isfied, and that there are no offsets thereto. He shall take up and preserve all orders, bills, accounts and vouchers of his expenditures and payments and at least once a month exhibit the same with his books and files to the common council, who shall proceed to audit the same. If said overseer of the poor shall feel aggrieved by said audit he shall report to the board of estimate and appor tionment a detailed statement of all his receipts and disbursements for any period said board may require, showing the money on hand, the date and amount of each order or payment for temporary relief, and the person to whom made or given, and all his other disbursements in like detail. Said report shall be verified by his oath taken before some proper officer, that the same is, and the items thereof are correct to the best of his knowledge and belief. If said report is not sufficiently explicit, the board of estimate and apportionment may call for a further report, which the overseer shall immediately furnish. Except as herein otherwise provided, said overseer shall have the same powers and duties, liabilities and responsibilities as overseers of the poor in the towns of Niagara county, in all matters pertaining to the support and maintenance of the poor of said city, and as to those matters the city shall be regarded as a town of said county. Upon receiving said report, the board of estimate and apportionment shall thereupon proceed to consider and audit the account of said overseer, and shall have all the powers, duties and responsibilities of a board of town auditors in the premises. The affidavits annexed to said. overseer's report, or to any of said bills, accounts or vouchers, shall not be conclusive upon the said board in case it shall appear that any claim or item in said report is illegal, unjust or improper, in whole or in part, but in such case such item or portion thereof shall be disallowed, and said overseer and his sureties shall be liable for the amount thereof. The board of estimate and apportionment shall cause each of said reports of the overseer of the poor (except the names of the persons to whom orders for temporary relief were given) to be published in full, as part of the proceedings of the meeting. The city shall continue to be the owner of all articles or supplies furnished to any poor person or applicant until the same are consumed. If any person to whom the same shall be furnished shall sell or exchange the same for money, or intoxicating liquor, or in any way dispose of the same other than in the manner directed, such conduct shall be deemed a misdemeanor. NORTH TONAWANDA, NIAGARA COUNTY. (Note.-Commissioner of charities appointed by mayor for a term of one year. Salary fixed by common council.) Chapter 752, Laws of 1907. TITLE XIV. COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC CHARITIES. Section 1. Qualifications.-No member of the common council shall be a commissioner of public charities. Neither shall any person be appointed to such office who, at the time of such appointment, shall be engaged or interested in business as a grocer, a saloon keeper, or hotel keeper, or in any wise concerned in the manufacture or sale of spirituous or malt liquors, ale or beer, and in case any person appointed to the office shall during his term become engaged or interested in either of the occupations above specified, his term af office shall thereupon cease, and the office become vacant, and the mayor shall forthwith appoint another in his place. § 2. Duties and powers.-The commissioner of public charities is hereby invested with all the powers and duties now or hereafter to be prescribed and provided by the general statutes of the state of New York, relating to overseers of the poor in towns, so far as the same are applicable to and not inconsistent with this act. It shall be the duty of the commissioner to visit the poor of the city at their several places of abode and examine into their circumstances, and ascertain to what extent they are or may be in need and entitled to permanent or temporary relief. The said commissioner shall require all persons making application for relief to make such application in writing, which shall be preserved by said commissioner, and at the end of each month all such applications made during the month shall be filed with the city clerk. The commissioner of charities shall have power to administer oaths to and examine under oath any person applying to him for relief, and false swearing during such examination shall be deemed wilful perjury. The commissioner shall issue written orders for all means, provisions and supplies furnished to the poor of the city. He shall not employ any physician. The city shall continue to be the owner of all articles or supplies furnished to any poor person or applicant until the same are consumed. If any person to whom the same shall be furnished shall sell or exchange the same for money, or intoxicating liquor, or in any way dispose of the same other than in the manner directed, such conduct shall be deemed a misdemeanor. § 3. Monthly reports. The commissioner shall, at the first regular meeting of the common council in each month, report to the common council under oath in detail, all appropriations, expenditures, temporary relief and allowances made by him as such commissioner during the month preceding, which report shall specify the name and place of abode of each person relieved, the quality, quantity and price per pound, or otherwise, as the case may be, of each article ordered or furnished, and from whom obtained; said report shall also contain the names and places of abode of all persons to whom meals or lodgings have been furnished, the number of such meals or lodgings, from whom obtained, or by whom furnished, and the cost of the same. report shall be filed with the city clerk. Said § 4. Accounts to be audited.-All charges and accounts against said city for services rendered, acts done, or means, provisions or supplies furnished under the direction of the commissioner of charities of said city under the provisions of this act, or otherwise, shall be audited by the common council, and paid from the poor fund of said city. § 5. No profit from supplies.-The commissioner of charities shall not, directly or indirectly, furnish to any person any groceries, provisions, fuel, medicines or property belonging to himself, or in which he shall have an interest or be interested, nor shall he be interested in any contract for such purchase of groceries, provisions, fuel, medicines or property; nor shall he receive any commissions upon or for any goods or articles of relief furnished, or on any orders given by him for any such goods, articles or relief. For any violation of any provision of this section said commissioner shall be removed from office by the mayor, and he shall forfeit to said city a penalty of one hundred dollars for every such violation. § 6. To be sealer of weights and measures.-It shall be the duty of the commissioner of charities, as sealer of weights and measures, to inspect and examine weights, measures, scale beams, measures of scale beams, measures of extension with weighing apparatus in said city, at the times and in the manner prescribed by the common council. (Note. OGDENSBURG, ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY. Superintendents of the poor elected for six years. No compensation.) Chapter 28, Laws of 1882. AN ACT for the support of the poor of the town of Oswegatchie, in the county of St. Lawrence. Section 1. The town of Oswegatchie shall not hereafter be subject to taxation for the support or maintenance of the town poor of or in the other towns of the county of St. Lawrence, nor shall the other towns of the county of St. Lawrence be taxed or required to contribute to the support of the town poor of or in the town of Oswegatchie, but such town of Oswegatchie, for all the purposes of supporting it, or poor within its limits and carrying into effect the laws of the state for support and relief of such indigent persons, shall be separate and in distinct district. § 2. The office of overseer of the poor in the town of Oswe gatchie is hereby abolished. There shall be a corporation in the said town by the name of " the superintendents of the poor of the town of Oswegatchie," which shall possess the usual powers of a corporation for public purposes. Frank Chapman, Daniel Wheater, Samuel H. Palmer, Nathan Frank, Robert J. Donahue, and William Mayne, are hereby appointed such superintendents for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this act. They shall be divided into three classes, and hold their offices for the periods following, that is to say: Frank Chapman and Daniel Wheater, shall constitute the first class, and hold their offices until the first Tuesday of March, nineteen hundred and seven; Samuel H. Palmer and Nathan Frank shall constitute the second class, and hold their offices until the first Tuesday of March, nine teen hundred and nine; and Robert J. Donahue and William Mayne shall constitute the third class, and hold their offices until the first Tuesday of March,. nineteen hundred and eleven; and upon the expiration of their several terms of office, their places shall be filled by persons duly elected at the biennial town meetings held in the town of Oswegatchie for the year in which such terms of office shall expire, which elections shall be conducted in the following manner, that is to say: Each elector may place upon a separate ballot the name of one suitable person, who shall be a citizen of the United States, of full age and a resident of said town of Oswegatchie, under the words, "for superintendent of the poor," and deposit the same in a separate box to be provided for that purpose by the officers who shall preside at such town meetings; and a separate poll list shall be kept of the persons voting for such superintendents, and the two persons having the greatest number of votes, at such elections, shall be declared and deemed duly elected. And at every biennial town meeting thereafter there shall be elected, in the same manner, two persons as superintendents. The persons elected shall hold their office. for the term of six years, and until others are duly elected in their places. (As amended by chapter 170 of the Laws of 1905.) § 3. The said superintendents of the poor may sue and be sued in their corporate name in any of the courts of this state. They shall have the sole and exclusive care and management of the poor in the said town, and shall provide for and maintain the persons enumerated in the fourteenth section of the act concerning "the relief and support of indigent persons," in the manner hereinafter mentioned, and for that purpose they shall have and exercise all the powers and authority now vested by law in the overseers of the poor of towns, and in superintendents of the poor of counties, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act. They shall also have and possess the powers following: 1. To appoint, by a resolution to be entered upon their minutes, an officer, to be denominated "the overseer of the poor of the town of Oswegatchie," together with such other agents as may be necessary in order to carry into effect the purposes of this act, which said overseer and other agents shall hold their offices during the pleasure of said superintendents, and receive VOL. III-25 |