The San Francisco call., 1906-04-12
FAVORS GRANT
Of CONTRACT
Committee Recommends the
Building of Geary Street
Road by Lowest Bidder
TWO MEMBERS DISSENT
Kelly and Nicholas Object
Because the Price Is in
Excess of the Estimate

The Supervisors public utilities COM
mittee yesterday recommended that the
contract for the reconstruction of the
Geary-street road as a municipal under
ground conduit electrical system be
awarded to the C. E. Loss Company, the
lowest bidder, at $4,000.
The committee was not unanimous in
its recommendation, as two Supervisors
objected to the award being made be-
cause the bid is in excess of the City
Engineers estimate of s327,000
c. Z. Loss, president of the company,
said he would carry out all the condi-
tions as stipulated in the proposal no
tices and was prepared to flo a bond
for $4,000 for the faithful performance
of the work. In response to questions
by members of the committee, Loss
said:
am prepared to go ahead with the work at
once. II you sign the contract now we will
commence construction of the road tomorrow
morning. l have all the necessary equipment
and have always employed none but union la
bor. Your specifications require the road TO
be finished IN a year and will do IL in ten
months. Our other contracts, including that
for building the Ocean Shore road, Will not
interfere with the Ceary-street road construc
ton or impede its progress.
There is but $327,00O available for
the Improvement" said Chairman Box
ton, and it will be necessary for the
finance committee TO provide the addi-
tional $4,000 out of other funds"
The fact that the bid is not greatly
in excess of the appropriation is not an
insurmountable obstacle" said Gal
lagher, chairman of the finance COM
mittee. Il believe it would be wise to
allow the balance required rather than
to reject all bids and thus delay the
work for months through the invitation
of new bids. The people want to see
the road built and all obstacles thereto
should be removed"
1t developed that out of the appropria-
tion of $4,000 in the present budget
s3402Ss has been spent for drawing the
plans. ]. c. W. Slut, who prepared the
plans, has a claim of $1o5 for extra
work, and S17,667.13 has been paid for
land for a carhouse site at the corner
of Geary and Baker streets. thus leav-
ing S327,S ,SS9.01 for the building of the
road. The money for the cars, power
house and equipment will be appro-
priated in the next budget and VIII
amount to about $1,000
Supervisor Kelly wanted action de-
ferred until it could be ascertained from
the City Engineer g the bid of $347, 900
was excessive.
L am a piano polisher,' said Kelly,
"and 1 do not know anything about the
cost of railr~ ad construction. There
fore I will not vote to award this con-
tract until I get information on the
subject"
Supervisor Nicholas said the bid
should be referred to the City Engineer
for an opinion as to whether It is rea-
sonable or not and he would refuse TO
vote until such action had been taken.
The motion TO recommend to the
board that the contract be given to the
Loss Company was carried by the votes
of Boxton, McGushin. Gallagher and
Coleman. Nicholas was excused from
voting and Kelly voted no.
Previous to the action on the Geary-
street road Supervisor Kelly rose to a
question of privilege and informed the
committee that hereafter he would not
sign any more impromptu reports un
less the questions at issue had been
formally passed upon by the committee.
Il refer TO the matter of granting the
Ocean Shore franchise" said Kelly. II
was not informed of the course that the
committee would take until the report
was brought to me for my signature
and I want to give notice that any re-
port made in future must be agreed
upon in open meeting of the commit
fee"