copies thereof, and of such forms and instructions as are herein required, shall be paid by the treasurer of the state, upon the warrant of the comptroller, from moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. (As amended by chapter 372 of the Laws of 1901.) 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 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 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 commis sion, 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 man agers 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 reformatory, and, upon It was also required under The Board is required to select a site for approval by the Governor, to purchase such site. 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 The 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; 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 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 required 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, To Hon. JOHN J. BRADY, President, Board of Managers of the Reformatory for Misdemeanants, Albany, N. Y. THE COUNTY LAW. Chapter 11 of the Consolidated Laws. * ARTICLE III. Boards of Supervisors. § 12. General powers. The board of supervisors shall: 1. Have the care and custody of the corporate property of the county. 2. Audit all accounts and charges against the county, and direct annually the raising of sums necessary to defray them in full. 3. Annually direct the raising of such sums in each town as shall be necessary to pay its town charges. 4. Cause to be assessed, levied and collected, such other assessments and taxes as shall be required of them by any law of the state. 5. Have power to fix the amount and the time or manner of payment of the salary or compensation of any county officer or employee, except a judicial officer or an officer or employee of a county tuberculosis hospital and the term of office and mode of appointment, number and grade of any appointive county officer and of the clerks, assistants or employees in any county office, except an officer or employee of a county tuberculosis hospital, notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law fixing the amount of such salary or compensation or the time or manner of payment thereof, or fixing the term of office or providing for the mode of appointment, number or grade of any such county officer or of the clerks, assistants or employees in any county office, or vesting in any other board, body, commission or officer authority to fix such term of office, or the amount of such salary or compensation or the time or manner of payment thereof or to provide for the mode of appointment, number or grade of such officers or of the clerks, assistants or employees in any county office; and the power hereby vested in the board of supervisors shall be exclusive of any other board, body, commission or officer, |