The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-25
CHARTER BEGINS TO GROW.
Three Chapters Are Now Ready for
the Printer.

The charter commission worked hard
last night and as result three chap
tiers of the new charter, those on mayor,
city attorney and library board were
considered and passed upon and are
now ready for the printer. The chap
ter on library board Is, perhaps, the
most important in that it will, If the
charter is approved by the people
legislate the present board out of ex-
istence, and make the new board sub
ject, in a measure, to control by the
city council
The original draft of the chapter on
library board provided that if the char
ter should be adopted four months prior
to the first Monday in November, 1898,
then the present board should remain
in office until the first Monday in May,
1899. AT the expiration of that time six
of the members Of the board were to be
elected. three to hold office until May,
1901, the balance until May, 1903.
When this section Of the chapter was
read Commissioner Atwater raised the
point that by adopting the Sec
ton, many of the present mem
bers of the board would lose Office be-
fore their term had expired. The same
point would come up in connection with
the board of education, he said, and he
thought it advisable too, that the COM
mission should consider well before
acting. For his part, he believed that
the section should be adopted, but he
wanted to hear the views of the COM
mission. Some discussion followed,
Commissioners Downs and Hawley TAX
ing the stand that the commission
should not shorten the terms of any of
the members of the board. Finally
Commissioner Hawley moved that the
section in question. and the section
next following, which related also to
the election of board members, be re-
drawn so as to provide that there be no
substantial shortening of the term of
Office OF any present member of the
beard. Commissioner AtWater alone
voted against the amendment.
This action puts the commission on
record, not alone in the matter of the
library board, but also as regards the
board of education and the board of
park commissioners.
Whep the commission was called to
order last night there were present
Commissioners Steele, Hawley, Downs,
Hernlund, Haynes, Jones, Childs, Dav-
export, AtWater, Stoft, Gjertsen. The
first chapter taken under consideration
was that on mayor, which provided
briefly, as follows:
Section l outlines the mayors power; sec
tion relates to the veto power, and is sub
stantially the same as In the present chap
ter; section 3 provides for the time of ap-
peal, as in the present charter; section
provides for the employment of a private
secretary and other assistants; section 5
specifies the mayors special powers, such as
signing all bonds obligations, ETC.; section
provides that all necessary officers whose
election or appointment is not otherwise pro-
vided for in the charter, shall be appointed
by the mayor; section Z gives the mayor
power, in conjunction with the president of
the council and the municipal judge to re-
NIT any fines or punishments inflicted by
such municipal judge; section gives the
mayor power to appoint an investigation COM
mlttee to examine into the affairs of any
board or department, the committee to be
comprised of not less than one and not
more than three citizens; section 8 provides
that during the mayors absence the city at
torney, or during the absence of both mayor
and city attorney, the city engineer, or dur
ing the absence of these three, the chief of
police shall be acting mayor of the CITY
There was some discussion in regard to the
last section, relative to who shall perform
the duties of the mayor during his absence
The chapter on city attorney was then taken
up. AS adopted 1t provides as follows: That
the city attorney shall act for all boards and
departments of the city; that he shall render
verbal and written opinions and other SER
wees to heads OF departments boards and
TO the city council; that he shall keep re-
cords of all actions, suits and proceedings
during his term of office, and that he shall
file in his office all briefs used in cases, all
OF such records to be turned over to his
successor; that he shall have power to APP
point assistants and employees as authorized
all contracts entered into by the city; that
he shall defend any city official or employee
against whom action shall be brought on
account OF any act of such person while en-
gagged in his official duties providing, how
ever, that the mayor so directs
One section of the chapter on city engineer
was rejected by the commission. This pro-
vided that the city attorney should spend his
entire time in his duties such official. In
the present chapter no such provision exists
Commissioner Atwater was strongly opposed
to this section, and a motion to adopt it was
lost.
The chapter on library board was next
taken up. This provides for a board to be
known the library board who shall have
rooms, museums, etc; the board shall con-
sist of nine members, of whom the mayor
president of the board of education and presi-
dent of the state university shall be ex-offi-
clio members; the board shall make an annual
report to the city council; the city council
shall have power to pass ordinances provid-
ing punishments for the destruction of library
shall be held May of each year, the officers
to be elected for a term of one year. The
balance of the chapter is substantially the
same as provided at the present time.
AS already stated, sections four and five
relating to the election of members of the
board, were referred back to the drafting
committee. The only section, with the eX-
ception of these over which there was any
debate was that providing that the mayor
president of the board of education and
president of the university should be ex-
offico members of the board. Commissioner
Steele moved that the superintendent of pub
lie schools be substituted for the president of
the board of education, which amendment
was, however, lost.