The morning call., 1892-05-13
THOUSANDS IN A YEAR.
How the City Has Been Mulcted
for Street. Cleaning.
The Buckley Gang Gave Max Pepper $4,000
in Two Years-lhe Old Contract Ex-
PRED April l.

The STRENGTHENING contract expired April
!. Soon a new contract will be let for two
years.
Right here is the chance for reformers.
who are reformers, to get their work in.
The taxpayers can be saved burden Of
about $1,000 a month in the letting Of this
new contract. In two years there are "a
months. At $1,000 a month the handsome
little sum of $4,000 can be saved if the con-
tract for street-cleaniug is let as it should
be.
Quite neat sum, isn't it?
1t would build some new schoolhouses.
a good many streets could be paved with
il.
1t would more than double the usefulness
of any one of the public institutions that
should get 1t.
1t might be iudieiously expended In any
one of hundred or more badly needed pub
lie improvements
San Francisco taxpayers have been
beaten out of that sum in he last two years
by the dlctum of the Buckley gang.
In other words, under the Buckley re-
CINE, March 81 1890, tWo-year contract
for sweeping and cleaning the streets was
let 20 Max Pepper at an increase of about
$1,000 a month over and above the cost Of
the same work for the two years preced-
ing.
You doubt itP
Well, here are the figures: March 81, 1888,
Max Pepper secured the contract for keep
ing the streets clean for the next two years
at the rate Of $40 80 per lineal mile.
NO RECORD OF Loss.
1t is not of record that Pepper lost money
OH this contract, Indeed, the popular belief
is that he made comfortable profit for him
self out of the job. At any rate lie kept the
job two years and was not poorer man at
the expiration of the contract in 1890 than
when he accepted It.. 80 far, so good Dur
ing these two years taxpayers were not
Overcharged for street-cleaning, though the
streets may or may not have been kept clean.
But how about the next two years? Right
here is where Pepper and the Buckley
crowd got its work in TO some purpOse-say
$1,000 a month.
March 81, 1890, Max Pepper was awarded
the contract for Street-cleaning till April l.
1892, at the rate Of $50 70 lineal mile.
Do you see the difference?
Instead of getting cheaper as labor. ma
terial and everything else did, streets clean
ing advanced in price from 1888 to 1890 to
the tune of So 76 a liCeal mile.
NUw in the month Of April. 1890, Max
Pepper cleaned-Or received paw for clean
ing-3lS miles of streets. If you multiply
the difference per lineal mile by the number
Oh ililtS Eithutut tlt Itbulb VIII U6 I llSD o.
AnG this sum is the difference between
what Max Pepper got for cleaning our
streets in one month in 1890 and what he
has been getting since then and is now get
ting.
So Won see the $4,000 spoken of above
was rather under than above The facts Of
the case.
True, there are some mOnths-when it
rains steadily-that the streets cleaned do
not average in length 3lS miles. But there
are only a few of these months. and in most
of the other months the number Of miles
cleaned run considerably above this figure.
The STRENGTHENING contracts are awarded
every two years at Il rate of so much per
mile for every mile OF streets cleaned.
REPORTS FILED.
Every day the STRENGTHENING cnntracto
must report 10 the Superintendent of Streets
the number OF miles cleaned during that
DAY. And at the end Of every month the
contractor receives from the Superintendent
warrant emitting him to 60 much a mile
for every mile Of street cleaned during the
month.
There are regular specifications for clean
ing the streets so many times a week or
month, as the case may be, to which the
contractor is supposed to live up faith
fully.
For instances: Market street, from East
to Ninth: heaTBy. from Market to Broad
way: Montgomery, from Market TO Pacific:
4
avenue, from Market 10 Bush streets, must
be cleaned every day, except Sunday. These
are streets CT the first class. Those of the
second class, such as Third and Fourth,
from Market to Berry; California and Pine,
from Market to keaTny; Larkln, from Mar
ket to Suffer, etc, are required TO be swept
three times each week. The fourth-class
streets are TO be swept four times each
month, and the fifth class once month.
Under the present system 1t would APP
I - 49,, Nhra
10 clean as many miles Of streets each
month as tile law allows. The system is a
good one, and would work all right if the
inspectors were honest.
Returning TO the main proposition, how
ever, that of the S24,00 squandered in two
years, il would be interesting to know right
at this time whether there are genuine re-
formers at the new City Hall in sufficient
quantities this year 10 prevent contractor
from p0cketIng $1,000 month of the peo-
pies money for the next two years?
If STRENGTHENING by machinery could be
proftably done for SIC SO a running mile in
1888, why can't it be done for the same figure
now?
Labor is cheaper. The machines are not
more expensive, and tools and wagons and
carts and other implements are cheaper than
they were in 1888.
Why cannot the streets be cleaned for
less than what it cost four years ago?
THREE THOUSAND MILES OF STREETS.
During the last fiscal year about 5000
miles Of streets were swept by Max Pepper
For this work he charged the city and
county taxpayers S62, $50.
In 1882 for the same work, the same con-
tractor was satisfied with S50,970
Only Sl1,000 more.
In 1884 the city paid S34 per lineal mile
for its street-eIeaning. The next year this
was reduced to S28 80 a mile. And the Ie-
duction kept right on till Max Pepper and
the Buckley gang got in their work.
The contract let in 1886 was for S21 80 a
mile. Two years later the next contract
was let for SIC 80 a running mile.
The last may have been bedrock, living
price, but in the order of things the next
contract should not have been awarded for
4 higher price.
But it was. and the city and county has
lost $4,000 by il.
As soon as the appropriations have been
made for the next year a new street-clean-
ing contract will be awarded. In a few
weeks this will happen.
VIII the taxpayers be muleted for an
other so, coo?
UNIVERSITY REGENTS.