The San Francisco call., 1905-01-25
HEALTH BOARD
CASE ARGUED
Franklin K. Lane Questions
Good Faith in. AboIishing
Offices and Making Others
BE RUEF REPLIES
Says That Suit Is Subter-.I 4
flge to Get Old Feeders
Back to the Public Crib

Franklin K. Lane of the counsel en-
ployed by the Merchants Association !
and Abe Ruef, defending the Board of .
Health, divided yesterday before Judge /
Sloss in the closing arguments in the
case of ]. e. Quinn, who seeks as a /
taxpayer to enjoin the City and Coun- |
ty Auditor and Treasurer from audit /
ing and paying the salaries of the dep
uty health officer and inspecting physi-
clans, whose appointments were made
coincidental with the creation of their
offices last January.
Mr. Lanes argument went Ito the
question of the good faith of the Board
of Health in abolishing old offices and
creating new ones, thus disposing of
old employees and making places for
new public servants. The attorney
contended that the power to abolish
an Office was not arbitrary, but was
limited by the charter to the classif1ca-
tion of the civil service. The very pur
pose of the charter, he said, was to
take these appointments out of pol
itics and fill the positions by merit
alone. The meaning of the charter was
that q man appointed on merit and fit
ness should remain in Office until good
cause was shown for his dismissal.
Such appointees are protected by the
law
Said Mr.. Lane: I'VE can come in
as taxpayers, and protect the public
treasury from the consequences of IL
legal acts done in furtherance or
schemes to do politics and make ap-
pointments for expediency when the
political wheel turns" He read an
article on the Sbeneficent effects of the
civil service law and discussed the
lc
political workers are rewarded by ap-
pointment for the work done and the
work they are able to do. 1t results,
he said, in inefficiency, extravaganza
and the corruption of the elective
franchise.
Mr.. Lane thought that the history
of the acts of the Board of Health, In
abolishing one Office and creating
new one, in disregarding the spirit of
the civil service rules, and in other
acts cited had proved strong case
of bad faith. Upon the plea of theN
other side that the action of the Civil
Service Commission in approving the
new classitications of the Board of
Health had stopped the court from act
ing. Mr. Lane declared that the IL
legal action of any board could not
prevent q taxpayer from appealing to
the Superior Court. The Civil Service
Commission had not gone into the
question of duties, efficiency or good
faith in creating new offices. but had
merely assumed that the Board of
Health had the power to make a new
classification If this rule should be
held good, said the attorney, the whole
scheme of the civil service must fall.
The change had been made in bad
faith and in avoidance of the letter and
spirit OF the charter.
At the afternoon session Abe Ruef
Mr
charged that Quinn was acting in bad
faith as a taxpayer to prevent the
payment of $500 in salaries for work
which had formerly cost the Board of
Health $500. He declared that Louis
Levy was doing the work of five men
for $3.50 a month, where $500 had been
paid before. He. cited instances of the
Health Boards action to prove good
faith in following the rules of the Civil
Service Commission and in reviewing
the testimony of members of the board
who had acquiesced in the changes,
without having given personal atten-
tion to the object, he said that faith
and confidence was placed in the judg-
ment of DR.. Ward the president, who
had an opportunity to determine the
necessities from former experience.
Referring to QIinn's suit, Ruef said:
'The action is a subterfuge to put
back to the public crib men who were
feeding there before this political wheel
turned which made one man do the
work of five; he is merely asking your
honor to corrupt the administration to
put in $500 of expenses where $500
now exists He said that the suit
was based upon a hollow mockery, if
not fraud, and was intended to emas-
culate the civil service: that if the
contention of the plaintiff should hold
whole pages of the charter relating to
civil service would be wiped out If
Levy's position were untenable, every
janitor, street sweeper and laborer in
tn city's employ would have his job
illegally, not having undergone a civil
service examination.
The Board of Health. said Mr.. Ruef
had right to abolish a position In the
interest of retrenchment: had the right
to create a new place and to employ
any one for the efficient carrying out
of its purposes.