The aqueduct commissioners, the trustees of the College of the
City of New York, and the trustees of Bellevue and allied
hospitals, however, are removable only for cause and after a
hearing. The mayor’s veto of a franchise passed by the board
of aldermen is final; his veto of an ordinance or resolution
of the board which involves the expenditure of money, the
creation of a debt or the laying of an assessment can be overcome
only by a three-fourths vote; and his veto of any other
measure of the board can be overcome only by a two-thirds
vote. Special city legislation passed by the state legislature
is referred to the mayor for his acceptance; if he does not
accept it, it may be repassed by both branches of the legislature
but must then be marked, when referred to the governor,
“passed without the acceptance of the city.”
The department of finance is administered under the direction of the comptroller, who, like the mayor, is elected for a term of four years. He prescribes the manner in which the accounts in the other departments shall be kept and rendered, and all such accounts are subject to his inspection. His warrant, drawn on the chamberlain and countersigned by the mayor, is required in making a payment on behalf of the city. He settles claims in favour of or against the city. No real estate can be purchased or leased by the city without his consent. No contract, the expense for the execution of which is not in part covered by assessments on the property benefited, is valid without his signature. Legislation affecting the city’s finances is determined mainly by the board of estimate and apportionment consisting of the mayor, comptroller, president of the board of aldermen, with three votes each; the presidents of the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, with two votes each; and the presidents of the boroughs of Queens, the Bronx and Richmond, with one vote each. Every October this board prepares the budget for the ensuing year. It is required to submit the same to the aldermen for approval, but the aldermen are not permitted to increase an appropriation, to insert any new appropriation or to reduce that for the payment of state taxes, that for the payment of the interest on the city debt or any of those the amounts of which are fixed by law; and in case they reduce others their action is subject to the mayor’s veto which they can overcome only by a three-fourths vote.
The city’s budget grew from $90,778,972 in 1900 to $156,545,148 in 1909; the assessed value of its taxable property, real and personal, from $3,654,122,193 in 1900 to $7,250,500,559 ($5,423,312,599 for Manhattan and the Bronx) in 1909, when the real estate was valued at $6,807,179,704. The net funded debt in December 1909 was $653,270,379, the gross bonded debt being $946,005,728; the floating debt was $60,367,290, and the sinking fund was $232,368,060. Among the large items of the 1909 budget were: $27,470,737 for education; $47,225,078 for redemption and interest of the city debt; $20,235,115 for miscellaneous city and county expenses; $14,160,202 for police; $8,428,596 for borough governments; $8,039,565 for fire protection; $7,418,299 for street cleaning; $6,511,143 for water supply and public lighting; $4,760,651 for charitable institutions; $3,319,065 for parks; $2,512,606 for public charities; and $2,484,859 for health. The state constitution of 1894 fixed the debt limit of all municipalities at 10% of the assessed valuation of their real estate. An amendment of 1899 (in effect 1900) excepted from the debt limit of New York City the previous debt of the counties now wholly included in the city; another amendment adopted in 1905 excepted from this limit debts incurred by the City of New York after the 1st of January 1904 to provide for the supply of water; and an amendment, adopted in 1909, excepted from the debt limit bonds issued after December 31st 1909 for such public improvements owned or to be owned by the city as yield a revenue in excess of what is required to meet the interest and principal of such bonds; also indebtedness incurred prior to January 1st 1910 for rapid transit or dock properties in proportion to the extent to which the revenue meets the interest and the instalments to be paid for the redemption of the bonds, such increase of the debt limit to be used, however, only for rapid transit or dock improvements. The same amendment (1909) also authorizes the city to issue, during any one year, in excess of its former debt limit, bonds to be redeemed out of the tax levy for the ensuing year to the extent of one-tenth of 1% of the assessed value of the real estate of the city subject to taxation.
The board of aldermen, whose power is less than formerly, is composed of a president, elected on the city ticket for a term of four years; the five borough presidents, each elected by his borough for a term of four years; and 73 aldermen, elected by districts for a term of two years. Each head of an administrative department is entitled to a seat in the board but no vote; he is required to attend the board’s meeting whenever it requests him to do so and must answer questions relating to his department. The board is required to meet once each month except in August and September. Each administrative department has a single head with the exception of the department of parks, the department of health and the department of education; and each head of a department has full power of appointing and removing subordinates except that a person holding a position in the classified civil service subject to competitive examination can be removed only for cause. The head of the department of parks is a board of three park commissioners: one for the boroughs of Manhattan and Richmond, one for the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and one for the Borough of the Bronx; one of the three is designated by the mayor as president of the board. The head of the department of health is also a board of three members; the commissioner of health, who is president of the board, the police commissioner and the health officer of the port. The department of education is described in the paragraph on education. Railway, gas and electric companies doing business within the city are subject to the extensive control of a public service commission of five members who are appointed by the governor of the state (see New York).
In New York county, which comprises the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, there is no county court, but in its place are a city court and a court of general sessions. The city court is a civil court, having jurisdiction over cases in which the amount involved does not exceed $2000, and is composed of seven justices elected for a term of ten years. The court of general session is a criminal court, having jurisdiction of all crimes including murder, and is composed of the city judge, the recorder and three justices of the sessions, each elected for a term of fourteen years. New York county elects a surrogate for a term of fourteen years, and Kings has two county judges; but in Queens and Richmond the county and surrogate courts are the same as in other counties of the state. In each of twenty-eight districts into which the city is divided a municipal-court justice is elected for a term of ten years and sessions of the municipal court, which has jurisdiction of civil cases in which the amount involved does not exceed $500, are held. For the administration of criminal justice by magistrates (justices of the peace) the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx constitute the first division and the other three boroughs constitute the second division. In each division there is a board of magistrates appointed by the mayor for a term of ten years, and the magistrates hold the several courts of their division in rotation according to such rules as they themselves establish. There is also in each division a court of special sessions consisting of six justices appointed by the mayor for a term of ten years; it has jurisdiction in all misdemeanour cases except libel and must be held by three justices. In the first division both the magistrates and the justices of the court of special sessions are required to hold a separate court for hearing charges against children under sixteen years of age.
Each borough has a president with extensive power, and the city is divided into twenty-five local improvement districts, each having a board composed of the president of the borough and the alderman representing the district. The president appoints and removes at pleasure a commissioner of public works, who, subject to his control, directs his administration relating to streets, sewers, public buildings and supplies. The borough president prepares all contracts relating to his borough. In Queens and Richmond he directs the cleaning of the streets. In Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx he is directed by the charter to appoint a superintendent of buildings, who, subject to him and with the aid of inspectors, enforces the ordinances of the aldermen relating to the construction, alteration and removal of buildings; in Queens and Richmond the borough president may appoint such an officer only when authorized to do so by the board of aldermen upon the recommendation of the board of estimate and apportionment. A borough president is chairman of each of the local improvement boards.
History.—The discovery of New York Bay and the Hudson river by Verrazano in 1524 was followed only by occasional visits of trading or exploring vessels until the arrival of Henry Hudson in 1609. Beginning with 1610, Dutch merchants despatched several vessels to engage in the fur trade with the Indians, and in 1614 a ship commander, Adriaen Block, having lost his vessel, built the “Onrust” or “Restless” on the shore of Upper New York Bay. About the same time a few huts were built at the south end of Manhattan Island. When New Netherland had been erected (1623) into a province of the West India Company (see New York), that body chose the south end of Manhattan Island for a trans-Atlantic shipping station and for the seat of government. In 1626 Peter Minuit, the director-general of the province, bought the entire island from the Indians for goods valued at 60 guilders (about $24) and at what was then its southern extremity began the erection of Fort Amsterdam; and at the close of the year the settlement, New Amsterdam, comprised thirty bark-covered dwellings. For several years it was maintained wholly in the interest of the Company, and to none of the inhabitants, all of whom were its agents or employees, were given any political rights, title to land or right to European trade on his own account. The company divided a large portion of the island into six farms of its own, and when by its Charter of Privileges and Exemption
