N.Y. Education Law § 371: State university construction fund

§ 371. State university construction fund. 1. There is hereby created

within the state university the "state university construction fund".

The fund shall be a corporate governmental agency constituting a public

benefit corporation. It shall be administered by three trustees

appointed by the governor, one of whom shall at all times be a state

university trustee. The trustees other than the state university trustee

shall be appointed with the advice and consent of the senate.

2. The trustees of the fund first appointed by the governor shall

serve for terms ending December thirty-first, in nineteen hundred

sixty-four, nineteen hundred sixty-six and nineteen hundred sixty-eight,

respectively. Persons appointed for full terms as their successors shall

serve for six years each commencing as of the January first next

following the year in which the term of his predecessor expired. In the

event of a vacancy occurring in the office of a trustee by death,

resignation or otherwise, the governor shall appoint a successor in the

same manner as an original appointment to serve for the balance of the

unexpired term. A vacancy shall be deemed to have occurred whenever the

trustee of the fund who is a state university trustee ceases to be a

state university trustee.

3. The trustees of the fund shall serve without salary, but each

trustee shall be entitled to reimbursement for his actual and necessary

expenses incurred in the performance of his official duties.

4. The trustees of the fund may engage in private employment, or in a

profession or business, subject to the limitations contained in sections

seventy-three and seventy-four of the public officers law. The fund

shall, for the purposes of such sections, be a "state agency", the

trustees thereof shall be "officers" of the agency for the purposes of

said sections, and the trustees, officers and other persons in the

employment of the fund shall be "employees" for the purposes of

subdivision one of section seventeen of the public officers law.

5. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provisions of law, general,

special or local, no officer or employee of the state, or of any civil

division thereof, shall be deemed to have forfeited or shall forfeit his

office or employment by reason of accepting appointment as a trustee of

the fund.

6. The governor may remove any trustee for inefficiency, neglect of

duty or misconduct in office after giving him a copy of the charges

against him, and an opportunity to be heard, in person or by counsel, in

his defense, upon not less than ten days' notice. If any trustee shall

be removed, the governor shall file with the secretary of state a

complete statement of charges made against the trustee, and his findings

thereon, together with a complete record of the proceedings.

7. The chairman of the fund shall be designated by the governor, shall

preside over all its meetings and shall have such other duties as the

trustees may direct. A vice-chairman who shall preside over all meetings

of the fund in the absence of the chairman and shall have such other

duties as the trustees may direct may be designated from time to time by

the trustees from among the other trustees.

8. The powers of the fund shall be vested in and exercised by no fewer

than two of the trustees then in office. The fund may delegate to one or

more of its trustees, or officers, agents and employees, such powers and

duties as it may deem proper; provided, however, that all contracts

involving an estimated expense of seventy-five thousand dollars or more

and all lease agreements to be entered into pursuant to section three

hundred seventy-eight of this article shall be approved prior to

execution by no fewer than two trustees of the fund.

9. The fund may appoint such officers, employees and agents as it may

deem advisable, including a general manager to be the chief

administrative officer of the fund, a counsel and a controller, and may

prescribe their duties and fix their compensation.

10. Officers and employees of other state agencies may be transferred

to the fund and officers and employees of the fund may be transferred to

other state agencies without examination and without loss of any civil

service status or rights. No such transfer, however, may be made except

with the approval of the head of the other state agency involved, the

director of the budget and the chairman of the fund, and in compliance

with the rules and regulations of the state civil service commission.