ARTICLE CHAPTER XXVI OF THE GENERAL LAWS. [CHAP. 546 OF 1896.] THE STATE CHARITIES Law. I. State board of charities (§§ 1-27). II. State charities aid association (§§ 30-32). III. Regulations of finances of state charitable institutions, re- V. State custodial asylum for feeble-minded women (§§ 80-83). VII. The Craig colony for epileptics (§§ 100-114). VIII. Institutions for juvenile delinquents (§§ 120-130). IX. Houses of refuge and reformatories for women (§§ 140-153). (SS 160-165). XI. Laws repealed; when to take effect (§§ 170–171). ARTICLE I. STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES. SECTION 1. Short title. 2. Definitions. 3. State board of charities. 4. Officers of the board. 5. Compensation and expenses of commissioners. 6. Meetings and effect of nonattendance. 7. Office room and supplies. 8. Official seal, certificates and subpoenas. 9. General powers and duties of board. 10. Visitations, inspection and supervision of institutions. 11. Powers and duties of boards on visits and inspections. 13. Orders of board directed to institutions. 14. Correction of evils in adminstration of institutions. 15. Duties of the attorney-general and district attorneys 16. State, nonresident and alien poor. 17. Reports of state board of charities. 18. Institutions for the deaf and dumb and the blind. State Board of Charities. SECTION 20. Licensing of dispensaries by the state board of charities. 21. Rules and regulations. 22. Revocation of licenses. 88 1-4 23. Drug store or tenement house not to be used by dispensary ; unlawful display of signs. 24. Violation of act, misdemeanor. 25. Obtaining surgical or medical treatment on false representations, misdemeanor. 26. Acts repealed. 27. When to take effect. SECTION 1. Short title.--This chapter shall be known as the state charities law. § 2. Definitions.--The term state charitable institutions, when used in this chapter, shall include all institutions of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character, supported in whole or in part by the state, except institutions for the instruction of the deaf and dumb and the blind, and such institutions which, by section eleven, article eight of the constitution, are made subject to the visitation and inspection of the commission in lunacy or the prison commission, whether managed or controlled by the state or by private corporations, societies or associations. § 3. State board of charities.-There shall continue to be a state board of charities, composed of twelve members, who shall be appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, one of whom shall be appointed from, and reside in each judicial district of the state, one additional membe~ from the county of Kings, and three additional members from the county of New York, who shall respectively reside in such counties. They shall be known as commissioners of the state board of charities, and hold office for eight years. No commissioner shall qualify or enter upon the duties of his office, or remain therein, while he is a trustee, manager, director or other administrative officer of an institution subject to the visitation and inspection of such board. The commissioners in office at the time this chapter takes effect, shall continue in office for the terms for which they were respectively appointed. (As amended by chap. 437 of 1897, § 1.) § 4. Officers of the board. The board may elect a president, and vice-president from its own members, and shall appoint and continue to have a secretary, and may appoint such other officers, inspectors and clerks as it may deem necessary or proper and fix their compensation, who shall respectively hold their office dur ing the pleasure of the board. 5. Compensation and expenses of commissioners.-The compensation of each commissioner, in recognition of the provisions of the constitution, is fixed at ten dollars for each day's attendance at meetings of the board or of any of its committees, not exceeding in any one year the sum of five hundred dollars. The expenses of each commissioner, necessarily incurred while engaged in the performance of the duties of his office, and his outlay for any assistance that may have been required in the performance of such duties, on the same being paid out and certified by the commissioners making the charge, shall be paid by the treasurer, on the warrant of the comptroller. § 6. Meetings and effect of nonattendance. The board may adopt rules and orders, regulating the discharge of its functions and defining the duties of its officers. It shall, by rule, provide for holding stated and special meetings. Six members regularly convened shall constitute a quorum. The failure on the part of any commissioner to attend three consecutive meetings of the board during any calendar year, unless excused by a formal vote of the board, may be treated by the governor as a resignation by such nonattending commissioner and the governor may appoint his successor. The annual reports of the board shall give the names of commissioners present at each of its meetings. 87. Office room and supplies.-The trustees of public buildings shall furnish and assign to such board, in the capitol, at Albany, suitably furnished rooms for its office and place of holding meetings, and the comptroller shall furnish it with all necessary journals, account books, blanks and stationery. § 8. Official seal, certificates and subpoenas.-The board shall cause a record to be kept of its proceedings by its secretary or other proper officer, and it shall have and use an official seal; and the records, its proceedings and copies of all papers and documents in its possession and custody may be authenticated in the usual form, under such seal and the signature of its president or secretary, and shall be received in evidence in the same manner and with like effects as deeds regularly acknowledged or proven; it may issue subpoenas, which, when authenticated by its president and secretary, shall be obeyed and enforced in the same manner as obedience is enforced to an order or mandate made by a court of record. § 9. General powers and duties of boards.--The state board of charities shall visit, inspect and maintain a general supervision of all institutions, societies or associations which are of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character, whether state or municipal, incorporated or not incorporated, which are made subject to its supervision by the constitution or by law; and shall, 1. Aid in securing the just, humane and economic administration of all institutions subject to its supervision. 2. Advise the officers of such institutions in the performance of their official duties. 3. Aid in securing the erection of suitable buildings for the accommodation of the inmates of such institutions aforesaid. 4. Approve or disapprove the organization and incorporation of all institutions of a charitable, eleemosynary, correctional or reformatory character which are or shall be subject to the supervision and inspection of the board. 5. Investigate the management of all institutions made subject to the supervision of the board, and the conduct and effi. ciency of the officers or persons charged with their management, and the care and relief of the inmates of such institution therein or in transit. 6. Aid in securing the best sanitary condition of the buildings and grounds of all such institutions, and advise measures for the protection and preservation of the health of the inmates. 7. Aid in securing the establishment and maintenance of such industrial, educational and moral training in institutions having the care of children as is best suited to the needs of the inmates. 8. Establish rules for the reception and retention of inmates of all institutions which, by section fourteen of article eight of the constitution, are subject to its supervision. 9. Investigate the condition of the poor seeking public aid and advise measures for their relief. 10. Administer the laws providing for the care, support and removal of state and alien poor and the support of Indian poor persons. 11. Collect statistical information in respect to the property, receipts and expenditures of all institutions, societies and associations subject to its supervision, and the number and condition of the inmates thereof, and of the poor receiving public relief. |