Commission on Sites, Grounds and Buildings.

AN ACT to establish a commission on sites, grounds and

buildings.

Chapter 625, Laws of 1913.

§ 1. There shall be a commission on sites, grounds and buildings which shall have power to acquire by gift, purchase or condemnation such properties as will be required from time to time and lay out the grounds and locate all buildings to be erected at all state institutions reporting to the fiscal supervisor and state board of charities and such as may hereafter be established. Said commission shall be composed of the fiscal supervisor, a member of the state board of charities, the state architect, a member of the conservation commission and the commissioner of agriculture, or their designated representatives, the chairman of the senate finance committee and the chairman of the assembly ways and means committee; said commission to have authority to appoint the necessary employees needed to conduct the business of the said commission. The chairman of the senate finance committee. and the chairman of the assembly ways and means committee shall be paid their traveling and other expenses incurred while discharging their duties as members of this commission. The commission on sites, buildings and grounds shall report to the governor in detail its actions and decisions on all matters relat ing to sites, location of buildings and laying out of grounds of existing institutions reporting to the fiscal supervisor of state charities and state board of charities, together with those under construction and such as may hereafter be established. The actions and decisions of the commission shall be final and subject to review only by the governor at a public hearing.

§ 2. The fiscal supervisor shall be chairman of said commission, and as such shall have supervision of the financial and business affairs of the commission. He shall as chairman annually prepare a request to the legislature for suitable appropriations toward aiding the commission to properly perform its duties. The said commission, through its chairman, shall report annually to the legislature, and from time to time, as occasions may arise, to

the governor, all the proceedings and accomplishments in the performance of its duties.

§ 3. All acts or parts of acts of general or special laws inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

Chapter 625 of the Laws of 1913, an act establishing a commission on site, grounds and buildings, expressly repealed so much of the provisions of chapter 502 of the Laws of 1912, an act establishing a State reformatory for misdemeanants, as are inconsistent.

The provision in the first-mentioned act providing generally for the selection and purchase of sites, grounds and buildings for all those institutions reporting to the Fiscal Supervisor and the State Board of Charities, is inconsistent with the requirement in the second-mentioned statute, that the board of managers shall select and, with the approval of the Governor, purchase a site for the reformatory.

Chapter 502 of the Laws of 1912 is repealed so far as this inconsistency is concerned, and the first mentioned act governs.

Said chapter 625 of the Laws of 1913 did not take from the board of managers of the State Reformatory for Misdemeanants the right to hold monthly meetings, as provided in section 50 of the State Charities Law. Said section contemplates the existence of an institution in operation, and where, as here, the site has not been selected nor the institution erected, monthly meetings may be dispensed with until the above condition is fulfilled.

INQUIRY.

1. What effect has chapter 625 of the Laws of 1913 (an act to establish a commission on sites, grounds and buildings) upon the board of managers of the State Reformatory for Misdemeanants, established by chapter 502 of the Laws of 1912?

2. Does the said act of 1913 take from the Board of Managers of the Reformatory for Misdemeanants the right to hold monthly meetings as well as the right to purchase land and erect buildings?

3. Is it necessary or advisable to hold such meetings prior to the purchase of a site and the erection of the institution?

OPINION.

By chapter 502 of the Laws of 1912, a reformatory for misdemeanants was established for the reformation and educational, industrial and moral instruction and training of males under conviction and sentence for the commission of misdemeanors or other minor offences. The management and control of the reformatory is by a board of managers appointed pursuant to the provisions of the State Charities Law.

The Board is required to select a site for the reformatory, and, upon approval by the Governor, to purchase such site. It was also required under the act to prepare the ground so purchased for use as a site, to provide a water supply and system of drainage therefor, to determine what buildings are necessary to be erected thereon, and to act as a board of managers in

the erection of said building and in the expenditures of the moneys appropriated in the act for the purchase and improvement of the site.

Fifty thousand dollars was appropriated for the purposes of the act. Out of this sum the purchase of the site for the reformatory was to be paid as well as other expenses.

By chapter 625 of the Laws of 1913, a commission on sites, grounds and buildings was established. In the words of the act:

"There shall be a commission on sites, grounds and buildings, which shall have power to acquire by gift, purchase or condemnation such property as will be required from time to time and lay out the grounds and locate all buildings to be erected at all state institutions reporting to the fiscal supervisor and state board of charities. Said commission shall be composed of the fiscal supervisor, a member of the state board of charities, the state architect, a member of the conservation commission and the commissioner of agriculture, or their designated representatives, the chairman of the senate finance committee and the chairman of the assembly ways and means committee; The commission on sites, buildings and grounds shall report to the governor in detail its actions and decisions on all matters relating to sites, location of buildings and laying out of grounds of existing institutions reporting to the fiscal supervisor of state charities and state board of charities, together with those under construction

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This act became a law May 23, 1913, and took effect immediately. (Section 4 of the act.)

The act also provides (section 3):

"All acts or parts of acts of general or special laws inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed."

In mentioning these acts, for the sake of brevity I shall call chapter 502 of the Laws of 1912, Reformatory for Misdemeanants, and chapter 625 of the Laws of 1913, Commission on Sites.

In an opinion I heretofore rendered the board of managers of the Reformatory for Misdemeanants (letter to that board dated January 15, 1913) I held that it was a State institution reporting to the Fiscal Supervisor and the State Board of Charities, and therefore it comes within the provisions of the act establishing the Commission on Sites.

1. The effect then of the Commission on Sites' act on the Reformatory for Misdemeanants' statute was, as stated in the act, a repeal of "All acts or parts of acts of general or special laws inconsistent with * * it."

The second inquiry brings forth the discordance of these acts, and I will discuss them under that head.

2. In the same letter heretofore referred to, I also held that the board of managers of the Reformatory for Misdemeanants were required to make a report to the Governor and the State Board of Charities and the Fiscal Supervisor of the visitation of the board to the institution, as provided in section 50 of the State Charities Law; and while I made no mention then of monthly meetings by the Board, still having held that the Board was re

quired to make the report in said section, monthly meetings must necessarily follow with the other duties described. I find, however, no mention made in the Commission on Sites' act to such monthly meetings. There is then no inconsistency between them concerning this duty.

Said section contemplates the existence of an institution in operation, and where, as here, the institution has not been established for want of a site and buildings, monthly meetings may be dispensed with until these conditions are accomplished.

There is an inconsistency between the two acts with reference to the purchase of land and the erection of buildings. In the Commission on Sites' act it is provided that the Commission shall acquire by gift, purchase or condemnation such properties as will be required from time to time, and lay out the grounds and locate all buildings to be erected at all State institutions reporting to the Fiscal Supervisor and the State Board of Charities, and this includes, as I have already stated, the Reformatory for Misdemeanants. The Reformatory for Misdemeanants' act provides that the Board of Managers shall select a site and upon the approval of the Governor purchase such site for a reformatory, and also prepare the ground so purchased as a site and determine what buildings are necessary to be erected thereon.

The acts being inconsistent in this regard, chapter 625 of the Laws of 1913 controls, and the Board of Managers of said Reformatory for Misdemeanants has lost its right to purchase land and erect buildings for the Reformatory.

3. It is obvious that the Board of Managers of the Reformatory for Misdemeanants could make no visit and inspection of the institution when none had been established, as required in said section 50 of the State Charities Law.

I think the requirements of said section will be satisfied by a suspension of the monthly meetings, visitations, etc., until the establishment of the institution, as I have already pointed out. In the interim let the judgment of the Board of Managers dictate what meetings should be held.

Dated, June 12, 1913.

THOMAS CARMODY,
Attorney-General.

To Hon. JOHN J. BRADY, President, Board of Managers of the Reformatory for Misdemeanants, Albany, N. Y.

Commission to Make Inquiry — Relief for Widowed Mothers.*

AN ACT to establish a commission to inquire into the subject of pensions or other relief for widowed mothers, and making an appropriation therefor.

Chapter 588, Laws of 1913.

§ 1. Within thirty days after this act takes effect there shall be appointed in the manner hereinafter provided a commission whose duty it shall be to make inquiry, examination and in

* See also chapter 228, Laws of 1915, page 782.

vestigation into the practicability and appropriate method of providing by statute for pensions or other relief for widowed mothers, including such an investigation of the circumstances affecting such persons as may show the necessity or propriety of providing for such pensions or relief, and for the purposes of such investigation the commission may inquire into conditions and statutes in any state or country. Such commission shall submit its report on such matters, including such recommendations for legislation. in the form of a bill or bills, or otherwise, as in its judgment may seem proper, to the legislature of nineteen hundred and fourteen.

§ 2. Such commission shall consist of three senators to be appointed by the temporary president of the senate, five members of the assembly to be appointed by the speaker of the assembly, and seven other persons, not members of the legislature, to be appointed by the governor. Such commission shall elect from its number a chairman and may appoint a secretary.

§ 3. The members of such commission shall serve without compensation, but each member shall be entitled to his actual necessary expenses incurred in the performance of his duties under the provisions of this act.

§ 4. For the purposes of its investigation such commission is hereby authorized to send for persons and papers, to administer oaths and to examine witnesses and papers respecting all matters pertaining to the subjects referred to in the first section of this act and to employ all necessary clerical and other assistants, within the appropriation therefor. If such commission shall appoint from its members sub-committees to make inquiry into one or more of such subjects, such sub-committees shall have the same powers in respect to sending for persons and papers, administering oaths and examining witnesses and papers, as are herein conferred upon the commission.

§ 5. The sum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000), or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the state treasury not otherwise appropriated for the expenses of such commission and its members under the provisions of this act, to be paid by the state treasurer upon the warrant of the comptroller upon vouchers approved by the chairman of such commission.