6. Officers and employees of the senate. 1. The senate may choose a secretary, a sergeant-at-arms, and an official stenographer. The secretary of the senate shall be elected for the term of the senate. If the senate shall be unable to choose any such officer at the time of the organization of the senate, the temporary president of the senate may appoint a person to fill the vacancy thus created, and the person so appointed shall serve as such officer until his successor has been chosen by the senate and thus qualified.
2. The president of the senate, the temporary president of the senate and the minority leader of the senate may each appoint such employees to assist him in the performance of his duties as may be authorized and provided for in the legislative appropriation bill. Employees of the president of the senate who are paid from appropriations made for the legislature shall be considered as employees of the legislature for all purposes. The secretary of the senate may appoint a stenographer-secretary and a stenographer.
3. A general clerk, or stenographer, or other employee shall be designated by and appointed for and assigned to each member of the senate for whom no provision is made for employees in the legislative appropriation bill.
4. The temporary president of the senate may from time to time appoint such additional employees as may be necessary for the work of the senate and fix their compensation, respectively, within the amounts appropriated and available therefor.
5. In case of the death or resignation of the secretary of the senate, or his inability to exercise the powers or discharge the duties of his office, and notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law, the temporary president of the senate shall appoint an acting secretary to serve until a secretary is chosen by the senate to fill the vacancy. The acting secretary shall have and exercise all of the powers of the secretary of the senate until a secretary has been chosen and has qualified.
6. When an appropriation has been made for the services, temporary or otherwise, of employees of the senate, and their appointment is not otherwise authorized or provided for by law, the temporary president of the senate may appoint such employees and fix their compensation, respectively, within the amounts appropriated and available therefor.
7. Whenever the temporary president of the senate is authorized or required, singly or jointly, to certify or approve warrants or vouchers for the compensation of any person, it shall be sufficient if he execute the first such warrant or voucher, and thereafter the same may be certified or approved by his designee or designees, so long as the rate of such compensation is not increased, and upon proof by affidavit or otherwise that the same is due. Such designation shall be in writing and filed in the office of the temporary president and in the office of the comptroller, and shall remain in effect during the term of office of the temporary president unless sooner revoked by him.
8. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the temporary president of the senate or his or her designee may authorize expenditures to be made from appropriations or reappropriations made to the senate finance committee, or the allocable portion of an appropriation or reappropriation so made to a legislative council, commission or task force the expenditures from which are for senate purposes in whole or in allocable part; and may also suballocate or transfer such appropriations or reappropriations, or any portion thereof, to any department or agency deemed necessary for the purpose of implementing such expenditures. The temporary president of the senate may effect such authorization by filing his or her approval of such authorization with the state comptroller.
Last modified: February 3, 2019