Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-09-29
MIR. LAMBIE ON THE CHARTER
He objects to Features I'm the Engi- =
neer,s Department.

neer'S department.
EDITORS HERALD-On the subject o
the new City Charter 1 wish to call you
attention to the provision relating to the
City Engineers department, which il
seems to me is unwisely framed. think
the Board of Freeholders would have
shown better judgement if they
had consulted men OF experience in this
branch of the business and gotten some
points of which they seem entirely
to have been ignorant.
The duty OF the City Engineer seems
to have been defined so as to make him
the vehicle for all surveys, both public
and private in the whole city. This will
be the result if this charter is adopted.
All other engineers in the city will have
closed their doors when the Council has
the right to direct the City Engineer
10 make surveys for private parties, and
have the proceeds 60 into the City
Treasury. OF course no person is going
to have another engineer to do his work
when he has the right to demand that
the work be done and certified to. The
City Engineer is a bonded officer, and
everybody will want his certificate as to
the correctness of the work done in pref
erence to that of an outside engineer
when he can demand it for the same
price he would pay elsewhere. Now this
is all wrong and emanates from a very
narrow point of view.
The engineering department of this
city is already large institution as will
be testified to by those who have busi-
ness transactions with it. During this
year there has been no time when 1
could reduce my force below half dozen
field parties. who are constantly on the
jump to supply points and keep up with
the demands of the time as shown
through the Council orders. Now all
this costs about $4,000 per month for
wages. This comes out OF the City Treas
ury, when in fact about rs per cent. of
it should be borne by the property own
ers, at whose instigation the work is Or
dered by the Council, such as making
surveys and establishing grades for new
streets. The only way in which the city
RECEIVERS any of this money is through
the Vrooman act. When the assessment
is made out by the Superintendent of
Streets it contains the items of expenses
of this department in laying out the work.
Now the reform that would have sug-
gested is this. To pay the City Engineer
a sufficient salary to secure good man
and his services are we'll worth $4,000
per month, and in the end he will save
the city many thousands per year. 1
should not object to the clause requiring
him to devote his entire time to the city's
service when that is interpreted as mean
ing his daily service, but 1 do most ear
nestly protest against an apparent slap at
an honorable profession, when the defini-
tion of duty specifies that the City En-
gineer shall receive no fee from any cor
poration or individual other than the
city during his term of Office. l think
that all fair minded men will admit that
any man who has acquired the conf
dence of others by professional expert
ence, has the right to profit by that ex-
perience of judgment which others less
informed may seek and be willing to pay
for. Yet under the definition of his
duties in this instance the City En-
gineer would be debarred from giving
advice for pay, and be forced to rely on
his very moderate salary for his living, if
he was not SO fortunate as to be able to
work for glory; and when men have ac-
quired the experience necessary to fill
such a position as it should be filled,
they have generally reached an age when
they are not satisfied with that kind of
pay. But as 1 indicated before, the
worst feature of this is that it makes the
city the monopolizer of all surveying, in
stead of confining it to legitimate city
work. Ali surveys and profles for streets
that are being opened and graded by
property owners for their own advantage
should be paid for by them at the actual
cost to the city, and the estimated ex-
pense deposited in the city treasury be-
fore the work is done. This would in
sure the prompt execution of the work
as the cost would not come out of the city
and the engineer would be justified in
employing as many men as necessary to
do the work promptly. Respectfully,
VIM. T. LAMBIE,
Los Angeles. September 2Sth. 1898.