The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1908-11-28


:. vestigatiou and amendment as =
= may be suggested.
The directorate Of the Civic Improve
ment league Of Salt Lake City, at
meeting held at the Y. NJ. C.. \, rooms
Friday night, adopted the above mo-
tion after hearing the report of the
special committee appointed number
OF weeks ago on "Charter Revision,
The motion was made by Henry w
Lawrence, seconded by Orson IL. Hew..
lett and was the unanimous finding of
the meeting. The motion, rs VIII be
SEEN does not include the adoption OF
the report Of the special committee.
The committee. of which Frank Is.
Stephens is chairman. made Il complete
report, a copy of which appears below.
which substantially embodlcs all the
salient and important features of the
Des Moines plan of city government.
The report evoked some discussion,
which was participated IN by several
directors.
Supplemental to the. report Mr..
Stephens said that the committee had
carefully considered the question as to
whether the proposed measure should
be submitted TO the people before 1t
became operative. One member OF the
committee was in favor of this pro-
posal; another opposed it unless the
people petitioned FOR such submission,
but the other FIVE were in favor of 1t
being operative without a vote. The
committee was unanimous in the opin-
ion that committee of three be sent
to Des Moines to investigate the plan
in operation there, and this was
agreed TO.
Subsequently it was decided to ap-
point a committee of three to select
the committee TO 90 to Des MONIES. w.
Mont Ferry, president of the league,
was given time TO consider the naming
OF this committee. The question of
whether or not the committee shall
also visit Houston and Galveston, Tex,
was also left to the selection commit
tee.
Later in the proceedings John D.
Spencer moved that Mr.. Ferry be
named as q member of the committee
to visit Des Moines and this was unani-
mously agreed to. Mr. Spencer thouoht
il advisable that member of the city
council should be on the committee,
hence his motion.
Auditor and Attorney.
Replying to questions Mr. Stephens
replied that the committee had not
thought it advisable TO name the sal
ary which should be paid the auditor,
for the election of whom provision is
made, as that was considered mat
ter of detail. With regard to the at
torney it was considered best that this
should be an appointive position. be
hevinp that the board of commissioners
would prefer TO select their own at
torney TO carry out their specific pol
lcies and prosecutions, such as gamb
ling and the selling Of liquor on Sun
days.
President Ferry, in the course OF
,1>,a,-
of the city council he had made some
inquiry with regard to the proposed
plan among the councilmen aud had
heard some objections to it. One man
had said that the chief objection was
that it would tend more to the crea-
tion of a political machine than would
be possible under the present system.
This position was taken, MI Ferry
said, that while under the present sys-
tenn it was very hard matter to fix
the responsibility and while the cogs
Of the wheel were always as good as
they wished they were, still the mere
fact that it took time to pass meas
ure with party or partisan opposition
the opposition itself delayed the mat
ter and opened it up for a wide dis
cussion in the council and in the news
papers. The fact of the mayors veto
was an advantage because of the fact
that it took twelve or fifteen to sus
tain that veto. He thought the recall
would never be used, because of the
fact that 25 per cent of the citizen:
could very seldom be got together il
order to recall their commissioner. L
the commissioners appointed their OWL
officers and the sub-beads Of the de
partments it was thought there would
be ample opportunity TO build up ;
machine. Another factor was that tn,
attorney being appointive he would b,
under the direct control of the commits
gion and he would be coerced into doing
what they wanted him to do and HI
did not desire to do and if elected thi
would not happen.
After some further discussion tn
motion set out above was moved ant
adopted.
Samuel Newhouse, Colonel Edwin
Holmes and Richard p. Morris wer
added to the directorate.
Report of Committee.
Following is a copy Of the report o
the committee:
To the board OF directors of the Sal
Lake City Civic improvement league
Your committee on legislation respectful
reports that II has given consideration {
the matter of the form of legislation whIc
II would recommend for the purpose @
adopting a commissioner system OF gov
eminent and begs to report as follows:
l.. Your committee has given very care
ful consideration to this question. In Gal
weston there are five commissioners, 4
Des Moines. Ave; In the city OF Washing
ton. 3, and under the county commission
er system for county government. til
usual number Is three. In Des Moine
the plan has been adopted Of having eac
commissioner act as the head OF a cit
department. Your committee will watc
the development Of this plan with a grea
deal OF interest, but the unanimous jude
ment Of this committee Is that there ar
very many objections TO il. We belIey
that II would tend 10 build up faction
in the board OF commissioners; that the
would not give sufficient consideration
the business OF the city a whole, an
that there would be Il tendency 10 log
soiling and agreeing 10 keep their hand
off each others Departments. Your COLI