The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-06
POLICE AND FIRE COMMISSION
LAW.

A bill has been reported to the
legislature empowering the COVER
ror Of the state 10 appoint the
members of the police and fire
boards Of cities of the first class. Why
should the control of the police and
fire departments be taken out of the
hands of the cities themselves and
placed in those of the governor? Is it
that the governor of the state is more
conversant with the needs of the cities
than the officers who are elected by
the inhabitants thereof are? Or is it
that the people cannot be trusted to
manage these two departments that
so greatly and intimately concern them
1t will probably be argued in favor
Of this bill that so long as
the power TO appoint the police and
i fire boards remains in the mayor and
council, politics viii play an important
part in their selection and their ad-
ministration of the departments after
appointment. Is there any guarantee
that the same thing would not occur
were the appointing power vested in
| the governor? 1t may be replied to
this that the governor would select
men of greater capacity and higher
character than the mayor and city
council would. Perhaps. Whether or
not he would, he should not have the
power to do so conferred upon him.
Those who favor this bill do not COM
plain of the present law as "a law; what
they really complain of is its admins
tration. The same evils of which they
now complain could just as readily
arise under the remedy they suggest.
The true remedy is in the hands of
the people of this city already; it lies
in the power they possess to choose
administrators of the present police and
fire commission law who are heartily
in favor of it. If they do not choose
to do this, they must take the conse-
quences whatever they may be. The
people of Provo. of Logan, of st.
George, or of Manti or any other city
in the state, have no special interest
in the police affairs of this city and
Ogden any more than the people of
these two places have in the admin
istration of the police affairs of those
places. The people of each place are
entitled TO the full control of their
municipal concerns. This bill would
deprive them of it. When Senator
Evans said the bill was un-Democratic
he stated nothing but the fact. When
he said that if the people had made a
mistake in the election of a mayor,
they would have a chance to correct
it, he indicated the true remedy for
the evils now complained of. Senator
Hamer gave a concrete and unanswer-
able Democratic argument against the
bill when he said he lived in Ogden,
and had no business to interfere in the
government of the city of Salt Lake.
Senator Whitaker said he had found
no one in favor of giving the governor
power to appoint.
It is a bad, pernicious bill, as hostile
to the Democratic theory of local self
government as can be, and it should be
killed. The people of Salt Lake City
and Ogden are just as capable of elect
ing mayor and city council that have |
the capacity to properly administer
their municipal affairs as they are to
aid in choosing a governor who will |
be competent to appoint boards of po-
lice commissioners to administer their
police and fire departments. If they |
possess the ability to choose their state
officers why don't they possess it to
choose their municipal officers?