Definition of County Surveyor

Government Code §§27550-27564

27550. Qualifications of County Surveyor

The surveyor shall be a person authorized to practice land surveying in this state. The surveyor shall be elected in the same manner and for the same term as other county officers unless the board of supervisors of the county shall have provided by ordinance for his or her appointment by the board. If so appointed, the surveyor shall serve at the will of the board.

27550.1 Small county exclusion

The qualifications for eligibility to a county or district office, required by Section 2401 of this Code, shall not apply to candidates or applicants for, or a person elected or appointed to the office of surveyor in a county containing a population of under 20,000 as determined by the 1960 federal decennial census.

27551. Keeping and furnishing copies of surveys

The surveyor shall make any survey that is required by order of court of the board of supervisors. He shall keep a correct and fair record of all surveys made by him, number then in the order made, and preserve a copy of the field notes and calculations of each survey, and shall endorse thereon its proper number. A copy of the survey and a fair and accurate plat, together with a certificate of survey, shall be furnished by him to any person upon application and payment of fees allowed by law.

27552. Surveys crossing county lines

Any person owning or claiming land which is divided by county lines and who wish to have it surveyed may apply to the surveyor of any county in which any part of the land is situated. Upon such application, the surveyor shall make the survey, which is as valid as though the land were situated entirely within the county.

27553. Order for surveys crossing county lines

When the title of land which is in dispute before any court, is divided by a county line, the court making an order of survey may direct the order to the surveyor of any county in which any part of the land is situated.

27554. Assisting the State Lands Commission

When required the surveyor shall aid and assist the State Lands Commission in making surveys within the county.

27555. Survey by disinterested persons

When the surveyor is interested in any land, the title to which is in dispute, and a survey is necessary, the court shall direct the survey to be made by some disinterested person. The person so appointed is for that purpose authorized to administer and certify oaths. He shall return the survey, verified by his annexed affidavit, and receive for his services the same fees as the surveyor would be entitled to for similar service.

27556. Duty to copy maps and plats; exemption

The surveyor shall copy, plat or trace each map filed for record in the office of the county recorder, at the cost of the party filing the map, and is ex officio deputy recorder for the county for such purposes. All maps or plats filed by a licensed land surveyor and such other maps and plats as are filed and are thereby made a record are exempt from this section.

27557. County maps

The surveyor shall plat, trace, blueprint, or otherwise make all county, road, district, and other maps and, at the request of the assessor, make all assessors' block-books for the county.
[Amended, Chapter 1187, Statutes of 1993]

27558. Contracting for services

The board of supervisors may provide and pay from county funds the the making or purchase of the maps and block-books by contract with some other competent person, if any of the following conditions exist:

(a) The office of the assessor is not provided with maps and block-books.
(b) The maps or block-books in the office of the assessor are insufficient or defective and the surveyor neglects or refuses to make them.
(c) The facilities of the surveyor's office are inadequate to do so.

27559. Necessary investigations for maps

In the preparation of assessors' maps and block-books the surveyor shall make all investigations and surveys necessary to provide complete and accurate maps.

27560. Maps so county property

All maps which are platted, traced, blueprinted, or otherwise so made for the county and all data obtained by the surveyor or person making them from other sources is the property of the county.

27561. Sale of maps

The board of supervisors may provide for the sale at not less than cost of copies of maps prepared for the use of the assessor.

27562. Tying surveys; filling maps

The surveyor shall make such surveys of county roads and perform such other engineering work as the board of supervisors directs. All surveys shall be tied by courses and distances to the corners of legal subdivisions through which they pass or to natural or artificial monuments. All such maps and field notes of survey shall be filed in the office of the surveyor and are the property of the county.

27563. True meridian

In all surveys the courses shall be expressed according to the true meridian, and the variation of the magnetic meridian from the true meridian shall be expressed on the plat with the date of the survey.

27564. Survey of adjoining state lands

Within 90 days after making any survey which adjoins or crosses any lands owned by the State, excluding tax-deeded lands but including school lands, swamp and overflow lands, or tidelands, any navigable stream or slough, or any county boundary, each survey shall transmit to the State Lands Commission a plat of the survey, showing data necessary to establish the relative positions of all lines and boundaries involved in that portion of the survey affecting the interests of the State. The State Lands Commission may require the survey to submit a copy of any portion of the field notes, in which case the commission shall pay the surveyor the cost of copying the notes.

The surveyor shall also transmit such information concerning surveys made by him and other matters connected with the duties of his office as is required by law to be furnished to the State Lands Commission.