capacity.” R.C. 305.14(A). {¶ 18} The term “county officer” is not defined in R.C. 305.14 or 309.09. “Unless words are otherwise defined or a contrary intent is clearly expressed, we give words in a statute their plain and ordinary meaning.” Cincinnati Metro. Hous. Auth. v. Morgan, 104 Ohio St.3d 445, 2004-Ohio-6554, 820 N.E.2d 315, ¶ 6. Black’s Law Dictionary (7th Ed.1999) 1113, defines “county officer” as follows: “An officer whose authority and jurisdiction are confined to the limits of the county served.” In the public arena, an “officer” is “a person holding public office under a national, state, or local government, and authorized by that government to exercise some specific function.” Id. See also State ex rel. Attorney Gen. v. Brennan (1892), 49 Ohio St. 33, 38-39, 29 N.E. 593 (<HOLDING>); Leber v. Smith (1994), 70 Ohio St.3d 548,
holding that the lehigh county sheriff is a county officer rather than a state officer recognizing county officers as  those whose general authority and jurisdiction are confined within the limits of the county in which they are appointed who are appointed in and for a particular county and whose duties apply only to that county and through whom the county performs its usual political functions  holding before the apa definition of person was amended to include county that the board of county commission ers of dolores county could not sue the state agency that had ordered reappraisals of real property in dolores county in connection with valuation for ad valorem taxation because the board of county commissioners was not a person under the apa and did not otherwise have authority to sue under statute or constitution holding a county and a road district had standing to sue state highway commission and county tax collector based on their interest in and control over the public roads of the county holding that when a person is clothed    with public functions to be exercised in the supposed interest of the people    and where such duties are wholly performed within the limits of a county    the person lawfully filling such place is necessarily a county officer