The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-06-07

\ MOST unusual complication has
4 arisen in the Supervisorial situa-
n ton and recourse may yet have
to be had to. the courts to bring
order and legality out of what is now
practical chaos. Mayor Phelan and the
minority members of the Board of Su-
pervisors are determined to protect
what they have already won by their
strategy and to insure the success of
the new propositions they have on
hand The majority members of the
board are equally determined to carry
through the schemes which their cor
pOratiOn masters insist shall be &C
cOmplished. The Mayor and his faith
full allies are seeking to force the gas
company to terms yet the majority
stand pledged to bow to the will of the
company if a meeting of the board be
called.
Mayor Phelan is therefore between
two fires. If he calls a meeting Of the
Supervisors he jeopardizes his fight
against the gas company and gives the
majority members of the board an OPP
pOrtunity to pass gas bills and defeat
the Mayors purpose to bring the cor
poration to terms. If Mayor Phelan
does not call a meeting of the board
until the first Monday in July great
injustice will be done 70 tradesmen and
merchants and distress will come I'M
necessarily to hundreds of municipal
employees.
While the Mayor has not yet reached
a final conclusion in the matter he has
practically decided to call the Super
visors together next Monday. If he
he
majority members an agreement that
none of the mooted questions before the
board will be discussed If this prom
Use is not given and the Mayor still con-
siders it a necessity to call the Super
visors together every possible effort
will be made as in the franchise cases,
TO defeat the plans of the majority by
parliamentary means.
Nearly every important feature of the
controversy Will turn upon the legality
Of the meeting held last Monday by the
majority members of the board. AS
these members will meet next Monday
the Mayor in all likelihood will issue an
official call and assemble the entire
board. This action. however, will not
unravel the legal tangle After as
sembling the board Will have to pass
officially upon the last meeting. The
serious question Of what was legally
the last meeting will then arise and will
have to be determined. The majority
members of the board will insist that
the revolutionary meeting held by them
on Monday was the last regular meet
ing and a demand will be made for the
adoption of the minutes of that meet
ing.
If these minutes be adopted official
and legal Endorsement of the revOlu-
tionary meeting will be given and
Mayor Phelan viii be forced tacitly to
admit that a legal meeting of the Board
of Supervisors may be held without his
authorization. Such an admission on
the part of the Mayor and the minority
Will be a sacrifice of one of their strong
est contentious in the controversy. The
majority members of the board may
then proceed to do as they please with
in the prescribed limits of the con-
sOlidatiOn act.
If. on the other hand. the Mayor and
the minority contest the adoption of
the minutes Of the revolutionary meet
ing and insist that the last regular
meeting of the board was held a week
ago last Monday, then another compli-
cation will arise. When the majority
members met on Monday they adopted
the minutes of the previous meeting,
thus giving absolute legality to the
proceedings of that session. If the
Mayor and the minority succeed in con-
STRUNG the revolutionary meeting to be
illegal, then the minutes of the previ-
Gus meeting will stand unapproved and
the majority members will be in a posi-
ton TO question every action that was
then taken.
This is a contingency of such serious
importance that the Mayor knows