The San Francisco call., 1898-03-22
WHERE THE
 SOLICITOR
 COMES IN Methods Employed to w Ork the Private Contract Dodge. A Good Friend in the Board of Supervisors Always Needed. Property Owners of Big In nuence Often Obtain
 Rebate. BIDS NEVER OPENED. Record of Private Contract Obtained by the Firm of Finn
 Treacy.
Property Owners of Big In- nuence Often Obtain
 a Rebate.
BIDS NEVER }OPE NED.
Record of a Private Contract Obtaine ed by the Firm of Finn
 & Treacy.

The elections which take place in Sal l Francisco once in every two years O.
 once in every four years, as the Su
 preme Court in it's wisdom may de l cree, occasionally bring a change 1T 1 the personnel Of the Street Department | but seldom bring a change in the methods pursued by the department tC make the property owner stand all that 1 the land will bear for improvement | The present Superintendent of Streets
 MT. Ambrose, inherited a few of the men and many of the practices of his predecessor in office, MT. Ashworth. All the tricks of the old Board of Super visors are known to the new and some modern features have been introduced to catch the unwary owner of urban real estate.
 The contractors who live and thrive on the profits of street work have got the business down to a fine point, and with the addition of a few kinks SUD- piled by the solicitors can pave the way to the poorhouse for any one who owns real property.
 The solicitor is a new element in the business, but promises to be perma- nent one. The chief function of the so- liciting genius is to persuade property owners that it is cheaper to have work done by private contract than to have the street ''VroomaniZed' by direction of the Board of Supervisors.
 At the outset each of the big con- tracting firms had a solicitor and fre- Quently several of the soliciting agents found themselves in active competition for the same piece of work. As a result ,n,~sn f,,rN hl Tod that the competition would be ruinous if pursued. Simultaneously the solicit orS saw that there was nothing in it for themselves if prices were cut down, and so they formed a union. The union developed more strength than they at first fancied. In a short time the solic- itorS found themselves strong enough to do little business on their own ac- count with the Board of Supervisors, and so adjust affairs that the contrac- tor would have to See the solicitor be- fore any work could be done.
 The first move of the solicitor is to have a friend in the Board of Supervi- sorS introduce a resolution of intention to pave a certain block If the proper ty owners do not wish to be burdened at that time with the cost of paving they must get majority protest against the proposed work If they succeed in getting the protest the work is delayed six months. If they fail bids may be invited by advertisement. Con- tractors outside of the ring, who have no utilization with the solicitor, may presume to bid for the work, but some thing is likely to happen which will prevent the bids from being opened It often happens that some member of the board moves to reject all the bids This motion prevails, but the solicitor is not disheartened. The property owner having exhausted his right of protest, the solicitor comes on the scene and presents a private contract with the explanation that the cost of adver- Using and other expenses may be saved by the private deal. Rebates are of fered to get backward individuals to come forward and ultimately a private contract is obtained by which property owners on an average through the block pay three or four cents more a. square foot for paving than they would be compelled to pay in open and fair competition in the Board of Supervi- SorS.
 At the appointed time smooth fel- low appears on the scene as the repre- sentative of a reliable and worthy firm of contractors. He describes the con- fiScating features of the VroGman act and convinces owners of real estate that their only salvation is in a private contract. He has his contracts in blank for 22 or 23 cents a foot. He offers rebate to the property owner of big influence. When three-fourths of the frontage has been secured the soli citor takes his time. The owners of the remaining fourth are in his grasp.
 On May IT, 1851, the Street Superin- tendent recommended that Twenty third street, from Harrison street to Potrero avenue, be paved with bitumi- nous rock. On May A the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to per- fOT~y1 ftln H~ly
 ty owners filed a protest and work was stopped for six months. On December 16, 1887, another protest was filed. On January 10, 1898, the board decided against the protest of December Is. On January 31 bids were received and laid oyer one week, on motion of Supervisor Devany. On February 3 the bids were laid over for four weeks On March 3 they were laid over for one week. The bids were not opened, hence no one in the Board of Supervisors was supposed to know officially what figures were contained in the sealed envelopes. It does not appear that anybody wanted to know. because the board on March 10 reported in favor of giving Finn S Treacy private contract. The figure on the private contract is q cents a square foot for bituminous rock pave ment and 80 cents a front foot for gran ite curbS.
 IHS OI1SlUdl USIOT6 In6 bOarQ of Supervisors for the work were the City Street Improvement Company, Pa cific Paving Company, Finn & Treacy, c. B. Williams, J. J. Bowling and John R. Morton.
 The Call understands that the ruling price for work of this character ranges from 153s cents to 1872 cents per square foot It would be interesting at this time to know if some of the unopened bids did not contain figures less than 21 cents a square foot. Information from contractors on this point would be ac- ceptable at The Call office.
 The Grand Jury might ascertain, to gratify public curiosity, just what figures were given by the contractors who offered in public competition to perform the work The Supervisors of course could not know, as the bids were never opened, but it did take the board remarkably long time to decide I'd <J T