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First of all, the word "including" on page
7 is contrary to what Delegate Adkins pro-
poses because in the law that is not a
limiting word and consequently I think that
would be interpreted contrary to the in-
terpretation of Delegate Adkins.
The second comment I would like to
make concerns another provision, I take it
the Committee has in mind that the gov-
ernor comes in with a full plan sitting on
a change and section 4.19, as it is drafted,
would not permit the legislature to make
any amendments to the governor's plan. It
takes it in toto or it rejects it in toto. It
occurs to me that that may raise as a
matter of practice a number of problems
and I would suggest to the Committee that
it might give some thought to the amenda-
tory power in the legislature in order to
make this more workable.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Storm.
DELEGATE STORM: The Committee
did consider Delegate Hardwicke's proposal
and I think we debated that at least one
day and we finally decided that they should
have the right to amend and we finally
decided we would leave it the way it is.
Really, we do not need to go back to the
Committee. I am perfectly willing to, I
think Delegate Adkins really explained it,
but maybe a country boy can give it a little
bit clearer.
Let us go back and suppose that auto-
mobiles had just been invented. The legis-
lature would say, "Well, we are going to
register automobiles and license drivers and
pass laws regarding their operation." The
governor would not be able to do this. The
legislature would do this and they would
set up at that time, we will say, a depart-
ment of motor vehicles to handle the regis-
tration of the cars and the registration
and licensing of drivers. Then they would
have created a function, prescribed a func-
tion and set up an agency to handle it.
The governor would then be able to take
that department of motor vehicles and put
it in one big licensing bureau that would
license everything, lawyers, doctors, drivers,
motor vehicles, and so on. He would not be
able to change the requirement that li-
censes be required of drivers or that regis-
tration be required of cars.
Does this explain the difference? Section
4.18 is absolutely necessary because that
gives the legislature the right to pass the
laws and establish the programs and the
big legislative policies.
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Section 4.19 says and repeats that the
legislature shall do this and then it says
the governor may make changes in the or-
ganization of the executive branch. We had
an argument over the next part "including
the establishment or abolition of principal
departments and the assignment of func-
tions among its units which he considers
necessary for efficient administration". But
we finally agreed on giving him this vast
power because we were strengthening his
hand but we did not want to give him the
right to prescribe the functions and do
away with the legislature entirely. I do
not believe we need to go back to the Com-
mittee. I think the way we worked it out
was all right. The legislature will pre-
scribe the functions and really say what the
policy or what the law will do and the
governor has the right to say who will do
what.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Scanlan.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: I do not want
to contribute to semantics here today.
Judge Adkins' lucid presentation clarifies
what I thought was clear, that there is no
necessary contradiction between the lan-
guage "by law" in 4.18 and the language in
4.19. The only possibility of contradiction
arises if Mrs. Maurer's amendment is suc-
cessful and the temporary section is
stricken. Then the contradiction only arises
if one takes the position that an executive
order having the force of law is neverthe-
less "by law" as used in 4.18. I think there
is not a difference but others may think
otherwise. I think the Committee's task of
clarification would be somewhat reduced, if
not eliminated, if we decided in the first in-
stance we were going to vote Delegate
Maurer's amendment up or down.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate White.
DELEGATE WHITE: Mr. Chairman,
I rise at this time on the point of personal
privilege.
THE CHAIRMAN: State your privilege.
DELEGATE WHITE: I would like to
share with the Convention a note that was
delivered to me just a few minutes ago:
"Dear Delegate White,
"You are really making progress at
the Convention. Yesterday, you told us
that you read in the paper that someone
had an apartment to rent to you. When I
looked out the window this morning, they
changed the color of the whole area to
match your name.
Signed, Delegate Taylor"
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