The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-14
TALKED CHARTER AGAIN.
A Number of Important Features
Decided Upon.

At meeting of the charter commission
last evening there were present Commission
ers Steele Hawiey, Child, Winston, Daven-
port Pillsbury, Haynes, Downs and Jones.
After the reading of the minutes OF the prev
ious meeting communicatiqFs were read from
T. X. Gray and F. H. Castner; the former
recommending that something DC lnsertea
in the new charter to Z prevent sidewalk
Yankee notion stands and that the charter
should permit any citizen to BRING acton I'D
his own name or that of the city against
any official or body of officials to prevent
or to punish the misrepresentation OF FUNDS
by such officials; that the city should, be
garnishable, and that all of the various
boards should also be garnishable. Both
were referred to the editing committee.
Commissioner Childs. as a member of the
subcommittee of the general committee on
legal questions for proposing some plan to
bridge the inter-regnum between the adop-
ton of the charter and the next general
election, made the following report. which,
after some discussion, was referred to the
general committee on legal questions: The
committee suggests first, that the first city
election under the charter be at the gen.
eral election in November. 1898; sec9nd, that
the city elections be held the first Tuesday
after the first Monday of each odd year after
1888; third, that of aldermen now in office
from each ward whose term of office
expires under the old charter Jan. l, 1901,
and one from each of the seven wards having
the largest elective VOTE whose terms of
Office expires under the old charter Jan. 1,
1882 be a committee of the boards of alder
men upon the aQOptlOn uGuer the new c0dT-
ter; fourth, that one alderman from each
ward, whose term of Office expires under the
old charter in 1901 shall hold Office under
the new charter until Jan. l. 1902, and be
known as the ward alderman, and that each
of the other aldermen from the seven largest
wards shall hold office until Jan. l, 1899, and
be known as aldermen at large; fifth that
all officials elective under the new charter
who have heretofore been elected under the
old charter. shall centinue to hold Office
under the new charter until Jan. l, 1899, and
that all elective officers under the new char
ter, not elected under the old charter, be
appointed by the city council to hold office
until Jan. 1. 1883; sixth, that upon the adop-
ton of the new charter all appointive Off
GERS shall be appointed as provided for in the
Few charter, to hold Office until Jan. l.
1899
Commissioner Steele was appointed to call
upon the board of tax-levy to remind it of
the necessity of providing for special cleo
ton for the adoption of the new charter.
Commissioner Child chairman of the COM
mittee on judiciary, reported that the mat
ter of the establishment of courts in
the hands of the legislature and not in the
hands of the city. and suggested that the
matter be referred to the committee on legal
matters for investigation. which was done.
Commissioner Hawley then offered a reso-
luton to the effect that limit of the ex-
penses of each city department be set at a
certain per cent of the total taxes collected
offering the explanation that this would pre-
vent extravaganza and tend to reduce the
city Indebtedness. 1t was objected that
tIlS plan WGuIQ not allow for any variation
in the expenses of any OF the departments
and might lead to the serious embarrassment
of the department at times 1t was felt that
general limit to the city's expenses might
be fixed. but that specific limits for each of
the departments would not be wise. In this
connection Mr.. Pillsbury cited the case of
the new reservoir, as case in which a work
might be seriously hampered by specific
limits.
This led to the discussion Of the subject
OF special assessments, when it was sug-
gested that the charter ought to provide that
no special assessment should exceed a GER
tam percentage OF the value of the prop
erty. l. was finally decided Ito refer the mat
ter to the committee on finance with instruc-
lions to report at the meeting of Sept. II,
it was decided to invite the city engineer,
the city comptroller and the city assessor to
be present to assist in the discussion of the
subject.
Commissioner Child then offered a resoIu-
ton that the charter provide against any
city officers receiving any gift gratuity or
thing of value, either Directly or indirectly
from any person or corporation exercising or
seeking any franchise, right or privilege from
the city. This was looked upon rather
stringent, but met the general approval of
those present, and was referred to the proper
committee, after which then matter of the
city was brought up again and referred to
the committee on civil service.
Commissioner Davenport then urged upon
the commission the Importance of providing
against the misrule Of an incompetent or
vicious mayor or other official, in view of
the fact that 1t was proposed TO place sc
much power in the hands oft the former es-
pecialy He suggested that tit would be