|
have the question of the veto. Now, of
course, this would be precluded under your
new amendment, I understand that, but
perhaps in order to get some light on this,
we ought to discuss what powers the gov-
ernor would have that would be delegable,
if you will, to the lieutenant governor. I
think that we might be able to clear it up
because as of right now I am —
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: I believe Gov-
ernor Agnew testified before our Committee
that if we provided a lieutenant governor
for him he would use a lieutenant governor
to sit in for the governor and act for the
governor on various boards and commis-
sions of which the governor was a member
but did not have time enough to partici-
pate in. That is one function that Gov-
ernor Agnew said he expected to use the
lieutenant governor for.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: This is pre-
cisely my point. That I construe as a duty
and not a power as such. We have heard
on the national scene at every election that
comes around the presidential candidate
say, "I am not just going to have a vice
president that just presides over the United
States. I am going to make an active tool
of him." To an increasing extent that is
true. The vice president sits on boards and
the security council but the power he has
still resides with the president. He sits in
ceremonial things, but the things he does
are duties, not powers.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: I think there
are probably a number of laws which give
the governor powers to do various things
with respect to a number of these boards.
However, duties are not imposed on the
governor. I cannot see what is wrong with
giving the governor the power to ask the
lieutenant governor to sit in for him and
act for him on those functions.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Let me say
that I think we are precisely at the cross-
roads because I have to say that at least
in my judgment those are duties and those
are not powers. We were talking about the
executive power and that power is the
power spelled out in the constitution.
When the General Assembly passes a law
which the governor approves and says the
governor shall sit over such and such a
board and do such and such a thing, that
|
is carrying out of a duty. It is an assign-
ment of a duty, it is not touching the exec-
utive power. By including the word power
here we raise all kinds of possibilities, it
seems to me, that are subject to some legal
interpretation later on and could cause
some problems. That is why I think if your
committee agrees it would be better if you
related it strictly to duties.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: Delegate Glea-
son, I think that you rely too heavily on
what the meaning of duty is. It seems to
me that if you say that the governor can
delegate powers or duties to the lieutenant
governor except powers or duties specifi-
cally given to the governor by this consti-
tution, you have excluded all of the func-
tions of the governor, specifically given to
him by the constitution. He serves on the
Board of Public Works, he vetoes bills,
calls the General Assembly into session —
all of these various functions that I de-
scribed earlier.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Well, I just
have to say that I stand on what my own
interpretation and analysis of this is and
if we take the board of review, it does seem
to me that that is a duty rather than a
power even though it is spelled out in the
constitution. I had no problem with it. It
certainly will have the power in the broad
general sense to do the things that the
General Assembly will allocate it to do.
That is power in the broadest sense, but I
think that what we are getting to here is
that there is a concern in the minds of
some that when we are talking about
power, power is something that is allocated
to a branch of the government and in this
case, the executive branch, and is always
delegated to one man and that is the
governor.
The question comes up if you have a
lieutenant governor, as to what are you
going to have him do. There are many
things for him to do that can be assigned
to him by the governor or assigned to him
by law which the governor approves. How-
ever these do not touch the fundamental
character of the allocation of the executive
power to the governor himself. Perhaps
you are right that I may have too narrow
a construction of the word "duty" but I
do not think so.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Adkins.
DELEGATE ADKINS: I want to be
sure that the legislative record is right on
|
