Arizona republican., 1906-07-01
CONFERENCE
 OF CITIZENS
Heart to Heart Talk With
 City Council
Reply of That Body to Board sf Trads-.While There's Life There's Heps.

of rendering the councils response to
 the findings of the board of trade com
 mittee on the subject of c.ty finances
 and city sprinkling caIGed out large
 attendance of citizeas. They came by
 special invitation and with the knowl-
 edge that the council would be pleased
 to hear their views on pertinent sub
 jects. Nevertheless there were few
 speakers outside of the councilmen
 and the board of trade committeeman.
 The net result of the meeting was an
 interchange of views and the referring of the subject back again to the board of trade committee, together with the typewriter observations Of the coun- cil, and the request that the board of trade committee make a fuller report if it so desires, as its former investiga- tions were but superficial, and also that 1t make definite suggestions re- ispectiug two features of the revenue and sprinkling problem. One of these is that if it is deemed wise to raise l the license on saloons and gambling, to what limit should it be raised. The other is that if it is deemed wise to start a part of the sprinkiing carts, which part of the city shall receive the benefit.
 Though The Republican cannot speak lauthoTitatively nor officially, it never l theless has the earnestness of convic- tien. that at Monday nights regular meeting the subject of sprinkling will be most carefully considered and that at least a part of the sprinkling wagons will be ordered to resume work After the first of July the council may draw warrants against this years revenues. Confessedty there will not be sufficient revenue this year to run the city and sprinkle fully and con- tinuously, but it is the belief of The Republican that at least d partial sprinkling, to somewhat lay the dust
 may be maintai-.ed during the heat of the summer. Jr until such time as the council can foresee the limit of the money Ut their disposal after paying the other necessary expenses of gov ernment. But one thing the council is determined upon jS that it's expenses shall be within its rava','-e this year. Last night the e4 os b4siness adopted was first hearing from citi- l zens, then the councils reply to tue board of trade committee. Eugene ! Brady O'NeiI was the first and the only speaker under the first order He
 took issue both with the council and with the board committee on various points. He thought there should be no
 move toward funding the city war
 rants until after the legislature legal ized them and then he suggested that sa -OOn licenses be raised to S1200 d year and gambling licenses to $75 a month and policy licenses to SI0O a month. which he predicted would fur
 nish a revenue sufficient to pay for sprinkling. Mayor Coggins next read the councils reply to the board find | ings as follows:
 To the Committee Representing the Board of Trade:
 Conference.-The report and plan pre- | sented by you for the increase of reve- | nue for the city of Phoenix for the year 1906 has been duly considered by
 this council, and we find as follows: When it was proposed that such d 1 committee be appointed il was under stood by us that the object of this l committee was to devise some means
 of raising additional revenue, that sprinkling might be resumed in the ! immediate future; if such was the case. | the report presented has entirely failed
 of it's object, as we do not find q pro
 vision for the raising of an additional cent, above the revenue already de- ] rived. On the contrary your report
 only deals with retrenchment, which
 matter had already been quite thor oughly investigated by this council.
 and it has been discovered that ii would be impossible to cut expenses sufficiently to conduct the business of | this city for the current year with the
 revenue thus obtained.
 Had we found that such reductions Of expenses could be made as would allow us to run the business of the city this year, and sprinkle our streets. all within the revenue placed in our hands for that purpose, there would have been no need of the appointment
 of your committee for we should have done our plain duty.
 Some of the suggestions for further retrenchment, however, are good, and we had considered such move as practicabl and will in some slight de gree lessen the expense, but it is en- tirely too small to remedy the defi- cincy.
 In order that you see the position we take as to the report submitted by you, we will state that your first recom- mendatiOn as to funding the present indebtedness is a good recommenda- tion to the future welfare of Phoe-
 nix, but the matter is entirely foreign to the question under consideration
 and will not only fail to produce cents revenue, but fails to reduce or save the payment of the interest on the
 floating indebtedness for the coming
 year, while on the other hand to follow that recommendation would incIr an additional expense for an extra election.
 of not less than s9OO This first rec
 ommendation to increase our revenue
 for the present year incurs a loss of
 s9OO
 The second suggestion as to the sys- tenn of keeping the recorders books
 will neither save money nor increase our revenue.
 The recommendation that one man