Board of Public Works

“ A board of public works, board of park commissioners, board of fire and water commissioners, a board of civil service, a city counsellor, a city auditor, a city assessor, a purchasing agent, and subordinate officers, are appointed by the mayor, without confirmation by the common council. A non-partisan board composed of citizens who must not be physicians has general control of the city’s hospitals and health department. ”

“ The third great source of public departments has been the creation in comparatively recent times of a number of administrative boards or commissions, whose duties (except in the case of the Board of Works) are not primarily executive; that is, they are not concerned mainly with direct administration, but rather with the supervision and control of local authorities and of bodies exercising functions of a public or a quasi-public nature. ”

“ It established a board of fire and police commissioners, a committee on ordinances, or local laws, to be known as the legislative council, consisting of the commissioners of the fire and police boards and the supervisors of the board of public works. ”

“ The office must have been a difficult one, between the Treasury on the one hand and the Board of Works on the other, and although their relations with the architect were of the most friendly character, I cannot find that their appointment greatly facilitated the progress of the work.
Such difficulties must be expected by all who work for the public. No one can question the right of the Houses of Lords and Commons to examine, censure, and indirectly control, those who are working for their service. ”

“ The eighteen executive departments take away from the municipal assembly the larger part of the ordinance-making power; the board of public improvements in practice controls municipal plans and policies as regards the construction of works, and the board of estimate and apportionment intervenes to prepare the budget, both on the side of income and on that of disbursement. ”

“ The opinion of the court of claims speaks of it as a verbal notification. On the 20th of June, 1874, congress passed an act (18 U.S. St. at Large, 116) abolishing the board of public works, and creating a commission to exercise all the power and authority there to fore lawfully vested in the governor or board of public works of the District, with certain limitations. ”

“ The Royal Council of Commerce, in France, and the subordinate Chambers in each province, form an excellent institution, and may, in many respects, serve as a model. Congress have too long neglected to organize a good scheme of administration, and throw public business into proper executive departments. For Commerce, I prefer a Board; but for most other things, single men. We want a Minister of War, a Minister of Foreign Affairs, a Minister of Finance, and a Minister of Marine. ”

“ Leaving out of view the benefits that have resulted to the people by the mere fact of the existence of the Board, which has prevented many abuses that would have been committed save for its presence in the State, it has been at work, and useful. ”

“ Membership of the Secretariat, as will be seen elsewhere, does not render residence at the capital obligatory, indeed distinguished provincial governors are often raised to that dignity, only so, however, when vacancies occur. Next in degree to this office, and of far more practical importance, are six boards representing as many departments in the administration. These are the Board of Civil Service; the Board of Finance; the Board of Rites, Obligations, and Observances (including public institutions and state worship) ”

“ The accomplishment of large results is due to the fact that organization on such a plan frees more money for relief than it consumes in salaries. All employees of the Board are chosen by civil service examinations. The Board “believes that social action should be based on accurate knowledge and investigations should both precede and accompany all efforts to improve social conditions. It strives for harmonious coöperation with all existing agencies, both public and private, and does not duplicate the work of any. ”

“ The remedies proposed in my bill are the following: in order to do away with the practice of appointing officers on recommendations so untrustworthy, and not unfrequently so completely worthless, the bill provides for a civil-service board, whose business it will be to examine the qualifications of candidates for office, with a single eye to their fitness for the performance of official duty and the discharge of public trust; and from the number of those whose fitness has been properly ascertained the appointments shall be made. ”

“ Now, Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 206 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 (Public Law 101, 80th Congress) , I hereby create a Board of Inquiry, consisting of such members as I shall appoint, to inquire into the issues involved in such dispute. The Board shall have powers and duties as set forth in Title II of the said Act. The Board shall report to the President in accordance with provisions of section 206 of the said Act on or before April 5, 1948. ”

“ The supervising board appointed by Congress, consisting of the Commissioner of Patents, the Architect of the Capitol, and the Engineer in charge of public buildings, is entitled to no less credit for keeping the expenditures within the appropriation, and for the general management of the work. ”

“ We accordingly recommend that a central Board should be constituted for conducting the examination of all candidates for the public service whom it may be thought right to subject to such a test. Such board should be composed of men holding an independent position, and capable of commanding general confidence ”

“ I believe that the twenty-four gentlemen who constitute the Board of Directors would act just about as well as any other twenty-four persons elected by the same process, acting under the same influences, and surrounded by the same difficulties—having to act with another and independent body— the Board of Control. ”

“ It is to be hoped that an act, so necessary to the proper legal appointments of the public service, and reasonable justice to faithful and competent employes, will be considered and enacted at the coming session of Congress.
The operations of the civil service, so far as this Bureau is concerned, have been highly satisfactory. There is an increased demand for accuracy and efficiency in the manner in which the public work is performed. ”

“ That a strong and competent board, with an independent status, should be established to examine into all applications from industries for State assistance, to advise his Majesty's Government upon such applications, and, where a case is made out, to frame proposals as to the precise nature and extent of the assistance to be given. ”

“ Congress, even those in subordinate stations, as is the practice of every day, and as is indispensable to the prosecution of public business, they might, at less expense of dignity, pursue the same mode with a part of that body itself.
The distinction taken by the Council, in their message to the Assembly, respecting the responsibility of such executive officers, as not applicable to a committee, if it amounts to any thing, proves only this: That such officers ought, in prudence, to take greater precautions for their own justification than a committee of Congress need to do. ”

“ The Board of Building Code Appeals shall determine all matters properly presented to it and where practical difficulties and unnecessary hardships shall result from the strict compliance with or the enforcement of the provisions of any ordinance for which it is designated as the Board of Appeals, such Board shall have the power to grant variances in harmony with the general intent of such ordinance and to secure the general welfare and substantial justice in the promotion of the public health, comfort, convenience, morals, safety and general welfare of the City. ”

“ The Board had an insight into character, and a faculty for choosing men for the administration. Believing its own reputation, as well as the public good, to depend on this choice, it pursued the object with circumspection and single-mindedness.{54} Though India is essentially the land of administrators, yet no governing body in any province has ever possessed at one time so many subordinates with talents applicable to so many branches, as the Board had for several years. ”

“ Wherever human energies are now being directed toward more efficient public service, we find the consolidation under one administrative unit or bureau of all departments which deal either in direct or different manner with the same general subject. Investigation develops many duplications in both labor and expense in the departments of the state. ”

“ Examples may be easily thought of,—town boards, boards of health, boards of review, boards of equalization, railroad rate commissions, and public utility commissions all come within this class. They perform very important duties in our scheme of government, but they are not legislatures or courts. The legislative branch of the government by statute determines the rights, duties, and liabilities of persons and corporations under certain conditions of fact, and varying as the facts and conditions change. ”

“ But a popular assembly is still less fitted to administer, or to dictate in detail to those who have the charge of administration. Even when honestly meant, the interference is almost always injurious. Every branch of public administration is a skilled business, which has its own peculiar principles and traditional rules, many of them not even known in any effectual way, except to those who have at some time had a hand in carrying on the business, and none of them likely to be duly appreciated by persons not practically acquainted with the department. ”

“ The executive committee is also charged with the direction and control of the economic enterprises within its area of jurisdiction and with the exercising of supervision over the executive committees of the councils inferior to it. The executive committees are also responsible for the organization and functioning of public services, educational institutions, medical programs, and the militia. ”

“ That instead of an unpaid board of twelve members, appointed from the judicial districts, there should be a board of nine, of whom one should be a woman; three members should be paid and should give all their time to the work, one of the three to be president of the board, one the chairman of a bureau for mental deficiency, and the third, chairman of a bureau for dependent children; the six unpaid members were to be specialists in the special classes of work which is supervised by the board. ”

“ The executive power of the departments shall reside in the governors in subordination to the supreme executive of the nation. The departmental board shall be the council of the governor; they shall be charged with determining and promoting whatever conduces to the welfare and prosperity of the departments, and shall have the economic, municipal, electoral and legislative powers the special law for their organization shall provide, being in the matter of the exercise of the latter class subordinate and responsible to the general congress of the nation. ”

“ A member holding office on the General Executive Board must at all times maintain his credential both from his own local unit to Central Council or District Board, and from his Central Council or District Board to the convention. ”

“ The Commission shall, upon the nomination of the head of each Department, bureau, or office, designate and select a suitable number of persons, not less than three, in said Department, bureau, or office to be members of a board of promotion. In the Departments, bureaus, or offices in Washington and in all other offices the members of any board of promotion shall not all be adherents of one political party when persons of other political parties are available and competent to serve upon said board. ”

“ A special act of the legislature abolished the mayor and council and created a board of directors or commissioners of five members, one of whom is president, all being elected by popular vote. Salaries were nominal, for the commissioners were simply the responsible heads of departments with well-paid, expert managers under them to carry out the details. ”

“ The last step of all will be, immediately after the ratification of the constitution by the higher powers, to proceed to the elections, under it, of the executive committee, the board of directresses, and the officers and agents of the different departments. All the persons elected, who do not perfectly understand the duties to which they are assigned, will have to qualify themselves for them as thoroughly as possible ”

“ And, Honorable Judges, the whole experience of government proves the absolute necessity for a separate legislative department. Look where you will, and in each case there is an executive cabinet, based upon appointment, untrammelled by the burdens of legislation, and subjected to the criticism and control of a reviewing body. In Europe, the city councils are elected by the people, and the administrative departments are made up through a process of selection and appointment, together with the assurance of reasonable permanence of tenure, responsibility, and adequate support. ”

“ The council may, under such circumstances, devote itself to the consideration of policies and enterprises, and may create committees of citizens who are best qualified and most interested in particular projects to have charge of their execution. Thus if the council decides to get back of a movement for a playground, a public health nurse, and a band, committees would be appointed to take charge of organizing each one of these enterprises. ”

“ The executive order constitutes a board composed of ten representatives from different departments and bureaus of the Government service, to which all questions relating to the work of the board that may arise in the departments are to be referred, and requires all persons in the Government service to respect the decisions that may be rendered. ”