HLSTORY OF THE OFFICE OF BOROUGH PRESIDENT

When, by the charter of 1897, the five counties, comprised
within the present City of New York, were consolidated into
one great metropolis, the city was divided, for administrative
purposes, into five boroughs corresponding closely with the
county divisions. In each of these boroughs the office of bor¬
ough president was created to preserve, as it were, a semblance
of the former autonomy of the consolidated sections of the
greater city.

The framers of the charter saw the danger of over-cen¬
tralization of the affairs of the government at Its seat in Man¬
hattan. It was to offset the tendency of a government centered
in Manhattan to neglect the outlying boroughs that the office
of borough president was primarily established. The borough
president was to be chosen by the electors of his borough. His
chief duty was to be the jealous guardian of the interests of his
borough, and its champion against neglect.

The charter commission of 1897 described the function of
the borough president as follows: "To take the initiative in
connection with all local improvements that are to be paid for
by assessment for benefits, and to represent the borough on
the Board of Public Improvements."

This Board of Public Improvements was the creation of the
charter of 1897. Of it the charter commission said: "The
Board is one of the chief constructive features of the charter
and has been carefully thought out In its constitution and
powers." The Board was composed of the heads of the six
most important departments of public works, and a president,
all appointed by the mayor; the mayor, the comptroller, and the
corporation counsel, also an executive appointee. The borough
presidents were added as partial members with no vote except
on matters relating solely to their several boroughs. It was
at the meeting of this Board that the borough president was
supposed to prevent discrimination against his borough.

The Board of Public Improvements had jurisdiction over the
water supply, highways, cleaning of streets, sewers, public build¬
ings, lighting, bridges and the purchase of supplies, through-