Commonwealth v. Likeley

Citations

• 267 Pa. 310
• 110 A. 167

Syllabus

<p>Public officers — Removal—Elected officers — Appointed officers — • City cleric — Cities of the third class — Power of councils to remove * — Act of June B7, 1918, P. L. 568 — Constitution, article VI, section 4 — Words and phrases — “Election”—“Appointment.”</p> <p>1. Under section 3, article IX, of the Act of June 27, 1913, P. L. 568, which authorizes the councils of a city of the third class “to elect a city clerk, whose term of office and compensation shall be fixed by ordinance,” a city clerk is an appointed and not an elective officer, and as such he may he removed by councils under the provisions of article VI, section 4, of the Constitution, which provides that “appointed officers, other than judges of the courts of record, and the superintendent of public instruction, may be removed at the pleasure of the power by which they shall have been appointed.”</p> <p>2. An election is the embodiment of the popular will, the expression of the sovereign power of the people. In common parlance, an election is the casting and receiving the ballots, counting them, and making the return. The term carries with it the idea of a choice by the body of the voters in a municipality or an expression of the popular will, expressed at the polls. An appointment on the other hand, may be made by a single person, or by a body such as a city council.</p>