The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-03-15
NO CHEAP AFFAIR,
Charter Commissioners Want q
Good Charter.
Some Favor Frying to Reduce Present
City Expenses, While Others
Oppose 1t.

After waiting for nearly an hour for
| quorum, the charter commission Mon
day night proceeded with the minimum
number of eight members If no more
rapid progress is made at future meet
| ings than was the case last night, the
| new charter may be nearly ready to
submit to the people at the municipal
election two years hence.
The proceedings were enlivened several
times by protests on the part OF some
of the members against a "Cheap
john charter, as one of the speakers
put it. These gentlemen wanted a
good charter, even if it did increase
the expense of city government by
charging the salary roll, and they ex-
pressed themselves as prefering to have
good charter defeated by the
people than to put the city under a
Cheap" charter.
The judiciary committee presented
two recommendations The first was
that the proposed Office of superintend-
ent of public improvements be not es-
tablished, but that the duties devolve
upon the city engineer, who shall have
clerk, to receive not to exceed $500 a
year. The second was that the section
of the present charter relating to the
fire department be left as it is.
In discussing the first recon-
mendation, one or two of the MEM
bers referred to the fact that by not
creating the office of superin tendent of
public improvements there would be a
saving to the city over the present
arrangement. Prof. Koehler moved
that the commission reconsider its &C
tion, following out the recommended
ton.
This brought Dr. Andrews to his
feet. He said that he would rather
present good charter to the people
and have it voted down than to present
cheap charter, such as seemed to be
the object of the commission He
was not in favor of reconsidering the
action which the commission had
taken in establishing the Office.
Prof. Keohler did not think that the
charter that was being prepared was a
cheap one. He was in favor of pre-
pairing a charter that could be adopted
and that would fill the wants of the
city for ten or twenty years to come.
Mr.. Young said that as an official of
the city he had thought that the pre-
sent charter worked all right, but since
retiring from Office he took another
view of it. There is no place pro-
vided where an appeal can be taken.
Prof. Koehler was in favor of hav-
ing the new charter make it possible
for an appeal to be taken to the court,
which he thought would please the
lawyers immensely.
Mr.. Farr asked whether the Judi
ciary committee was unanimous in it's
recommendation, its reasons, and
whether this matter had been referred
to the committee. He thought tina
it had been settled at the last meeting
of the full commission.
Mr.. Young said that three members
of the committee were present at the
meeting, and that these three were
unanimous.
Mr.. Bashaw favored the motion, as
he wanted to have all the work done
under one person, who should be sub
ordinate to the council. People would
then know whom to blame if anything
went wrong.
Mr.. Farr said that Winona and
Faribault have petitioned the legisla-
ture to provide them with water
boards. He thought that the commits
81 on should postpone action until it
had learned why these cities want
water boards, as the information
might be useful in preparing the
charter.
On Prof Koehler's motion, Mr..
Farr was appointed a committee to
correspond with those cities and learn
their reasons.
Mr.. Young cautioned the commits
sion that while it should not prepare
a cheap charter it should avoid max
ing any more expenses in it for the
city than was needed.
Mr.. Halstead was opposed to allow
ing the city engineer clerk hire. There
were enough officers in the city hall at
present to do this clerical work. He
said that the city engineer had done
very little surveying for the city last
year. He would have him do the
city's work first and outside work after
wards, and he would not need an as
sistant in his Office.
DR.. Andrews thought that a COM
petent superintendent would save
money to the city by giving it the
benefit of thought and intelligence. If
there was no superb ntendent it would
throw more work on the city engineer
than he could attend to even if he was
qualified to act in SO many fields.
Mr.. Coughlan said that he did not
favor any "cheap john charter. He
preferred to submit good charter to
the people and have it beaten, rather
than have one presented and adopted
that the people would be ashamed of
afterwards. He did not think that
city expenses could be made any less
in new charter than they are now
The city is growing and requires more
machinery to run it. He favored hav-
ing superintendent who should be
under the engineer. He would en-
ploy man in summer who understands
stone work, and let him go in the
winter. He would have ogod, all
around man that could work anywhere
that he was needed.
Mayor Currier feared that double
headed arrangement would cause
division of responsibility. The best
way to run municipality is by CEN
tralized power. Then people know who
to go to with complaints, and not be
referred back and forth among three
or four officials, all saying that the
other man was responsible. He would
hold the heads of departments respon-
sible and allow them to select their
own subordinates. The question of
few hundred dollars cuts little figure
if we get charter that works we'll