(A) In conducting an investigation, the Town Manager/Clerk shall have access at all reasonable times to premises, records, documents, individuals, and other evidence or possible sources of evidence and may examine, record, and copy such materials and take and record the testimony or statements of such persons as are reasonably necessary for the furtherance of the investigation; provided, however, that the Town Manager/Clerk first complies with the provisions of the Fourth Amendment relating to unreasonable searches and seizures. The Town Manager/Clerk may issue subpoenas to compel his or her access to or the production of such materials, or the appearance of such persons, and may issue interrogatories to a respondent, to the same extent and subject to the same limitations as would apply if the subpoenas or interrogatories were issued or served in aid of a civil action in the United States District Court for the district in which the investigation is taking place. The Town Manager/Clerk may administer oaths.
(B) Upon written application to the Town Manager/Clerk, a respondent shall be entitled to the issuance of a reasonable number of subpoenas by and in the name of the Town Manager/Clerk to the same extent and subject to the same limitations as subpoenas issued by the Town Manager/Clerk himself or herself. Subpoenas issued at the request of a respondent shall show on their face the name and address of such respondent and shall state that they were issued at his or her request.
(C) Witnesses summoned by subpoena of the Town Manager/Clerk shall be entitled to the same witness and mileage fees as are witnesses in proceedings in United States District Courts. Fees payable to a witness summoned by a subpoena issued at the request of a respondent shall be paid by him or her.
(D) Within five days after service of a subpoena upon any person, such person may petition the Town Manager/Clerk to revoke or modify the subpoena. The Town Manager/Clerk shall grant the petition if he or she finds that the subpoena requires appearance or attendance at an unreasonable time or place, that it requires production of evidence which does not relate to any matter under investigation, that it does not describe with sufficient particularity the evidence to be produced, that compliance would be unduly onerous, or for other good reason.
(E) In case of contumacy or refusal to obey a subpoena, the Town Manager/Clerk or other person at whose request it was issued may petition for its enforcement in the magistrate or justice court for the precinct in which the person to whom the subpoena was addressed resides, was served, or transacts business.
(F) It is unlawful for any person, with intent thereby to mislead the Town Manager/Clerk, to make or cause to be made any false entry or statement of fact in any report, account, record, or other document submitted to the Town Manager/Clerk pursuant to his or her subpoena or other order, or to willfully neglect or fail to make or cause to be made full, true, and correct entries in such reports, accounts, records, or other documents, or to willfully mutilate, alter, or by any other means falsify any documentary evidence.
(G) The Town Attorney shall conduct all litigation in which the Town Manager/Clerk participates as a party or as amicus pursuant to this subchapter.
(1989 Code, § 11-1-11) Penalty, see § 151.99