Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-06-06
Notice to Mail subscribers.
THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1889.
why Pus the city I'm n Strait
Jacket?

Jacket?
1t seems to us that the Council are
making grave mistake in designating
in the ordinance the exact route the out
fall sewer shall take. According to the
opinion of at least two of the best law
yers in this city, the Act of March 10,
1889, does not require that the line over
which the sewer is to pass should be
fixed in the ordinance that declares the
necessity Of raising the money by the
issuance Of bonds. The first ordi-
nance should merely state the ne
cessity of raising the money by
bonds to defray the expense of
establishing and constructing sys-
tenn for the collection and disposition Of
the sewage of the city," This is the
Language of the Charter. Now, the act
of March 10Th, which creates the au-
thority to incur the indebtedness, only
requires that the ordinance shall de-
termine and declare that the interest or
necessity exists for constructing sewer
system at cost too great to be paid out
of the ordinary annual revenue of the
city. The second ordinance need only
recite the "objects and purposes" of
raising the money by bonds, in the same
language as stated above from the Char
ter; ii should, of course, also set forth the
estim ated cost of the work, and the facts
showing the necessity for the proposed
improvement, together, perhaps, with
the general recital that plans and esti-
mates have been made, from which it
appears to the Council that the cost of
the work would amount to the sum
for which the bonds are issued. If the
ordinances were adopted in the manner
indicated, latitude would be given, after
the bonds had been voted, to make ouch
changes or notifications in the plans and
estimates as might hereafter seem best,
and give the CITY the opportunity of
making proper arrangements for rights Vi
way, etc. But to fix the exact route
of the sewer in the ordinance is to place
the city in a strait-jacket and to prevent
her from exercising any discretion what
ever if it should appear, as the work
goes along, that material changes in the
course could be effected greatly to the ad-
vantage of the city. 1t is not good
policy to place a municipality in irons.
If errors are discovered there should be
the power Of correction left somewhere.
Everybody knows that the route set
forth in the neutrality-suspicious. as
some of our best lawyers assure us,-is
one in which the sewage matter can
never be required as fertilizer, and
that, consequently, the rich drain.
age of this city will be ut
terly lost to cultivation. Now, it may
be that before the work has been started
on the Ballona route the..owners of land
on another route may realize that they
want the sewage, and be willing to take
it and pay tor it. Would it not be we'll
to leave the city at liberty to make such
def1eeticns or changes in the route as
would accomplish this important pur.
pose?
Another point is worthy of considera-
ton. The need of irrigation within the
limits of the city is growing less every
year. The time will come when all the
zanjas will be abandoned. 1t is contem-
plated to run the water of these zanjas
into the sewers ss fast as they are
abandoned, under the plea of flushing
them. But shall we be permitted to do
that? If the water of the river is re-
CURED as it will be, for irrigating lands
below the city, We would be compelled
to let it flow into the river,
and the amount we would be
permitted to divert into our
eewer would be limited to the amount
reasonably required to carry away the
sewage. Hence, if we are confined to
the Ballona route, we shall lose our con-
trel of the river water. If, however, We
should run the sewer through lands re-
curing the sewage both for fertilization
and irrigation, We would retain control
over property of great value that might
in the future afford the city an income
that would in the end pay for the cost of
the work.
We have merely presented these
possibilities that may confront us to
show the impolicy of fixing irrevocably
in the ordinance the route which the
sewer is to take. II neither the law nor
the Charter requires us to confine our
selves to that route, why should wei
voluntarily tie ourselves to it by making
it an irrevocable part of the municipal I
legislation governing the issuance of the
bonds?