New Britain herald., 1915-01-20
WOULD HAVE BOARD
 OF RELIEF ELECTED
Member Of Charter Revision Con- mittee Brings Up Subject at Meeting.

With only Mayor Quigley, secre tarN Prior, Judge J. E. Cooper, A. M. Paoncssa, T. II. Kehoc, Ernest Teich and E. N Humphrey present the weekly meeting of the charter revision committee was held last night. The first matter was the adoption of the amendment to give 1 the superintendent of the hoard of health the power of the board be- tween meetings. The next business Was concerning the mayors right to ~Iemove officials. According to an
 amendment proposed by Judge Coop CT the mayor would have the right to remove officials at his own discre- ton. Some of the board thought this a better Way than to have the flor cause" clause included as that would imply some wrong doing on the part of the removed official. Judge GaT- ney did not think it right to give a mayor this arbitrary power as it r}would subject the mayor to undue in- fluence in removing officials. It would also prevent some good men from serving on commissions as they would
 fear possible removal for personal or partisan reasons Mayor Quigley agreed with Judge Gaffney. Secretary Prior suggested that a commissioner
 to be removed be called before the board for a hearing. On Judge Coop
 CTS mo otion it was voted to have the amendment read that the mayor kmust state cause in writing but not
 "fully,'' the said cause.
 Ex- Representative T. H. kchoe
 spoke in favor of having the board
 Nf o1~ {oI l,xr ln
 was after a change had been report
 cd imposing the powers of the board
 of relief on the board of compensation
 and assessment. Judge Gaffncy , thought the will of the people would be better represented if there is an elective board between the assessors
 and the tax collector. He thought
 there was good deal of merit in re-
 taining as much of the popular tra-
 dition in the government as is at
 present. On Judge COopcr'S motion it was voted to reject the resolution. Mr.> Teich voted in favor of accept
 ing the resolution because, he said, , he thought it a good thing. The oth-
 CTS explained its radical side by show
 ing that such a measure would take
 the naming of board to consider ap-
 peals from the assessors from the
 people. This would keep it as close
 to the people as possible. At present
 appeals from the appointed assessors are made to the board named by the people. -..... .. .....
 Realizing that the committee on charter revision is an important one AMayor Quigley said he was in favor Dof having a committee elected N for eighteen months or two years to care n
 before the legislature two years
 henee ...tN|
 Resolution on Sidewalks. .>.
 Referring to resolution on side
 walks forcing property owners to lay
 walks, curbs, gutters. pavements and
 fences as public safety may require,
 when ordered to do so Judge Cooper
 suggested that the council have the
 work proceed and then collect the
 pay therefore from the property own
 CT. This would insure a uniform work at trifle less all round cost to
 the land owners. It would also do
 away with trouble over the varying
 grades of abutting walks. This reso-
 lution does away with having to notl-
 fv property owners to lay walks, etc.
 instead the city will go ahead With kthe work and charge it to the owner. President Humphrey of the board of public works, was enthusiastic over
 the idea and said that contra ctors all
 so favor it. Judge Cooper asked if
 1t wouldn't be a good plan to have
 the city repair all walks after the
 city had put them down and received
 the pay. MT. Humphrey thought it
 would. Others suggested that all re-
 pairs be made out of a fund raised by
 general taxation. Judge Gaffney
 thought there should be some limi-
 tation which would prevent the board
 of public works from possibly order-
 ing walks etc, where it might not
 be needed. The resolution as first presented was passed.
 Because of the possibility of the home rule bill not passing the legis-
 lature Mayor Quigley thought an ~amendment should be made coverin.
 the issue of bonds for the water or
 sewer department. This brought about discussion on the sewer beds
 Mir Humphrey thinks it is coming
 necessity to have a tank system at cost of $100,000. Provision must, F therefore, be made to issue bonds to
 cover all future improvements MT. Humphrey thinks $300,O00 will be enough to relieve the sewer bed trou-