Amen.
(Whereupon, a roll call was made.)
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Carson,
Delegate Grumbacher, Delegate Hardwicke,
Delegate Harkness, Delegate O'Conor, Dele-
gate Pullen, Delegate Webster.
The Clerk will record the roll call.
There being a quorum present, the Con-
vention is in session.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Powers,
Chairman of the Committee on Calendar
and Agenda.
DELEGATE POWERS: Mr. President,
I move the adoption of the calendar and
agenda.
(The motion was duly seconded.)
THE PRESIDENT: Is there any discus-
sion?
(There was no response.)
All those in favor, signify by saying Aye;
contrary. No. The Ayes have it. It is so
ordered. The calendar is adopted.
The first item of business are reports of
standing committees. Among those, the first
item is consideration of the Third Report
of the Committee on Rules, Credentials and
Convention Budget proposing an amend-
ment to the rules by adopting a new Chap-
ter 9, compensation for absences. This re-
port was circulated to you last week. You
should have copies. The Chair recognizes
Delegate Scanlan, Chairman of the Com-
mittee, and suggests that he come forward
and speak from the Clerk's desk.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: Mr. President,
fellow delegates, today I have the honor to
present to the Convention with a favorable
recommendation the Third Report of our
committee. In this report we recommend
that the Convention adopt a new chapter 9,
consisting of three sections, three rules,
dealing with the question of attendance, ab-
sence, and penalties for absence.
Our committee was requested by a num-
ber of people including the President to deal
with this subject. A subcommittee composed
of Delegate Sickles as Chairman, Delegate
Malkus, and Delegate Grant looked into the
issue—pardon me, I think Delegate Mason
was also a member of the subcommittee.
They discussed it informally with repre-
sentatives of the attorney general's office
who advised them just the other day by
telephone that the proposed rule suffices
from the legal point of view. |
We begin, of course, with the statutory
language, which is found in chapter 5 of the
companion Enabling Act. It is set forth on
page I of the explanatory comment and we
read this rule to give this Convention the
power to adopt by rule the standard which
would control for deciding that a delegate
was present and entitled to receive his
$25.00 a day compensation, and the stand-
ards which would control for determining
whether a delegate was absent and thus
subject to the penalty of a $15.00 a day
deduction for unexcused absence.
The Committee will concede that lawyers
and others could read the statutory lan-
guage in a more limited fashion. It is
possible to argue with some cogency that
the phrase "as determined by the rules of
the Convention," appearing in the next to
last line of Section I of Chapter 5, refers
only to a determination of what is an au-
thorized committee or an authorized sub-
committee, or an authorized session of the
Convention.
On the other hand it can be read broadly,
as your Committee has elected to read it.
The language can be read broadly to modify
the whole sentence and to make it clear that
this Convention has a rule-making authority
to deal with the subject.
Let me say at the outset, the standard
that we have selected is a clear and reason-
ably simple standard, and also as I will
indicate in a minute, represents the Com-
mittee's view that the standard be a strict
one. In brief, we propose that if a delegate
is present at either a session of the Con-
vention, or a meeting of a committee or a
subcommittee of the Convention on a par-
ticular day, then he is present for the pur-
pose of being entitled to his $25.00 expendi-
ture or payment. On the other hand, if he
is not in attendance at any of those enum-
erated, that is, either a session of the Con-
vention or a committee meeting or a sub-
committee meeting on a particular day, he
is not entitled to receive his $25.00 expendi-
ture.
With respect to whether or not a person
may be excused and thus be saved from the
penalty of the $15.00 deduction from his
salary, the committee has adopted what we
believe is a fairly stringent rule.
We propose that a delegate shall be ex-
cused by the President from attendance at
sessions of the Convention or meetings of
any authorized committee or subcommittee
thereof, due to illness, death in the immedi-
ate family, or other reasons beyond the
control of the delegate, and the excused
absence shall be entered upon the minutes. |
