LLOYD LOWNDES, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR. 309

25 of this Article, and hold his office as therein provided.
He shall be charged with the duty of cleaning the streets, as
well as the cleaning of the sewers, subject as to the latter to the
direction and orders of the City Engineer; and shall perform
such other duties as may be prescribed by ordinances not in-
consistent with this Article. He shall be paid a salary of two
thousand five hundred dollars per annum, payable monthly.
The Commissioner may appoint such subordinates as his de-
partment shall require, and fix their compensation, not to ex-
ceed in the aggregate the amount appropriated by ordinance.

Department of Public Improvements.

84. There shall be a Department of Public Improvements
of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, which shall consist
of the City Engineer, Water Board, Harbor Board and In-
spector of Buildings. The head of said department shall be a
Board of Public Improvements, composed of the City Engi-
neer, who shall be President of said Board, the President of the
Water Board, the President of the Harbor Board, and the In-
spector of Buildings. This Board shall be for consultation and
advice, it shall have no power to direct or control the duties or
the work of any sub-department under this department. It
shall perform such other duties as may be required of it by
ordinances not inconsistent with this Article. Until the or-
ganization of said Board of Public Improvements by the
Mayor first elected under the provisions of this Article, as pro-
vided in section 25 of said Article, the City Commissioner,
Engineer of the Water Board, Engineer of the Harbor Board
and Inspector of Buildings, shall compose a Board to perform
all the duties required of the said Board of Public Improve-
ments by the provisions of this Article.

85. When any ordinance for a public improvement, not in-
cluded in the ordinance of estimates furnished by the Board of
Estimates under theprovisions of this Article, exceeding in cost
the sum of two thousand dollars has passed its first reading
in the Branch of the City Council in which it originates,
it shall be referred to the Board of Public Improvements for an
opinion, in writing, as to its advisability and whether the wants