N.Y. Transportation Law § 41: Organization

§ 41. Organization. 1. There is hereby created the Utica transit

authority. The authority shall be a body corporate and politic

constituting a public benefit corporation and shall be perpetual in

duration and consist of at least five members. The chairman of the

authority shall, before the authority becomes operative, cause to be

filed in the office of the commissioner, and a duplicate in the office

of the secretary of state, a certificate signed by him and setting

forth: (a) the date of the passage of the special act establishing the

authority; (b) the name of the authority; and (c) the names of the

members and their terms, specifying which member is chairman.

2. Three members, no more than two from any political party, shall be

appointed by the Mayor of the city of Utica; one for a term of two years

to terminate on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and

seventy-one; one for a term of three years to terminate on the

thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and seventy-one; and one

for a term of four years to terminate on the thirty-first day of

December nineteen hundred and seventy-three. Two members, no more than

one from any political party, shall be appointed by the common council

of the city of Utica; one for a term of two years to be terminated on

the thirty-first day of December nineteen hundred and seventy-one; one

for a term of three years to terminate on the thirty-first day of

December nineteen hundred and seventy-one. The present membership of the

Utica transit commission, already so appointed under local law number

six of nineteen hundred and sixty-five of the city of Utica, shall

constitute the membership of the Utica transit authority for terms

coinciding with the present terms of the Utica transit commission. The

present chairman of the Utica transit commission shall continue to serve

his current term as chairman of the Utica transit authority. The mayor

of the city of Utica, the majority leader of the common council and the

minority leader of the common council, as they have already been serving

pursuant to said local law number six of nineteen hundred and

sixty-five, shall serve as ex-officio members without voting rights of

the Utica transit authority.

Other municipalities electing to participate shall by their governing

body appoint one member to the Utica transit authority to serve for a

term of three years and who shall have a proportional vote multiplied by

five based upon the same percentage as the population of the

municipality he represents bears to the population of the city of Utica,

said populations to be determined by the last decennial or federal

county-wide special census. Any member of the authority shall lose his

voting rights for such period of time as the municipality which he

represents fails to make a pro-rata contribution toward the expenses of

the operation of the authority.

A member of the authority shall continue to hold office until a

successor is appointed and has qualified.

3. A majority of the whole number of members of a mass transportation

authority then in office shall constitute a quorum for the transaction

of any business or the exercise of any power of the authority. A mass

transportation authority shall have power to act by a majority of the

members present at any meeting at which a quorum is in attendance.