The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-08
NEW FIRE AND POLICE LAW
COUNCIL ADOPTS A MEMORIAL
ASKING FOR ITS PASSAGE.
Unsatisfactory Workings of Present
Act Set Out-Department Should
Be Controlled By Municipality.

At last nights meeting of the city
council that body adopted a memorial
TO the legislature asking FOR the pas
sage of the fire and police bill which
was recently drafted by the enrolment
committee and approved by the coun-
Gil
The memorial, which was drafted by
the committee on municipal laws, sets
out the unsatisfactory workings of the
law passed by the legislature in 1898.
when control of the two departments
were vested in a commission. the OBJ
Ject being to maintain the departments
Independent of political control The
discord and turmoil which arose is then
referred to, resulting in the repeal Of
that act, and the passage Of the pres
ent one during the session Of 1886. The
practical operation of the present law
mas proven equally unsatisfactory.
The memorial then continues:
Your memOrialistS, believing that
the power to create and control the pO-
lice and fire departments was again
vested in the mayor and city council of
Salt Lake City. and acting under ad-
wee from the city attorney, provided
by ordinance for the organization Of
said departments and fixed the salaries
or officers and employees. Officers and
members of said departments We're duly
appointed and entered upon the dis
charge of their duties. Certain of the
former employees failing of re-appoint-
ment, began legal proceedings for re-
instatement. claiming that their ten
ure of office when appointed was for
life on condition of good behavior. and
that their salaries could not be changed
during their tenure of office
In the judicial proceedings which fol-
lowed the case was decided in favor of
the plaintiffs and against the city. The
police and fire commission, operating
under the old law, having dissolved,
your memorialists on March / 1898. by
ordinance reduced the number of pO-
icemen as a matter of economy.
The persons discharged, on Jan. 81
1899, petiuoned your memorialists for
reinstatement, claiming certain rights
and privileges under the law Of 1896.
and threatening that unless their pc
ution was granted and their salaries
pald from the time of dismissal, they
would institute legal proceedings.
I our memoriaIists believe that the
removal of the police and fire depart
ments from the control of the munich
pal authorities has proven a serious
mistake and that this city has suffered
thereby. The city has never been free
from litigation arising therefrom Har-
nonlouS action IN the departments has
been lacking. We therefore believe
that the interests of. the people will be
best subserved by permitting the mu-
nicipel authorities to exercise the same
supervision over the police and fire de-
partments as over other departments
of the city government"
Attached to this petition is a state
ment showing legal proceedings insti-
tuted and growing out of the laws of
1893 and 1886, also an opinion of the
city attorney on the present status of
said departments, as we'll as a copy of
the decision Of the supreme court in the
case of Everill vs. City Auditor Swan.