Page images
PDF
EPUB

unless the common council by resolution shall otherwise direct. In the employment of physicians to attend the poor, the commissioner of charities shall, if possible, give preference to the regular physician of such person so attended. chapter 63 of the Laws of 1916.)

(As amended by

Oneonta, Otsego County.

(Note. Commissioner of charities appointed by the mayor for a term of one year. Salary fixed by the common council.)

Chapter 454, Laws of 1908.

TITLE VIII.

Department of Charities.

Section 140. Powers and duties of commissioner of charities.

141. Monthly report of commissioner.

142. Common council to audit accounts.

143. Commissioner not to be interested in purchases.
144. Care of the sick.

§ 140. Powers and duties of commissioner of charities. Except as provided by this act, the commissioner of charities of the city of Oneonta shall, within the city of Oneonta, have and exercise the same powers and discharge the same duties, to the exclusion of any other officer, as overseer of the poor in towns, and shall be subject to the same obligations and liabilities. It shall be the duty of the commissioner to visit the poor of said 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, or medical attendance. 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 willful perjury. For all purposes relative to the maintenance and support of the poor the city of Oneonta shall be deemed one of the towns of the county of Otsego. The commissioner shall issue written orders for all meals, lodgings, provisions and supplies furnished to the poor of said city.

§ 141. Monthly report of commissioner. The commissioner of charities, at the first regular meeting of the common council in each month, shall under oath report in detail to the common council all appropriations, expenditures, temporary relief, medical attendance and allowance 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 quantity and price per pound, or otherwise as the case may be, of each article furnished or ordered, 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 and lodgings, from whom obtained or by whom furnished, and the cost of same. Said report shall be filed with the city clerk.

§ 142. Common council to audit accounts. All charges and accounts against said city for services rendered, acts done or meals, 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 made out in items, duly verified, by the persons entitled to the payment therefor, and presented to the common council, at the first regular meeting of said council in each month, for all claims and demands incurred or which may have accrued during the preceding month. All such claims, accounts and charges shall, if approved, be audited by the common council and paid from the poor fund of said city by the chamberlain upon the warrant of the mayor, countersigned by the clerk.

§ 143. Commissioner not to be interested in purchases. 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 receive any commission upon or for any articles or goods or relief furnished or any orders given by him for any such goods or articles or relief furnished. 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.

§ 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.

(Note.

Oswego, Oswego County.

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 department, 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 appoint 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

« PreviousContinue »