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The Chair recognizes Delegate Marion to
speak to the amendment. This is the
amendment distributed last night, marked
E. It is number 11.
Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: Mr. President,
this amendment is offered primarily as an
amendment of stylo. I am told that it has
substantive connotations. The reason it was
offered is because as amended on the floor
by the Committee of the Whole, the last
sentence of section 4.24 became what
seemed to me, at least, to be ambiguous at
best, with no punctuation in the sentence.
After "majority vote," to the end of the
sentence it became unclear. I think the
Committee on Style felt that it was not
something we could try to punctuate or
tamper with in any way, and therefore it
was reported back in exactly the way it
was left by the Committee of the Whole.
I have offered my amendment because it
seems to me that is the way it should be
punctuated. I have made a couple of small
changes in words, added .the words "by
law" in the last line, since it seems to me
that that is the way the General Assem-
bly would prescribe such powers and such
other actions for the Board of Review.
The amendment is offered, in short, be-
cause the "or otherwise act in such manner
and have such powers as the General As-
sembly may prescribe" did not seem to re-
late, or could seem to relate to any or all
of what preceded it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: Mr. President,
last night I said I did not think this was a
style amendment. It seems to me it makes
a very important change in policy.
The way section 4.24 came out of the
Committee of the Whole, the General As-
sembly had complete jurisdiction to deter-
mine what the procedures of the Board of
Public Works should be. Under the Marion
amendment, the General Assembly would
be prohibited from doing anything about
the requirement of the board holding its
meetings in public.
Now, we have had all of the arguments
on this before, and I do not see any need
for repeating them, except it seems to me
that there are some instances where it will
be absolutely necessary for the board to
hold its meetings in public, for example, in
determining the negotiating position.
I do not want to spread that all over the
public record and let people know how high
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you are willing to go to buy a piece of
property. You certainly would not hold
those meetings in public. I think it will all
be left up to the General Assembly the way
it was in the section as it came from the
Committee of the Whole.
THE PRESIDENT: Any further discus-
sion?
Delegate Burdette.
DELEGATE BURDETTE: Mr. Presi-
dent, I should like to say that .the Chair-
man of the Committee touches upon a point
which explains why the matter was not
handled in the Committee on Style.
I am not of the opinion that the lan-
guage which came from the Committee of
the Whole makes it absolutely clear that
the General Assembly determines whether
or not the Board of Review meets in public.
If that is the desire of the Committee of
the Whole, the language can be achieved,
but it seems to me that it may seem to
mandate, even with the language which the
Committee of the Whole has used.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there any further
discussion?
Are you ready for the question?
The Clerk will ring the quorum bell.
The question arises on the adoption of
Amendment No. 11 to Committee Recom-
mendation EB-1 and EB-2 as amended by
Report S&D-13. A vote Aye is a vote in
favor of the amendment. A vote No is a
vote against.
Cast your vote.
Has every delegate voted ? Does any
delegate desire to change his vote?
The clerk will record the vote.
There being 20 votes in the affirmative
and 75 in the negative, the motion fails.
The amendment is rejected.
Delegate Penniman, the Chair has a
question.
In line 41 on page 9, the sentence ends
with the words "may prescribe." It does
not have the words "by law" added.
The Chair was of the opinion that the
Committee on Style was following the uni-
form practice of saying "prescribed by
law" unless it intended to confer the power
of the General Assembly to act by resolu-
tion.
Am I correct about that?
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