The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1912-11-06
"A City Which Wants a General Man.
aSer.


'he' street lighting. street cleaning,
sewerage, garbage disposal, street
railway, electric wires and conduits
regulations for safe BUILDINGS and
matters OF public sanitation are all
properly attended to; but the conduct
81 each and all Of the municipal ac-
tlvities Is engineering work, and ~
there Is to be any assurance that the
| work Is to be done well and economi
| cally, it must be under the charge Of
an engineer
Ihree years ago, in our issue Of July
8, 1909, we called attention to the
radical departure inaugurated by the
City Of Staunton, Va, which created
the office Of City Genera, Manager.
and made that officer the executive
head Of all Of the city departments ex-
cept the schools, police and fire de-
partments. The change was made
without legislation, as the city had
authority under its charter to create
fine their powers. The city continued
It's old form Of government under
which ii was provided with Mayor,
Board OF Aldermen and Common
Council. these two latter bodies per-
forming their work by means Of va
rious special committees on different
MI
ment has worked, we are not inform
ed. The evident danger In the plan
was that the engineer who held the
position of General Mangaer would be
interfered with in his work by the va
r1ous aldermanic and councilmanic
committees to which he had to report.
some of whom were likely to resent
the transfer Of their authority to a
municipal General Manager.
1t now appears that another South
ern city is to try the General Mana
ger plan Of municipal government,
and IT will try 1t under much more ia
vorable conditions than existed at
Staunton. The City of Sumter, S. c., on
June II, last, ty a popular vote Of
three to one, voted to put in force the
City Manager plan of municipal gov
ernment or rather it's combination
with the so called commission plan.
This change was made possible by an
act passed at the last session OF the
South Carolina Legislature.
The defects Of the commission plan
of city government have become
pretty well known. In the first place,
1t is very difficult by the ordinary pro-
cedure Of party nominations and cleo
ton to insure the selection Of three to
five capable men with the necessary
expert knowledge to enable them to
properly administer the business af-
fairs Of city In the second place, in
the smaller cities the executive man.
agement Of all The city's affairs does
not involve more work than one COM
petent man can do. The city must
then either put up with the service Of
second-rate of third-rate men willing
to accept small. salaries for easy Jobs
or 1T must accept such amateur service
as some of it's business men can spare
from their regular occupations.
Under the Sumter plan Of city gov
ernment, the people elect three Com
missioners who have all the powers
formerly vested In the Mayor and AL
dermen. The salaries of these men
are nominal, $500 for one Of the Com
lnissioners, who retains the title of
Mayor, and $500 for each Of the 9TH
ers. The chief and most important
duty or these men is to select the
right man for a city General Man
aser. The Sumter Commissioners an
nounce that until December l they
will receive and consider applications
from engineers desiring to fill the po-
sition Of City Manager. We quote
from their announcement as follows:
THE applicant should be compe-
tent to oversee public work, such as
paving, lighting, water supply, etc. An
engineer of standing and ability would
be preferred The City Manager will
hold office as long as he gives satisfac-
tion to the commission He will have
complete administrative control Of the
city, subject to the approval OF the
az nl ice 81
There will be no politics in the Job,
but the work will be purely that of
an expert. Local citizenship is not
necessary
Sumter is a growing manufacture
ing city Of 10000 population, and its
Chamber Of Commerce has taken an