It shall be lawful for the Executive Secretary of the District of Columbia, or in his absence or upon his inability to act, such person as said Mayor may designate, when so directed by said Mayor, to execute in the name of the District of Columbia or of said Mayor, by attaching thereto his signature as such Secretary and affixing when requisite the seal of said District, any deed, contract, pleading, lease, release, regulation, notice, or other paper, which prior to February 11, 1932, said Mayor was required to execute by subscribing thereto his signature: Provided, that prior to such signing, and sealing if requisite, said deed, contract, pleading, lease, release, regulation, notice, or other paper shall first have been considered and approved by said Mayor, and evidence of such consideration and approval shall be reduced to writing and recorded in the minutes of said Mayor, which minutes shall thereafter be signed by said Mayor.

(Feb. 11, 1932, 47 Stat. 48, ch. 40.)

1981 Ed., § 1-303.

1973 Ed., § 1-214.

Industrial home school site, instruments of transfer, see § 10-803.

Office of Secretary to Board of Commissioners abolished: The Office of the Secretary to the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia was abolished and the functions thereof transferred to the Board of Commissioners by Reorganization Plan No. 5 of 1952. Reorganization Order No. 41 of the Board of Commissioners, dated June 23, 1953, established as part of the Executive Office of the Board of Commissioners under the direction and control of the Board, an Office of the Secretary to the Board of Commissioners to perform ministerial duties for the Board. The Order described the purpose and functions of the Office of Secretary, and provided that the functions and positions of the previously existing Office of the Secretary to the Board be transferred to the new Office, and that the previously existing Office of the Secretary be abolished. This Order was issued pursuant to Reorganization Plan No. 5 of 1952. The executive functions of the Board of Commissioners were transferred to the Commissioner of the District of Columbia by § 401 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967. Organization Order No. 2, Commissioner’s Order No. 67-23, dated December 13, 1967, as amended, established within the Executive Office of the Commissioner, a Secretariat headed by an Executive Secretary. The Order transferred to the Secretariat certain functions, including the duties, powers and authorities of all officers and employees performing such functions and assigned to the Office of the Secretary as it existed immediately prior to December 13, 1967, and revoked all other orders inconsistent therewith.

This section originated at a time when local government powers were delegated to a Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia (see Acts Relating to the Establishment of the District of Columbia and its Various Forms of Governmental Organization in Volume 1). Section 401 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967 (see Reorganization Plans in Volume 1) transferred all of the functions of the Board of Commissioners under this section to a single Commissioner. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, 87 Stat. 818, § 711 ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.11), abolished the District of Columbia Council and the Office of Commissioner of the District of Columbia. These branches of government were replaced by the Council of the District of Columbia and the Office of Mayor of the District of Columbia, respectively. Accordingly, and also pursuant to § 714(a) of such Act ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.14(a)), appropriate changes in terminology were made in this section.