Title 8, Public Officers And Employees

(a) Each entity covered by this chapter shall maintain, for public inspection, the ethical standards of such entity and shall cause a copy of the adopted standards to be filed with the ethics commission. Any amendments or other modifications to the ethical standards shall also be…

(a) The municipal technical advisory service (MTAS) for municipalities, the county technical assistance service (CTAS) for counties, and the Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA) for school districts, in order to provide guidance and direction, shall disseminate models of et…

(a) Members of a governing body of an entity covered by this chapter who fail to adopt ethical standards as provided in this chapter shall be subject to removal from office as provided in chapter 47 of this title. (b) Violations of ethical standards by officials or employees of e…

(1) All persons eighteen (18) years of age or older who are citizens of the United States and of this state, and have been inhabitants of the state, county, district, or circuit for the period required by the constitution and laws of the state, are qualified to hold office under …

(a) Any person taking on any office in this state, by election or appointment, under any of the disqualifications specified in § 8-18-101(2)–(5), commits a Class C misdemeanor. (b) Any person taking on any office in this state, by election or appointment, under the disqualificati…

All officers shall reside in this state, and keep their offices at such places as are or may be designated by law.

Except as provided in title 17, chapter 4, the term of each judicial and civil officer shall be computed from September 1 next succeeding election. No appointment or election to fill a vacancy shall be made for a period of time extending beyond the unexpired term. Every officer s…

In reckoning the time of the terms of appointees to all offices, the terms of which are limited to two (2) years and are filled exclusively by executive appointment, reference shall be had to the beginning of the term of the executive making the appointment. Regardless of the tim…

The following officers are commissioned, namely: senators and representatives in congress, judges of the several courts, the district attorney general of each district, judges of courts of general sessions and notaries public, and the executive officers of the state, except the g…

(a) In all cases in which it is not otherwise provided by law, the oaths of office may be administered by any officer authorized to administer an oath. Such oaths shall be written out and subscribed by the person taking them, and shall be accompanied with the certificate of the o…

Such oaths shall, when taken by the governor, a judge of the supreme court, a judge of the circuit court, a chancellor, the secretary of state, the comptroller of the treasury, the state treasurer, a district attorney general, or any other officer whose duties are not limited to …

(a) Judges of courts of general sessions, sheriffs, constables, and other officers whose general duties are confined to a single county, as well as retired supreme court justices and retired inferior court or general sessions judges, shall, unless it is otherwise provided, file s…

The officer in whose office these oaths are required to be filed shall endorse thereon the day and year in which they were filed and sign the endorsement.

The official oath, unless otherwise expressly prescribed by law, shall be in the following form: “I do solemnly swear that I will perform with fidelity the duties of the office to which I have been appointed (or elected, as the case may be), and which I am about to assume.”

Whenever any officer is authorized or required to appoint a deputy, such deputy, before proceeding to act, shall take the constitutional oaths and oath of office, which shall be accompanied by the same certificate, filed in the same office, and with the same endorsement, as the o…

Any officer or deputy required by law to take and file such oaths, who enters upon the duties of the office without first taking and filing the same as prescribed, commits a Class C misdemeanor.

Sections 8-18-107 – 8-18-113 apply to the oaths of office of all public officers of this state whose office may be established hereafter, unless the contrary be expressly provided.

(a) The official bonds of all state and county officers, now required by law to furnish official bonds, shall be executed by such officials as principal and may be executed by some surety company authorized to do business in the state of Tennessee, as surety. (b) (1) The form of …

(a) (1) A county official who is required by law to give an official bond shall execute such bond when the bond becomes available after election or appointment to office, but not later than thirty (30) days from the beginning of the term of office. The effectiveness of an officia…

The official bonds of all county officers covered by § 8-19-101 shall be recorded in the office of the register of deeds in the county in which the officers are elected or appointed.

When the original of any bond provided for or covered by §§ 8-19-101 – 8-19-107 shall be lost or destroyed, the record of the bond provided for shall be deemed the original and suit may be instituted on the recorded bond.

The respective counties shall pay the premiums for such bonds and the registration fees.

Sections 8-19-101 – 8-19-106 are cumulative and supplemental to all existing laws.

No county official shall sign as surety an official bond for any other county official; provided, that when any person has signed as surety any bond of any county official, and is thereafter elected to or appointed to fill any public office, such official shall not be deemed to h…

It is unlawful for any person, whose duty it now is or may hereafter be to approve any official bond, to approve the bond of any county official that has been signed as surety by any other county official.

A violation of §§ 8-19-108 and 8-19-109 is a Class C misdemeanor.

(a) The bonds of all public officers required by law to give bond shall, unless it is otherwise provided, be made payable to the state, with such sureties as the officer or court required to approve the same is satisfied are sufficient, and conditioned, in all cases in which a di…

The bond of any public officer which is not in the penalty, payable or conditioned as prescribed by law, shall not be approved, and the officer approving thereof, under such circumstances, not only neglects such officer's duty, but subjects the officer and the officer's sureties …

The approval of all official bonds shall be in writing, endorsed on the bond, and shall show the day and year on which they were approved, and be signed by the approving officer, or authenticated as the act of the court, as the case may be.

No officer with whom any official bond is required to be filed shall allow the same to be filed in such officer's office unless the approval of the proper officer or court appear thereon, endorsed according to §§ 8-19-111 — 8-19-115.

Official bonds, including blanket bonds, and each rider or attachment thereto, required by law to be filed in the office of the county clerk or secretary of state, must be filed within thirty (30) days after the election or appointment of the person named in the bond, rider, or a…

Every officer in whose office the official bond of any public officer is filed shall endorse thereon the day and year on which it was filed, and sign such officer's name to the endorsement, and, on failure so to do, commits a Class C misdemeanor.

An officer required by law to give an official bond who fails to execute the bond when the bond is available and transmit the bond to the proper officer for approval within thirty (30) days from the time the bond becomes available for execution, forfeits the office and a vacancy …

Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, an official bond as required by law for a constable shall be a surety bond.

No bond required by this chapter shall be renewed upon its expiration or in the event of the reappointment or re-election of any officer or employee to a position for which a bond is required, but a new bond shall be furnished.

The judges of the chancery and circuit courts, and of other courts of record except the supreme court, court of appeals, and court of criminal appeals, at the first term after the election, or at the term of the appointment of the clerks, shall examine and attest the bonds by law…

If, at the expiration of four (4) months after a general election, or an appointment of clerks, such bonds have not been received by the office of the county clerk, the office of the county clerk shall forthwith notify the judges of the fact. If the bond from any cause was not ta…

Upon the filing of a complaint alleging the failure of a county officer or constable to enter into an official bond as required by law, the clerk of the circuit court, or the clerk and master of the chancery court having jurisdiction shall issue a summons which shall be served, t…

If, upon service and return of the summons and after a hearing, the circuit or chancery court finds that the county officer or constable failed or refused to enter into an official bond as required by law, the court shall enter a judgment declaring the office vacant, and the vaca…

The person selected according to law to fill the office declared vacant pursuant to § 8-19-206 shall enter into an official bond as required by law. The procedure prescribed by §§ 8-19-205, 8-19-206, and this section may be repeated as often as necessary, but only until the court…

The bonds of the revenue officers, shall within ten (10) days after the same have been examined or taken, and after they shall have been attested, recorded and certified, according to law, be filed in the office of the county clerk for safekeeping.

(1) Every official bond executed under this code is obligatory on the principal and sureties thereon:(1) For any breach of the condition during the time the officer continues in office or in the discharge of any of the duties of such office;(2) For the faithful discharge of the d…

Whenever any officer, required by law to give an official bond, acts under a bond which is not in the penalty, payable, or conditioned as prescribed by law, or is otherwise defective, such bond is not void, but stands in the place of the official bond, subject, on its condition b…

If any officer or other person, as hereinafter provided, who is required by law or in the course of judicial proceedings to give bond for the performance of an act or the discharge of duty, receives money or property upon the faith of such bond, such officer and the officer's sur…

Official bonds are not discharged by a single recovery, but proceedings may, from time to time, be instituted thereon by any person aggrieved, without assignment, until the whole penalty is exhausted.

Sureties on the bonds of public officials shall be liable for the principal sum in default and covered by the bond and for interest thereon, at the rate of ten percent (10%) per annum for the period of delinquency, and not otherwise.