District commissioner

“ Like the members of the Etowah County Commission before the consent decree change, Russell County Commissioners were elected at large by the entire electorate, subject to a requirement that a candidate for commissioner reside in the district corresponding to the seat he or she sought. ”

“ I think it would be much better to put complete control and responsibility in the District Commissioners, and then provide a board of school visitors, to be appointed by the Supreme Court of the District or by the President, from the different school districts of Washington, who, representing local needs, shall meet and make recommendations to the Commissioners and to the Superintendent of Education—an educator of ability and experience who should be an appointee of and responsible to the District Commissioners. ”

“ The commissioner, with the approval of the President, is to divide each district into a number of sub-districts, not to exceed the number of counties or parishes in each State, and to assign to each sub-district at least one agent, either a citizen, officer of the army, or enlisted man, who, if an officer, is to serve without additional compensation or allowance, and if a citizen or enlisted man, is to receive a salary not exceeding $1,500 per annum. ”

“ The Commissioner shall consult the council of each such district as is mentioned in subsection (4) (c) above as to the arrangements that would be appropriate for the part of the district for which it falls to him to make arrangements. ”

“ All other employees including municipal and municipal district officials shall be appointed by the Commissioner concerned, upon the recommendation of the proper chief or director of bureau or office, from the list of eligibles as certified by the Director of Civil Service, but in the case of municipal mayors and municipal council members, the recommendation of the governor concerned shall be sufficient. ”

“ In 1874 Congress substituted a government by three commissioners appointed by the president with the concurrence of the Senate, and in 1878 the government by commissioners was made permanent. Two of the commissioners must be residents of the District, and the third commissioner must be an officer of the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army. The people of the District have no voice in its government, have no representation in Congress and do not vote for the president of the United States. ”

“ 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. ”

“ While therefore each of those small communities is liable to be biassed by individual interest or feeling, it will hardly be deemed inexpedient to recommend some central control over the District Commissioners, that may have the effect of regulating the eccentricity of their measures, as well as giving their views, in many instances, a better direction. ”

“ III. A majority of the supervisors of any school commissioner district may increase the salary of said school commissioner; the increased salary must be levied upon the towns composing such commissioner district.
Q What must county officers do, before entering upon the duties of their office?
A. Take the oath prescribed by State Constitution in Art. XII,
Sec. I.
Q. What county officers are required in addition to the oath prescribed to execute a bond for the faithful performance of their duties?
A. Sheriff, county treasurer, surrogate and county superintendents of the poor. ”

“ The commissioners are generally empowered to conduct the District's business. They have the power to subpoena witnesses and to administer oaths in investigating District affairs, Tenn.Code Ann. § 6-2616 (5) (1955) , and they serve for only nominal compensation. Tenn.Code Ann. § 6-2615 (Supp.1970) . Plainly, commissioners who are beholden to an elected public official for their appointment, and are subject to removal procedures applicable to all public officials, qualify as 'individuals who are responsible to public officials or to the general electorate' within the Board's test. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They are responsible to the lieutenant-governor, each in his own division, for the working of every department of the public service, except the military department, and the branches of the administration directly under the control of the supreme government. The deputy commissioners perform the functions of district magistrates, district judges, collectors and registrars, besides the miscellaneous duties which fall to the principal district officer as representative of government. ”

“ All municipal governments are but agencies of the superior power of the state or government by which they are constituted, and are invested with only such subordinate powers of local legislation and control as the superior legislature sees fit to confer upon them. The form of those agencies and the mode of appointing officials to execute them are matters of legislative discretion. Commissioners are not unfrequently appointed by the legislature or executive of a state for the administration of municipal affairs, or some portion thereof, sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. ”

“ Here there will be a distinct danger in electing commissioners at large at a single election at which are chosen those who obtain the highest votes, even though less than a majority. If the choice is to be by a plurality at a single election the municipality should be divided into wards with a single commissioner elected from each, but no candidate should be required to reside in the ward where he stands for election. The Hare plan is entirely available and consistent with the choice of commissioners from wieldy districts. ”

“ The reason why this small body can administer with dispatch and efficiency is seen at a glance. Each commissioner is the head of a department for which he is personally responsible. He is not hindered as is the executive at present by an inefficient and meddling council which has more power, often, than the executive himself. He knows the laws for he has helped to make them. It is his business to see that they are executed, and if they are not, he cannot escape blame. He cannot plead ignorance, lack of responsibility, or lack of power as do present administrative officers. ”

“ The supposed advantage of electing commissioners at large from an unwieldy district is that this method insures the candidacy and election of men prominent in the entire district and hence more fit to hold office. ”

“ The said General Board of Commissioners, in executive council assembled, have this day chosen, and by these presents do hereby appoint and authorize Dr. Martin Robison Delany, of Chatham County of Kent, Province of Canada, Chief Commissioner, and Robert Douglass, Esq., Artist, and Professor Robert Campbell, Naturalist, both of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one of the United States of America, to be Assistant Commissioners ”

“ 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. ”

“ Political parties no longer have any opportunity of putting men of little ability into office, but instead, competent men with a genuine interest in the city affairs and with no party affiliations whatever, so far as municipal affairs are concerned, will be attracted to the position of commissioner.
The opposition go further and charge that, even though efficient men may be elected to office, the commission plan makes impossible the fixing of responsibility. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Under the terms of the act of 1894 the governing authority in each is a council consisting of members elected for three years, women being eligible. There are no aldermen, and no (p. 187) mayor is chosen. The council elects its own chairman and other officers, and it meets at least once a month. Its functions, of which the most important is the control of sanitation and of highways, are discharged largely through the agency of committees. The district council possesses none of the police and judicial privileges which the borough councils commonly enjoy. ”

“ The executive is only one of a number of commissioners having responsibility without control, and occasionally it has happened that an official, such as the state treasurer, has been designated in the commission in such manner as to impose the duties upon the individual and not the incumbent of the office. It is a custom more honored in the breach than in the observance. Where governments have fallen, it has generally been because of encroachments by one department upon the province of others. ”

“ A commission member shall not have been an elected official and shall not have been an elected legislative district, county, or state political party officer within two years of his or her appointment to the commission. The provisions of this subsection do not apply to the office of precinct committee person. (4) The legislature shall enact laws providing for the implementation of this section, to include additional qualifications for commissioners and additional standards to govern the commission. The legislature shall appropriate funds to enable the commission to carry out its duties. ”

“ The executive committee, composed of the leaders of the assembly districts and the chairman and treasurer of the county committee, is the real working body of the great committee. It attends to all important routine matters, selects candidates for office, and conducts their campaigns. It is customary for the members of the general committee to designate the district leaders for the executive committee, but they are elected by their own districts respectively at the annual primary elections. The district leader is a very important wheel in the machine. ”

“ Its aim is to secure “coordinating comprehensive plans of highways and roads, parks and parkways, and all other means of intercommunication; water supply, sewerage and sewage disposal, collection and disposal of garbage, housing, sanitation and health, playgrounds, civic centers, and other public improvements that will affect the character of the district as a whole or more than one political unit within the district.” [163] The aims of the commission can be realized only by recommendation to the several governmental units contained in the district. ”

“ Commission government was for many years a fad in this country, and it has become discredited, so that of late we have been doing away with commissions and coming to single heads for departments having executive functions and some minor legislative functions, such as park boards, and police boards, and have been trying to concentrate responsibility in that way. In Erie County and throughout New York a commission elected by the people governs our counties. The board of supervisors is a commission government. It has never been creditable—always bad, even as compared with our city governments. ”

“ It is proposed that the commissioners should divide the country into relief districts, and cause the lands of each to be surveyed and valued, with the names of all proprietors of houses or lands and of all lessees and occupiers thereof, and the annual value of such houses and lands respectively, the same to be lodged at such place within the district as the commissioners shall appoint, and public notice thereof to be given. ”

“ 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 administration of the city departments is largely in the hands of commissions. There is one commissioner each, appointed by the mayor, for the parks and boulevards, police and public works departments. The four members of the health board are nominated by the governor and confirmed by the state senate. The school board is an independent body, consisting of one elected member from each ward holding office for four years, but the mayor has the veto power over its proceedings as well as those of the common council. ”