Sec. 1. 30-A MRSA §1, sub-§4 is enacted to read:

4.__County official.__"County official" means an elected or appointed member of a county government.

Sec. 2. 30-A MRSA §201, as amended by PL 1989, c. 104, Pt. A, §5; and Pt. C, §§8 and 10, is further amended to read:

§201. Clerical help

In all county offices, there shall be is allowed for clerk hire the amount authorized by the county commissioners. The county commissioners shall determine the salary of all clerks after receiving a recommendation from the county official under whom the clerk is employed. The county treasurer shall may pay weekly or biweekly, at the discretion of the commissioners, to the clerks employed by the county the wages to which they are entitled. The county commissioners shall certify the names of the clerks to the county treasurer. The county commissioners may provide for a county pay scale, vacations and sick leave for clerical help.

Sec. 3. 30-A MRSA §704, sub-§2, as enacted by PL 1987, c. 737, Pt. A, §2 and Pt. C, §106 and amended by PL 1989, c. 6; c. 9, §2; and c. 104, Pt. C, §§8 and 10, is further amended to read:

2. Procedure if federal funds could not be anticipated. If federal funds become available to the county for expenditure by the county while the Legislature is not in session, and if the availability of those funds could not reasonably have been anticipated and included in the estimate adopted by the Legislature for the fiscal year in question, the county may accept and spend these funds in compliance with federal and state law. Upon application for those funds and upon receipt of those funds, the chairman chair of the county commissioners shall submit to the clerk of each municipality in the county and to each member of the county legislative delegation a statement:

A. Describing the proposed federal expenditure in the same manner as it would be described in the estimate; and

B. Containing a statement as to why the availability of these federal funds and the necessity of their expenditure could not have been anticipated in time for that expenditure to be adopted as part of the estimates for that particular fiscal year.