BILL NUMBER:  S886

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act relating to duly elected school board members from the East
Ramapo central school district

 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :

The purpose of this bill is to uphold the will of the electorate
despite procedural errors with certain oaths of office requirements.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :

This legislation provides that any school board member from the East
Ramapo Central School District duly elected on May 17, 2016 who
currently occupies the office to which he or she was elected but who
failed to take or file his or her respective oath of office within the
statutorily prescribed period shall continue to serve in such capacity
and for the full term to which he or she was elected upon the taking
and filing of oaths of office provided, such oaths are taken and filed
within 30 calendar days after the effective date of this act. Such
officials that take and file their oaths of office under this act
shall be deemed to have been continuously serving in office since the
beginning of the term to which they were elected.

              

 JUSTIFICATION :

Current state law generally provides that the oath of office for
public officials, in this case school board members, need be taken or
filed within thirty days after the commencement of the term of office.
Routinely, oaths of office are executed and filed before or at the
commencement of a term. On occasion there are incidents where public
officials do not execute and file the document within the time period,
triggering a vacancy or, in this case, a truncated term in the
position to which they were elected.

This legislation would cure the failure to file for school board
members elected on May 17, 2016, thus, fulfilling the choice of the
voters in this election.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New legislation.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None to the State.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.