The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-08-04

representatives OF the Merchants AS
ISOLATION.
President Dohrmann of the Mer-
chants Association opened the meet
ing with the statement that the levy
which he submitted was not considered
by it's trainers a perfect instrument
Also he unshouldered all responsibility
for the success or nOn-SucceSS OF the
dollar limit. The formulation of the
levy, he said, was merely an incident
in the movement for better things the
Merchants Association had started.
He emphasized the statement that the
association would not be responsible
for the non-Success of the levy he sub
mitted if it should be adopted by the
Board of Supervisors and made the
permanent schedule.
To this rather startling opening
statement Supervisor Perrault, chair
man of the Finance Committee, did not
reply. He merely requested Clerk
Russell to proceed with the reading Of
the merchants schedule. Then it de-
veloped that Mayor Phelan had taken
advantage of an idle afternoon to make
a little schedule of his own. He had
been provided with a copy Of the sched-
ule of the merchants, and with that
and those of the Auditor and Finance
Committee before him he had prepared
a levy for submission, for which he
resigned all responsibility, which was
quite within the limit and which made
as unique a political parallel as ever
went into print.
In many things his schedule agreed
to the letter with that of the mer
chants, particularly in the pronounced
| inclination that was evident to scale
the salaries attached TO the uninfiu-
entail positions in the gift of the city:
the janitOrs, the firemen, the engineers,
and electricians and the men who
guard the prisoners at the branch
county jails. His schedule also elm
mated the Park Emergency Hospital
Over the janitCrs there was some
rather heated debate. Chairman Per
rault asked Mr.. Kelley of the associa-
ton If it were fact that he wished
to reduce the salaries of the janitors
and at the same time double their work
| by reducing their number from 80 to
20. Mr.. Kelley replied that 1t was, and
that if the Supervisors advertised for
men they could fill the positions at
that Price. He said the same thing
with regard to the guards at Branch
County Jail No. 2, whose salaries the
Merchants and the Mayors levies re-
duced from sos to $50 per month with
subsistence.
The fact that the County Clerk had
been awarded a thousand and more less
than the amount awarded him by the
temporary levy. Supervisor Perrault
said, it would be impossible to operate
! the office at that figure. President
DOhrmann retorted that the County
Clerk had been allowed the amount al
lowed by the charter
Mr.. Phelans schedule reduced the
District Attorneys appropriation mate
rally. When asked how he accom-
plished it he said he had done away
with the position Of chief clerk, who,
that department. His schedule also
dropped three men from the License
! Collectors department. and when asked
pointedly by Perrault if the chief clerk,
whose appointment he had, was among
those he contemplated dropping he was
at some trouble to explain.
His figures also did not allow for two
clerks of the seven now engaged by the
Board of Supervisors as assistants to
| Clerk Russell. Mr.. Phelan said in ex-
| PLANTATION he did not think the man
| who wrote the minutes and the bond ex-
1 pert We're absolute necessities and he
! had neglected to provide for them. He
| referred it to Clerk Russell and after
that official had made his reply Mr.
/ Phelan took it back and was willing
that they be provided for.
When asked how it was that he and
the merchants had cut down the Tax
Collector, the Park, the County Clerk
and a few other of the Republican Of
fees to the advantage of the Fire De
partment, Assessor Dodge and others
of their political faith, he could not eX-
plain, except to say that Assessor
Dodge had done magnificent work and
was entitled to a bonus. OF the fact
that the two schedules agreed in hold
! ing down the County Clerk and other
equally essential departments to the
! strict figure of the statutes while they
/ allowed the Fire Department and fire
! alarm and police telegraph to soar
profitably above the law, he had moth
! ing to say, save that they were of alb
! solute necessity to the protection of
/ the city and should not be crippled.
/ why should the County Clerk and
the Tax Collector be crippled?" asked
Chairman Perrault
The Merchants schedule provides for
a tax of one dollar on $3,499, 349: the
Mayors a tax of one dollar on s3,754,
1923, not counting the ST. Mary's Park
fund and judgments against the city
inside the pledge. The St Mary's Park
appropriation. he claimed should not
be considered inside the pledge and
should not count in the levy. The orig
inal levy of the Finance Committee con-
templated a tax of one dollar on $780,
/ 600. or ninety-two cents on $4,000, 900.
! Following is a summary of the Mer-
chants levy and following that table
of comparisons that will illustrate how
/ the scaling was done in the schedules
! of the Finance Committee. the Mer-
chants and the Mayor:
! +aI