The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-05

work when the question of declaring a
vacancy in the Ninth ward in Alderman
G. H. Estes came up.
The session started with only II alder
men present, but the late arrival of four
others soon swelled the number to 10.
Eleven aldermen formed a quorum as
there were only 81 members of the coun-
Gil, Coopers vacancy having brought the
membership to this number. The ma
chine worked on a gear of IL to 4. this
standing out prominently in the Ninth
ward matter.
A strong letter from Mayor O'Brien
recommending an increase of 10 per cent
in the salaries of all members of the po-
lice force except the chief was read and
referred to the finance committee. In
the letter the Mayor stated that the
maximum salary of policemen was s75
per month. and said he could not see
how they managed to live on such small
pay.
Alderman Gambill assumed, the floor
after the reading of the communications
from the Mayor and the rules were sus-
pended in order that an election to fill
vacancies existing on the board might be
held. Gambill then announced that w.
R, Gum, whom everybody had expected
to succeed Cooper, would not be candi-
date Following this remark he put up
the name of Phil Harper of the Williams
Harper company as a candidate. NO
other men were nominated and Mr.. Har-
per was unanimously elected. President
Harry Jones administered the oath of
office and Mr.. Harper took his seat.
The question of accepting Alderman
Estes's resignation then came up. 1t
will be recalled that Mr.. Estes addressed
his resignation as alderman to Mayor
O'Brien. The Mayor is of the opinion
that he could not legally transmit the
resignation to the Board of Aldermen
and did not send it to them
Alderman Heidi started the machine by
introducing a resolution declaring va
cancy in the Ninth ward by the re-
tirement of Alderman G. H. Estes. AL
derman Perdue objected, stating that
the resignation of Mr.. Estes was not
properly before the body; that Mr.. Estes
had not communicated his resignation to
the board and the resolution was there
fore out of order He added that there
were but three ways In which the res
ignation could come before the board
one by the retiring alderman in person,
another by letter to the board and the
third by the Mayor having sent the let
ter of resignation to the board.
President Jones asked Perdue If the
matter would be legal if the clerk had
seen the resignation and he replied that
it would not Barnes Morgan at this
moment stated that he thought the board
would be doing Estes a great injustice
If they refused to accept his resignation;
that Estes wanted to resign and he
thought they should help him along.
City Attorney Robert Thach was ap-
pealed to by President Jones for his
opinion. His opinion was that if the al
dermen were satisfied in their minds as
to Estes resigning the matter would be
legal Coffee Jackson took the floor
with the declaration that things were
running a little too fast; that there was
no great hurry for an alderman from the
Ninth ward just now and he thought the
thing should be legally handled
The matter finally came to a vote af-
ter President Jones had sustained the Per-
due objection. Heidi moved that Jones
be overruled and his motion carried IL to
4. BY the same vote the vacancy was then
declared
A few other minor matters were hasti-
ly disposed of after this and adjourn
ment was taken.
Reports of the various committees were
as follows
Judiciary Committee.
Present: Aldermen Gregg, Williams,