Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1904-01-11
Communicated.
ANENT THE NEW CITY CHARTER
Mr.. William NJ. Abbott,


We are contemplating a new charter
for the City of Annapolis, or revising
the one we have. No doubt the time
is ripe for the same, but in extending
the corporate limits of the city we
should go slow and not take in too
much territory. The old saying is ''do
not bite off more than you can chew. y
We are talking of annexing Eastport,
Germantown and West Annapolis
1t may be all right to take, or extend
our city limits to these suburban
villages, provided they do not prove a
heavier load than we now have to
carry. Recollect it costs something
to maintain bridges. West Annapolis
should, by all means. not enter into
the thoughts of those having the
boundaries of the city limits to look
after. Eastport might be entertained,
but with care. Do not overlook the
fact that TO take in this village we
will have to keep in repair the present
bridge and it will be but short
while when the same will have to be
replaced by new one, and bridges
are very expensive luxuries. Then
our new neighbor would want paved
streets, lights, police protection, re-
uries. Now would the revenue from
the taxes. licenses, etc., received from
our Eastport brothers justify our sad
ding this expense? This is the ques-
tion we should well look into before
taking the irretrievable step.
Germantown, / think, everyone
would favor coming into our limits, as
there would be little expense TO main
tain same and give our Germantown
friends the same good streets, police
protection and lights we enjoy. the
revenue we would derive from texes
would offset, / think, our additional
expense. Remember, we have bond
ed Indebtedness of one hundred and
fifty-eight thousand dollars with our
city taxes up to the limit allowed by
the present city charter-$1. 90 ON the
81. 900. Our city election laws are
fairly good, but with the progress kof
our city we should make some .change
as to our city officials. At present
the Mayor is elected at large and each
ward elects its own two aldermen.
So far this law is very good, but the
Counselor to the board should be
elected by the Mayor and Aldermen
and paid a stated salary for his seryi-
ces. The clerk and all other officers
should be, as they are now, elected
by the Mayor and Aldermen, except
ing the Collector and Treasurer and
police force. The Collector and
Treasurer for the city is a very inn
portant office and should be elected
by the popular vote as the Mayor is.
The police force should, by all
means, be taken out of the hands of
the municipal body and a police COM
mission appointed, say three or five,
to be appointed by the Governor of
the State, and to serve without pay,
the same as our county almshouse
trustees are appointed by the County
Commissioners. In this way we
would get better police, better police
protection. When a good man or set
of men got into Office they would stay,
and if bad, turned out, not subjected
to losing their places by change OF
municipal administration, i. e. !:
Have the law and regulations Balti-
more city has for police force.
One more very important change
the writer surely hopes TO see con-
summated in revising and preparing
new charter for the City of Annapolis,
and that is giving the Mayor some
authority which the Office of Mayor"
implies. The Mayor of Annapolis, as
some one has truly said, is in name
only. You have heard persons say i:
Mr.. So-and So made good Mayor
Mr.. someone else made good Mayor,
but Mr.. Most-any-one, he did surely
do the bad to perfection. Now will
anyone Just tell me what the Mayor
of the City of Annapolis has TO do
with giving good government any
more than either one of the six
Aldermen and Counselor He has one
vote, as each of the seven other mem
bers of the Board have. the only power
he has is to sit in the chair and pre-
side, try to keep order, write out
orders for the Collector and Treasurer
TO pay the officers their salaries. So
by ali that is equitable and fair, give
the Mayor of Annapolis authority to
veto bills or pass them, and then we
can point to the administration of our
honored citizens and criticise them
justly.