New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-11-25
The Proposed Health Ordinance.

An ordinance is before the Board Of Assistant Al
iermrn organize Health Department for the city the
functions whereof shall be to take cognZance of all mat
subjects pertaining the public health The
duties of the department to be executed by Health
Officer and deputy clerk and many employees as the
| chief of the department may fit TO appoint.
The Health Officer is to have a salary Of six thousand
dollars his Deputy is to have two thousand and
his Clerk twelve hundred dollars The combined SALARIES
these three make up the round Of nine thousand
hundred dollars independent of the pay to be given
to the under employees number of whom Is unlimited
and VINO to form the retinue of the Officer in Chief
This high salaried functionary with his deputies and
subdeputies and with bis pay Of six thousand dollars
year intended to supercede the Street Commissioner in
the duties assigned him which last named officer receives
a salary of two thousand dollars year In the
that the place of Health Officer shall be established the
duties Of the Street Commissioner will be little other than
that all street contracts faithfully executed
The principal portion of his duties such seeing to the
removal Of filth and oal from the and denouncug
all nuisances will be deyoved upon another aud his
place will be almost sinecure. With his depu-
| ties, he will no doubt have easy time of it.
1t may be well to look into the constitution of this
Health Department to inquire into its scope and
what power and patronage confers upon its Chief
In the first place by the provisions of the ordinance
the Health officer is to be elected by the Common Coun
Gil of the city and the first incumbent elected is to hold
his office until May 1856 member of the Board Of As
sistant Aldermen may be chosen and certain malicious
individuals have limited that the Office has been
order to provide snug position for of the members
that Board OF this we know nothing but do know
that through certain influences, the provision of the
&c. consolidating the city, by which members of
either Board of Aldermen were excluded from hold
ing office for a limited time was repealed in order
| that Assistant Alderman Ramos might be made Re-
| eorder of the Second District. We know too that
| Assistant Aldermen E oSullivan and s. B Davis re-
ceyed appointments in the Custom house their
for party services and that Mr. s. b Davis afterwards
ceved nomination for Congress in which he
All Of these and others perhaps have been snugly
vided for and good be urged why pur-
of the policy adopted by the Assistant Board they
may not go creating offices the inoumbents Of which
they may themselves elect from their body until all
the members comfortably slowed away in good
offices The position of Health Officer would well
known member of the Assistant Board remarkably we'll
at least far the salary concerned he in his
turn might provide for of the faithful by investing
him with the depuyship at two thousand dollars year
and third might be made Clerk at twelve hundred dol.
| lars.
This is not all Resolved, II possible that all the mem
beers Of the Common Council might have fat Offices they
chose the originator of the ordinance has taken parcu
lar that provision should be inserted by which DO
sitions may be created for every individual member Of the
|
themselves. No read the articles Of the
ordinance and doubt what have asserted Those ar
tcles provide that all the employees his department
shall be appointed by the Health Officer and that their
wages shall be fixed by him ssct he appyoual Of hs
Council These provisions will aid in carrying out the
system Of providing snug places for the members of the
two Boards, The Council may elect the Health Officer
from among their own members he may appoint his De-
putty and Clerk whose salaries fixed by the ordinance
and who may both be members ne .,d mo-,
appoint also the ether employees of his department all
from the two Boards that they may all be provided for
There need be fear that the salaries of the other
ployees will be too small for they will have right 10
fix the compensation themselves II they dent mako the
| pay high enough 1t is their own fault
The members o the Council know how to take care Of
number Aware that they will have to go out of office
next April thy take that they shall not 90 unpro
vied for during the years to come at least They
create huge flee, out of which spring. half hun
dred minor ones flor their number is unlimted fix the
salaries themselves appoint the chief II the department
leave him appoint their individual members to all
the subordinate places. That he may appoint them
under the provisions Of the ordinance there is ques
| ton, and that corruption will follow where unlimited
power is conferred assumed there can be as little
doubt II remains TO be whether the rejecting
members OF the Council will permit ordinance to be
passed out Of which much mischief may arise The
attempt to fseo such ahominaton on the city should
the loud and unqualified reprobation of every mem.
Der of the community We may more to say on this
subject hereafter,