J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor 209

CHAPTER 58
(Senate Bill 118)

AN ACT to add a new Section 33 to Article 16A of the Annotated
Code of Maryland (1957 Edition), title "Civil Defense" (said
Article having been added to the Annotated Code by legislation
enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland of 1962), said new
Section 33 to follow immediately after Section 32 thereof and to
be under the new sub-title "Emergency Powers of Administra-
tion", providing that a board of county commissioners or county
council may make emergency appointments to fill certain offices in
certain municipal corporations of this State in the event of any
military or warlike catastrophe, relating generally to the powers
and procedures for making such appointments, providing that the
Governor may exercise certain executive and administrative powers
of these municipal governments until such time as these vacancies
are filled; and providing that these powers are effective only dur-
ing the period covered by an official proclamation of the Governor
declaring the existence of a civil defense emergency or disaster
area, actual or threatened.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That a new Section 33 be and it is hereby added to Article 16A of
the Annotated Code of Maryland (1957 Edition), title "Civil De-
fense" (said Article having been added to the Annotated Code by
legislation enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland of 1962),
said new Section 33 to follow immediately after Section 32 thereof,
to be under the new sub-title "Emergency Powers of Administra-
tion", and to read as follows:

Emergency Powers of Administration

83. (a) If y by reason of any military or warlike catastrophe, the
Mayor or comparable official of the Town Council or comparable
body, or any of them, of any municipal corporation covered by the
provisions of Article HE of the Constitution of Maryland, are killed,
or are sick, incapacitated, missing, or otherwise unavailable for
either a temporary or an indefinite period, with the result that for a
temporary or an indefinite period the municipal government is
unable to fill the vacancies so created, the board of county commis-
sioners or county council of the county in which the municipal cor-
poration is located may appoint for a temporary or indefinite period
a person or persons to fill the vacancy or vacancies thus existing. If
the vacancies are in a municipal corporation located in more than
one county, the board of county commissioners or county council
of any one of the counties in which part of the municipal corpora-
tion is located may make the appointments; or the counties by agree-
ment may collaborate in the appointments. Insofar as possible, each
of the appointees shall have the qualifications required for the par-
ticular office to which he is appointed. During the tenure of any such
appointee, he possesses and may exercise the powers and preroga-
tives of regularly elected officers in such positions. Each appointee
shall continue to hold office during the incapacity or unavailability
of the officer whose position he was appointed to fill, or until the
position is filled by the regular election and qualification of a
successor.