Opinion No. (1999)

BILL LOCKYER Attorney General GREGORY L. GONOT Deputy Attorney General THE HONORABLE SAM AANESTAD, MEMBER OF THE CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY, has requested an opinion on the following question: May a person serve simultaneously as the City Administrator and Fire Chief of the City of Oroville? CONCLUSION A person may not serve simultaneously as the City Administrator and Fire Chief of the City of Oroville unless a city charter provision or ordinance is adopted that abrogates the common law prohibition against holding incompatible offices. ANALYSIS We are asked to determine whether the common law prohibition against holding incompatible public offices would bar the City Administrator of the City of Oroville ("Oroville") from also serving as the Oroville Fire Chief. We conclude that it would in the present circumstances. The common law prohibition prevents a person from holding simultaneously two public offices if the performance of the duties of either office could have an adverse effect on the other. Offices are incompatible if, among other reasons, one office exercises a supervisory, auditory, or removal power over the other. (People ex rel. Deputy Sheriffs' Assn. v. County of Santa Clara…