(A) There is hereby created and established a Police Magistrate Court within, and for the Town of Clayton, New Mexico, which court shall be presided over by a police magistrate to be known as the police judge.
(B) The police court shall have original jurisdiction over all offenses and complaints arising under the ordinances and laws of the town.
(C) The qualifications of the judge shall be the same as are now, or as may hereafter be prescribed by law for Justices of the Peace; he or she shall likewise be a resident of the Town of Clayton. Before the judge shall enter upon his or her duties as the police judge, he or she shall give a good and sufficient bond in the sum of $500 to the town, which bond shall be approved by the Town Clerk-Treasurer, and likewise shall take, subscribe and file with the Town Clerk-Treasurer his or her oath of office as the police judge in a form substantially like that required of Justices of the Peace.
(D) For his or her services as judge of the Police Magistrate Court of the town, the police judge shall receive a monthly salary of $150 to be paid from the General Fund of the town. The judge shall receive no other compensation or emolument whatsoever by reason of his or her position as the judge or by reason of his or her presiding over any cause filed in the Police Magistrate Court of the Town of Clayton, and, not only shall all fines imposed in the court be paid over monthly to the Town Clerk-Treasurer, as provided by law, but likewise all costs imposed and collected in causes arising in the court shall also be paid over to the Town Clerk-Treasurer, which fines and costs thus received by the Town Clerk-Treasurer shall be conveyed into the General Fund of the town. The same fees and costs authorized by law to be collected by the police judge of the town as costs upon causes tried in the Police Magistrate Court of Clayton. The police judge shall issue a receipt for all fines and costs collected, retaining a duplicate copy of the receipt as a part of the official records of his or her office.
(E) The police judge of the town shall be elected for a term of 2 years at each regular municipal election, and vacancies shall be filled by the Mayor, subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees.
(Ord. 280, passed 3-20-1940; Am. Ord. 409, passed 3-12-1962; Am. Ord. 449, passed 3-23-1970)