The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-15
THE NEW CHARTER.
Its Adoption Defended by Judge
A. E. King.

To THE EDITOR OF THE TINES: AS
listing in the minds of some in regard to
the work in the preparation of the new
charter for the city of Roanoke, L think
it is proper, as chairman of that COM
mittee of the Council, to state the fac is
exactly as they are.
The first criticism that have noticed
is ono which has been made in tho pub
lie press and perhaps is,
that the Council refused to allow the
public to express their views in the
through at the meeting when it was
adopted. The facts as they exist will
be complete REPUTATION of this charge,
The Council appointed committee
of four members, with myself as chair
man, which, with the assistance of the
city solicitor, was to draft the charter.
The Commercial Association, a BODY
composed of the leading business men
and citizens Of this town, about the
same time had meeting, at which pa
pers were read, setting forth the main
features of charter as the writer's of
the papers supposed it should be. At
this meeting of this association a COM
mittee to act with the charter com
mittee of the Council was appointed.
These two committees have acted with
the utmost harmony throughout the
whole matter. The public had the ad-
vantage, if the Council is not taken as
being representative of the public, of
the Commercial Association joining and
aiding tho committee of the Council in
every manner possible.
The meetings of these two commit
tees were held openly and were at
tended usually by representa- of
the city press, who reported TO the world
what was going on. In addition 20 this,
any citizen who had any suggestion to
make was always accorded a courteous
and full hearing, not only by the whole
committee, but by any individual mem
Der thereof to whom he might speak.
These meetings extended over month,
perhaps two months; do not remembe
the exact length of time. During that
time suggestions were made by numer-
Gus citizens; many of them were
adopted, and suggestions were made by
the papers and many of them were
adopted. AT last, when the charter had
been moulded into something of it's final
shape, twas published in The ROANOKE
TINES in full, so that any citizen might
cad it, might criticise it, and might
suggest to the committee or any mem
Der thereof any changes that he might
think salutary and ought to be made
AS matter of fact, there were many
criticisms, many suggestions and a num-
Der of changes. After the first publ
cation in THE TIMES there wore held
two or three meetings of the committee,
attended as before by members of the
mr. nr,d
side citizens. Finally tho whole char
ter was presented at Il public meeting
of the Council. which any one could
have attended and whore any one would
have been given patient, thoughtful
and courteous ht airing. AT that meet
ing there was nothing like railroad
ing done. On the contrary. the charter
was read over carefully by tho steno-
grapher, several members Of the Council
made motions to change parts of
the charter, some changes were actually
made, some of them in my opinion
were unfortunate, but they were made
by the Council. Secondly. Mr.. Miller,
the city solicitor, was present with a
paper which he had prepared, suggest
ing number Of Changes in the charter
as presented to Council. These changes
were gone over with him carefully, and
when the charter had finally been ap-
proved by the Council and by the city
solicitor, it was adopted. This does not
appear to be "railroading."
In fact this charter has received as
much and as careful consideration on
all hands as any public document that
nave had any experience with. The
City Council had delegated the work to
committee and necessarily, in the
main, relied upon that committee to do
the work for them, and did not
undertake to criticise matters of which
they themselves had not been fully in
formed.
The next criticism is that the com
mittee did not report two branches OF
the Council. At the beginning of the
consideration OF the charter, believe
that the committee was unanimous in
favor of the two bodies. This opinion
was concurred in, as / recollect, by all
members Of the committee appointed bv
the Commercial Association. During
the time occupied in tho preparat ion of
the charter this question was discussed
over and over again, and was examined
IN all OF Its bearings, and as result of
thorough Investigation and of all the
arguments, pro and con, the Joint COM
mltteeS in the end were unanimous,
believe, against the dual bodys
Mr.. Pechin was one of the warm.
est advocates of the two branches
In the beginning, but in the end he
stated that in his opinion it was unnec.
essary at the present time. The Coun-
Gil committee had come to this conclu-
sion before he had made this statement.
In this opinion the committees had the
satisfaction of knos ing that number
OF others thought the same way. Col.
John e. Penn and number Of other