Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-24

Didn't the people of this city in 1903
vote a million dollars to build an outfall
sewer and lateral sewers? Those bonds
were sold and $150,000 set aside to con-
| Struct sanitary lateral sewers in the
| Ninth ward. This money has been
spent or swiped Not dollar of it ever
went to construct a sewer in the Ninth
ward.
1.-THE city council formally purchased
and owned q right of way for the outfall
sewer across the Centinela ranch. This
council and city engineer changed the
line of the sewer through the ranch,
and in order to be allowed to make this
change they paid the Inglewood Land
company $4,000; also abandoning the
old sewer line and paying $50 per acre
damage rent for all lands disturbed by
reason of the construction of the sewer;
and now, by reason of this change, the
contractors claimed 1t was impossible
to construct the sewer on this line, and
thereupon threw up the contract. 1t is
now shown that the contractors were
overpaid for the work they performed
the sum of $4,000, and thus far no effort
has ever been made to recover the
amount, or any part of It, from either
the contractors or their bondsmen.
Look at that councils stand on the
San Pedro harbor question. Three
u,
for about all that was left of the harbor
frontage at San Pedro, Mr.. Houghton
offered o resolution in our city council
requesting the San Pedro trustees to
deny the application before them for
any more harbor frontage, and Hough-
tons motion was lost for the want of
second This shows plainly how much
interest Blanchard, Hitler and Healy
have in San Pedro harbor.
Look at that councils action on the
Jackson street franchise, where the
property owners to the number of ten
to one petitioned against the granting
of that franchise; but the one won. 1t
is needless to say it was the Southern
Pacific Railroad company.
Look at the Tennessee street or alley
franchise, passed by the council. The
protesting property owners represented
forty feet of frontage to one foot, and
the one foot won-for the railroad again.
THAT councils action on passing the
celebrated river franchise bill, which
they passed twice to make it legal;
but, threatened with the recall, and NOT
wanting to lose their fat positions, they
recalled the ordinance from the mayor.
when that council sat as a board of
equalization to cut the assessments Of
the railroads and corporations, fixed by
the city assessor, they did not forget
the Los Angeles Gas company. The
council lowered that company s assess
Inent 5000, ,000 and this was done against
the most earnest protest of the city as
SCISSOR. In this little matter the COM
pany was made a present of $2400, and
the property owners of this city will
have to make that good.
"That council has land committee
whose business 1t is to buy and sell city
lands, but they delegated their powers
to q thrifty real estate agent, who
bonded the five lots that the incinerator
stands on, on a certain forenoon, for
$2100, and the afternoon of the same day
sold them to the city council for $4,000
Those lots came high, but we had toI
have 'em.
"The incinerator building cost $744SO
and the same plant was duplicated at
Atlanta, Ca, for less than $35,000. tt
was to burn 200 tons of garbage day,
but it doesn't burn half that amount and
has cost the city $4,000 to keep 1t In re-
pair for the last year.
"Voting machines which cost the city
and county $81, 800 are rusting in stor-
age, and there is hardly a chance that
they will ever be worth a penny to the
taxpayers. Aside. from the expense of
storage the machines. $4914-interest at
6 per cent on the amount involved-wlll
be wasted every year.
Until a few days ago, when the
county built an addition to the court
house for the purpose of housing the
machines, they were stored in ware
house at the rate of $l.50 a month
apiece. Storage charges since the ma
chimes were shipped have amounted to-