Section 31-5-9

County service commissioners and district service commissioners - Qualifications and appointment.

It shall be the duty of the State Service Commissioner, subject to the approval of the State Board of Veterans' Affairs, to appoint a county service commissioner for each of the several counties in the State of Alabama, except as provided in this section, and all such appointees shall be employees of the state department, subject to the authority, rules and regulations of the state board. Such county service commissioner shall be a resident of the county, and a qualified elector therein, and shall be a veteran who served on active duty in the military or naval forces of the United States for a period of 60 days or more in any war in which the United States shall have been engaged, and shall have been honorably discharged therefrom, and all subsequent appointees to such office shall be selected in like manner and possessed of like qualifications. It shall be the duty of the State Service Commissioner and state board to economize as far as possible in the administration of this law in the several counties of the state. It shall be the duty of the state commissioner, subject to the approval of the state board, to study the requirements of each separate county, and to decide from time to time whether or not there is a need for a county service commissioner in any particular county. In reaching a decision in such matter, the State Service Commissioner and the state board shall take into consideration the total population of the county, the number of men inducted into the armed services from the county, the number of veterans of all wars present in the county and special circumstances and facts involving the concentration of industries or other problems which may have a tendency to increase or decrease the number of veterans in certain localities. It shall be within the power of the State Service Commissioner, subject to the approval of the state board, to establish districts in the state, such districts to contain one or more counties, wherever the number of veterans in the counties composing such districts do not justify the establishment of a separate county service commissioner's office in each county in the district, and a central district service commissioner's office shall be established at the most central point in such district; provided, however, such district offices must afford maximum services to veterans residing in such district. It shall be the duty of the district service commissioner to visit each county in the district on certain specified days to be designated by the State Service Commissioner for the purpose of assisting all veterans in such counties. District service commissioners appointed under this section shall be selected in the same manner as county service commissioners, and shall be possessed of like qualifications.

(Acts 1945, No. 173, p. 304, §6.)