Evening star., 1934-12-28
Proposal Grants Power to
Order or Veto Acts
OF Boards.
MEASURE TOUCHES ON
FINANCES AND TAXES
Prettyman Reveals He Is Draft
ing Measure-Hazen and Allen
Approve "in Principle"

The Commissioners would be given
authority TO order or veto acts by the
Board of Education and other indie
pendent boards or agencies which are
supported in whole or in part by Dis
trict revenues, under the terms Of a
bill to broaden their powers, drafted
by Corporation Counsel z. Barrett
Prettyman, it was revealed today.
Such power, Prettyman explained in
a statement summarizing objectives of
the bill, might be exercised on rare
| occasions only, and the bill would
leave the active administration of
the independent agencies where it now
rests.
The Commissioners have tenta-
lively agreed upon the basic principles
of the measure, but as yet have not
committed themselves to it. Pretty
man has discussed the bill with Chair
man King of the Senate District Com
mittee, and he plans to introduce it
as part of the Districts legislative
program early in the forthcoming ses-
sion Of Congress.
Centralizes Authority.
The purpose of the Prettyman bill
would be to centraliZe the ultimate
authority of the administration of
District affairs in the hands of the
District Commissioners.
A summary of the objectives of the
bill was made public today by Pretty
man. who has been mapping the Dis
trict's legislative program for six
months.
Shortly after they came into office.
Commissioners Melvin c. Hazen and
George E. Allen let it be known they
were convinced city administration
should be centralized in the Board of
Commissioners, since they share the
major responsibilities in many cases
even where independent agencies hold
administrative powers:
Prettyman's statement follows:
The Commissioners have before
them for consideration a draft of a
proposed bill relating to their powers
in the government of the District of
Columbia. The purposes of the bill
are threefold: Cd to clarity and
amplify the powers which they al
ready have but which have been given
them from time to time by statute
over the last so years and which are
therefore in many instances confused
and uncertain; % to relieve the
Commissioners from the necessity of
appearing before Congress for legisla-
ton in respect to many trivial and
minor matters, and thus at the same
time to relieve Congress from the
necessity of considering and passing
upon this mass of detail; 80 to make
the Commissioners in fact the govern
mental executives of the District.
Powers Limited.
while theoretically the Commits
sioners are the governors of the Dis
trict, in fact they could hardly be
called such. They have no power, for
example, over the jails, public institu-
tions of charity, public hospitals, pub
lie schools, many of the parks and
Fairgrounds and some streets; in fact,
there are a few instances in which
they have no power over officials
within the District government In
practice this causes confusion. AS a
matter of government the dissipation
of executive power is unsound. LegiS-
lative power should be upon broad
base, but executive power should be
concentrated.
In form the bill is modelled upon
the best in the State statutes relating
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