Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-23
SHOWS FALLACIES
IN SENATE BILL
SCORE CORPORATE INTERESTS
Pasadena City Attorney Advises Sem
ator Bell That Measure Is An
other Form Of the
Hahn Bill

EldVU pIu
In a communication written to Sena-
tor C. w. Bell of Pasadena, City At
torney J. Perry Wood of the Crown
City scores the corporate influences
behind senate bill No. 9S, associates the
bill with the Hahn bill 81 q measure
catering to the corporate Interests"
and makes a sweeping statement that
the defeat of the bill will be- accom-
plished only after a hard fight which
will have to be waged against the com
bined influence exerted by associated
gas, electric and water corporations.
Senate bill No. 9S makes 1t oblga-
tory on the part of q municipality to
negotiate with the owners of a public
utility and purchase the plant at
price to be fixed by a board of arbitra-
tion whenever 1t desires to embark in
municipal ownership of such utilities.
Mr.. Wood states that the bill, had
1t been operative at the time of Pasa-
dena's recent entering a fight with
the Edison company over various mat
ters pertaining to the acquiring of
municipal ownership in water and
electric plants. would have tided the
fight over and brought its finish into
the term of the next, and possibly
} hostile, administration. 1t would have
accomplished the defeat of the NUM-
cipal electric light plant hobby of
Mayor Waterhouse Of Pasadena Mr..
Wood further offers his services in
combating the measure and asks i'm
mediate advice II he can be of such
service in the premises. He says in his
communication:
Measure of the Interests"
IT am very glad to receive your let
ters of January 16 and 10. respectively,
the latter containing copy of senate
bill No. 9S, and needless to say very
much appreciate your calling the mat
ter to my attention.
This act, like the Hahn bill, Is
clearly a measure of the interests in
tended to hamper municipalities in the
acquisition by them of gas, electricity
and water plants. The interest behind
the matter is, no doubt, strong. and
strong opposition will no doubt be
necessary in order to defeat the bill
"The effect of this bill upon the ac-
tion which municipalities may now
take under the general law or under
their charters, to acquire gas, light or
water plants, is:
"First-To impose considerable delay
in the proceedings leading up to the
acquisition of such plant or plants.
"If such act had been in force and
imperative upon the city of Pasadena
the resultant delay would have been
sufficient to have put over the final
determination of the matter until
new administration. hostile to the pro-
ject, could, perhaps, have been elected.
You will notice the various thirty-day
provisions in the act. First, there must
be request in the form of an ordi-
nance made by the city to the plant
company. OF course, such company
would, in all cases, offer to sell, be-
cause il could place the price at an
|
pei the city to proceed under the other
portions of the cat.
, Little Choice for City
"The city would either have to ac-
cept the exorbitant figure or have the
price of the plant arbitrated. You
know what arbitration means. Each
party puts all his affairs into the hands
of a representative. Those representa-
tives appoint a third party and the
three split the difference between the
figures first presented. / think that
it can safely be said that in such
case the private corporation would
have every interest and advantage in
it's favor, and the municipality would
very rarely get a square deal. l do
not mean by this that the arbitrators
would necessarily be dishonest, but
the logical result of such an arrange
ment would be as / have indicated,
regardless of the arbitration board
"This would be the result even II
the result of the board of arbitration
was binding upon both parties. But
observe the subtle viciousness of the
thing Lines II to 10 of page would
seem to indicate that the award would
be binding upon the company. This
provision, however, is rendered inop-
erative by the provisions contained in
lines 90 to 81 of page 2, and the result
of this beautiful act would be to i'm
pose upon the city the burden of
delay of from four months to year,
according to the size OF the plant and
the time it took the arbitrators to ap-
praise the same; then the city would
be bound to accept any award the ar
bitrators might offer under penalty of
being thereafter precluded from ac-
uuiring it's own plant under any cir
cumstanceS.
"If the corporation accepted the
figures of the arbitrators, Is the pri-
vate corporation bound by the award
of said arbitrators? Not at ALL After
I having caused the city considerable
expense and a delay which might be
VITAL said company can absolutely
Y refuse to sell at the figure fixed by the
arbitrators. BY that time new Of
fcers may be elected or such a fracas
1 can have been raised as to have dis
: gusted the people, because in such in
stances the fracas Is nearly always
raised by the private corporations and
D urged along with view to firing the
. people of the efforts of their servants
0 in their behalf. And after all this the
T. city Is only at the point where 1t was
= at the start so far as any legal pro-
y ceedings for the acquisition of plant
: are concerned.
Must Vote Bonds
e Furthermore, it must be remem-
2 bered that before cities can purchase
r plants they must in practically every
t instance vote bonds to obtain the
s money therefor. Senate bill No. 9S
will seriously involve the practical ap-
pication of that act. Before the city
S governing board could proceed under
. senate bill No. 49, or at any rate be-
, fore 1t could enter into any binding
contract, an election would have to
D be called upon the question of bond
| issue Here is another expense and
DELAY which NAV all go for naught II