy of it here. Excuse me, I apologize, it's 161- 5(al). And again, since it's a short statute, I'll just read it instead of paraphrasing it: "When a vacancy occurs from any cause in the office of register of deeds, the board of county commissioners shall fill such vacancy by the appointment of a successor for the unexpired term, who shall qualify and give bond as required by law.. If the register of deeds was elected as the nominee of a political party, the board of commissioners shall consult the county executive committee of that political party before filling the vacancy and shall appoint the person recommended by that committee, if the party makes a recommendation within 30 days of the occurrence of the vacancy." Poole: And so if I hear you correctly, we would need to have a motion to first declare the position vacant and then we would, we need a motion to notify the local party? Or do we just notify in writing or by phone call or telling them face -to -face or how - we can't, I know we can't - Koch: Well, I- Poole: I just wanted to make sure. Koch: I would suggest doing that in writing and making that a part of the motion. That - and it simply occurs from the time of vacancy it would - the notice would begin from today's date. The 30 days would begin to run from today's date but I still suggest that it be put in writing and that it be made part of the motion. Poole: Okay. Then the second concern, of course, is that the register of deeds office was not open today. So how do we have a functioning register of deeds office? Koch: I'm going to pitch that one to the county manager, he's been working on that. Poole: Because I need - it's a couple parts - and we need to make sure that we're all very much aware of the parts. Downs: Yeah. We've had - in case the situation arose again - we've had several conversations now with the professors at the School of Government, who interpret the statutes for us as well as the Department of Treasurer - the state treasurer. At one point there was conflicting - there was conflicting interpretations - however I think as late when we were just getting ready to move into closed session, Ms. Dubois had a - had a conversation with the state treasurer's office and they were supposed to be giving us something in writing. Dubois: You might need to call them. Downs: The question was, it was our understanding and plans were in place that while Ms. McAbee was retiring as of Friday, that her bond would carry over until the office was - until the new register of deeds was sworn in. We were getting conflicting interpretations, as I said before, and one of those was that - from the state treasurer's office - was that we could not extend Ms. McAbee's bond because if we did it would have a negative impact on her retirement income for the rest of her time collecting retirement income. So we held back on that, that's why we pulled back on operations of the office today because there was no over - anything that went over the counter as far as a transaction would have to have Ms. McAbee's stamp and seal on it and therefore we did not want to jeopardize it at this time, her retirement. However, there has been another conversation now with the state treasurer's office, and they have somewhat modified their interpretation and it appears now that as long as Ms. McAbee does not come to the office, we are only using her bond and her seal, that the others can continue under her bond for a short time. Dubois: Well, the last conversation I had prior to going into closed session, and this was not from an attorney, I just want to make that clear, was that we are backed up against a law regarding the register of deeds. The register of deeds holds that office until a new one's sworn in. And we're backed up against the retirement law, where Ms. McAbee has applied for retirement, and in order to work underneath her bond for a period of time - they felt like they could work that out. Another solution they provided to me prior to going into closed session was that Ms. McAbee could continue to be employed for the month of December, though she did not physically have to work every day for the month of December. That she could use vacation to get her through that month, not to mess up her retirement. We are still waiting on Robin's interpretation of what she's willing to put into writing, like I said, that's the attorney's opinion - the other information I got was not from an attorney. So I think once Robin gave us the particular opinion, because she did understand that we could not operate. Downs: So we're at the point we will still remain closed in the morning until we get that written interpretation from the treasurer's office as to what the impact would be on Ms. McAbee's current bond. Carruth: Madam Chair? Poole: Yes, Sir?