Illinois Counties with areas, population and type of county govern ment-Concluded. Sq. Miles. in 1910. Massac Menard Mercer Monroe Montgomery Morgan Moultrie Ogle Peoria Form of County Organization. APPENDIX NO. 3. CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS. 1. Illinois constitution, Article X, Counties. Section 1. No new county shall be formed or established by the General Assembly which will reduce the county or counties, or either of them, from which it shall be taken to less contents than four hundred square miles; nor shall any county be formed of less contents; nor shall any line thereof pass within less than ten miles of any county seat of the county or counties proposed to be divided. Sec. 2. No county shall be divided, or have any part stricken therefrom without submitting the question to a vote of the people of the county, nor unless a majority of all the legal voters of the county voting on the question shall vote for the same. Sec. 3. There shall be no territory stricken from any county unless a majority of the voters living in such territory shall petition for such division; and no territory shall be added to any county without the consent of the majority of the voters of the county to which it is proposed to be added. But the portion so stricken off and added to another county, or formed in whole or in part into a new county, shall be holden for and obliged to pay its proportion of the indebtedness of the county from which it has been taken. Sec. 4. No county seat shall be removed until the point to which it is proposed to remove shall be fixed in pursuance of law, and threefifths of the voters of the county, to be ascertained in such manner as shall be provided by general law, shall have voted in favor of its removal to such point; and no person shall vote on such question who has not resided in the county six months and in the election precinct ninety days next preceding such election. The question of the removal of a county seat shall not be oftener submitted than once in ten years to a vote of the people. But when an attempt is made to remove a county seat to a point nearer to the center of the county, then a majority vote shall be necessary. Sec. 5. The General Assembly shall provide, by general law, for township organization, under which any county may organize whenever a majority of the legal voters of such county, voting at any general election, shall so determine; and whenever any county shall adopt township organization, so much of this constitution as provides for the management of the fiscal concerns of the said county by the board of county commissioners, may be dispensed with, and the affairs of said county may be transacted in such manner as the General Assembly may provide. And in any county that shall have adopted a township organization, the question of continuing the same may be submitted to a vote of the electors of such county, at a general elec tion, in the manner that now is or may be provided by law; and if a majority of all the votes cast upon that question shall be against township organization, then such organization shall cease in said. county; and all laws in force in relation to counties not having township organization shall immediately take effect and be in force in such county. No two townships shall have the same name, and the day of holding the annual township meeting shall be uniform throughout the State. Sec. 6. At the first election of county judges under this constitution, there shall be elected in each of the counties in this State not under township organization, three officers, who shall be styled, “The Board of County Commissioners," who shall hold sessions for the transaction of county business as shall be provided by law. One of said commissioners shall hold his office for one year, one for two years and one for three years, to be determined by lot; and every year thereafter one such officer shall be elected in each of said counties for the term of three years. Sec. 7. The county affairs of Cook County shall be managed by a board of commissioners of fifteen persons, ten of whom shall be elected from the city of Chicago and five from towns outside of said city, in such manner as may be provided by law. Sec. 8. In each county there shall be elected the following county officers, at the general election to be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, A. D. 1882: A county judge, county clerk, sheriff and treasurer, and at the election to be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, A. D. 1884, a coroner and clerk of the circuit court (who may be ex officio recorder of deeds, except in counties having 60,000 and more inhabitants, in which counties a recorder of deeds shall be elected at the general election in 1884). Each of said officers shall enter upon the duties of his office, respectively, on the first Monday of December after his election, and they shall hold their respective offices for the term of four years, and until their successors are elected and qualified: Provided, that no person having once been elected to the office of sheriff or treasurer shall be eligible to re-election to said office for four years after the expiration of the term for which he shall have been elected. Sec 9. The clerks of all courts of record, the treasurer, sheriff, coroner and recorder of deeds of Cook County, shall receive as their only compensation for their services, salaries to be fixed by law, which shall in no case be as much as the lawful compensation of a judge of the circuit court of said county and shall be paid respectively only out of the fees of the office actually collected. All fees, perquisites and emoluments (above the amount of said salaries) shall be paid into the county treasury. The number of the deputies and assistants of such officers shall be determined by rule of the circuit court, to be entered of record, and their compensation shall be determined by the county board. Sec. 10. The county board, except as provided in section 9 of this article, shall fix the compensation of all county officers, with the amount of their necessary clerk hire, stationery, fuel and other ex penses, and in all cases where fees are provided for, said compensation shall be paid only out of, and shall in no instance exceed, the fees actually collected; they shall not allow either of them more per annum than fifteen hundred dollars, in counties not exceeding twenty thousand inhabitants; two thousand dollars, in counties containing twenty thousand and not exceeding thirty thousand inhabitants; twenty-five hundred dollars, in counties containing thirty thousand and not exceeding fifty thousand inhabitants; three thousand dollars in counties containing fifty thousand and not exceeding seventy thousand inhabitants; thirty-five hundred dollars, in counties containing seventy thousand and not exceeding one hundred thousand inhabitants; and four thousand dollars, in counties containing over one hundred thousand, and not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants; and not more than one thousand dollars additional compensation for each additional one hundred thousand inhabitants: Provided, that the compensation of no officer shall be increased or diminished during his term of office. All fees or allowances by them received, in excess of their said compensation, shall be paid into the county treasury. Sec. 11. The fees of township officers, and of each class of county officers, shall be uniform in the class of counties to which they respectively belong. The compensation herein provided for shall apply only to officers hereafter elected, but all fees established by special laws shall cease at the adoption of this constitution, and such officers shall receive only such fees as are provided by general law. Sec. 12. All laws fixing the fees of State, county and township officers shall terminate with the terms respectively of those who may be in office at the meeting of the first General Assembly after the adoption of this Constitution; and the General Assembly shall, by general law, uniform in its operation, provide for and regulate the fees of said officers and their successors, so as to reduce the same to a reasonable compensation for services actually rendered. But the General Assembly may, by general law, classify the counties by population into not more than three classes and regulate the fees according to class. This article shall not be construed as depriving the General Assembly of the power to reduce the fees of existing officers. Sec. 13. Every person who is elected or appointed to any office in this State, who shall be paid in whole or in part by fees, shall be required by law to make a semi-annual report, under oath, to some officer to be designated by law, of all his fees and emoluments. 2. Maryland constitution, amendment of 1915, Article XIA, Local Legislation. On demand of the Mayor of Baltimore and City Council of the City of Baltimore, or on petition bearing the signatures of not less than 20 per cent of the registered voters of said city or any county (provided, however, that in any case 10,000 signatures shall be sufficient to complete a petition), the Board of Election Supervisors of said city or county shall provide at the next general or Congressional elec tion, occurring after such demand or the filing of such petition, for the election of a charter board of eleven registered voters of said city or five registered voters in any such counties. Nominations for members for said charter board may be made not less than forty days prior to said election by the Mayor of Baltimore and City Council of the city of Baltimore or the County Commissioners of such county, or not less than twenty days prior to said election by petition bearing the signatures written in their own handwriting (and not by their mark) of not less than 5 per cent of the registered voters of the said City of Baltimore or said county; provided, that in any case two thousand signatures of registered voters shall be sufficient to complete any such nominating petition, and if not more than eleven registered voters of the city of Baltimore or not more than five registered voters in any such county are so nominated their names shall not be printed on the ballot, but said eleven registered voters in the city of Baltimore or five in such county shall constitute said charter board from and after the date of said election. At said election the ballot shall contain the names of said nominees in alphabetical order without any indication of the source of their nomination, and shall also be so arranged as to permit the voter to vote for or against the creation of said charter board, but the vote cast against said creation shall not be held to bar the voter from expressing his choice among the nominees for said board, and if the majority of the votes cast for and against the creation of said charter board shall be against said creation the election of the members of said charter board shall be void; but if such majority shall be in favor of the creation of said charter board, then and in that event the eleven nominees of the city of Baltimore or five members in the county. receiving the largest number of votes shall constitute the charter board, and said charter board, or a majority thereof, shall prepare within six months from the date of said election a charter or form of government for said city or such county and present the same to the Mayor of Baltimore or President of the Board of County Commissioners of such county, who shall publish the same in at least two newspapers of general circulation published in said city of Baltimore or county within thirty days after it shall be reported to him. Such charter shall be submitted to the voters of said city or county at the next general or Congressional election after the report of said charter to said Mayor of Baltimore or President of the Board of County Commissioners and if a majority of the votes cast for and against the adoption of said charter shall be in favor of such adoption, the said charter from and after the thirtieth day from the date of such election shall become the law of said city or county, subject only to the Constitution and Public General Laws of this State. and any Public Local Laws inconsistent with the provisions of said charter and former charter of said city of Baltimore or county shall be thereby repealed. Sec. 2. The General Assembly at its first session after the adoption of this amendment shall, by Public General Law, provide a grant of express powers for such county or counties as may thereafter form a charter under the provisions of this Article. Such express powers granted to the counties and the powers heretofore granted to the city |