Arizona republican., 1904-04-03
WATfRWORkS FIGHT
Litigation Against the Bond
 Issue Begun
Suit for an Injunction Filed Against the City Council by the Water Co. Yesterday.

The Phoenix Water Go. yesterday began an injunction suit against the common council of Phoenix to prevent the issue of bonds to the amount of $300,0O0 voted last December for the purpose of building a municipal water works system. The papers in the case were prepared by Dillon & Hubbard of New York. Local attorneys for the company are c. F. Ainsworth and Chalmers & Wilkinson. Four principal and other minor reasons are given why the bonds should not be issued. It is alleged in the first place that there was no authority for the calling of the bond election, secondly the city was impliedly bound by it's contract with J. J. Gardiner to whom the fran chise of the water company was orig inally issued that there should be no competition with the grantee of the franchise or his assigns. It is further alleged that the interests of the com munity would not be served by a mu- nicipal system and it is also charged that the registra ton and election were irregularly conducted.
 It is recited that the Gardiner fran | chise was granted in February, 1SS9 l and that if was modified by an ordi- nance of the city council in April of the same year. The following year the franchise was transferred to the plain tiffs. The terms of the franchise are | set forth and also the condition in which the city was placed at that I time by the Harrison act, The fran chise and the ordinance amending it are made exhibits in the complaint. It Is stated that there was a subse- quent act of congress, a modification of the Harrison act, permitting the cities and towns of Arizona to bond | themselves and incur indebtedness be- yond the limitation of the Harrison act for the purpose of procuring public utilities, but it is denied that this act applied to Phoenix, which was in need of no such utility as it is the purpose of the council to procure.
 It is alleged that there has been ex- pended in the plant of the plaintiff about s500,00C and that trust deeds for that amount to secure bonds which have been issued by the company have i been executed. There is an issue of | first mortgage bonds to the amount of $66,O00. There was afterward issued bonds to the amount of s434,OO0 for the improvement of the plant.
 At the time of the granting of the franchise Phoenix embraced only about 5000 acres and according to the | terms of the franchise the grantee was required to lay and maintain only six miles of mains. The growth of the | city was rapid and the extention of
 the service became necessary until i now there are twenty-five miles of mains. It was for this extension of the 1 service that the last bond issue was made.
 It Is shown that the assessed value
 of the property of the company is now
 $1O9,9O0 and that the company has paid | taxes to the city amounting to &, ,5S6 9S. | The regularity of the election of last December at which the city voted l bonGs to the amount of $300 900 for the
 construction of a municipal system ii
 attacked. This attack is preceded by
 the statement that twice before an effort was made to vote bonds for this purpose and failed. The registration | for the last election is declared to
 have been illegal first, in that there was requirement that voters should
 register not earlier than thirty days | before the date of the election and not | ldltT lDdH lCu udyS DGIOTo the eleCIlO0. It is asserted that the registering off, cers were partial and that they refus> ed to permit persons who were known | to be opposed to the bonds to register l though they were qualified to do so and that they permitted persons known to be favorable to the bonds to register though they were known to be un- qualified.
 | Tho 11r,Io int cia tae Iot ascertained that there were in that bond election 5S6 unqualified voters It is also stated that there were many persons registered who were not on the assessment roll of the city as the law requires, but that the registering officers permitted them to be put on the roll by the payment of taxes ] amounting to from twenty-five cents to thirty-five cents. It Is alleged that | there were thirty persons qualified to register and who would have opposed the issuance of the bonds, but they were denied registration. But for the | irregularities on the part of the regis tering officers thus. enumerated the | bonds would have been defeated.
 It is further charged that the cleo tion officers were partial and that par tiality contributed to the carrying of | the bonds.
 In order to show that a natural and proper sentiment against the bond is sue existed in the city at the time of the election it is reiterated that on two previous occasions propositions to vote bonds had failed.
 In that part of the complaint de- scribing the terms of the franchise it Is set forth in consideration of the