The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-08-12
FIGHT FRANCHISE
IN NEWSPAP ERS
Attorney ]. D. Skeen Outlines
What He Proposes to Do
and Draws Fire.

From the way things look at present
the fight over the granting of the fran
chise to the Ogden Waterworks company
will be threshed out in the public press
before it is in the courts. The only new
development in the case yesterday was
the fact that summons in the action
Brought to test the validity of the fran
| chise were served upon the mayor and
! the city treasurer. In addition to This The
officials of the waterworks company. who
/ have been rather reticent since the pro-
| ceedings were instituted, permitted item
| selves OF be interviewed. This came about
| through the statement given out by At
| torney ]. d. Skeen, leading counsel for
those fighting the franchise. Mr.. Skeen
covered his side of the controversy as fol
lows:
Skeen Makes Statement.
The ogden Waterworks company is
now operating under the famous Both
| well contract. executed August 26. 1889.
| which was held in Ogden City against
the waterworks company (28 Utah, 25) TO
| be valid and subsisting contract, and
| hence 1t follows as a corOlary that the
| contract is enforceable by the city as
| against the company. 1t is a general rule
! OF law that municipal corporation has
| the power and authority TO regulate the
| rates charged for water whether fur
nished by the city or by any person or
| corporation unless this right is express
| ly waived by the city. 1t was not go
| waived in the Boutwell, contract, and
| hence the city authorities now possess
| that right.
THE most serious result of the pass
| age of the ordinance proposed by the
| water company and the Civic league is
| that the city expressly relinquishes this
right. and says to the waterworks com
pany, You may charge the schedule
rates. which are unreasonably high, pro-
vided that they be adjusted by three per-
M f0rl
the city. one by the company and one
by the two so selected And, further
more, the Boutwell, contract provides
! comparatively low rates with agreements
| to increase the supply and TO extend the
water system until the inhabitants of
Ogden are furnished and provided with
an ample supply of water suitable for do
nestle purposes continuously from the
Other Advantageous Provisions.
There are numerous other provisions
I'm the Rothwell contract which it would
| be to the advantage of Ogden and her
inhabitants to enforce, yet practically
| none OF these provisions have ever been
| enforced or ever attempted to be en-
| forced, and we are now asked to sit 81
| lentiy by and permit the mayor and the
council to gratuitOusly release the cor
| pOraton from their fulfillment and waive
all damages heretofore suffered by rea-
| son of such neglect.
/
dirance declared void, and at the same
time to institute another suit in the name
| of an individual taxpayer, in order that
| it may not be controlled by politicians.
| and to force TIE waterWorks company to
comply with the provisions of the Both
we'll contract. While the city may not in
the near future be in such financial cir
| cumstances as 10 purchase the system.
| we all hope that we will some time
adopt a policy that will permit the reve-
| nue. to so accumulate as to accomplish
| such purchase and in the meantime we
will have the assurance that Ogden city
has the authority to regulate the rates
TO be charged consumers. and that in any
event they will be reduced to 20 per cent
of the schedule attached to the Boutwell,
contract.
that this is a big question, and ii re
quires the support of the citizens at large
to secure these valuable rights"
In reply to this statement one of the Of
ficials OF the waterworkS company had
! this to say yesterday:
Reply to Company Officials.
at is not usual for a lawyer commenc-
ing law suit, to try the case first IN the
public press by giving out prepared
statement of the case, or asking people
| TO come forward and 'financier the
scheme for him. but inasmuch as Mr..
! Skeen has done so the public ought TO
understand that in the opinion of the best
! legal talent in the city there is nothing
! whatever TO the technical objections
raised by those two large taxpayers. j.
| shows that the rules of proceedings of
| the city council were UNANIMOUSLY sus-
| pended to put this ordinance upon ITS
/ passage without going 10 committee SO
far as the first and second readings were
concerned, and that the ordinance passed
its third reading by a vote OF seven TO
twO-more than two-thlrds or the entlfe
council, which, in and and OF itself. was
an acduiescenCe that the rules had been
| suspended by twO-thirds vote. But apart
from this flimsy technicality, the rules OF
] the proceedings are only for the guidance
of the body itself and like any other
! rules that are not laws. they can be dis
| regarded by the body that formed them.
The laws of this state provide that an
ordinance of a city Is valid whenever II
has been passed by a majority vote OF
the members elected upon a proper yea
and nay call of the roll. This was COM
piled with and the ordinance. is therefore
| wholly valid.
"Of course. it is very easy for such tax
payers as Brummitt and Skeen to say that
they are perfectly willing that Ogden city
should pay the water works company Sil.-
900 instead of $4,000, as now proposed be-
cause mighty little of that amount comes
out of their pocket. nor does IL matter
10 them how many more thousand OF dol,
lars be squandered by Ogden City and
| it's taxpayers in lawyer fees and court
| expenses. In their exalted opinion Of
| themselves these w0uld-be public bene-
| factors absolutely disregard the fact that
| a committee OF the city council and some
of the leading taxpayers OF the city con-
/ nected with the Civic league have spent
months I'm considering what would be best
for the city and its inhabitants These
complaining gentlemen, in their own opin-
| ion. know so much more law and are so
much better fitted to determine the best
| interests of Ogden City that they do not
| propose that the almost universal desire
| TO see the water works complication set
tie shall cut any figure in this matter
| AT all. OF course the only result that
| this iIl-advised law suit can pOssiblye ac-
complish is the delay of the extensive i'm
| provements now under contemplation.
Inspects Southern Pacific.
| Superintendent f. c. Manson has re-
turned from a weeks inspection trip over
the Southern Pacific as far Sparks
and Yesterday made trip 10 Salt Lake