The herald., 1896-12-25
FOR GREATER NEW YORK
As Laid Down in the Proposed
Charter
A MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY
To Consist OF an Upper and q Lower
House
The Mayor Vested With Power Which
Renders Him Second in Dignity
Only to the Governor.
Associated Press Special Wire

Associated Press Special Wire
NEW YORK, Dec. 24.-The draft of
the proposed charter of Greater New
York, as submitted to the commission,
will be published tomorrow. The legis-
lative power is to be vested in a munici-
pal assembly to consist of two houses, a
lower house of 104 members elected from
senatorial, and an upper house of 81
members elected from council districts.
All the members of both houses are to
be elected for the term of two years, and
all are to retire at once.
AS to everything concerning the
rights, privileges and Liberties of citi-
zens respecting municipal rule, the
legislative department is to be subject
to no restraint. But in respect to public
improvements the action of the munici-
pal assembly is to be further subjected
to the concurrence of the board Of es-
innate and apportionment.
The mayor is to have power to appoint
all the administrative and executive Of
iicers of the city except the comptroller,
who is rendered elective by the people
every four years, so that the treasury
and finances will constantly be in the
hands of an Independent department.
The mayor is to have supervisory con-
troll over the various departments and
an enlarged veto power upon the acts of
the municipal assembly. His patronage
and his power are so great that he Will
in these particulars be disnitary Sec
ond only in Importance to the governor
of the state,
The mayor is TO be given absolute
power to remova'at Rvill every admins
trative officer, irrespective of the pre-
scribed term OF office, during the first
six months of his administration, After
that he can remove only ON charges,
with the approval of the governor.
Where the powers of the administra-
tive departments are largely discretion
ary it is proposed to have the depart
ments presided over by board of two
or more commissioners. Where they
are executive merely, but one commits
sioner has been provided for. BY far
the largest and most important board is
to be the board of public Improvements,
consisting of the heads of the six newly
created departments-the department
of water supply, of highways, of sewers,
of street cleaning, of public buildings,
lighting and supplies. and the depart
mant of bridges. This'ls the ST. Louis
system.
The police department will have four
commissioners, as now and will include
TIE bureau of elections. The charities
department and the park department
will be presided over by three commits
sioners each. Th law department. the
the fire departmentshrl eeee oini oinbgk
fire department and the department of
correction will have single heads The
building department may have four
Greater New York is to be divided into
five boroughs-Manhattan the Bronx,
the Brooklyn, the Queens and Rich
mond and a certain degree of home rule
is to be granted to the boroughs.
There are to be five commissioners of
taxeG and assessments, instead or three
as at present, and a system for their
equalization of the varying conditions
in the consolidated territory has been
devised.
In the matter of education, the COM
mittee adopted plan which centralizes
in a board of education, representing the
whole city the physical conduct of the
schools, which devolves upon school
boards appointed by the mayor in every
borough. the educational conduct of
the schools
The committee conclude not to deal
with municipal ownership, but says:
From an original and ideal standpoint
1t is easy to see that the city would be-
come the recipient of vast revenues by
the ownership and operation of all fran
chses, for lighting by gas or electricity
and for tramways and other purposes
necessary to the life and business Of
a metropolitan community and exer-
cised so largely by use of the streets
and avenues belonging to the people.
Nor could anyone we'll deny the right
and power of the people to embark in
such enterprises. In Greater New York.
however, private capital, upon the faith
of the state. is embarked largely in such
franchises It would take a sum too
vast TO be hastily computed to acquire
the properties thus vested in private
persons by fair compensation.