Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-12-04
MOVING TOWARD COMMISSION
GOVERNMENT.


Georgia TO institute the commission
form Of government in al likelihood.
Who knows but that Americus may BE-
l.ae second 70 rid itself entirely OF pol
tics in the administration of the pure
" business affairs that constitute the
crater part OF a city administration.
There Is a strong sentiment here that
way and eventually ne viii adopt a
method Of government that eommends
Itself 80 much 10 ths strong common
sense Of the people.
Discussing the conditions that have
brought about TIE change 70 a COM
ulsssion form OF government, and the
system under which a city operates
when such change IS made. the Sa-
yannah Press has this to say:
Too mach politics. Tho business
man IS afaid Of politics, and is more
than glad TO leave it to the professional
party politician, even though he knows
that politicians arsnE competent 10
handle large public aHairs. and that he
isn't getting the kind Of government
ont OF them tLat he ought to have. Bal
government hurts business. Good gov
eTnmsn- helps business Bad govern
ment means higher taxes. waste, ex-
trayaganee and poor service at heavg
cost Good government means econ
omy. business methods in public at
fairs, low taxes and a full return IN
public service for the tax money spent
Then business men with level heads
and sound experience need no longer
fear to 90 into city politics, because i
won't be politics any more-just city
business.
Under the commission plan there Is
a small and responsible administrative
body which resembles the board of dt
rectors OF the corporation and takes
the place Of the old city government i,
all its branches. The five commission.
ers are elected by the city at large, re
gardless Of ward Inns. The depart
ment Of public affairs. in charge Of thc
mayor, is superior to the other depart
mo1ts in authority and pay. It's heaC
Lss general supervision over the foul
coordinate working departments. TIE
mayor is ex-offcio member and pres
ident Of a common council composed o
the heads OF the five departments. and
has vote but no veto. He is relieved
Of practically all merely routine duties
except those necessarily arising fron.
his position as ofici-n head of the city
giving him ample time for his import
ant work Of cooperating with and su
Iperyising the work Of hBg associates
The four commissioners arc in the first
instance elected simply as councflmen.
They and the mayor, acting as a coun
Gil, designzte whic3 each shat
supervise, dividing practically all the
detail work of the city among the four
departments along lines broadly in
dicated by their names and retaining
i nthe council only those which pertain
to the city az who.e.
Savannah will be tho first citz liz
Georgia to commit itself to the com
mission plan. 1t is enabled to do this
the ezlsier because its city government
in a way has been forecast Of the com
mission plan. For instance, the mem
bers Of TIE board of aldermen are eli
ected at large, and not from wards.
in other Georgia cities. Savannah has
had in the past and now has in a way
notifications Of the commission gov
eminent. The park and tree improve
ments are under a commission and al
one time the police and fire board
were appointed by commission, but
the trouble then was that they were not
independent of political influences and
were not entirely satisfactory How
ever, it VIII probably be easier for
Savannah to go out and out upon a
commission basis than any other Geor-
gia city, because our form of city gov
eminent seems to anticipate this COM
mission p.an.
Nobody must gel the idea that the
commission plan is a magic formula
that viii solve all municipal problems
with phrase or a form. Without
public vigilance and a live public ,spir-
1t any form of government viii fail
with a yiglant public spirit any form
OF government will bring good results.
The difference is that the old sys-
tam is largely made up of OBSTACLES 10
public spirit and of issue that confuse
public vigilance, and the new system
o 'ers every facility for the exDro ion
OF both. Futhermore-and that is the
real meat Of tit substitutes business
methods for political methods, Fosters
emciency and weeds out ineficiencg
and after putting the government IN
der a centralized, responsible head
gives the public people evory facility