Esta ley enmienda la Ley Núm. 54 de 22 de agosto de 1990 para autorizar a los artistas miembros permanentes de la facultad de la Escuela de Artes Plásticas a recibir pago por servicios prestados fuera de su horario laboral a entidades gubernamentales, sin estar sujetos a la prohibición de doble compensación.
(Approved September 16, 2004)
To amend Section 6 of Act No. 54 of August 22, 1990, in order to authorize that the artists who are tenured members of the faculty of the School of Plastic Arts receive pay, without it being subject to the double compensation prohibition provided in Section 177 of the Political Code of 1902, for the services they render outside their working hours to any department, subdivisions, agency, board, commission, committee, instrumentality, public corporation or municipality of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Act No. 54 of August 22, 1990, created the School of Plastic Arts as an autonomous entity attached to the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. This government entity is an institution of higher learning at the service of the culture and the people of Puerto Rico. Its main objective is to foster the full formation of professional artists and art teachers through the development of creative and cognitive processes and the teaching of artistic and pedagogic techniques.
The School of Plastic Arts offers undergraduate programs that stimulate and promote the humanistic and cultural development of students. It furthermore attends to the recurrent education of diverse sectors of the
community by offering short courses geared to broadening the knowledge, and the artistic, professional or personal capabilities of the members of said communities.
Among of the many objectives of the School of Plastic Arts, as provided by Section 2 of the aforementioned Act No. 54, include the preservation, enrichment and dissemination of the cultural values of the Puerto Rican people and the collaboration with other sectors of society within the sphere of its inherence regarding the study and dissemination of the cultural undertaking.
In the academic field, the members of the faculty of the School of Plastic Arts have been recruited according to their solid educational background and achievements in their respective special fields to include distinguished Puerto Rican artists as well as important foreign artists. For this reason, diverse government entities are genuinely interested in recruiting and requiring the services of the employees and artists members of the permanent faculty of the School of Plastic Arts to commission works of art that would enrich our cultural endeavor. However, the prohibition regarding double compensation contained in Section 177 of the Political Code of 1902 prevents these persons from rendering their services to other government entities. This is not the case of the University of Puerto Rico, whereas the law provides for allowing any government entity to contract or employ the services of any person who holds a position in said educational institution, outside his/her working hours with the prior written consent of the corresponding Chancellor.
For all of the above, the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico recognizes the need to authorize the employees and artists members of the permanent faculty of the School of Plastic Arts to receive pay, without
being subject to the double compensation prohibition provided in Section 177 of the Political Code of 1902, for services rendered outside their working hours to any department, subdivision, agency, board, commission, committee, instrumentality, public corporation or municipality of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Section 1.-Section 6 of Act No. 54 of August 22, 1990 is hereby amended to read as follows: "Section 6.-Personnel Administration The School shall administer its own personnel system and shall appoint all its officers, agents and employees who shall be public employees entitled to belong to the Association of Employees of the Government of Puerto Rico and shall assign to them the functions it deems convenient.
The Board may establish a ranking system for the teaching personnel of the School.
The School shall be considered to be an Individual Administrator, as established in Act No. 5 of October 14, 1975, as amended, known as the Public Service Personnel Act, with respect to its teaching and non-teaching personnel.
Removal of a member of the School personnel whose appointment is of a permanent nature may not be carried out without first having filed charges and given said person the opportunity to present his/her defense; however, the Chancellor may suspend from employment and salary any member of the personnel until the charges against said person have been heard without prejudice of the motion for appeal granted in this Act.
It may contract the services of employees and officers of any agency, instrumentality and political dependency of the Government of Puerto Rico
outside their working hours and pay the proper compensation for the additional services, as established in Act No. 100 of June 27, 1956, which has applied to the present to the University of Puerto Rico. The employees and public officers that are contracted by the School shall not be subject to subsection
(f) of Section 3.2 of Act No. 12 of July 24, 1985, known as the "Ethics in Government Act of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico."
The artists members of the permanent faculty of the School of Plastic Arts are hereby authorized to receive pay, without being subject to the double compensation prohibition provided in Section 177 of the Political Code of 1902, for services rendered outside their working hours in said School to any department, subdivision, agency, board, commission, committee, instrumentality, public corporation or municipality of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, for which the prior written authorization of the Chancellor of the School of Plastic Arts shall be required."
Section 2.-This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval.
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 349 (H.B. 3808) of the $7^{ ext {th }}$ Session of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to amend Section 6 of Act No. 54 of August 22, 1990, in order to authorize that the artists who are tenured members of the faculty of the School of Plastic Arts receive pay, without it being subject to the double compensation prohibition provided in Section 177 of the Political Code of 1902, for the services they render outside their working hours to any department, subdivisions, agency, board, commission, committee, instrumentality, public corporation or municipality of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today $6^{ ext {th }}$ of December of 2005.
Francisco J. Domenech Director