§ 41. Organization. 1. There is hereby created the Utica transit authority. The authority shall be a body corporate and politic constituting a public benefit corporation and shall be perpetual in duration and consist of at least five members. The chairman of the authority shall, before the authority becomes operative, cause to be filed in the office of the commissioner, and a duplicate in the office of the secretary of state, a certificate signed by him and setting forth: (a) the date of the passage of the special act establishing the authority; (b) the name of the authority; and (c) the names of the members and their terms, specifying which member is chairman.

2. Three members, no more than two from any political party, shall be appointed by the Mayor of the city of Utica; one for a term of two years to terminate on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and seventy-one; one for a term of three years to terminate on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and seventy-one; and one for a term of four years to terminate on the thirty-first day of December nineteen hundred and seventy-three. Two members, no more than one from any political party, shall be appointed by the common council of the city of Utica; one for a term of two years to be terminated on the thirty-first day of December nineteen hundred and seventy-one; one for a term of three years to terminate on the thirty-first day of December nineteen hundred and seventy-one. The present membership of the Utica transit commission, already so appointed under local law number six of nineteen hundred and sixty-five of the city of Utica, shall constitute the membership of the Utica transit authority for terms coinciding with the present terms of the Utica transit commission. The present chairman of the Utica transit commission shall continue to serve his current term as chairman of the Utica transit authority. The mayor of the city of Utica, the majority leader of the common council and the minority leader of the common council, as they have already been serving pursuant to said local law number six of nineteen hundred and sixty-five, shall serve as ex-officio members without voting rights of the Utica transit authority.

Other municipalities electing to participate shall by their governing body appoint one member to the Utica transit authority to serve for a term of three years and who shall have a proportional vote multiplied by five based upon the same percentage as the population of the municipality he represents bears to the population of the city of Utica, said populations to be determined by the last decennial or federal county-wide special census. Any member of the authority shall lose his voting rights for such period of time as the municipality which he represents fails to make a pro-rata contribution toward the expenses of the operation of the authority.

A member of the authority shall continue to hold office until a successor is appointed and has qualified.

3. A majority of the whole number of members of a mass transportation authority then in office shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business or the exercise of any power of the authority. A mass transportation authority shall have power to act by a majority of the members present at any meeting at which a quorum is in attendance.