§ 144. Care of the sick. The commissioner of charities is authorized, subject to the approval of the common council, to annually enter into a contract with the Fox memorial hospital of Oneonta for the care of the indigent sick and injured of said city in accordance with the provisions of chapter one hundred and three of the laws of nineteen hundred and five. When no such contract is in force the health officer of the city shall be the city physician and shall attend the indigent sick or injured of said city, and shall be entitled to not more than one hundred dollars per year for such services, in addition to his salary as health officer. ww Oswege, Oswego County. (Note. Commissioners of charity appointed by the mayor for a term of four years. No compensation.) Chapter 394, Laws of 1895.. TITLE IX. Department of Charity. § 214. There shall be four commissioners of charity of said city, who shall be appointed by the mayor and shall constitute the department of charity, which department shall be bipartisan and composed of two commissioners of charity from each of the two political parties of the state which at the last general election cast the highest and the next highest number of votes. The commissioners of public charity in office at the time of the passage of this act shall continue in office as commissioners of charity until the expiration of their respective terms and until their successors are appointed and qualified. § 215. In April, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, the mayor shall appoint two commissioners of charity to fill the vacancies then existing, one for the term ending December thirty-first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and the other for the term ending December thirty-first, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine; in April, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, the mayor shall appoint two commissioners of charity to fill the vacancies then existing, one for the term ending December thirty-first, nineteen hundred, and the other for the term ending December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and one. Thereafter one commissioner of charity shall be appointed by the mayor in January of each year for the term of four years from the first day of January in the year of his appointment. § 216. A vacancy in the office of commissioner of charity shall be filled by appointment by the mayor for the unexpired term. Every commissioner of charity shall be from the same political party as the commissioner whom he succeeds and shall serve without compensation. § 217. In January of each year the said commissioners shall select from their number one who shall be president of the department. § 218. The said department shall have sole and exclusive control of all measures pertaining to the support or relief of the poor of said city. They shall determine the amounts to be raised in each year by tax for poor purposes, and may prescribe to what extent, in what manner and to whom support or relief shall be furnished, and may control the purchase and procuring of all supplies of provisions, fuel or other articles for the use of the poor, and may regulate and control the employment of physicians and medical aid for the poor. § 219. The department shall hold two regular meetings each month. They may employ one competent person at a reasonable salary not to exceed one thousand dollars per annum, to transact the business of the department and who may be retained or dismissed at the pleasure of the department, and who shall be desig nated as the clerk of the department. The said department shall also be allowed to expend not to exceed two hundred dollars per year in extra clerk hire, when necessary. (As amended by chapter 263 of the Laws of 1897.) § 221. On or before the first day of May in each year, the department shall render an estimate to the common council of the amount required to be raised for the ensuing year for the relief or support of the poor and the incidental expenses of the depart ment, and the common council shall thereupon insert the amount so estimated in the general city assessment for the current year as the amount to be raised for the poor fund during such year, provided such estimate does not exceed the amount actually expended by the city for the support and relief of the poor during the year next previous. § 222. The department of charity shall pay all claims and demands duly audited by it only by warrants drawn on the city chamberlain against the funds in his hands, subject to the draft of such department, signed by its president and countersigned by its clerk, and every warrant so drawn shall be made payable to the order of the person entitled to receive the money thereon. § 223. The clerk of the department of charity shall keep regular and full books of account of all its transactions and proceedings, and an accurate record of the fund subject to its warrants, showing at all times the amount of warrants drawn against such fund and the balance of said fund unexpended. The books and accounts of the department shall be open to the inspection of any elector of the city at all reasonable hours. § 224. The said department of charity shall possess all the powers conferred by law upon the overseers of the poor of the several towns of this state, and be subject to the same duties, liabilities and obligations. § 225. The department of charity shall maintain the city almshouse now erected on lands in the town of Oswego, and may ap point a keeper of the city almshouse and may employ such other persons for the government and management of said almshouse and lands as shall be necessary and may regulate their powers and duties. It shall have exclusive control of the said lands, and of the buildings erected thereon, and the same shall not be levied on or sold by virtue of any warrant or execution, nor be subject to taxation for any purpose whatever; and the common council of said city shall upon the recommendation of said department of charity, sell any part of the lands herein before mentioned upon such terms as the said department shall deem reasonable, and the moneys received therefor shall be paid to the city chamberlain, to the credit of said department. § 226. The department of charity may send to and maintain at such almshouse, all persons in the city of Oswego requiring aid from the poor fund of said city, and may also cause such labor, in manufactures or otherwise, to be performed by the tenants of said almshouse as they shall prescribe, and may provide the ma terials, implements and machinery therefor at the expense of said department. They may also erect in the said almshouse proper rooms for the confinement and care of idiots and other persons confined therein, and may provide for their care, and may contract with the county of Oswego, or with any town in said county, and with other persons and authorities, for the support, care and medical and surgical attendance of any paupers, idiots, sick, diseased or maimed persons. § 227. The department of charity may authorize their clerk to commence and carry on and defend in their name all proceedings authorized by the laws of this State to be commenced and carried on and defended by the overseers of the poor of towns, and to serve in their name and to accept service of all notices that may be served by or upon such overseers of the poor. § 228. It shall be the duty of the department of charity and of the clerk thereof to deposit forthwith with the city chamberlain any and all moneys received by it or him from any source whatever belonging to the city or to said department, and the city chamberlain shall credit the same to the poor fund. § 229. Whenever any emergency requires the department of charity to expend for the support and maintenance of the poor more than the amount of its estimate for the year, it shall certify the fact to the common council with its estimate of the additional amount required to defray its probable expenses for the balance of the fiscal year, and the common council shall thereupon order the mayor to issue his notes for the additional amount so required and the proceeds of said notes shall be credited by the city chamberlain to the department of charity to be used only to defray its current expenses. The unexpended balance of the contingent fund at the end of the fiscal year shall be applied in payment of said notes so issued for the benefit of the department of charity, and the bal ance of said notes remaining unpaid after the application of such part of the contingent fund as aforesaid shall be added to the tax levy of the ensuing year. Plattsburgh, Clinton County. (Note. -Commissioner of charities appointed by the mayor and Salary fixed by the the common council for a term of two years. common council, but must not exceed $600.) Chapter 269, Laws of 1902. TITLE X. Department of Charities. Section 119. Appointment of commissioner. 120. Powers and duties of commissioner of charities. 122. Common council to audit accounts. 123. Commissioner not to be interested in purchases. § 119. Appointment of commissioner. The board of alms of the town of Plattsburgh, and the overseer of the poor appointed by it, are hereby continued and the said overseer is hereby continued as commissioner of charities of the city of Plattsburgh and shall hold office as such commissioner of charities until his term of office as such overseer has expired and his successor is appointed as in this act provided. Upon the expiration of the term of office of such overseer the mayor shall, subject to the approval of the common council, appoint a suitable person to be commissioner of charities upon the appointment, as in this act provided, of an overseer of the poor of the town of Plattsburgh, the duties of said board of alms and its appointees shall cease, and chapter two hundred and fifty of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-eight and all amendments of the same shall thereupon be repealed and the said board of alms and its appointees shall immediately turn over all moneys, property and effects in its hands to the chamberlain of the city and the supervisor of the town, in such proportion as may be required by the board of town auditors of the town of Plattsburgh. § 120. Powers and duties of the commissioner of charities. Except as provided by this act, the commissioner of charities of the city of Plattsburgh shall, within the city of Plattsburgh, have and exercise the same powers and discharge the same duties, to the exclusion of any other person or persons, as overseers of the poor in towns. The commissioner of charities of the city |