Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-11-16
The City ElcctiOn and the New
Charter.

The adoption by the people OF the new
Charter brings up number of very
curious and perplexing questions in its
relation to the pending municipal cleo
ton. The Charter provides that within
thirty days after the date OF its taking
effect general municipal election shall
be held. The Legislature will meet on
the first Monday in January next,
and the Charter may be approved
by that body as early as the 1st OF Feb
ruary. This would be the time OF COM
plete constitutional adoption Of the Char
ter, and the day of its "taking effect" as
set forth in Section 1876, Article AlA OF
the Charter itself. Therefore, the time
of the first election of the municipal offi-
GERS under the new Charter would be
on the I'd of March next. That would
leave the term of office, for the officers to
be elected on the first Monday in Decem-
ber, something less than three months.
1t will hardly be said that it is worth the
labor and expense of getting a nomina
ton and election to any municipal office,
when that office will probably only last
for three months.
Yet the mischief of the whole thing is
in the doubt. The Legislature may or
may not approve the Charter. When
the crude and badly digested instrument
our people have affirmatively passed
upon was under discussion, the HERALD
opposed it for reasons that should have
killed it. The other papers, with
their usual recklessness, impugned
our motives, and mendaciously as
serted that our course was in
the interest of the Water Company,
which did not wish the city to be placed
in position to be able to raise money on
it's bonds to purchase the works OF that
Company at the expiration of its term OF
franchise, some nine years hence.
Absurd as the charge was, that and the
partisan advantage in the carving out
of the wards, cut an important figure in
carrying the Charter. Now mark the
result. The Water Company is assured
that its works cannot be bought under
this Charter for the simple reason that ii
is so constructed that no financial
institution or capitalist in the country
would lend the city dollar on it's bonds
In other words, the Charter does moi
comply with the Constitution in its mate
rial features, and bonds issued under it
if contested by any taxpayer when they
fell due, would fail to stand the test oi
the courts on account of its inconsistent
cies with the positive requirements OF the
Constitution. TIE Constitution, Article
XII, Section s, provides that "any city
may frame a charter for its own govern.
ment consistent ioSIh and subject to the
Constitution and laws of this State"
The laws of this State are general
laws. One of these is that which
governs the work upon streets--the
Vrooman Act. This Charter is repug.
nant to that general law, in that it en-.
acts a system to control street work al
variance and inconsistent with the
Vrooman act. The Supreme Cour
might take the view that there was o.
was not inconsistency with the laws o
California in this Charter. But unit
that point had been definitely ant
definitively settled not bond would fine
a purchaser. Thus, if the Water Com
pany had any interest at all in this Char.
ter it was, on the reasoning of our
contemporaries, favorable one.
1t is possible that when the Judiciary
Committee of the Senate--which is near
ly always an able Committee-comes to
critically examine our new Charter, il
will make an adverse report and prevent
its adoption. In that event the munici
pal officers elected in December would
hold Office for two years. But the ele.
ment of doubt as to the term of tenure Of
those officers will create perplexity which
may lead to serious complications.
First class men will hesitate to run for
| offices that they may hold only for three
months. If under that doubt we are
forced to take up inferior men, and the
Charter should be approved, then we
are confronted with the other horn of the
dilemma, that We shall have to endure an
inefficient administration for two years.
This is serious difficulty into which
we have been led by the adoption of a
Charter which was badly botched by its
trainers, and which the HERALD opposed
on perfectly proper and tenable grounds.
A REPORTER of the HERALD interviewed
DIR. H. s. Orme yesterday on the sewage
subject and the West system. The doc
tor has long been leading member of