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THE CHAIRMAN: To whom?
DELEGATE MASON: Chairman Mor-
gan.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does anyone desire
to speak?
DELEGATE MASON: Since I cannot
ask a question, I would like to speak in
favor of the Board of Public Works. I
have to have the question resolved.
The Committee Report in section 4.20
states that "The head of each principal de-
partment of the executive branch, includ-
ing the chief legal officer and the chief
fiscal officer, shall be a single executive
unless otherwise provided by law."
It says, "When a board or commission is
at the head of a principal department, a
chief administrative officer shall be pro-
vided for it by law."
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-half
minute.
DELEGATE MASON: In our discussions
in the Committee is was agreed that all
board and commissions as far as possible
should not be policy making boards. I am
wondering how we can establish a Board
of Public Works under the draft article
proposed by the Executive Branch Com-
mittee when all department heads must be
single executives, and if there should be a
board, a chief administrative officer should
be provided.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recognizes
Delegate Gallagher for one minute.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man and ladies and gentlemen of the Com-
mittee: I think it should be made quite
clear that when the legislature elects a
treasurer, although they are fine men, that
is about the last the legislature sees the
treasurer. As a matter of fact, there is a
man sitting as delegate who tried to buck
the individual who was selected by the ad-
ministration to be treasurer, and he did
not make it.
I think all this about representatives of
the Board of Public Works is fine in theory,
but in practice it can turn out to be a far
different thing. The Board of Public Works
has but one constitutional purpose, and that
is the borrowing of money to meet tem-
porary deficiencies.
Under the 1864 Constitution the General
Assembly was given this power. The power
has in effect gone from one place to an-
other.
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May I say in summation that the ques-
tion of the existence of a Board of Public
Works seems to me really not to fall strictly
under the executive, but constitutes rather
a fourth tripartite type of existence such
as was described by Mr. Gleason. I think
that all the reasons which have been ad-
vanced with respect to why it ought not
to be included in the constitution have re-
mained valid throughout this debate.
DELEGATE MORGAN: Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: May I intro-
duce one little note of levity in these pro-
ceedings?
Governor McKeldin was testifying before
our Committee, and he was asked whether
the State of Maryland had gotten along
pretty well with the Board of Public Works,
with its elected comptroller and elected at-
torney general.
He thought a minute, and said, "The only
way I can answer the question is to recall
an incident in Baltimore City, when an
Irish policeman came upon a drunk leaning
against the lamp post, and said, 'My man,
if you want to stand here, you better move
on.' "
(Laughter.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The question arises
on the adoption of the amendment to the
Committee Report. In view of the Chair's
rather short answer to the parliamentary
inquiry of Delegate Schneider, I think I
should amplify somewhat what the Chair
conceives to be the procedure. We now
have under consideration Committee Report
EB-1. The next matter on the agenda is
Committee Recommendation EB-1. The
Chair has heretofore followed the practice
and has announced that a rising of the
Committee of the Whole for purposes of
meal recesses would not be deemed to be
a rising of the Committee so as to prevent
consideration of matters that otherwise
would be proper to be considered before the
same session of the Committee of the
Whole.
If, however, the Committee of the Whole
rises to report and does report on a matter,
that matter is not, under the rules, there-
after subject to consideration of the Com-
mittee of the Whole. Accordingly, the pro-
cedure, as the Chair conceives it, is this:
The matter now before you is the adop-
tion of the amendment. If the amendment
is adopted, then paragraph 1 of the report
as amended is before you, and will be sub-
mitted to your vote.
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