The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-02-26

Qn0er commission form Of govern
 ment. Jersey City has been changed
 from boss ridden. corrupt and mis-
 governed community to a. yeritable
 Utopia according to Judge Robert Carey, who spoke yesterday afternoon
 before Mayor Wilson and the com mites appointed to investigate the
 advisa.bility of commission form of
 governnent for this city
 The Judge spoke at length on the
 subject giving 3. clear and comprehen-
 sivez account of how the change was
 brought about and how it has worked out The judge said in part
 The liquor element opposed the
 change on the ground that it would interfere with their business One of the party machines in town called it's
 tsolleagueS together and determined
 that it would be the means Of break
 ing up it's machine. We held an cleo ton three weeks after, and they beat
 us by HOO votes out of 11,0O0 to 12,-
 GOO votes.
 Under our state lay you cannot
 submit proposition for two years after it's defeat But last election we won by over two tos one.
 The preliminary organization is an essential thing. We had labor unions
 represented in oIr committee, church
 es. rabbies, Catholic clergymen, Pro- festant clergymen. doctors, lawyers, 1S@71 6sSld1ef men ana affyeKlud or poll
 tic1ans. The Socialist vote I think you
 will find will be against it.
 The city manager plan is conpara-
 tiy ely new. It has been adopted by
 two or three cities in South Carolina,
 and one in West Virginia Dayton was
 tne first large city to adopt it. New York has an act in the Legislature now
 to permit the adoption of commission
 government in a modified way We
 figure that the election should be held
 at a time different from the general
 election so that the same issues are not involved
 The New York plan provides for
 n14sE oners New Jerseys plan pro v1des for five commissioners. New
 YOrk's plan is that the mayor shall
 be the head of the police and fire de-
 partments, while under the Jersey
 plan the five commissions determine
 this Under the New York plan they take the police and fire departments right into politics again.
 The federal plan is a. council man
 aging plan- It is somewhat Nike the
 Boston form. Pittsburgh is like it
 with a bigger council. Under the fed era1 plan the mayor appoints all heads Of departm ents. The mayor and heads
 of all departments constitute a board of control. The federal plan is not
 popular among many men studying uaunicfpa1 governm e1t. @ It has very
 few advocates as it is too much like
 the old form of governm ent in gem e1a1 use now. Under the citg manager plan. in Dayton they elect five councilmen at large. These five men ar'e the admin istrative board of the city and consti- ute a. Judicial board. They appoint a business manager, and he is what they call the chief executive officer of the city The council are a sort of board of directors The business man ager reports what he does to them and they approve or disapprove what he does
 .sUnder the comm ission plan for any town under 10000 we have three com missioners, and for over 10000 we have five. They are the administra- tive board, the legislative board and judicial They are elected at large all at one time and have a fom4year term l of office. As soon as they are elected they take office. The commission form does not effect the educational system. From the five men selected they pick one to be mayor. He has no more power than the others, no veto power and is but one of the commissioners No one man is in a position where he can develop an or ganization of his own simply because | he is a presiding officer. The mayor is put at the head of the departn ent ! of public affairs. He has sort of ! only one vote.
 The government is divided into five departm affairs, finance, parks, public safety, and streets, etc. l Public safety is the police and fire de- l partments. All appointments are made l by five men. These five men meet | every day and are supposed to give l practically all their time to: the city l where requisite. In some towns they are paid $5,00O a year each, and they I save a. barrel of money.
 The man in charge of the finance department is a lawyer He has given up his business, and we feel he ought ] to give up his business for $5, 600. We l have got one man who is worth ESQ., l 900 a. year in his own business to take l the department of streets, and he has ] done wonders in nine months Each | commiEsi oner is responsible for the I operation of his own department Our board meets practically every l day in our city hall until o'clock in the afternoon. Our law requires all meetings to be held in public. Viola ton of that is provided for by statute and makes the body subject to removal l from office. They are obliged to dis I cuss, vote and do everything in the open. Appointments are made by the | comm issdo oners and we have the civil l service feature.
 l ssWe are promoting in the various l offices from the merit list. In the 1 police department the man at the top 1 of the merit list gets the job; and so l on in every department. The mayor we made overseer of the poor also.
 Under the old form a, cheap politician | who had run for office for years used 1 to get that place, so we simply eradi-
 cated him and made the mayor over | seer Of the poor. We have done away with one of the worst political towns l in the country from a party stand point. Our city han was just poli- tica1 hang-out, the headquarters of the parties in control. After we adopt ed the commission form the parties 1 disappeared absolutely.