Chief commissioner

“ Each province has at its head a Royal Commissioner who has extensive powers, but who holds office at the pleasure of the king, though in the first instance his appointment is generally for some definite period. The Commissioners are not simply responsible for the good government, or for the collection of the taxes in the district under their charge, but they are intended to form connecting links between the central and the outlying portions of the kingdom. ”

“ Such commissioner shall devote his entire time to the duties of the office, and shall not hold any position of trust or profit, engage in any occupation or business interfering with or inconsistent with his duties, or serve on or under any political committee or as manager of any political campaign for any candidate or party. ”

“ They do not appoint the superior officers, but it is to be expected that their advice will be considered by the Secretary of State, with whom the nominations lie. As a Commissioner cannot be in more than one place at a time, they cannot be expected to have any intimate knowledge of the capability of the men who depend for promotion on them ”

“ Now I think we had better go to-morrow and see Broek, and also Saandam, and I am going to take a commissioner."
Mr. George had employed a commissioner once before, as the reader will perhaps recollect, namely, at the Hague; and perhaps I ought to stop here a moment to explain more fully what a commissioner is. He is a servant hired by the day to conduct strangers about the town where they reside, and about the environs, if necessary, to show them what there is that is curious and wonderful there. ”

“ The chiefs of division and all ranking officials in the bureaus and offices shall be appointed by the Commissioner concerned, subject to the approval of the Chairman of the Executive Commission, from among those certified as eligible by the Director of Civil Service. ”

“ He has plenty of energy, a cool head, experience in public affairs, and may be expected to do all that can be done with the powers of his new office, the value of which must depend much on the character of the Commissioner and the support and direction of the Secretary and of the President. ”

“ The question is frequently put whether it is better to have five commissioners and let them choose their own chairman as a mere presiding officer, or to provide that one commissioner specially elected shall be chairman, with special executive and administrative powers. ”

“ The commission shall elect annually a chairman from its own members. It shall have the power and authority to employ experts, clerks, and a secretary, and to pay for their services and such other expenses as may be necessary and proper, not exceeding, in all, the annual appropriation that may be made by said city or village for said commission. The body creating the commission shall by ordinance or resolution provide what compensation if any, each of such commissioners shall receive for his services as such commissioner. ”

“ No more than three commissioners may be appointed from the same political party, and the President has the power to remove any commissioner for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. Authority is given to the commission to inquire into the management of the business of all common carriers subject to the provisions of the act and to require the attendance of witnesses and to invoke the aid of any court of the United States for that purpose. ”

“ I speak from experience in saying that nothing can exceed the kindness and urbanity of the Commissioner of Crown Lands to all and every one going to his office for the purpose of taking up land; but it would be obviously impossible for this gentleman, and incompatible with the public duties of himself and his assistants, to enter minutely into the wants and requirements of each individual emigrant, or to give that detailed advice and assistance which in many cases is so absolutely necessary. ”

“ An appreciation of the deep-rooted tendency of our voters to place their cities in charge of men of ordinary ability has led some practical students of the question to assert that the commission plan is foreordained to failure because it provides for the popular election of the city's administrative department heads. "The rock upon which American cities have split is the popular election of administrative officials," a critic observes. The objection touches on the vital problem of the commission government—what the exact function of the elected commissioner should be. ”

“ A commissioner, appointed by the President and Senate, was to control the Bureau, with an office force not exceeding ten clerks. The President might also appoint commissioners in the seceded states, and to all these offices military officials might be detailed at regular pay. ”

“ The control of the various city departments is not brought to a single center but is parceled out into five separate hands. Each commissioner looks after a certain portion of the city’s business; no one is supreme over them all. The commission as a whole is supreme, it is true, but it must trust its own individual members to handle their own branches of work. In other words, the commission plan establishes a five-headed executive ”

“ Article 56 The term of office of a people's commissioner ends upon death, resignation, permanent incapacity, unjustified or unauthorized absence from more than a quarter of the sittings of a session, or when the people's commissioner falls into one of the cases of exclusion provided for in the electoral law. ”

“ And in the case of death, sickness, resignation, or necessary absence, the place of every such Commissioner respectively shall be supplied in the same manner as such Commissioner was first appointed; and the new Commissioner shall take the same oath or affirmation and do the same duties. ”

“ The power of a commissioner, therefore, is judicial in the highest sense,—in the sense of the constitution. His decision cannot be reheard or reëxamined by any judge, or by any court, of any state, or of the United States. In no other case can a commissioner perform any judicial act, or issue any executive order, whose validity may not be reëxamined in the court for which he acts, or in some other. He cannot strike a blow, nor fine a dollar, nor punish by imprisonment for an hour. ”

“ This commission ought to be composed in part of graduates of West Point, in part of captains of police in sympathy with the work, the police commissioner, and one or two civilians, of whom one at least should be a lawyer thoroughly versed in municipal affairs. There is an old adage that, "A commission is a noun of multitude which may signify many, but seldom signifying much;" but we have equally good authority that, "In a multitude of counselors is safety." ”

“ No supernumerary commissioner shall be appointed without being examined, and giving bonds for the administration of his office. No dependent or member of a household of our said president and auditors may be appointed to such commissionership, under penalty that the clerk appointed contrary to this ordinance shall lose all fees and salary for the time during which he shall occupy himself with the commissionership. ”

“ He is but an agent of the commissioner, appointed by him, and removable by him at his pleasure, to procure information needed to aid in the performance of his own official duties. He may appoint one or a dozen persons to do the same thing. ”

“ The commissioner at the head of the department and all officers and employés, including street-sweepers in charge of districts, should be selected solely because of their fitness for their respective duties, and should not be removed except for good and sufficient cause. ”

“ The commissioner is usually an officer in what may be called the prime of Indian official life, about forty years of age, and of about twenty years’ standing in his service. He is usually selected by Government from the executive officers known as collector-magistrates of districts, and the selection not unfrequently causes considerable jealousy and dissatisfaction, especially if the selected commissioner happens to be junior to any of the collector-magistrates in the division to which he is appointed. The commissioner is the local representative of Government in his own division. ”

“ The Commissioner of the General Land Office exercises a general superintendence over the subordinate officers of his department, and is clothed with liberal powers of control, to be exercised for the purposes of justice, and to prevent the consequences of inadvertence, irregularity, mistake, and fraud, in the important and extensive operations of that officer for the disposal of the public domain. ”

“ The Commissioner is independent and subject only to the national Constitution, this Constitution and the law, and must be impartial and must exercise the powers and perform the functions of the office of Commissioner without fear, favour or prejudice. ”

“ Before entering upon his work the commissioner shall take and subscribe his oath to perform his duties faithfully and impartially. He shall prosecute the work with diligence and dispatch, and shall have authority to employ such assistants as may be needed therein, and he shall include in his report a statement of the work done, the time employed, and the expenses incurred. ”

“ And I doubt whether anything else would be more calculated to keep politics permanently away from it than, in conjunction with the extension of the civil service rules over all the inferior places, the establishment of a rule making only engineers of good standing eligible to the office of commissioner.
It may also be objected that a thoroughly upright and very able business man, not a professional engineer, may sometimes be found to fill quite successfully the office of commissioner of public works. ”

“ One commissioner shall be named by His Majesty and one by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and the said two commissioners shall agree on the choice of a third, or, if they can not so agree, they shall each propose one person, and of the two names so proposed one shall be drawn by lot in the presence of the two original commissioners ”

“ The organization and functioning of the Legislative Council shall be determined by its internal regulations. Article 52 The People's Commissioners shall be elected by direct universal suffrage, with one People's Commissioner for every 100,000 inhabitants; each fraction of the population equal to or greater than 50,000 inhabitants shall give the right to one additional People's Commissioner. ”

“ Such commissioners shall be appointed as soon as practicable {265} after the enactment of this Act and shall continue in office two for a term of one year, and the remaining five for terms of two, three, four, five, and six years, respectively, from the date of their appointment, the term of each to be designated by the President, but their successors shall be appointed for terms of six years, except that any person chosen to fill a vacancy shall be appointed only for the unexpired term of the commissioner whom he succeeds. ”

“ For this purpose, General Armstrong and Mr. Bowdoin (both now at Paris) have been appointed joint commissioners: but such a cloud of dissatisfaction rests on General Armstrong in the minds of many persons, on account of a late occurrence stated in all the public papers, that we have in contemplation to add a third commissioner, in order to give the necessary measure of public confidence to the commission. Of these two gentlemen, one being of Massachusetts and one of new York, it is thought the third should be a southern man ”

“ At all points our commissioner will be brought into direct personal touch with the strong men and influences at work in moulding the new developments and his reports will include living touches of these men and influences. ”

“ The variety of the concerns and the magnitude and complexity of the details occupying and dividing the attention of the Commissioner appear to render it difficult, if not impracticable, for that officer by any possible assiduity to bestow on all the multifarious subjects upon which he is called to act the ready and careful attention due to their respective importance, unless the Legislature shall assist him by a law providing, or enabling him to provide, for a more regular and economical distribution of labor, with the incident responsibility among those employed under his direction. ”

“ The duties of a commissioner are almost as varied and numerous as it is possible to imagine, but he must also fully appreciate the doctrine lately enunciated by Mr. Gladstone regarding the duties of the Chancellor 122of the Exchequer. It is not sufficient that he shall deal with all the work that comes to his hand, but he must have time to look about him, and seek for and make work, and initiate those reforms and improvements for which there is such ample opportunity in almost every condition of civilised society. ”

“ Boutwell entered upon his duties as commissioner, yet before he resigned, five months later, he had the office so well established, and its work so thoroughly organized throughout the United States, that its usefulness was assured and it has continued to the present time upon practically the same lines that he laid down. ”

“ In April 1862 he became first commissioner and a salaried officer, resigning the assistant-comptrollership of the exchequer and his membership of the judicial committee of the privy council. Under his presidency the scope of the commission was enlarged from year to year, the test examination of nominees for civil appointments being succeeded by limited competition as recommended by Lord Derby's committee of 1860, and that being followed by open competition as established by the order in council of June 1870. ”