The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1913-02-23
COMMON SENSE CHARTER AMENDMENTS.

The writer is of the opinion that II
this plan is put in force that we can
have truly business administration
OF our city affairs, and that we will
lave a board of commissioners who
will have the interest of the town and
o, the community at heart and a ma
joritv of whom would be sure to be
first class men. While it might be
possible to elect some incompetent
or undesirable man from some of the
wards, still, under this arrangement
1t is safe to say that a majority or
the board will be first class men. by
permitting them to elect the mayor
ard putting the responsibility directly
to them they would be almost certain
to elect some really competent man
who would take hod of the situation
and make it a go from the begin
ming, The salary suggested should
procure a first class man and no
cheap politician.
One beauty of this plan is the fact
that the mayor so selected with all
of the responsibility on him would
have to meet the issues squarely as
they came up. If the responsibility
is divided among the various depart
ments as it is at present when you go
to the mayor with any kind Of
complaint or suggestion he has only
to refer you to the commissioner in
charge of that department; that com
missioner refers you to some other
commissioner and so on until you
are disgusted and unable to fix the
responsibility at any place. A COM
potent mayor would be on to the
job all of the time and knowing there
was no way to dodge he would either
meet the issue, or resign the office.
The pay of $500 per month to the
cmmissioners would not tempt any
cne to get on the board unless he
lad the good of the town and the com
munity at heart. Any one with sin
lister motives would know that he
would be in a hopeless minority and
the result would be that our city gov
ernment would be about the same as
cur school government is now and
tbs writer has yet to hear the first
person to make any charges, or even
insinuations as to the integrity or
capability of any man who is serv-
ing, or who has served on the school
board. The, price named as pay for
the commissioners is so small that no
mere politician would be interested
in the office, especially since the
chances of grating are eliminated.
The plan suggested herein would
rot make the duties of the commits
sioners arduous and there is no good
re sson for more than one meeting
a month at which time it would be
the duty of the mayor to present a
statement in writing Of the affairs of
the city which could be considered
by the commissioners and be approx
ed or disapproved by the commission
ers as the occasion might demand.
The said written statement made by
tile mayor to be filed with the city
clerk and to be open to the inspection
OF any citizen at any time.
With the city government as sug-
gested herein the writer believes the
expenses could be materially reduced
and that majority of our citizens
would feel that our city government
was being properly administered and
the feeling of distrust which is en-
tertained by at least respectful ma
jt rity of our people would be elm
mated.
The writer is firmly of the opinion
that the only officers that should be
cicS'cu ny tHc pcopic are 'hc SlSuI
commissioners and that all other Of
f'oers and particularly the chief OF
police should be appointed and his
reason for this so obvious that 1t
seems that discussion is unnecessary.
Aside from the question of taxation
the next most important issue before
rs is the enforcement of the law and
if we are to have the right kind OF
government our mayor and the board
o: commissioners should not be put
in the position where they could say
that the law was not enforced be-
cause the chief of police was elect
cd by the people and they could not
control his actions in view of the fact
that the majority said that he was
IL man for the place. In other