Section 2.1 Nature of Municipal Office Generally

• Library: Local Government Deskbook (2017 Ed.)

A. (§2.1) Nature of Municipal Office Generally

“A public office is the right, authority and duty, created and conferred by law, by which for a given period, either fixed by law or enduring at the pleasure of the creating power, an individual is invested with some portion of the sovereign functions of the government, to be exercised by him for the benefit of the public.”

State ex rel. Pickett v. Truman, 64 S.W.2d 105, 106 (Mo. banc 1933) (quoting Mechem on Public Officers pp. 1 and 2, § 1). Municipalities—colloquially referred to as local government—are creatures of the legislature, possessing only those powers expressly granted to them or those necessarily or fairly implied in or incidental to an express grant of power. See, e.g., Engelage v. City of Warrenton, 378 S.W.3d 410, 413 (Mo. App. E.D. 2012); see also Schmoll v. Hous. Auth. of St. Louis Cnty., 321 S.W.2d 494, 497 (Mo. 1959) (explaining that counties can, at times, share dual capacities as both a subdivision of the state and a municipal corporation). Accordingly, municipal...