|
decided that we are going to have an inde-
pendent officer and having decided that this
officer was of such stature that it may
well be that he would be from time to time
in conflict with the Governor and/or the
General Assembly, I think it is important
in this case, although not in the other
cases, that this officer be given a certain
number of assistants to enable him to per-
form his functions without the substantial
possibility that the General Assembly will
be able to have control over those assist-
ants.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Marion?
DELEGATE MARION: Since under the
language of your amendment the General
Assembly could prescribe either no depu-
ties or 'no assistants or hundreds and hun-
dreds of them, would we not be perfectly
safe in leaving it out of the Constitution
and letting the General Assembly deal with
it entirely apart from the Constitution?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: The statement
of facts that you have made with regard
to the powers given to the General As-
sembly is, I believe, a correct one.
I believe it is just as correct under the
present Constitution with this power stated.
I believe that there is little doubt that the
General Assembly will provide enough peo-
ple to handle the functions of the attorney
general's office. The question is whether or
not those functions are going to be per-
formed by a group of people who are under
the control of the attorney general or
whether those functions are to be per-
formed by a group of people whom the
General Assembly can put under its own
control or under the control of the governor
if the governor and attorney general are
at odds and the General Assembly sides
with the governor.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sybert.
DELEGATE SYBERT: Mr. Chairman,
will Delegate Chabot yield to a question?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Chabot,
will you yield?
DELEGATE CHABOT: Yes, sir.
DELEGATE SYBERT: You are aware,
of course, that the present constitution in
section 3, Article V, provides that the at-
torney general shall appoint such number
of deputies or assistants as the General
Assembly may from time to time by law
prescribe; you know that, I believe.
DELEGATE CHABOT: Yes, sir.
|
DELEGATE SYBERT: Were you aware
of the fact that in prescribing a deputy
and assistants, the legislature provided for
that and provided that they shall serve at
the discretion of the attorney general?
DELEGATE CHABOT: I was not aware
but I assumed that was the case.
DELEGATE SYBERT: Are you aware
of the fact that all or virtually all of the
states have the same provision because of
the highly professional character of the
duties of the assistants and deputies?
DELEGATE CHABOT: I was not aware
of that. I hoped that was the case. I felt
that it was necessary here.
DELEGATE SYBERT: Were you aware
because of those facts that they are not
anywhere covered under the merit system,
at least not in all of its aspects for legal
employees.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sybert.
DELEGATE SYBERT: Would it not as
as matter of fact, be intolerable if an at-
torney general appointed a man as an as-
sistant that he thought was incompetent?
THE CHAIRMAN: May I remind you
this period is for asking questions and not
debate.
DELEGATE SYBERT: I understand.
THE CHAIRMAN: I know you under-
stand, but your questions are taking on
the character of debate.
DELEGATE SYBERT: I will desist.
DELEGATE MASON: Even if the leg-
islature would prescribe by law that the
assistants be under the merit system, under
your amendment, the attorney general
under the rules prescribed by the merit
system would have that right to appoint. Is
that what you intend doing?
DELEGATE SYBERT: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any fur-
ther questions or discussion?
Delegate Morgan?
DELEGATE MORGAN: Mr. Chairman,
as a result of the discussion about this
amendment, I am kind of confused as to
what the effect of it is.
The General Assembly would have full
powers to authorize the attorney general
to appoint such number of deputies and
assistants as seem to be needed.
I think this amendment is wholly un-
necessary.
|
