Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1913-11-14
THE TAYLOR FAMILY IN SNOW BANK

New Jersey appointed a commission to
recommend changes in the "Walsh
Act,p the law under which commits
stoned governed municipalities are now
working. The commission Is composed
of the solicitors of the various places.
The first meeting of these commission
ers was held at Trenton on October 20,
1918. The next meeting is to be held
today and Judge H. H. Voorhees,, as
solicitor for Sea Isle City and Jonathan
Hand as solicitor for Wildwood, went
to Trenton this morning to attend the
meeting. Judge Voorhees, has suggest
ed the following changes to Hon. Chas.
E. Bird, solicitor of the City of Tren-
ton, and chairman of the commission,
which he forwarded to him by letter
some days ago.. Judge Voorhees, will
be glad to receive any criticism of these
suggestions, or further suggestions that
will enable the commission to recon-
mend amendments to the present law,
which will be a benefit to the people.
The recommendations follow:
RECALL OF COMMISSIONERS
In order to start the machinery of the
law In motion for a recall, | suggest
that at least t~hirty-five per cent of the
legal voters, should petition for the
same, and which petition should set
out paragraph by paragraph, and In
detail, the reasons for the recall. The
signatures of the voters for the recall
should be obtained, within q given
time-say thirty days, and great pre-
caution should be taken to see that the
Signatures are gensIiBe. TkesGaasesa85F
a recall should be set forthsin the Act.
The suficiency of the petition should
be passed upon, before filing, by a JUS
tice of the Supreme Court. The petit
ton should contain the full name and
street address of the voter asking for
the recall, and the petition, and pos
sibly every page of the petition, should
be verified by affidavit. Before the
petitions are presented to the Justice,
for his approval, as to whether or not
the terms of the Act have been COM
piled with, a sum of money sufficient
to defray the expenses of the election,
should be deposited with the County
Clerk, and not to be returned, unless
the recall Is successful in whole or in.
part. Persons to be recalled, should
have at least ten days notice of the in
tended application TO the Supreme
Court Justice.
FISCAL YEAR
The Commissioners term OF office
should begin with the commencement
of the fiscal year, or vice versa.
DISCHARGE OF OFFICERS
The Commissioners should be clothed
with complete autonomy government,
and to that end, should have the right
to dismiss the City Clerk, City Solicit
tor or other specially appointed officer
or officers at any time. This, of course,
not to include the police officers or fire.
men.
LICENSE
The Commissioners of the cities In
counties of the fourth class, should have
control over the granting of liquor IL
cense, the same as city councils had,
prior to the passage of the 1905 Act.
COLLECTION OF TAXES
1t may be, that the legislature did
not intend that this commission should
make any suggestions as to changes in
the collection of taxes, but 1t does seem
to me, that where the people elect
commissioners to run their municipali-
ty, and hold the commissioners respon-
sible for the success of the administra-
ton, that they should be given q prop
er and efficient method for the collec-
ton of taxes. When the commissioners
go in Office, and ascertain what, in
their Judgment, is the required amount
of money to successfully run the
municipality for the ensuing year, and
which money must be raised by taxa
top, there should be some method,
whereby this money can be collected.
AS soon as q person OWNS real estate,
an obligation exists on his part to pay
bis proportional share for the running
of the municipal government, and
when that amount has been correctly
ascertained, he should be compelled to
pay that sum, just the same as any
other obligor must pay to his obligee;
in other words, when 1t becomes neces-
sary for q tax sale to take place, the
sale, under judicial supervision, should
be made in fee simple. As the
law now is, no one desires to purchase
property at a tax lsGle, as the Title