117. Id.; may appoint clerks, etc. 118. Id.; to appoint heads of departments; terms of latter. 119. Id.; to appoint commissioners of accounts. 120. Id.; proclamation as to holding courts in case of pestilence, etc. 121. Id.; police power as to pawnbrokers. 122. Id.; removal, by governor. 123. Municipal civil service; mayor to appoint commissioners. 124. Regulations. 125. Authority and duty of commissioners. 126. Warrants for payment of salary; when not to be issued. 127. Veterans. 128. Bureau of municipal statistics. 129. Bureau; how constituted. 130. Chief of bureau to be appointed by the mayor. 131. Municipal statistical commission; how constituted. 132. Meetings of commission; quorum. 133. Place of meeting. 134. Compensation of chief of bureau and his assistants, and of the commission. 135. Powers and duties of the commission. 136. Powers and duties of chief of bureau. 137. Publication of statistics. 138. Limitation of expense of maintaining the bureau of municipal statistics. Mayor; duties of. § 115. It shall be the duty of the mayor: 1. To communicate to the municipal assembly, at least once in each year, a general statement of the finances, government, and improvements of the city. 2. To recommend to the municipal assembly all such measures as he shall deem expedient. 3. To keep himself informed of the doings of the several departments. 4. To be vigilant and active in causing the ordinances of the city, and laws of the state to be executed and enforced, and for that purpose he may call together for consultation and co-operation any or all of the heads of departments. 5. And generally to perform all such duties as may be prescribed for him by this act, the city ordinances and the laws of the state. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 103. Id.; a magistrate. 116. The mayor is a magistrate. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 104. See Code Crim. Proc., § 147. Id.; may appoint clerks, etc. he 117. The mayor may appoint such clerks and subordinates as may require to aid him in the discharge of his official duties, and shall render to the municipal assembly, every three months, an account of the expenses and receipts of his office, and therein. shall state, in detail, the amounts paid and agreed to be paid by him, for salaries to such clerks and subordinates respectively, and the general nature of their duties, which account and report shall be published in the City Record. The aggregate expenses incurred by him for such purposes shall not exceed, in any one year, the sum appropriated therefor. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 105. Id.; to appoint heads of departments; terms of latter. $118. The mayor shall appoint the heads of departments and all commissioners, except as otherwise provided in this act. He shall also appoint all members of any board or commission authorized to superintend the erection or repair of any building belonging to or to be paid for by the city, whether named in any law or appointed by any local authority, and also a commissioner of jurors for the boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx, inspectors of weights and measures, and as many sealers of weights and measures as may by ordinance be prescribed, and also the members of any other local board and all other officers not elected by the people, whose appointment is not excepted or otherwise provided for. Every head of department and person in this section named shall, subject to the power of removal herein provided, hold his office for such term as is provided by this act, or otherwise, and in each case until a person is duly appointed, and has qualified, in his place. The terms of office of all such heads of departments and persons, shall, as to those first appointed, commence at noon on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and thereafter at noon on the first day of January in the year in which the terms of office of their predecessors expire, except that any person who shall be appointed in pursu ance of this section to fill any vacancy shall hold his office for the unexpired term of his predecessor. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 106; L. 1884, ch. 43. (a) The power of appointment by the mayor under this section is an executive power of the state vested by the constitution and law in him, and the judicial power can neither inquire into his motives in the exercise of this power, nor control him in such exercise. People ex rel. Roosevelt v. Edson, 52 N. Y. Super. Ct. (J. & S.) 53; rev'g 51 Id. 238. (b) No appointment to office can be made verbally except where permitted by the terms of the statute conferring the appointing power; in the absence of such permission, the appointment must be by commission, i. e., a formal writing signed by the official with whom the appointing power rests. People ex rel. Babcock v. Murray, 70 N. Y. 521; rev'g 8 Hun, 577: see People ex rel. Kresser v. Fitzsimmons, 68 N. Y. 514. (c) See People ex rel. Wood v. Lacombe, 99 N. Y. 43; affi'g 34 Hun, 401; People ex rel. Haughton v. Andrews, 104 N. Y. 570; affi'g 42 Hun, 614; People ex rel. Mason v. McClave, 99 N. Y. 83, 94: Gilroy v. Smith, 23 N. Y. State Rep. 5 ; affi'd 8 N. Y. Supp. 677. Id.; to appoint commissioners of accounts. 119. The mayor shall appoint and remove at pleasure two persons who shall be commissioners of accounts. It shall be their duty, once in three months, to make an examination of the receipts and disbursements in the offices of the comptroller and chamberlain, in connection with those of all the departments and officers making returns thereto, and report to the mayor a detailed and classified statement of the financial condition of the city as shown by such examinations. They shall also make such special examinations of the accounts and methods of the departments. and offices of the city and of the counties of New York, Richmond and Kings, as the mayor may from time to time direct, and such other examinations as the said commissioners may deem for the best interests of the city and report to the mayor and the municipal assembly the results thereof. For the purpose of ascertaining facts in connection with these examinations they shall have full power to compel the attendance of witnesses, to administer oaths and to examine such persons as they may deem necessary. Such commissioners shall each be paid the sum of five thousand dollars a year. The board of estimate and apportionment and the municipal assembly shall annually appropriate a sum sufficient to pay the salaries of said commissioners, and in the discretion of said board and municipal assembly a sum sufficient to enable them to employ the necessary assistance to carry out the provisions of this act. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 110. (a) As to power of Supreme Court to commit a witness for contempt for refusal to answer questions of com missioners of accounts, see Matter of McAdam, 5 N. Y. Supp. 387; affi'd, 7 Id. 454. (b) It seems that the power of removal of commissioners of accounts being conferred by statute to be exercised at pleasure, the mayor is the ex clusive judge of the propriety of such exercise. People ex rel. Westray v. The Mayor, 82 N. Y. 491; affi'g 16 Hun, 309. Id.; proclamation as to holding courts in case of pestilence, etc. § 120. The mayor, or, in case of his absence, or other disability, the president of the council, by proclamation, may direct that the next ensuing term of any court, other than the court of appeals, appointed to be held in the city shall be held in any building within The City of New York, other than the building where the same is regularly to be held, if, in his opinion, war, pestilence, or other public calamity, or the danger thereof, or the destruction or injury of the building, or the want of suitable accommodation, renders it necessary that some other place be selected. The proclamation must be published in two or more daily newspapers, published in The City of New York. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 118. Id.; police power as to pawnbrokers. $121. The mayor shall possess the power conferred upon the chief, deputy chiefs, inspectors and captains of police by section three hundred and seventeen of this act. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 121. Id.; removal by governor. 122. The mayor may be removed from office by the governor in the same manner as sheriffs, except that the governor may direct the inquiry provided by law to be conducted by the attorneygeneral; and after the charges have been received by the governor, he may, pending the investigation, suspend the mayor for a period not exceeding thirty days. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 122. Municipal civil service; mayor to appoint commissioners. 123. The mayor shall appoint three or more suitable persons as commissioners to prescribe and amend, subject to his approval, and to enforce regulations for appointment to, and promotions in, the civil service thereof, and for classifications and examinations therein, and for the registration and selection of laborers for employment therein, in pursuance of the constitution of this state. Said commissioners shall receive no compensation. (a) See N. Y. Const., art. 5, sec. 9, in appendix. (b) History of civil service legislation in New York, and collation of statutes referring thereto, in Matter of Sweeley, 12 Misc. 184. (c) The civil service regulations of a city are to be construed in the same manner as a statute. Carmody v. The City of Mt. Vernon, 3 App. Div. 347; S. C., 38 N. Y. Supp. 314. (d) For the construction of particular municipal regulations, see Carmody v. The City of Mt. Vernon, supra; People ex rel. Carroll v. Civil Regulations. Service Bd., 5 App. Div. 165; s. c., 39 124. Such regulations shall, among other things, provide: I. For the classification of the offices, places and employments in the civil service of the said city. 2. For examinations, wherever practicable to ascertain the fitness of applicants for appointment to the civil service of said city. All examinations shall be public. No question in any examination under the rules established as aforesaid shall relate to political or religious opinions or affiliations, and no appointment or selection to or removal from an office or employment within the scope of the rules established as aforesaid, shall be in any manner affected or influenced by such opinions or affiliations. Such examinations shall be practical in their character, and shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the persons examined to discharge the duties of the position to which they seek to be appointed. Such examinations, save in the case of applicants for employment as laborers, shall be open, competitive examinations, except where, after due efforts by previous public advertisement or other effort in case of extraordinary emergency, competition is found not to be practicable. The examination of applicants for employment as laborers shall relate to their capacity for labor, their habits as to industry and sobriety, and the number of persons dependent upon them for support. 3. For the filling of vacancies in the offices, places and employments in the public service which are subject to competitive examination by selection from among those graded highest as the result of such examination, provided, however, that soldiers and sailors honorably discharged from the army and navy of the United States in the late civil war, who are citizens and residents of this state, shall be entitled to preference in appointment and promotion from any list from which an appointment or promotion is to be made, without regard to their standing on such list. 4. For a period of probation before an appointment or employment is made permanent. 5. For promotions in office on the basis of ascertained merit and seniority in service, and upon such examination as may be for the good of the public service. |