The San Francisco call., 1895-07-18


date no contracts for street work shall
be entered into for the City unless first
subjected to bids.
Do the people understand the status of
the Van Ness avenue paving job, about
which so much has been said?
If they do not they should understand
it, for it is a startling example of a system
under which the people are robbed day
after day by the men whom they have
elected to serve them. Here is a portion
of a resolution now being advertised:
DISSOLUTION NO. 1866 (Third Serles)-RE-
II solved That the Superintendent OF Streets be
and is hereby directed to enter into contract with
the City Street Improvement Company TO pave
with bituminous rock laid on macadam founda-
'tion the following streets, to wit:
Van Ness avenue, from Hayes street TO Golden
Van Ness avenue from Eddy to oFarrell street.
The City to pay for one-half of said work at the
rate of seven (7) cents per square foot, provided
the property-owners agree to pay the other half
of said work.
BY resolution the Superintendent of
Streets Is directed to enter into contract
with certain contractor, who is named,
to do certain pu blic work. The City agrees
and is bound to pay the sum of cents,
and the contractor is required to look to
the property-owners TO pay the other
half"
1t is therefore to be understood-for it is
not stated-that the entire cost of the work
would be IA cents.
This is the way the public is hood
winked. Any ontractor will tell any
property-owner of Van Ness avenue or any
other avenue that 21z inches of bitumin-
Gus rock can be laid upon the macadam
foundation of that thoroughfare-as it is
contemplated by the specifications to do
for cents. Contractors say that clear
profit of cent a square foot Is as much as
is figured upon in legitimate transaction.
Eight cents, therefore, would be fair bid,
such as might be expected in an open COM
petition for the work.
But you will note that although this is
pu bic work, and the law directly requires
that all public contracts shall be let out to
the highest bidder, after the specifications
have been advertised and bids called for,
there has been no competition.
To be sure, as a sort of form to give the
appearance of certain following of the
law, the specifications are advertised, but
in the same advertisement the Superinten-
dent of Streets is thereby directed to enter
into contract with The City Street Improve
ment Company to do the work" No bids
are called for. No other contractor is
given chance to bid.
Can the law be so openly violated-can
jobs in street work be perpetrated in this
high-handed fashion-advertised in cold
type before the eyes of the people?
Above is the advertisement-read it. The
practice is not new.
To be sure, if any member of the Solid
Eight, who have delighted in this custom
and have sought to perpetrate it. was
asked for an explanation he would say
that ''these are not public contracts-they
are private contracts. We merely author
iZe the citizens to have the streets in front
of their property paved. What we do is in
response to the petitions of the citizens
themselves"
To be sure. If man were tied to
stake in the desert and given nothing to
eat but crow, and that only upon petition,
he would in time petition for crow.
Van Ness avenue, the pride of the City
as a thoroughfare, has been a bowling
desert of dust and dirt for years. When
the City macadamized it the residents
were promised that it would be kept in
order and in summer the dust kept down
by a sprinkler. That promise has not been
kept and instead of being the pleasantest
residence street in the City it has come to
be rated near the other extreme. The
fronts of the palaces that face it have
taken on the dull red hue of the dust of
the roadway and the value of property has
deprecated because the street was an ac-
cepted one-an argument usually advanced
10 support prices-and so nothing better
than the very bad street could be expected.
The residents petltioned and petitioned
for relief, but got none. When they gave
up in despair, the expected happened
The City Street Improvement Company
and the Santa Cruz Rock Paving Com
pany-the concerns in whose interest. to-
gether with others, the infamous bitumin-
ous rock monopoly was created, sent agents
to the propertv-owners and secured pri-
vate contracts to pave the street with
bitumiEous rock, over the macadam foun-
dation which exists, for seven cents
square foot, and promised to use their in
f1uence to have the City ''pay the other
half" notwithstanding il is an accepted
street. They secured these contracts from
nearly all the abutting property-owners
Then backed, of course, by a petition of
these property-owners-fo it appeared to
them by this time as their only means of
relief-the contractors went before the
Street Committee, made their argument
and the representatives of the people
pledged the City to pay these contractors
another seven cents square foot
Does anybody suppose that these men of
the Solid Eight, who voted for this Job,
did not know that by calling for bids there
wonld be dozen responses eager to do the
work for 8, 8 or at most 10 cents a square
foot?
Over and above good profit for the con-
tractors, it is estimated by experts that
there will be round $4,000 rake down"
in this job alone.
The work is to be divided between the
City Street Improvement Company and
the Santa Cruz Rock Pavement Company,
the latter doing the work on the avenue
from Sacramento street to Pacific avenue,
from Sutter street to Bush, from Bush
street to Pine and from Sutter street to
Post.
This resolution, which contemplates the
expenditure of a large sum of money, has
not been presented to the Mayor for his
approval, as it is directly required by law
to be, and it probably will not be, some
subterfuge such as the cry of private con-
tract being offered as an excuse. Then
comes the question of the right of the
Supervisors to use public moneys in paw
ing for private contracts
said:
''To let contract or pass an order or |
resolution contemplating the expenditure
OF money above the sum of $500 believe it |
ho Sin ad hxyX