Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 25

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations > Part 25

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(The foregoing prescribes the duties assigned the Super- visors touching the erection of the Penitentiary. It is an- other important instance in which the interests of the city and county are intimately united. The directions as to the management, etc., of the Penitentiary will he considered elsewhere.)

This act of April 13, 1844, was amended by an act passed May 13, 1847. The Penitentiary had then been lo- cated and erected in the City of Albany, and had been the receptacle of prisoners for over one year and a half. The amendment to which we have alluded, therefore, referred to the convicts in the said Penitentiary, their government and management, etc.

ANOTHER ACT IN REGARD TO THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY .- The act of 1849 repealed the law di- recting the Board of Supervisors to fix the fees of District Attorneys. About that time, that office was a salaried office, the salary being fixed by the Board of Supervisors.

ALTERATION OF TOWN BOUNDARIES .- The duties of the Legislature in regard to the alteralion of town boundaries and the erection of new towns had increased to such an enormous extent that the matter of vesting in the Board of Supervisors certain legislative powers began to be largely agitated in the State. This agitation culminated on April 3, 1849, in an act entitled

" An Act to vest in the Board of Supervisors certain legislative powers, and to prescribe their fees for certain services."

Section I of the act empowers the Board of Supervisors to alter the town boundaries upon the application to the Board of at least twelve freeholders of the town, and, with Sec. 2, prescribes the necessary steps to be taken in re- gard to the alteration of boundaries or the erection of new towns.

Sec. 3 authorizes them to name the new town, and under what circumstances the new name shall be given.

Sec. 4, with fourteen subdivisions thereto, authorizes the Supervisor to purchase lands on which to erect poor- houses; to purchase any real estate necessary for the erec. tion of any court-house, jail, Clerk's or Surrogate's office, poorhouse, or any other county buildings, and to erect such buildings; to fix the site of any such building; to au- thorize the sale or leasing of any real estate belonging to the county; to remove or designate a new site for any county building when such a removal shall not exceed one mile; to raise money by tax for the erection of such buildings, not exceeding the sum of $5,000 in any one year; to borrow money for the use of such county, to be expended in the purchase of real estate or the erection of public buildings; to authorize any town in a county, by a vote of such town, to borrow any sum of money, not exceeding $4,000 in one

year, to build or repair any roads or bridges in such town, and to prescribe the time for the payment of the same, which shall be within ten years, and for assessing the prin- ciple and interest thereof upon such town; to fix the time and place for holding their annual meeting; to extend and determine, by resolution at their annual meeting, the time when each collector in the county shall make return to the county treasurer; but such time shall in no case extend be- yond the first day of March then next.

To make laws, and to provide for the enforcement of the same, for the destruction of wild beasts, thistles and other noxious weeds; to prevent the injury and destruction of sheep by dogs, and to levy and enforce the collection of any tax upon dogs, and to direct the application of such tax; to provide for the protection of all kinds ot game; of shell and other fish within the waters of their respective counties.

This section repealed all laws of this State then existing in relation to preserving or destroying and taking wild beasts or birds, fish and shellfish, which repeal took place on the first day of January, 1850.

COUNTY OFFICERS TO REPORT CONCERNING SALARY. -An important feature of this act required any officer of Albany County and other counties, whose salary is to be paid by the county, to make a re- port under oath, to the Supervisor of the county, on any subject or matter whatever connected with the duties of their office; and to make such report whenever called upon by resolution of any such board. A neglect or refusal on the part of any such officer was made a misdemeanor. Provisions are made in the said act for loaning money from the Comptroller, by towns, on the execution by the Supervisor of such towns. The act established the following FEES FOR SUPERVISORS :

Each Supervisor shall receive, over and above the per diem compensation now allowed by law, eight cents per mile for all necessary travel in the discharge of his official duties, and three cents for each name (for making a copy of the assessment roll of his town, and making out the tax bill to be delivered to the collector) for the first hundred names, two cents per name for the second hundred names, and one cent per name for each name over two hundred. But no per diem allowance shall be made to any Supervisor while employed in making out such copy or tax.

SUPERVISOR A SALARIED OFFICER .- An important act touching the office of Supervisor in the County of Albany was passed, April 13, 1857; it made it a salaried office, and regulated the compensation of the clerk. We give the act entire :

Section 1. Every Supervisor elected for any town or Super- visor district in the County of Albany shall receive, as a com- pensation for his services and expenses as such Supervisor, a salary as such Supervisor of one hundred dollars per annum, besides the travel fees now allowed by law; and no such Supervisor shall be paid or shall receive any other or greater sum than as herein provided for any services or ex- penses as such Supervisor, or as an agent or committee of the Board of Supervisors of said county.

Sec. 2. It shall not be lawful for the Board of Supervisors of said county to pay for the services of any clerk or clerks of the said Board a greater amount in the aggregate than the sum of five hundred dollars in any one year.

Sec. 3. No member of the Board ot Supervisors of the County of Albany shall vote for any extra allowance to any person who is paid by salary; nor shall the Treasurer of said county knowingly pay to any such person any extra allowance. Every offense against the provisions of this section shall be a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not less than the amount of such extra allowance, or by im- prisonment in the county jail for a period not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Sec. 4. This act shall take effect immediately.

HISTORY OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

By the act of April 15, 1859, the Supervisors of each ward of the City of Albany are directed to be elected at the Charter election held upon the second Tuesday of April of each year. The act repeals all other laws inconsistent therewith.

SALARY OF SUPERVISORS .- The Act of May 3, 1871, fixed the salary of the Supervisors of Albany County, in the following language :

Sec. I. Every Supervisor hereafter to be elected for any town or ward in the County of Albany shall receive as a compensation for his service and expenses as such Super- visor a salary of three hundred and fifty dollars per annum, . besides travel fees now allowed by law; and no such Super- visor shall be paid or shall receive any other or greater sum than is herein provided for any services or expenses as such Supervisor or as an agent or Committee of the Board of Supervisors of said County, except for copying assessment books, for which the Supervisor of the town of Watervliet shall receive not to exceed the sum of seventy-five dollars, and the Supervisors of the remaining towns and wards of the County not to exceed twenty-five dollars each.

Sec. 2. Every offense against the provisions of the above section shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars, or by im- prisonment in the County jail for a period not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

AMENDMENT OF ABOVE ACT .- The Legislature passed an act June 7, 1875, amending section 1 of the act in relation lo the salary of Supervisors of Albany County above described, so as to read as follows :

SUPERVISORS' COMPENSATION.

Every Supervisor hereafter to be elected for any town or ward in the County of Albany shall receive as a compensa- tion for his services and expenses as such Supervisor a sal- ary of three hundred and fifty dollars per annum, besides travel fees now allowed by law; and no Supervisor shall be paid or shall receive any other or greater sum than is herein provided for any services or expenses as such Super- visor, or as an agent or Committee of the Board of Super. visors of said County, except for copying and extending as- sessment books, for which the Supervisor of the town of Watervliet shall receive not to exceed the sum of seventy- five dollars, and the Supervisors of the remaining towns and the City of Cohoes not to exceed twenty-five dollars each. The work of copying and extending the assessment books of the several wards of the City of Albany shall be hereafter done by the assessors of the said City of Albany, who shall be paid for such work not to exceed in all the sum of twenty-five dollars for each ward in said city.

FURTHER POWERS OF LOCAL LEGISLATION .- We have already referred to the powers of local legislation of Boards of Supervisors, by an act of the Legislature, passed June 7, 1875. Further powers of local legislation and administration were conferred on the Boards of Supervisors in the several counties of this State, except in cities whose boundaries are the same as those of the county, to make and administer within their respective counties laws and regulations as follows:

To purchase, or otherwise acquire for the use of the county, real estate for sites for court houses, clerks' offices, and other buildings for county offices, and for jails and such other places of confinement as may be authorized or required by law; to borrow money on county bonds, or other county obligations, for a period not exceeding fifteen years, to be paid in annual installments, for the purposes specified in this subdivision; but in all cases where a supposed issue of county bonds shall, with the amount of bonds issued under any previous authority and still outstanding, exceed the sum of $1,000, no additional issue shall be authorized, except in the Counties of Albany, Erie and Kings, unless by the consent of a majority of all the electors voting on the question; to change the location of county buildings, and to sell or apply to other county uses the old sites and buildings in cases where the location may be changed, and to apply the proceeds

toward the payment of obligations incurred for new sites and buildings, and subject to Section 15, Art. 6, of the con- stitution; to fix the salaries and per diem allowance of county officers, whose compensation may be a county charge and which shall not be changed during the term of such officers respectively, and to prescribe the mode of appointment and to fix the number, grades and pay of the deputies, clerks and subordinate employees in such offices; to authorize the location and construction of any bridge (except on the Hudson River below Waterford, and on the East River or over the waters forming the houndaries of the State ) which shall be applied for in any of the towns jointly, or by any corporation in form pursuant to the general laws of the State, or by any corporation or individual for private purposes; and in case of a public bridge erected by a corporation, to establish the rates of toll collected for crossing such bridge. Where any bridge crosses any navigable stream or water, a suitable draw must be erected to prevent any impeding of the navigation in such stream or water, and in case of a private bridge the draw shall be kept open to permit all vessels to pass without loss of headway. Where any bridge shall be on any stream or water forming at the point of crossing the dividing line of counties, the action of the Board of Supervisors of each county shall be necessary to give the jurisdiction permitted by the act; to apportion the expenses of bridges over streams or other water forming boundary line of counties, and in all such counties shall each pay not less than one-sixth of the expenses of such bridge. If the bridge is of great benefit to the county, and the payment of two-thirds of the expenses by the towns liable would be unjust to the towns, the Super- visors shall determine the additional proportion, and what proportion of such expenses to be borne by the counties; to direct that the care of the bridges, the main- tenance of which are a joint charge on the counties; to authorize the towns to borrow money for bridge purposes. The Supervisors have powers, under certain conditions, over plank, macadamized or turnpike roads, and over streets and avenues in territories adjoining a city; to lay out highways of a less width than is required by law, and of reducing highways now in existence; to cause surveys to be made, at the cost of the town, of any and all highways in such town, and to make a complete and systematic record thereof, and to cause records to be placed with the Town Clerk; to authorize the County Treasurer to extend the time for collection of State, county and town taxes in any town or ward, to a period not beyond the first day of April in any year, under certain conditions ; to impose taxes on dogs ; to direct the payment by Justices of the Peace of all fines and penalties imposed by and paid to such Justices; to enact laws for the preservation of game and fish; to di. rect the employment of offenders below the grade of felons; to establish the jail limits of the county jails for the pur- poses defined by statutes ; to call and hold special town- meetings ; to authorize any town, under certain conditions, to purchase a site for a town or village hall, and to pur- chase or erect buildings for such a hall, and to raise money for the care, preservation and improvement of such halls ; to authorize any incorporated village, under certain conditions, whose charter does not give sufficient power, to purchase apparatus for the extinguishing of fire, etc., etc .; to give the proper authorities general power over village or town cemetery lots ; to authorize any town which shall make application therefor, by the vote of an annual town meeting, to elect a receiver instead of a collector of taxes, whenever the aggregate of State, county and town taxes in such town shall exceed the sum of fifty thousand dollars ; to authorize the annual town meetings and all special town meetings in a town to be held by election dis- tricts; to designate, under conditions, the number of Assess- ors in each town, and to increase the compensation to an amount not exceeding three dollars per diem ; to au- thorize Trustees of Boards of Education, in any union free school district established according to law, to sell or ex- change real estate; to determine after the 15th of Novem- per, 1875-except in the County of Kings -- in what newspa- pers, not exceeding two, the election notice issued by the Secretary of State, and the official canvass, shall be pub- lished, and to fix the compensation for such publication; but in places where publication shall be ordered to be made in two newspapers, such papers shall be of opposite political character.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

EXTENDING THE TERM OF SUPERVISORS .- The act of May 14, 1878, provides that the Supervisors of the several towns and wards in cities, in the Coun- ties of Albany, Livingston, Rensselaer and Mon- roe, shall be elected and hold office for a term of two years ; it is also provided that all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act, so far as the same applies to the County of Albany, are repealed ; and the said act took effect at the first election in 1879.

CLAIMS AGAINST THE COUNTY. - A very important act in relation to the powers and duties of the Board of Supervisors of Albany County was passed by the Legislature, May 14, 1881. This act was in reference to claims and demands against the County of Albany, making it necessary to have all such claims passed upon by the Board of Super- visors, and that all claims presented to the Board in the form of accounts must be itemized and veri- fied, and after being presented to the Clerk of the Board they are to be printed under the direction of the said Clerk, at an expense not exceeding the or- dinary price for such work, and distributed under his direction to each member of the Board within eight days after such accounts have been presented. No claim or demand against the county of the above character shall be in any manner acted upon by the Board (except to refer the same to an appropriate committee for examination and report) until three days after such account has been printed and distributed as required. It is a misdemeanor to neglect the directions afore- said.

" The account," continues the act, " must state when and where the work was performed and material furnished, under what contract or under what authority it was performed and the materials furnished; and must state, with reasonable de- tail, the character and amount of the work done, and the ma- terials furnished. It must contain the name of each person interested in the same, or who makes any claim to any sbare or portion of the sum to be paid."

VERIFICATION .- It must be verified by one, at least, of the parties in whose name the same is presented, and must be to the effect that the same is presented in the name or names of the real party or parties in interest, and that the contract was not made, or the work performed, or materials furnished, in the name of one person for the interest of an- other; and that no county officer, or member of any board or commission of the county or salaried employee thereof, is or has been, directly or indirectly, interested therein, either in the doing of the work or furnishing the material, or has been paid or promised anything for the letting of the con- tract; that the work, as charged, was actually done, and the material specified was actually furnished and used at the time and places mentioned, and are of the value charged, or at the prices specified in the contract ; that no bill has been presented nor claim made therefor, for the payment of such work or materials, or fur any part or item of such work or materials, except as therein stated; and if such bill has been theretofore presented, or such claim has been theretofore made for the whole, or any part thereof, it shall be stated to whom or what board, body or commission it was presented or made, the time or times thereof, and the action of such person, board, body or commission thereon, and when such action was taken.

In no county of the State is the law touching the presen- tation and payment of claims to the Board of Supervisors more strictly or more properly guarded than in Albany County.

BLANKS FOR VERIFICATION. - The Clerk of the Board prepares a printed blank form of verification,

to be approved by the District Attorney, gratui- tously to all persons demanding the same.

PROCEEDINGS TO BE PRINTED .- The proceedings of the Board of Supervisors must be printed and distributed under the direction of the clerk within the time mentioned for the printing and distribution of the aforesaid accounts.

PAYMENT OF TEN DOLLARS .- Upon payment of ten dollars to the County Treasurer of the county any tax-payer may have for one year a printed copy of the proceedings of the Board, and of the printed bills as they are from time to time distributed, and at the times above described for their delivery to the members of the Board, delivered to him at some place to be designated by him, and within one-quarter of a mile from the place where the Board holds its meetings.

PERSONS EXEMPTED .- None of the provisions of this act shall be held to effect the salaries of county officers, or the mode or manner in which payment is made, nor the wages of the laborers of the City of Albany. None of the provisions of this act shall apply to the employment of counsel to aid the Dis- trict Attorney in any legal matters in which the county is interested when such employment is by authority of law.

EXTENDING POWERS OF LOCAL LEGISLATION .- The act of 1875, conferring on Boards of Supervisors further local powers of legislation and administra- tion, and regulating the compensation of Super- visors, was amended by an act of the Legislature, passed April 10, 1882; but the Counties of Albany, New York, Rensselaer, Kings, Oneida and Erie were exempted from the amendments of that act.

SUPERVISORS AND DISTRICT ATTORNEYS.

The act of May 22, 1882, empowers the District Attorney of any county in which a capital case is to be tried, with the approval in writing of the County Judge of the county, which shall first be filed in the County Clerk's office, to employ counsel to assist him on such trials, at the cost and expense of the county, after being andited by the Board of Super- visors of the county in which the indictment on the case was found; and the amount shall be assessed, levied and collected by the Board of Supervisors of such county at its next annual assessment, levy and collection of county taxes after such services shall have been performed, and thereupon paid to the party entitled to the same.

COUNTY BUILDINGS .- Some of the provisions of the act of April 3, 1849, are modified by the act of May 28, 1884 (as well as some acts previous to this date ), especially in that it requires

Detailed statements to be made and proposals for doing work and furnishing goods for any county buildings. It directs the form of the proposals, and that they shall be presented to the County Treasurer; defines the duties of the County Treasurer touching the same, and in case he sball refuse to order the materials to be furnished, or the work to be done, under any of the proposals, on the grounds that the work is unnecessary, or that its expense is not a county charge, or that he has reason to believe that any fraud is being practiced upon the county connected with it, he shall give the county officer or person making the requisition, and also to any tax payer filing with him written objections to his granting an order for work or materials, written notice, of a time and place within ten days after receiving the re- quisition, when the matter will be brought to the attention of the County Judge. The act then defines the duties of the County Judge as to hearing the matter and things con- nected therewith and the time and place of hearing and

HISTORY OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.

within what time his order or decision in the matter shall be made, and provides for an appeal to the General Term of the Supreme Court from his order or judgment.

It defines the duties of officers having charge of county buildings in the County of Albany, in regard to the work of superintending repairs or alterations to be made by them on such buildings. It renders it obligatory on him to super- intend such work. It defines the duties of the treasurer of Albany County in regard to the payment of bills for such work; and if the treasurer refuses to pay any bill for fur- nishing material or doing such work, under the provisions of this act, the parties not paid may present their account to the Board of Supervisors of the County in the form and manner, and with the verifications required by the law we have already quoted, a verified claim thereof, attaching thereto a copy of the detailed statement made in respect thereto, etc., etc.

EXPENSE LIMITED BY ACT .- No expense exceeding two hundred dollars in amount shall be incurred during any one period of six months, from January first or July first, in any year, for any one alteration or repair, or for alterations or repairs of the same character to or in connection with any one building, or except for fuel, or any materials, or supplies of the same general character or class, to or in connection with the use of any one building, unless it shall have been previously authorized by a Board of Supervisors of the County of Albany.

The act makes strong regulations in regard to any sta- tionery or printing of any kind, including blank forms used in the Surrogate's and District Attorney's offices.

It directs that the salaries of the Members of the Board of Supervisors of Albany County shall be paid, one-half there- of on December first in each year, and the other half at the time of final adjournment sine die, every fall session of said Board. It also directs that the provisions of the act shall not apply to the Penitentiary, Almshouse, the City Hall in the City of Albany, or to the care, repairs, alterations or management thereof.

We have now given the statutory and legal his- tory of the Board of Supervisors of Albany County. In it will be found, substantially, all the important acts of the Legislature concerning the powers and duties of these Supervisors from the organization of the State Government down to the present time. It is interesting to observe how those powers and duties gradually extended and widened out from a mere Board of County and Town Audit into a leg- islative body which has taken from the State Leg- islature a very large part of its powers to enact local laws touching towns in the County. These powers having been conferred upon the Board of Supervisors from time to time.

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Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 25

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452