OFFICE of SURVEYOR

The Office of Surveyor is an elected position and is governed pursuant to the Revised Statutes of Missouri, chapter §60.  Pursuant to RSMo §60.010, at the regular general election in the year 1948, and every four years thereafter, the voters of each county of this state in counties of the second, third, and fourth classification shall elect a registered land surveyor as county surveyor, who shall hold office for four years and until a successor is duly elected, commissioned and qualified.  The person elected shall be commissioned by the governor.

No person shall be elected or appointed surveyor unless such person is a citizen of the United States, over the age of twenty-one years, a registered land surveyor, and shall have resided within the state one whole year.  An elected surveyor shall have resided within the county for which the person is elected six months immediately prior to election and shall after election continue to reside within the county for which the person is surveyor.  An appointed surveyor need not reside within the county for which the person is surveyor.

Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 1 of this section, or any other law to the contrary, the county commission of any county of the third or fourth classification may appoint a surveyor following the deadline for filing for the office of surveyor, if no qualified candidate files for the office in the general election in which the office would have been on the ballot, provided that the notice required by section §115.345 has been published in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the county.

The appointed surveyor shall serve at the pleasure of the county commission, however, an appointed surveyor shall forfeit said office once a qualified individual, who has been duly elected at a regularly scheduled general election where the office of surveyor is on the ballot and who has been commissioned by the governor, takes office.  The county commission shall fix appropriate compensation, which need not be equal to that of an elected surveyor.