Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-02
HEWITT RECALL
PETITION IS OUT
GOES INTO HANDS OF PRINTER
TODAY
CHARGES ARE ONLY GENERAL IN
CHARACTER
Vital interests Have Been Jeopardized
by Advice Bearing on Economic
Questions, Says Liberal
Alliance

After a long session of the executive
committee of the Liberal alliance at
Turner hall last night the petition Tor
the recall of City Attorney Leslie X.
Hewitt was finally framed, and in the
form it was adopted last night will
be sent to the printer today. The pc
tition was not brought out without
many controversies among the mem
bers of the committee for the cooler
heads have counseled patience in this
matter.
The petition has no specific grounds
for demanding the recall OF the city at
torney, but simply makes a blanket
charge of incompetency and that Hew-
lit has jeopardized vested interests in
Los Angeles, probably the liquor ele-
ment, which the Liberal alliance rep
resents. The petition is as follows:
"To the President and Members of the
City Council of the City of Los An
geles:
"We, the undersigned petitioners, be-
ing residents and qualified electors of
the county of Los Angeles and of the
city of Los Angeles, state of Califor-
MIA hereby seek the removal of Leslie
r. Hewitt, the present incumbent OF the
office of city attorney of the said city
of Los Angeles, under and in accord
ance with the provisions of section $50
of the charter of said city, and hereby
demand the election of d successor of
said person so sought to be re-
moved.
"The following is a general statement
of the grounds for which the said re-
moval of the said Leslie r. Hewitt
from his said office of city attorney OF
said city of Los Angeles is sought:
"Q) That said Leslie r. Hewitt as
such city attorney has proved unsatis-
factory in that he has failed to con-
slider the interest of the majority Of the
citizens of the said city of Los An
geles and has exhibited in general
disposition contrary to conservative
measures in failing to use proper dis
cretionary powers relating to decisions,
advice, actions bearing on economic
questions and jeopardizing vital inter-
ests of the city of Los Angeles. there
by proving his absolute incompetency
to fill the office of city attorney of said
city of Los Angeles.
"(2) That said Leslie r. Hewitt as
such city attorney of said city of Los
Angeles in advising it's city council
has directly Influenced the said city
council on several occasions to adopt
measures and pass ordinances preJudi-
cial and detrimental to the industrial
and commercial interests of the city,
and thereby has caused to the city of
Los Angeles unnecessary and unwar-
ranted losses amounting to many thou
sand dollars of annual revenues"
This is signed by L. p. Colletee, Fer
nand Parmentier, Hans Zoellner, E. B.
Dykhuizen and r. v. Meier. These
comprise a special committee appoint
ed two weeks ago to draft charges for
recall petition against the city attor-
ney The committee was at work when
the Woolwine controversy started.
The members of the German-Ameri-
can alliance appear to be bitter against
Hewitt for what they consider his ca
tering to the prohibition element: they
say that the recall must be fought out
on the plan outlined in the above petit
| tion.
A number of influential members of
the Liberal alliance are opposed to i'm
mediate action. The preparation of the
petition last night appears to have
been something In the nature of q COM
promise measure. While the petition
will go to the printer today it is un-
derstood among the alliances that 1t
will not be placed in circulation until
Woolwine is through with the grand
jury.
Hewitt's political enemies hope that
Woolwine will fail to make good; that
Hewitt will decline to remove him and
that there will be a revulsion of feeling
that will present an opportunity to cir
culate the recall petition.