Waterbury Democrat., 1900-12-31
SIZING UP THE BILL
Republican Aldermen Talk it
 All Over.
NEW BOARD CLERK WANTED.

To Attend to Business of the Board
 of Charities-Noted to Ask Mayor to
 Call d Meeting Next Friday Evening
 Democrats Arrange to Hold a
 Meeting to Discuss the Bill.
 The republican members of the board of aldermen, as many of them as could be drummed up by the consoli- dationists, held meeting in the office of Attorney Kellogg Saturday night and indulged ill q long chat all by their lonesome on the drarC prepared by the committee and agreed upon such changes as ill their judgment ought to be made ill the bill as reported before 1t goes to the legislature. There will have to be a change in the method Of providing for l clerk in the office of the board of charities for it seems to be generally believed that the city clerk could not find time to attend to it and ill the opinion of some of the members it would be well to have the board of charities elect a clerk of it's own, the alderman to fix the cOmpen- SatlOn. Some of the aldermen think this will start q hullabaloo among the opponents of consolidation to the effect that the new order of things will neceSsitate several salaried offi- cers which will cost the people as much and probably more than we are paying to have the affairs of the town attended to at present, but there seems to be no way out of this expense and if we have consolidation it might be wise to make d change which will give the board of charities power to elect it's own clerk. 4 few of the members would like to see the board of educa- ton appointed by the mayor, but others think that this would be over doing it and believe that the public should vote direct for the men who will control the educational inStitu- lions of the city That is what one of the gentlemen told a Democrat report CT to-day. He believed. he said, that every parent should be left the op- portunity to decide for himself what kind of men he wants to look after the schools where his children are to be educated, so that although some of the boys think it would pay to give the mayor power to fill all offices eX- cept the aldermen and one or two others, a greater number take the op- posite view of the question so that it is not likely any change will be made in the present method of electing the board of education, though, to be sure. this is not ill accordance With the expression of opinion which half a dozen leading lights of the board gave in the aldermanic chamber last Wednesday evening.
 The whole ground was gone over in a thorough manner so that nvery re- publican member of the board of alder men who has any interest in the measure is fully converSant with all it provides for and has also received d good drilling as to the why and wherefore of such changes as will be made in the draft as prepared by the committee.
 The matter oF calling meeting to decide the best method of eiy ing the people d chance 10 be heard in the premises was considered and after q long talk as to whether it would not be just as well to allow it to stand until the regular meeting night. it was finally decided that there was no time to be lost and T vote was passed in- structing Chairman Hall to secure the necessary number of members names and request the mayor to call a special meeting for next Friday evening.
 It was suggested last week that such q session as was held Saturday night by the republicans be open to the democratic members of the board. but the charter makers laughed at the idea of this and wanted to know who ever heard of such d thing. It iS said that the democrats got wind of the private meeting held by their friends. the enemy. and Immediately planned to ! try their luck at the same kind of game Friday night. but whether the = special meeting of the board and the caucus of the minority can be held on the same evening is something that probably was not taken into account when the republicans hit upon Friday as q good time to discuss plans for giving interested parties a chance to come and state what they think about consolidation
 The feeling that has been stirred up on the outside over the proposed con solidation of the town and city is far worse than some people suppose. In fact. many are needlesSly alarmed and it might not be amiSs to inform them that supposing the bill passes and that in year or two they should be com Delled to pay full taxes. they will not be as badly off as those whose prop erty was in the city when it was in- corporated and who have since been payingR full taxes and received noth- ing in the way of public improvements. not even an electric light, and see no 7 sign of any in the near future.