2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SEVENTEEN - Housing (§§ 1 — 1546) › Chapter 3 - Housing Authorities (§§ 31 — 77) › § 35 - Housing Authorities law—Composition and organization of authorities; dissolution

The Puerto Rico Housing Authority shall consist of five commissioners appointed by the Governor of Puerto Rico with the advice and consent of the Senate. Not more than three of the commissioners shall belong to the same political party. When the governing body of a municipality adopts a resolution as provided in the preceding section, it shall promptly notify the mayor of such adoption. Upon receiving such notice, the mayor shall appoint the five commissioners of the authority created for said municipality. Not more than three of the commissioners shall belong to the same political party.
The commissioners who are first appointed shall be designated to serve for terms of one, two, three, four, and five years, respectively, from the date of their appointment, but therafter commissioners shall be appointed as aforesaid for a term of five (5) years, except that to fill vacancies, appointments shall be made for the unexpired part of the term. No commissioner of a municipal authority may be an officer or employee of the municipality for which the authority is created.
Of the commissioners who compose the municipal authorities, one at least shall be an engineer authorized to practice his profession in Puerto Rico.
Each commissioner shall hold office until his successor has been appointed and has qualified. The commissioners shall receive no compensation for their services, but they shall be entitled to the necessary expenses, including traveling expenses, incurred in the discharge of their duties.
The powers of each authority shall be vested in the commissioners thereof appointed from time to time. Three commissioners shall constitute a quorum of the authority, for the purpose of conducting its business and exercising its powers and for all other purposes. Action may be taken by the authority upon a vote of a majority of its commissioners present, unless the bylaws of the authority require a larger number. The Governor, or in the case of an authority for a municipality, the mayor, shall designate which of the commissioners appointed shall be the first chairman, but when the office of the chairman of the authority thereafter becomes vacant, the authority shall select a chairman from among its commissioners. Each authority shall select a vice chairman from among its commissioners, and it may employ a secretary, who shall be executive director, technical experts and such other officers, agents, and employees, permanent and temporary, as may be necessary, and shall determine their qualifications, duties and compensation; Provided, That no employee of a municipal authority can be related within the fourth degree of consanguinity or the third of affinity to any of the commissioners. For such legal services as it may require, an authority may call upon the Secretary of Justice or the attorney of the municipality, as the case may be, or may employ its own counsel and legal staff. The authority may delegate to one or more of its agents or employees such powers or duties as it may deem proper.
If, after a municipal housing authority is organized and in operation, it should be to the public interest, in the judgment of the municipal legislature of the municipality where the said authority is located, to transfer the functions of said municipal authority to the Puerto Rico Housing Authority, the municipality is hereby empowered and authorized to direct, by ordinance of the municipal legislature, the dissolution of the municipal housing authority and to transfer its powers and functions to the Puerto Rico Housing Authority. Upon the adoption of such ordinance, the municipal housing authority shall be obligated ministerially to cede, transfer, and deliver to the Puerto Rico Housing Authority, all its real and personal property and any other property, rights, or shares, franchises, or privileges, or other tangible or intangible property of any kind or nature, whatever the location, and it shall likewise be obligated to cede, transfer, and deliver to the Puerto Rico Housing Authority, all its business, funds, securities, contracts, and agreements, and all its assets or working capital of any kind, nature, or description, belonging to and inherent in said municipal housing authority; and the Puerto Rico Housing Authority is hereby empowered to accept, possess, use, and invest, subject to all the obligations and liens by which it may be burdened, all such real and personal property and all such property, rights, or shares, franchises or privileges, or other tangible or intangible property of any kind or nature which may be ceded or transferred by the municipal housing authority, and likewise, the said Puerto Rico Housing Authority is hereby empowered to take over all the businesses, contracts, and agreements of any kind or nature, transferred to it by the municipal housing authority, the said Puerto Rico Housing Authority assuming full responsibility for all the obligations arising from said contracts and agreements, including, without limitation of the foregoing, all contracts for loans and subsidies entered into by the municipal housing authority with the federal or Commonwealth government or with any agency thereof; Provided, That after such transfer of all the assets, rights, and obligations of any municipal housing authority is made to the Puerto Rico Housing Authority, the said municipal housing authority shall be for all legal purposes dissolved and without capacity to enter into contracts or in any way act in its corporate character.
History —May 6, 1938, No. 126, p. 253, § 5; May 13, 1939, No. 156, p. 790, § 1; May 13, 1942, No. 247, p. 1424, § 1.