Hallowed Heritage: The Life of VirginiaTorpey, Dorothy Margaret
History
Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia
Torpey, Dorothy Margaret
Virginia -- Civilization
Counties of Virginia are divided into magisterial districts,
the number of districts varying from three to ten. Provision is
made in the state constitution that additional districts may be
made by law only if the new district contains at least 30 square
miles. Each district has one supervisor elected by the qualified
voters. Thus, the Board of Supervisors of the county consists of
one representative elected from each magisterial district in the
county with the exception of Arlington County where the Board of
Supervisors is elected at-large from the county. Therefore, the
number of members of each Board of Supervisors varies among the
counties. A chairman for this group is selected by the members
themselves. Their meetings are usually held once a month at the
Court House located at the County Seat. The Board of Supervisors
carries out various duties such as: (1) supervises county affairs,
(2) establishes and levies county taxes, (3) prepares the county
budget, (4) audits claims against the county, (5) erects and
maintains county buildings, (6) acts as a legislative and executive
body by issuing and carrying out ordinances on such subjects as
sanitation, health and police, (7) approves saluary scales for
county workers, (8) controls county property, (9) furnishes care for
the mentally and physically handicapped, and (10) borrows money.
There are five county officials of importance who are elected to
office by the qualified voters on the first Tuesday after the first
Monday in November and take office on January 1 following their
election. These officials are:
(1) Attorney for the Commonwealth--a lawyer who acts as a legal
adviser to the Board of Supervisors and to the county officials and
who acts as legal representative of the people of the county; he
also acts as prosecutor for all civil and criminal cases in which
the county is interested; he is elected by the qualified voters for
a four-year term.
(2) County Clerk--an officer who serves as a clerk to the County
Board of Supervisors and to the County Circuit Court; as the main
county recording official, he records all types of county documents
(such as deeds, wills, judgments, mortgages, births, divorces,
deaths, elections, court trials and marriages); attends meetings of
the Board of Supervisors and has custody of property records; he is
elected by the qualified voters for an eight-year term.
(3) Commissioner of the Revenue--an official who assesses property
values for taxation purposes, assesses State personal income taxes,
prepares personal property tax books and land books and assesses and
collects all professional and business licenses; he is elected by
the qualified voters for a four-year term.
(4) County Treasurer--an officer who collects the county taxes
assessed by the Commissioner of Revenue, collects the state taxes,
keeps the county funds and disburses money upon order of the Board
of Supervisors; he is elected by the qualified voters for a term of
four years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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