The herald., 1894-06-21

| quent, laws and ordinances are neg
lected and become dead letters, and in
competent men fill Offices because the
responsibility for wrong acts, negligence
and Incompetence Is shifted from one
place to another, and Ia never settled
therefore, we believe that the mayor
should be the executive head of the city
government, in fact as well az in name,
that he should be charged with the full
responsibility OF the proper administra-
ton of munic ptl affairs, and that he
should be invested with powers suffi
cient to enable him to conduct those
affairs satisfactorily. We have, there
fore, proposed to place in his hands the
appointment of as many OF the city
officials as possible with the idea that II
he appoints poor official, he may at
once remove him and appoint better.
Under this system, II an Office be I'M
properly or incompeteDt)y conducted.
the people have one man to 20 to Tor
redress, and he cannot avoid the issue
nor shift the responsibility.
Concerning the administration Of the
different Offices, we have proposed sew
eral changes which we believe will
greatly benefit the public service, among
them being amendments to the duties
of the auditor, and also concerning the
receipt OF city money. We believe that
no officer should receive money but the
city treasurer. We believe that all fees,
assessments and payments of any ma
ture whatsoever should 60 directly to
the treasurer, instead OF being paid to
different other officials and held by them
until they have large sums on hand,
sometimes exceeding the amount Of
bonds Of the officials holding the same.
We therefore propose that all moneys
be paid direct to the treasurer.
Under the present system the auditor,
whose greatest duty is to keep full and
accurate accounts OF all business trans-
actions Of. the city, is unable to do go
from the fact that the accounts and rec
ords OF other city officials are almost in
dependent OF his Office and in most cases
are incomplete and unsatisfactory. We
believe that perfect records OF all trans-
actions OF each Office should be kept,
including the receipt and disposition of
all materials and supplies as we'll as
money. There should also be O compre-
hensive account OF all labor performed.
These records should be communicated
to the auditors Office at regular periods,
in order that his Office may have the
necessary full and correct account of all
business transactions Of the city. We
therefore propose that the auditor ar
range system OF accounts, to be ap-
proved by the council, for all other city
offices, and in conjunction Herewith q
system OF monthly reports which will
bring their transactions into thorough
touch and harmony with the auditors
Office, and place municipal affairs upon
= keau m tt.e o-Is uora rrTh tnh nj arxo-
cessfu business enterprises are founded.
These few points demonstrate the the
DRY on which we have based eur pro-
posed amendments, and from a careful
study of the entire situation and con-
illusions drawn from past experience, we
are satisfied that the adoption OF these
amendments will result in substantial
retrenchment in the expense of the mu-
nioipal government, and that at the
same time it will materially enhance its
efficiency.