Omaha daily bee., 1902-12-27
CONSIDER CHARTER CHANCES
Joint Committee Of Real Estate Exchange
and Commercial Club Meets
PAVING AND TAXATION UNDER DEBATE
Expense 90 Property Owners and
Citizens Discussed at Length and
One or Two Points
Passed Upon.

Eight Of the fifteen members Of the Joint
committee Of the Commercial club, the
Real Estate exchange and the citizens we're
present at the meeting at the Commercial
club rooms last night. The joint commit
tee organized by electing W. L. selby
chairman and J. B. Piper secretary.
AS soon as the organization had been
effected the committee unanimously de-
cided to confne its attention to charter
changes, and the first matter brought up
was the question Of paving. II. w. Yates
suggested that some way should be devised
for collecting the special taxes which have
in some cases been declared void by the
courts, and inquired IL it were not possible
for the legislature to pass curative law
which would affect the taxes at present
outlawed. The matter was discussed at
length informally and Mr.. Yates suggested
that II this we're impossible II might be
we'll to reward those who had paid the
taxes by providing that repavlng in such
cases should be paid for one-half by the
city and the other half by the owner Of
the abutting property. The matter was
referred to the chairman of the meeting,
with instructions to consult ]. H. Adams,
the assistant city attorney. who has had
charge OF the tax cases, and report TO the
next meeting of the committee.
Expense of Repaving.
The committee then unanimously en-
dorsed that proposed amendment to the city
charter which was presented at the last
meeting OF the state legislature changing
the law relating to the paving and repaving
Of streets and alleys, after an amendment
to the bill proposed by John Steel had been
adopted. This amendment provides for the
W,N, - sA, H.
owners of abutting property to pay the
cost Of repairs, and amends the present
law by providing for the assessment OF the
cost according to the frontage on the street
repaired.
Upon motion OF w. s. PoppIeton the COM
mittee unanimously declared against any
increase In any Of the funds OF the city,
with the exception OF the fire fund, and be-
fore deciding upon that asked for further
information. Mr.. Poppleton saiC that with
the present Limitation It is possible to pro-
vide adequate fire protection by borrowing
from funds which are never exhausted dur
ing the year, and that this process would
be safer than increasing the fund, even
though 1t might be irregular.
The committee, also upon motion OF Mr..
Poppleton, declared against any increase in
the Limitation upon the bonded indebted
ness Of the city and specifically declared its
opposition to any change which would place
the Limitation either to the bonded indebt-
edness or to any of the funds upon a per-
centage OF the assessed valuation, declar-
ing that the present system OF expressing
those limitations in specific amounts salts
factory.
Decide TO EvRde Politics.
After one of the members offered n mo-
tion referring to IL, tenure OF once Of the
city officials 1t was decided, but not unani-
mously. to confne the work Of the COM
mittee to those parts of the charter di-
rectly affecting property and property
rights, and to leave the questions which
referred. to the political affairs to other
bodies or to the legislators.
motion was adopted declaring that the
city should pay the premium on the bond
Of the city treasurer
The chairman reported that the question
OF the F'scavenger law" had been referred
TO II. w. Pennock for an opinion and that
II would probably be presented at the next
meeting.
IL was arranged to meet the members of
the Douglas county legislative delegation at
luncheon at the Commercial club rooms
at noon Tuesday and the committee ad-
journed until 11:3O that day, when a short
session will be held to listen to reports
previous to the meeting with the legisla-
tors.
Those present at the meeting we're w.
s. P6fPleton. w. II. Green, II. W. Yates,
Piper and w. L. selby.