NEW YORK CITY.

(Note.- Commissioner of charities appointed by the mayor for a term of four years at an annual salary of $7,500.)

Chapter 378, Laws of 1897.

CHAPTER XIII.

TITLE I.

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC CHARITIES.

8658. Commissioner of public charities; jurisdiction; salary. The head of the department of public charities shall be called the commissioner of public charities. The terms of office of the members of the board of public charities, except the president thereof, appointed pursuant to the provisions of the Greater New York charter shall cease and determine on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and two, and the president of the said board of public charities shall thereupon become the commissioner of public charities. The salary of the commissioner of public charities shall be seven thousand five hundred dollars a year. The principal office of the department shall be in the borough of Manhattan. There may be a branch office in each of the other boroughs. (As amended by chapter 466 of the Laws of 1901.)

§ 659. Rules and regulations; subordinate officers. The said commissioner shall have power to establish general rules and regulations for the administration of the department and the government of the institutions under its jurisdiction except the institutions specified in section six hundred and sixty-one of this act, and except as provided in title two of this chapter, and such general rules and regulations shall be so far as practicable uniform in all the boroughs. The commissioner shall have power to appoint and in his discretion to remove not more than three

deputies, to be known as first deputy, second deputy, and third deputy, and shall define their duties. The first deputy shall during the absence or disability of the commissioner possess all the powers and perform all the duties of the commissioner except the power of making appointments. In the absence or disability of both the commissioner and the first deputy, the second deputy shall possess all the powers and perform all the duties of the commissioner, except the power of making appointments. In the absence or disability of the commissioner and the first and second deputies, the third deputy shall possess all the powers and perform all the duties of the commissioner, except the power of making appointments. The commissioner, within the limits of his appropriation, shall have power to appoint and remove subject to the requirements of the civil service laws such subordinate officers and assistants as may be necessary for the efficient performance of his duties as said commissioner. (As amended by chapter 466 of the Laws of 1901 and chapter 330 of the Laws of 1910.)

660. Public institutions under the jurisdiction of the commissioner. The commissioner shall have jurisdiction over, and it shall be his duty to take charge of and to establish and enforce rules and regulations for all hospitals, asylums, almshouses and other institutions belonging to or hereafter acquired or established by the city of New York, which are or shall be devoted to the care of the feeble-minded, the sick, the infirm and the destitute; except the island known as Ward's Island and the buildings and improvements thereon, and the equipment, fixtures and furniture of the asylums for the insane on said island during the continuance of the lease thereof heretofore made by the city of New York to the State of New York, and except the hospitals specified in title two of this chapter and such other institutions as are by law placed under the charge of some other department or board. Such buildings and grounds on Blackwell's Island as are now used for the care of the insane pursuant to the provisions

of chapter two of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-six shall, when the insane shall have been removed therefrom, and the buildings and grounds, together with the equipments, fixtures and furniture of the buildings now leased to the State by the county of Kings for the care of the insane, when said lease expires, shall be under the jurisdiction of the commissioner of public charities. (As amended by chapter 466 of the Laws of 1901.)

No payment shall

§ 661. Payments to private institutions. be made by the city of New York to any charitable, eleemosynary or reformatory institution wholly or partly under private control, for the care, support, secular education, or maintenance of any child surrendered to such institution, or committed to, received or retained therein in accordance with sections six hundred and sixty-four, six hundred and sixty-five, six hundred and sixty-six and six hundred and sixty-seven of this act, except upon the certificate of the commissioner of public charities that such child has been received and is retained by such institution pursuant to the rules and regulations established by the state board of charities Moneys paid by the city of New York to any such institution for the care, support, secular education or maintenance of its inmates shall not be expended for any other purpose. Whenever the commissioner shall decide, after reasonable notice to the institution and a hearing, that any such child as aforesaid who is received and retained in such institution is not a proper charge against the public, and notice of such decision in writing is given by him to such institution, thereupon all right on the part of said institution to receive compensation from the city for the further retention of the child shall cease. He shall file in the office of the department a statement of the reasons for his decision and of the facts upon which it is founded, and shall furnish a copy to the institution where the child is detained. His decision may be reviewed on certiorari by the supreme court. (As amended by chapter 466 of the Laws of 1901.)

662. Powers of the commissioner as to destitute and other persons. The commissioner of public charities shall have all the authority concerning the care, custody and disposition of insane, feeble-minded, sick, infirm and destitute persons heretofore conferred upon the board of public charities and upon the several commissioners of public charities and he shall be subject to the same obligations and discharge the same duties in respect to such persons, except in so far as the same are inconsistent with or are modified by this act and the amendments thereof. The commissioner shall be the overseer of the poor of the city of New York, as constituted by this act. The commissioner shall not have power to dispense any form of outdoor relief except as expressly provided in this chapter, but the commissioner shall have power to pay for the cost of the removal or transportation of any person who may come under his charge whenever in his judgment the city will thereby be relieved from an unnecessary or improper charge. The commissioner shall make provision for the temporary care of vagrant and indigent persons, and shall provide for an investigation into the circumstances of all such persons, and shall cause every person who is found upon investigation to be a vagrant, to be brought before a magistrate pursuant to law. The board of estimate and apportionment and the board of aldermen shall in each year appropriate such sum as in their judgment may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this section. (As amended by chapter 466 of the Laws of 1901.)

663. Classification and instruction of inmates. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of public charities to investigate the circumstances of every person admitted to an institution under his charge and of the near relatives of such person: Such investigation shall be made, when practicable, before the admission of such person, and the results of investigation shall be placed on file and preserved with the records of the department. It shall be the duty of the commissioner to cause all the inmates of public institutions under his charge to be classified so far as practicable. The inmates of the almshouse or almshouses shall be classified at the time of their admission upon the basis of previous character and conduct, but such inmates may be transferred or reclassified in accordance with their conduct in the in

stitution. Every inmate of the almshouse whose age and health will permit shall be employed in cultivating the ground under the control of the commissioner, or in manufacturing such articles as may be required for ordinary use in the public institutions under the control of the commissioner, or for the use of any department of the city of New York, or in preparing and building sea walls upon islands or other places belonging to the city, or such mechanical or other labor as shall be found from experience to suit the capacity of the individual. The articles raised or manufactured by such labor shall be subject to the order of, and shall be placed under the control of the commissioner, and all such articles shall be utilized so far as practicable in the public institutions under the charge of the department of charities or in some other department of the city. All the land under the jurisdiction of the commissioner, not otherwise occupied or utilized, and which is capable of being cultivated, shall, in the discretion of said commissioner, be used for agricultural purposes. The commissioner, within the limits of his appropriation, may establish and maintain in the public institutions under his charge such schools or classes for the instruction and training of inmates as may in his opinion be desirable. (As amended by chapter 466 of the Laws of 1901.)

§ 664. Powers of the commissioner and deputy commissioner as to destitute and other children. The commissioner, or deputy commissioner of public charities shall have power to commit, to indenture, place out, discharge, or transfer any child who may be in his custody, or who may have been placed by him in an institution as a public charge, whenever in his judgment it shall be for the best interests of such child so to do, and he and his successors in office shall have power to revoke and cancel any such indenture or agreement, and to make contracts for the maintenance of any such child, in placing out or indenturing such children the commissioner or the deputy commissioner, may assign one or more of his subordinates to make the necessary inves tigations and he may employ any duly incorporated charitable institution or society and may reimburse such institution or society for any expenses, other than salaries, actually incurred in the placing out, supervision and transfer if necessary, of children