The herald., 1898-11-26
The Proposed New Charter


person. Its tendency is to make the tenure
of office a life tenure. In other words, Its |
tendency is monarchical rather than dem
ocratic.
Under the provisions Of the new city
charter the city officers are to be elected or
appointed for four years instead OF two as
at the present time, and the mayor is au-
thorized 70 appoint three important Of
fcers-the city attorney, the superintend-
ent of streets and city engineer-officers
now elected by the people. The mayor Is
also authorized to appoint the sealer oil
weights and measures, superintendent OF
buildings, board of park commissioners,
board of fire commissioners, board OF police
commissioners, board of civil service com
missioners and two out of five OF the mem
bers of the board of education.
The patronage controlled, indirectly by
the mayor through these various boards,
appointed by him, supplemented by cor
porate influence which might be favored
by the appointees, would be absolutely ire
sistible, and corrupt use of such power in
the hands of an ambitious ard unscrupulous
man would make the office of mayor lite
tenure, with simply the formality OF re-
election once in four years.
| 1t may be the correct policy Of a monarchy
or an aristocracy to restrict the right OF sut-
frage, remove the officers as far as possible
from the people and invest certain central
heads with the appointing power, but GER
| tainly such course is not consistent with
the principles Of democracy or even with
republcansm.
| 1t is claimed by certain advocates of the
new charter that the tendency Of the times
is the Capitalization OF power in executive
heads. regret that l am compelled to ad-
nit that this is true, and it is also true that,
unless this Capitalization of power can be
checked, this country will soon cease to be
a republic and will become an arstocracy,
not an aristocracy of birth but an aristoc
racy Of wealth, which is the worst form Of
government that ever cursed The earth.
There is no danger in trusting the people
If they make mistake they will soon cor
rect it, but if the right to elect their officers
is once surrendered they are at the mercy
OF their masters.
The board of civil service commissioners
provided for in article 81, to be appointed
by the mayor, provides that not more
than three members tout of five) shall at
the time of any appointment be members OF
the same political party. This means that
the members of this board shall be selected
from the two dominant parties, three oil
whom (Which the charter declares shall be
a quorum for business) shall be members OF
the same party and in accord with the mayor
All minority parties are ignored only the
dominant parties are represented, and even
to one Of them is given a controlling intiU-
eIce.
Again, the so-called civil service provided
for is simply another step towards centrali
zation and life tenure in office. 1t provides
that all officers, deputies and employees, not
elected by the people, whose employment OF
appointment has not been delegated to other
boards, or to the officers thereof, except
only the chief deputy of each elective officer,
shall be appointed from list of applicants
furnished by the board of civil service com
mission.
As already shown, majority Of this
board may be and, in fact, always will be
composed of members of the dominant polit-
ica party, and to all intents and purposes
lall minority parties, including that next in
numerical strength, will have no voice in the
selection. OF deputies and employees. Thus
lit may happen that an officer employing il
large number Of deputies, as, for instance,
the city assessor, who for a portion of the
lyear has twenty or more deputies. may be
compelled to receive all of his deputies tex
eept only his chief deputy from selections
made by the board Of civil service from a
party antagoni-tic to him; yet he must ac-
ccpt them and his official bond must cover
and make good any defalcation or cmbezZle-
ment of any and all of these deputies in
whose selection or appointment he had vir-
tually no voice. This is certainly unjust
lf the mayor, through the several boards
created by him, can control all the subordi
nate appointments, and thus virtually cor
troll every department of the city, why not
let him appoint all the officers and have
'one-man power pure and simple?
Again, civil service, as provided for in the
proposed new charter, is decided step in
the direction Of life tenure of office. Ii
those best informed as to the dnties of a
particular office must be appointed and kept
in such office until some one better informed
applies for the situation, it is very evident
that when man of ordinary intelligence
has been installed in particular office OF
ldeputyship, and has served four years, il
would be very difficult, if not impossible
to find man who could pass better civ
lservice examination as to the duties of that
particular position than such deputy, and il
no such person can be found then such
deputy must be reappointcd for four years
more, and for four more, and for four more
and the deputyship becomes to him life
tenure no matter which party is in power.
1t does not necessarily follow that tn,
man who can pass the best civil service ex
animation will make the best officer. NJ
man ever held an office and discharged it
duties so well but that some other maj
could have done equally well. Rotatio,
in office is, or at least should be, principl,
rot only of democratic but also of repub
. lican form of government.
/ Efforts were made to induce the gentle
men who framed the proposed new charte
to insert a provision therein that woul
. prevent the granting of franchises withou
first referring the matter to the people TO
the purpose Of ascertaining whether the pee
pie desired to give away OF grant the Pre-
, posed franchise, or at least to reserve to tn
, people the right to reclaim the tranchis
after certain specified time by paying o
t offering to pay the actual value of the plar,
at any time after the expiration of the tim
, specified in the franchise. Neither of thes
0 provisions were inserted, but Il provisio,
was inserted, to-wit: Article 80, providing
{ very unsatisfactory method by which tn
people may, by a petition of Is per cent {
: all voters voting at the last preceding ele,
! tion inaugurate proceedings to attempt t
~