STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4491
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
April 7, 2011
___________
Introduced by Sen. BONACIC -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern-
ment Operations
AN ACT to amend the legislative law, in relation to chief administrative
officers, staff and office allocations, introduction of legislation
and continuity of legislative sessions
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The legislative law is amended by adding three new sections
2 33-a, 33-b, and 33-c to read as follows:
3 § 33-a. Chief administrative officers. 1. The senate and assembly
4 shall designate a chief administrative officer of each house. Such
5 chief administrative officer shall be known in the senate as the secre-
6 tary of the senate. Such chief administrative officer shall be known in
7 the assembly as the clerk of the assembly. The chief administrative
8 officer shall have day to day management and control of all administra-
9 tive offices of senate and assembly and shall jointly have control of
10 joint offices established by this section. The chief administrative
11 officer shall conduct herself or himself in a non-partisan manner,
12 affording to all members of the senate and assembly equal treatment and
13 equal access to the administrative services of the legislature.
14 2. The administrative services of the legislature shall be combined
15 and managed jointly by the chief administrative officers. Administrative
16 services include services related to (a) human resources such as person-
17 nel hiring, benefits management, and payroll; (b) media services includ-
18 ing audio, video, print design and production; (c) research; (d) mail to
19 the extent permitted by the United States Postal Service; (e) technolo-
20 gy; (f) contracting; (g) such other services as are necessary to admin-
21 ister the business of the legislature and do not relate to policies of
22 law development. The chief administrative officers shall, in consulta-
23 tion with the department of civil service establish a listing of titles
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08989-03-1
S. 4491 2
1 for positions in the areas provided for in this subdivision and quali-
2 fications and testing procedures for the same. The chief administrative
3 officer shall annually report to the comptroller the titles filled and
4 the rank on exams, which are hereby directed to be created, of the posi-
5 tions who filled such positions. All incumbent employees shall be given
6 a title most similar to the position he or she fills presently and shall
7 score in the top three of persons who test for the positions, within the
8 first four years of the effective date of this section, or he or she
9 shall forfeit their position at the end of the calendar year when the
10 third such exam is given. The chief administrative officers shall cause
11 the exams to be given at least annually for each position, starting one
12 year after the effective date of this section.
13 § 33-b. Staff and office allocations. 1. Each member of the senate,
14 except as otherwise provided in this section, shall be allowed an equal
15 allocation for the purpose of hiring staff. Such allocation shall be
16 known as the "basic allocation". Notwithstanding such basic allocation:
17 the temporary president of the senate shall receive two hundred percent
18 of such basic allocation; the deputy majority leader for legislative
19 operations and the minority leader, who shall each receive one hundred
20 seventy-five percent of such basic allocation. Each member of the assem-
21 bly, except as otherwise provided for in this section, shall be allowed
22 an equal allocation for the purpose of hiring staff. Such allocation
23 shall be known as the "basic allocation". Notwithstanding such basic
24 allocation: the speaker of the assembly shall receive two hundred
25 percent of such basic allocation; the majority leader and the minority
26 leader shall each receive one hundred seventy-five percent of such basic
27 allocation.
28 2. The temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assem-
29 bly shall each allocate funds to committees and commissions for the
30 purposes of hiring staff, who shall be hired upon the recommendation of
31 the chairperson. The ranking minority member of each committee shall
32 also receive an allocation to hire staff in an amount of at least fifty
33 thousand dollars, or one-third of the amount allocated to hire staff by
34 the chairperson, whichever is greater. Such fifty thousand dollar amount
35 shall be subject to increase or decrease based upon the same percentages
36 as any increase or decrease in personnel services for the senate or
37 assembly. Each committee shall be allocated a reasonable amount to hire
38 staff with expertise in the areas of law those committees are responsi-
39 ble for oversight thereof.
40 3. The temporary president of the senate and speaker of the assembly
41 shall establish policies for the provision of district office(s) for
42 members of the legislature. Such policies shall provide for more than
43 one district office, the smaller of which shall be known as a satellite
44 office, upon the district of such member meeting certain defined,
45 specific geographic criteria, to be determined by concurrent resolution
46 of the legislature.
47 33-c. Introduction of legislation. 1. Legislation shall only be intro-
48 duced at the request of a member of the legislature, or by a committee
49 by vote of that committee voting to introduce a bill draft by legisla-
50 ture bill draft number. The committee on rules may introduce legis-
51 lation, however, at the request of one or more members if such member's
52 names are printed on the legislation indicating that the committee on
53 rules has requested the introduction of such legislation by the partic-
54 ular member or members.
55 2. Notice shall be posted on the senate and assembly websites of all
56 legislation to be considered, by bill number, at least twenty-four hours
S. 4491 3
1 prior to its consideration, unless a message of necessity has been
2 issued by the governor for such legislation.
3 3. To the extent that items are appropriated in the state budget for
4 specific organizations or municipalities and are appropriated other than
5 by formula, and at the specific discretion and request of members of the
6 legislature, and related to projects not benefiting the entire state,
7 but rather are focused on helping one or more specific municipalities or
8 organizations, such funding shall be deemed to be a "member item".
9 Member items are hereby prohibited unless each member of the senate and
10 each member of the assembly has the opportunity to recommend and have
11 included in the budget projects equaling the same cost as every other
12 member of the senate or every other member of the assembly, as the case
13 may be. No member of the senate or assembly, however, shall be allocated
14 member item funding if they presently are charged with a crime relating
15 to this office or otherwise relating to veracity.
16 4. The secretary of the senate and clerk of the assembly shall main-
17 tain discharge petitions, to be stored in the well of the senate and
18 assembly. A discharge petition shall be a petition requesting a vote on
19 a particular piece of legislation or resolution by bill or resolution
20 number. The discharge petition shall be filed with the secretary of the
21 senate or clerk of the assembly by the bill or resolution sponsor. All
22 such petitions shall be open for signature during the hours the legisla-
23 ture is in session. Upon more than half the members of the senate or
24 assembly signing a discharge petition, such legislation or resolution
25 shall be discharged from any committee it is in, and brought to the
26 floor of the senate or assembly for a vote within one week, or, if the
27 requisite number of signatures are obtained between the dates of June
28 tenth and September first, within twenty weeks, but in any event by the
29 end of the calendar year. No signature made between September first of
30 an even number calendar year and December thirty-first, of that same
31 year shall count toward reaching the majority described herein.
32 § 2. The legislative law is amended by adding a new section 42-a to
33 read as follows:
34 § 42-a. Continuity of legislative sessions. 1. Upon passage of a bill
35 by one house of the legislature, such bill shall automatically be sent
36 to the appropriate committee in the other house for action on such bill,
37 where that house may act on the bill at any time during the remainder of
38 the biennial legislative session.
39 2. Every bill which shall have reached the order of third reading but
40 which shall not have been acted on by the house before the end of the
41 first year of the two-year legislative session, shall maintain its place
42 on the order of third reading until the house shall act on such bill or
43 until the end of the two-year legislative session.
44 3. The provisions of this section shall not apply to budget bills
45 introduced by the governor pursuant to article seven of the
46 constitution, bills requiring a home rule message from one or more local
47 governments pursuant to article nine of the constitution, bills which
48 appropriate public funds, or concurrent resolutions to amend the consti-
49 tution pursuant to article nineteen of the constitution or bills subject
50 to the provisions of section fifty of this article.
51 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
52 ing the date on which it shall have become a law; provided, that the
53 senate and assembly shall, by concurrent resolution, adopt rules neces-
54 sary to implement this act within twenty days after such act shall have
55 become a law.
