Research: Topics: Environment: Preliminary Guide to Environmental Sources
Preliminary Guide to Environmental Sources
Executive Department
Current Functions. The Executive Department serves as the administrative department of the governor. In reality, there is no central operating structure for this department. Instead, the department consists of a number of divisions, offices, boards, commissions, councils, and other independent agencies that provide policy advice and assistance to the governor and conduct activities according to statute or executive order.
Organizational History. The Executive Department resulted from the constitutional reorganization of State government in 1925. Prior to reorganization, the executive branch of government had grown to include nearly 200 administrative departments, boards, and commissions. Constitutional amendments in 1925 and 1927 abolished or significantly consolidated these offices and expanded the power of the executive office. In 1925 an amendment provided for the consolidation of all administrative agencies into not more than twenty State departments, including an Executive Department.
Legislation of 1926 (Chapter 546) provided the statutory basis for the Executive Department, directing it to assist and carry out duties assigned by the governor. Five divisions were established within the department and their functions and duties defined: Budget, Military and Naval Affairs, Standards and Purchase, State Police, and Inter-Departmental Relations. The governor was empowered to establish, consolidate, or abolish Executive Department divisions as deemed necessary.
Legislation of 1928 (Chapter 676) abolished the Division of Inter-Departmental Relations, but the informal "governor's cabinet," consisting of the governor as chair, lieutenant governor, secretary to the governor, and heads of State departments who meet at the call of the governor, continued to coordinate interdepartmental activities.
Since 1928, numerous Executive Department divisions, offices, boards, commissions, councils, and other agencies have been established, altered, consolidated, or eliminated. The department currently consists of over thirty such subdivisions, which operate independently and supervise public policy in areas such as housing, human rights, energy, parks and historic sites, consumer protection, veterans' affairs, elections, cable television, and the arts.
Executive Department Subdivisions
Current Functions. The Adirondack Park Agency is responsible for state and private land-use development plans within the Adirondack Park to preserve and protect the natural resources. It establishes public policy for private land use in the Adirondack Park according to the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan. A State land master plan, developed by the agency in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Conservation, guides management of State-owned lands. The agency reviews and issues permits for land-use projects, holds public hearings on proposed projects, assists local governments in developing land-use plans, provides financial assistance to local planning boards, and issues permits for regulated activities on freshwater wetlands or adjacent to designated wild, scenic, or recreational rivers.
Organizational History. This agency was created in 1971 (Chapter 706) to ensure the preservation of the Adirondack wilderness area that had been designated as part of a State forest preserve in 1885, and then as the Adirondack Park in 1892. The agency was directed to cooperate with the Department of Environmental Conservation to prepare master plans for managing State land for approval by the governor and to prepare an Adirondack Park Private Land Use Plan for presentation to the legislature. The legislation gave interim power to the agency to review and approve land development within the park to prevent activities that may have an adverse effect on the park's unique natural resources.
The master plan for management of State-owned land was approved by the governor in 1972; the land use and development plan for private lands was approved by the legislature in 1973. The 1972 New York State Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act (Chapter 869) placed privately owned land adjacent to designated rivers in a separate regulatory program administered by the agency. In 1975 the Freshwater Wetlands Act (Chapter 614) empowered the agency to review applications for permits to conduct regulated activities (such as draining, construction, or farming) within or affecting freshwater wetlands in the park.
The agency is governed by an eleven-member board, including the commissioners of the departments of Environmental Conservation and Economic Development, the secretary of state, and eight others appointed by the governor.
ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY
| General Agency-level records | ||
| 18880 | Administrative files on establishment and early planning
of the Adirondack Park Agency, 1969-1990, bulk 1973-1974. 8 cu. ft. (including 67 audiotapes) |
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| 14285 | Minutes of meetings, 1971-1984. .1 cu. ft. (5 microfilm reels) |
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| 14286 | Project files, 1973-1984. 14 cu. ft. |
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| Executive Director's Office | ||
| 18851 | Chronological correspondence files, 1974-1997. 11.6 cu. ft. (including 56 microfilm reels) |
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| 18855 | Chairman's subject and correspondence files, ca. 1984-1993. 8.1 cu. ft. (including 5 microfilm reels) |
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| 18880 | Administrative files on establishment and early planning
of the Adirondack Park Agency, 1969-1990 (bulk 1973-1974). 8 cu.ft. (including 67 audiotapes) |
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| Operations Division | ||
| 16573 | Project files, 1973-1993. 15.75 cu. ft. (including 368 microfilm reels 16 CD-ROMS, and ca. 7,500 photographs) |
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| Planning Division | ||
| 19507 | Map amendment files, 1980-1991. .5 cu. ft. (45 microfilm reels) |
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| 17337 | Visitors Information Center (VIC) planning and administrative
files for facilities at Paul Smiths and Newcomb, 1984-1991. 24 microfilm reels |
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| Jurisdictional Inquiry Unit | ||
| 18803 | Jurisdictional determination files, 1973-1994. .4 cu. ft. (including 68 microfilm reels and 5 CD-ROMs) |
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