The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-07-25
Public Service Committee Of
Commercial Club Mails Re-
port to Every Official of
the City.
FUSED THE DATA IN
THE MAURY REPORT
Desires to Convince the o.
ficials that the City Should
Participate in the Gross
Earnings.

In considering the application of the
Richmond City Water Works COM
pany for a new franchise, the commit
tee on Public Service companies of
the Commercial Club have complied
data based on the Maury report, per-
tanning to the valuation and earnings
Of the Water plant, and some figures
indicating the probable earnings of
the company fer the next nine years.
This statement has been mailed to ev-
cry city official, in the hopes that the
city will be able to secure bids which
Will give the tax payers Of the city
the lowest possible rate for water.
The Commercial club has used as
basis the nine years from 1904 to
1913 using the data of the Maury re,
port. Complete information is given
as to the operating expenses of the
plant and it's net income. 1t also es.
Inmates what the city's receipts would
have been had the city participated
in the gross earnings for the six years
covered by the Maury report on all
above 100000 at the rate of TWEEN
ty-five per cent.
The purpose of the data collected is
to convince the city officials that the
city should participate in the gross
earnings of the company after these
earnings have reached certain
amount
According to the letter accompany
ing the report it is not intended tc
encourage the lowest possible biddina
at this time.
The fofiowing recommendations
were made:
Richmond, Indiana, July 3, 1912.
To the Board of Directors of The
Richmond Commercial Club:
We, your Committee on Public Ser
vice Corporations having given careful
consideration to the proposal offered
by the Legal Department of our city
government upon which to receive
bids for Water Franchise to supply
the City of Richmond with water fol
period of years desire to make the
following recommendations:
l. We wish to commend the City
for the manner in which it has sim
plified the competitive issue of all bids
having set forth the conditions in
such manner that bids are to be re
ceived upon water hydrant rentals
and fiat rates and meter measurement
to private consumers.
2. We desire to recommend that in
the event bids received are unsatisfac
! tory that the valuation of the present
plant shall be determined; also what
the cost of installing a similar plant
would be, so that these values might
be used in determining what rates
a fair and just per cent of profit on
the investment.
| 3. We wish to recommend very
heartily that provision be made
whereby the city may participate in
the gross earnings of the company
! after the gross earnings have reached
stipulated amount, and these earn
ings based upon a sliding scale, sc
that as the gross earnings of the com
pany increase the per cent to the
city shall be correspondingly greater
! We commend the participation of the
gross earnings in preference to that
based on net earnings, because 1t is
not difficult to determine the amount
of gross earnings, whereas it is Otter
very difficult problem to determine
! the net earnings. We would not rec
! ommend participation in the gross
earnings of the company at first fol
the reason, that it might prompt the
bidders to increase their bids for the
purpose of being able to take care ol
| the city's share of the profit, but the
| company should be encouraged BY
every condition possible to offer the
lowest possible rate to consumers O.
water at this time, and then in years
| afterward as their earnings increase
with the growth of the city and the
enlarging of business concerns thei1
profits would correspondingly be larg
er, and it would be only fair and eQuit
able that the city participate in the
earnings.
We would recommend the above sug
gestions for your careful considera
| tion.
Respectfully submitted,
Henry Gennett, Chairman.
VIM. D. Foulke, Vice Chairman
H. c. Hasemeier.
W. X. Bradbury.
E. NJ. Haas
E. H Harris.
Committee.