3554 - General powers of the corporation.
§ 3554. General powers of the corporation. Except as limited by this title, the public health law, the mental hygiene law, the social services law, the education law, the civil practice law and rules or any other applicable law or regulation, the corporation shall have power: 1. to sue and be sued and to participate in actions and proceedings, whether judicial, administrative, arbitrative or otherwise and, except as is otherwise provided in subdivision four of section thirty-five hundred sixty-one of this title, the court of claims shall have exclusive jurisdiction in all actions against the corporation for money damages; 2. to have a corporate seal, and to alter such seal at pleasure, and to use it by causing it or a facsimile to be affixed or impressed or reproduced in any other manner; 3. to purchase, receive, take by grant, gift, devise, bequest or otherwise, lease, or otherwise acquire, own, hold, improve, employ, use and otherwise deal in and with, real or personal property, or any interest therein, wherever situated; 4. to purchase, take, receive, subscribe for, or otherwise acquire, own, hold, vote, employ, sell, lend, lease, exchange, transfer, or otherwise dispose of, mortgage, pledge, use and otherwise deal in and with, bonds and other obligations, shares, or other securities or interests issued by others, whether engaged in similar or different business, governmental, or other activities; 5. to accept subventions from other persons or any unit of government; 6. to sell, convey, lease, exchange, transfer or otherwise dispose of, or mortgage or pledge, or create a security interest in, all or any of its property, or any interest therein, wherever situated, upon such terms and conditions and in such manner as the corporation shall determine; 7. to make capital contributions to other not-for-profit corporations; 8. (a) to offer participation in the New York state and local employees' retirement system for all its officers and employees, and to establish and carry out other retirement plans authorized pursuant to the retirement and social security law, which may be offered to all of its officers and employees not participating in the New York state and local employees' retirement systems, and to establish and carry out other incentive and benefit plans, trusts and provisions for any or all of its officers and employees, subject to the applicable provisions of article fourteen of the civil service law; (b) provided, further, that employees of the corporation established pursuant to section thirty-five hundred fifty-three of this article who are division and department chairpersons holding scientific degrees, scientific faculty members such as assistant members, associate members, members, distinguished members, or who have graduate faculty status at the level of assistant professor or above at the Roswell Park graduate division of the state university of New York at Buffalo and as certified by the dean of the division, facility directors, and those employees who are in titles such as president and chief executive officer, senior vice president, vice president, assistant vice president, general counsel, and executive director, and who are eligible to participate in the New York state and local employees' retirement system may elect, within ninety days of the effective date of this paragraph or within ninety days of becoming eligible to participate in such system, in lieu of participating in such system, to participate in the optional retirement program available to employees of the state university of New York pursuant to article eight-B of the education law, subject to the terms and conditions of that article and to the provisions of the retirement and social security law;9. to be a promoter, partner, member, associate or manager of other not-for-profit activities or business enterprises or ventures, or to the extent permitted in any other jurisdiction to be an incorporator of other corporations of any type or kind; 10. except as limited by state law or regulation, to fix, compromise and collect rates, rentals, fees, lease payments and other charges for the services rendered by it or for use of the facilities owned, controlled or administered by, or in the exercise of the powers of, the corporation; 11. to make contracts, give guarantees and incur liabilities, borrow money at such rates of interest as the corporation may determine, issue notes, bonds and other obligations, and secure any of its obligations by mortgage or pledge of all or any of its property or any interest therein, wherever situated; 12. to issue bonds for any of its corporate purposes or its projects, or to refund the same, and to provide for the rights of the holders thereof; 13. to lend money, invest and reinvest its funds, and take and hold real and personal property as security for the payment of funds so loaned or invested; 14. to conduct the activities of the corporation and have offices and exercise the powers granted by this title in any jurisdiction within or without the United States; 15. to appoint such officers, employees and agents as the corporation may require for the performance of its duties and, subject to applicable provisions of agreements negotiated pursuant to article fourteen of the civil service law, to fix and determine their qualifications, duties, and compensation; 16. to retain or employ counsel, auditors, and engineers, subject to applicable provisions of agreements negotiated pursuant to article fourteen of the civil service law where appropriate and, private consultants on a contract basis or otherwise for rendering professional, management or technical services and advice; 17. to make, adopt, amend, enforce and repeal rules for its governance and internal management and personnel practices, subject to article fourteen of the civil service law, where applicable; 18. to make and alter by-laws for its organization and management, and, subject to agreements with its bondholders, to make and alter rules and regulations governing the exercise of its powers and the fulfillment of its purposes under this title; 19. to designate the depositories of its money; 20. to establish its fiscal year; 21. to insure or otherwise to provide for the insurance of the corporation's property or operations and against such other risks as the corporation may deem advisable; and 22. to do all things necessary, convenient or desirable, including ancillary and incidental activities, to carry out its purposes and for the exercise of the powers granted in this title.