Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-09-04
COUNCIL To HAVE
CHARGE Of WORK
ON STREETS
Construction Department Reor-
gained With Responsibility
Assumed by Lawmakers.

Following the adoption of a plan of
reorga nization of the city construction
depa rtment at the meeting OF the city
council yesterday afternoon, leaders of
council declared today that better re-
suits in street and sever work would
be secured in the future.
BY the adoption of the plan the
council has taken upon itself the re-
sponsibility for Improvement work.
Members Of the council have answered
the criticisms of their constituents
about the lack of street work by de-
.claring that they had done all they
could DO. They said they had had ap-
.propriations provided but simply
could rot get the construction depart
ment to do the work,
Under the present plan. the chief Of
construction is elected by the people
and is independent of the council in so
far Is he chooses. except that the coun-
ell controls the appropriations.
Under the new plan, the council had
made the chief of construction amen
able to the council in all matters, even
taking the authority to approve the
Of his assistants and to
discharge them. But the chief of con
struction is still to be elected by the
people.
The new plan goes into eject on
January /.
Ten-Year Clause Stays.
A majority of the council voted
against eliminating the qualification
for chief of construction requiring ten
Years experience as an engineer. The
reorea nizati committee reported in
favor of striking out this requirement
of eligibility in order that business
man as we'll as an engineer might run
for the Office.
Obviously, this action narroWs the
possibilities of opposition to the pres
emf incumbent And as soon as the
council had acted Captain r. M. Clay
ton said that he would run for re-elec-
ton.
The special committee was continued
that it might make report on the
more detailed matters of the depart
ment. The council adopted its report
that there should be an assistant CHIEF
Of construction in charge Of the detail
ed affairs of the office and an en-
gineer in charge Of streets and an en-
gineer in charge of sewers
One of the criticisms of the council
men has been that only the chief of
construction has authority over the as
sistants and only he has knowledge OF
the work of the different departments.
When the chief of construction was out
of the office. they declared. neither they
nor any private citizen could find out
about construction matters.
Experts to Probe Office.
Perhaps the most important step in
the movement for reorganization of the
department will be taken within the
next few weeks when the experts, en-
ployed by the municipal research COM
mission of the Chamber of Commerce,
begins q sweeping investigation of the
chief of construction department and
all other city departments. These eX-
perts will go into details of bookkeep-
ing and the systems of Office organiza
ton, phases the council and its COM
mittee have not touched upon.
When the report of the councils
committee was brought up yesterday
afternoon Councilman Harvey Hatcher.
chairman of the street committee, and
Councilman j. D. Sisson, of the Fifth
ward, offered minority report to re-
tain the ten years as an experienced
engineer" clause
Led by Councilman Hatcher, Wig
orous fight was begun in which the
cirys street improvement system was
clearly sidetracked for a time and a
discussion of personalities was begun.
He sought to make it appear that
personal fight was being made on Cap
tain Clayton.
Alderman McClelland openly declared
that the elimination OF the oualifca-