taken out of this section and put in an-
other section, a separate section.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Bamberger.
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: If that is
the intention of the Committee, then I
suggest we ought to state that more ex-
plicitly, because my understanding of the
application of section 35 of Article III of
the present Constitution is that it did ap-
ply to other than state officers.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Well, my
understanding of Article III, section 35, is
that it actually by reason of its manner
of enforcement just has become a com-
plete dead letter and we had testimony in
connection with it.
Take a clerk of court, for example, whose
election, or the day of his going in office
is January 1, and his salary may have
started at some low figure but lie is elected
for another term of four years. Well, some-
how or other the attorney general ruled
that if the increase went into effect either
midnight, December 31 or 12:00 noon the
next day, or some such thing, he could «-et
the benefit of that increase.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Bamberger.
DELEGATE BAMBERGER : Delegate
Sherbow, I repeat, if that is the intention
of the Committee, I think we should he
more explicit about it, either in the Com-
mittee Recommendation or in the language
of the report itself. I direct your atten-
tion to the case of Pressman v. D'Alesandro
in 2.11 Md. 50, which held that the mayor,
the comptroller, the vice-president of the
City Council and members of the City
Council were public officers within the
meaning of this section.
That same case also held that county
commissioners were included. If we intend
to change that, then we are making a
departure from the present Constitution
which is certainly not indicated by the
present recommendation which says in ef-
fect that this is taking the same language
from the prior Constitution, presumably
with the same effect.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I think our
problem arises where in the draft there is
the reference to Article III, section 35. We
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have put in this particular provision deal-
ing with public officers of the State only.
They are public officers who are affected
by a state's budget and this is what our
intent is.
If, however, it is the intent of this con-
clave to move this into a broader orbit —
and this is not the intent of our Committee
as I understand it — then you would have
to provide in local government some method
by which whatever is being sought with
respect to the officers in the local areas
have no right to have their salaries
chang-ed.
Bear in mind, Delegate Bamberger, we
say nothing in here about having them
increased. We simply say they shall not
be decreased.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Bamberger.
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: I under-
stand all that. We have used the same
words that are in the present Constitution.
We said in the recommendation we took
them from the present Constitution, and
we are now saying that they mean some-
thing different from what they mean in the
present Constitution.
I just suggest that we be more explicit.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I call your
attention to page (5, beginning of line 7.
The last sentence of this section provides
that the compensation of a public officer
may not be decreased during his term of
office.
The report of the Constitutional Conven-
tion Commission, page 323, indicates that
this provision, although not new, is ex-
pected to fill the place of Article III, sec-
tion 35 of the existing Constitution which
is to be omitted.
This latter provision, however, prohibits
increases as well as decreases. To make
the point that I think we want to make
clear, it is simply this: that so far as the
Committee on State Finance and Taxation
is concerned, we say that the compensation
of a public officer may not be decreased
during his term of office.
We relate ourselves only to decrease. We
relate only to public officers who are state
public officers who are within the orbit of
what is the state budget.
If there should be anything else said
with respect to compensation of local of-
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