Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-05
RULES GOVERN
NEW COUNCIL
LEGISLATIVE BODY DOES ITS
BUSINESS PROPERLY
SESSION MOVES WITH PRECISION
AND PRoMPTNEss
All Work of the City Government Is
Transacted in Accordance with
Parliamentary Regulations
Not Seen in Years

For the first time in many years the
session yesterday of the city council
was conducted in a calm, judicial, de-
Lucrative manner. And for the first
time in many years it convened at
the minute of the time scheduled.
Promptly at 10 o'clock President
Works gaveI fell, the nine members
of the new council being in their
seats
Early in the session two things
which will be a radical departure from
the method of procedure of the old
council became apparent. One is that
standing committees will be expected
to do the routine work of the council
and no special committees will be ap-
pointed unless matters are brought up
that cannot be brought under the jur-
isdiction of regular committees, and
the other is that parliamentary pro-
ceedings will be consistently observed.
President Works and Councilman
Lusk are expert parliamentarians and
every other member of the council
has more or less of an idea how par
liamentary proceedings should be con-
Quoted. What they do not know they
showed willingness to learn.
In all cases where special rules have
not been adopted for the conduct of
the council Roberts Rules of Order
are expected to govern legislative de-
liberationS. The same rules of order
were expected to control the old coun-
Gil but the greater number of the
members did not know whether ROD
erts' manual was a cook book or a
new system for playing cards. For
mer Councilman A. j. Wallace was the
only expert parliamentarian OF the old
council, but he did make use often
of his knowledge.
Council Acts Promptly
AS result of strict attention to
business and the enforcement of the
rules the council finished It's work
Yesterday before noon. The business
was not heavy, but had the old coun-
ci' handled it in the way usual with
them they would not have adjourned
until about 8 o'clock.
Some of the routine business took
longer than under the lax methods OF
the old council, but this business was
conducted strictly in accordance with
proper legal regulations. For instance,
the old council would put through the
| citv engineers weekly report in less
| than ten minutes, while it required
| half an hour for the new council to DC
| the same work. But the new council
knew what it was doing all the time
| and the old council seldom had an idea.
The engineers weekly report consists
chiefly of ordinances of intention Tor
street improvements. The system IN
the old council was for Clerk Carroll
to read the sections of the engineer
report telling briefly what the pro-
posed improvements are and then TO
call the roll. This suspended the rules
and passed the ordinances. =
Not once in tel, times did any MEM
her of the council except Former
President Pease respond to the ron
| call. No motion was made to pass tne
| ordinances and the clerk would charge
the motion supposed to have been
made to the councilman representing
| the ward for which the improvement
was proposed. After the report had
heen adopted not one member of the
| council could have told one item II
| contained. They. always took adVan-
tage of these few minutes to walk
around the room and talk to someone
Conducts Business Properly
But all this was changed yesterday.
| There were thirty seven ordinances Tor
/ street improvements presented by the
citv engineer and there were thirty
seven separate seconds to suspend the
rules and pass the ordinances. Most
Il
of these motions were made by Coun-
Gilman Lusk and seconded by Coun-
Gilman BetkouSki. Lusk and Betkouskl
showed a disposition to do good team
work in this respect, for almost in
variably one would second the motions
| of the other Every time a motion
was made to suspend the rules ana
place an ordinance on its passage the
mover would rise from his seat to ad-
dress the chair and the second would
| do the same During the entire half
| hour the city engineers report was
under consideration President Works
stood and put motion after motion
Thirty-seven times he repeated the
question and said:
"All in favor will vote aye as their
names are called; all opposed will vote
no as their names are called"
It has been the rare exception in
past councils for a member to rise
to address the chair, and still rarer
has it been for president to rise to
put a motion.