Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1915-10-14
What Commission Plan Stands For.

What Commission Plan Stands For.
At the outset of the campaign in
Aberdeen to adopt the Commission
form of government, many otherwise
well informed people are found in ig
norance of just what the change
means and unaware of the cardinal
points of the Allen law. 1t is the
purpose of this article to shed such
light on the subject as a four.year
! study of this act has given me.
Commission government is the ap.
plication of modern business methods
to the conduct of municipal affairs.
1t concentrates responsibility in the
, city government and exacts account.
ability from those elected to admin.
lister the public business, thereby
, making efficiency the principal re-
quirement in civic rule,
1t abolshes the old ward represen.
tation plan which provides for may
or and two councilmen from each
ward and substitutes therefor may
or and two commissioners elected by
all the people. Under the old rule the
mayor and councilmen are elected as
representatives of a political party or
as "Citizens" or Independent" can
didates or as representing some par
ticular faction among the citizens.
Commission government establishes
a standard in municipal affairs. 1t
requires the commissioners to do GER
tain things or forfeit their Office. Ward
government requires nothing in par
ticular, establishes no order of pro-
cedure, and exacts no accountability
for failure to do what the people de-
mand.
Commission government requires
that one commissioner shall be re-
sponsible for enforcing the laws and
maintaining efficient fire and police
departments; of another commission
err that he keep the streets clean and
in goo drepair, care for all public i'm
provements and manage the water
system: of the other that he devote
his time to the care of the depart
ments of finance and accounting. If
there is failure in any department
the commissioner responsible for that
department cannot say that it was oc-
casioned because the other commits
sioners were negligent in their de-
partments, or that he was forced to
employ incompetent assistants. Meth
err can he offer any of the excuses
so common under the present re-
gime. That department is under his
exclusive management; the authority
to employ competent help or dis
charge incompetent help is his. If
there is failure the failure is his,
and every citizen of the city will know
just where to place the blame.
Ward government provides the
mayor and council shall perform
the general services mentioned in the
statutes. Nowhere is there provision
for individual obligation. The en-
forcement of law rests with "the
mayor and council" the streets are
in charge of "the mayor and coun-
Gill;" teh levy of taxes and supervi.
sion of revenues is intrusted to the
mayor and council" The best and
most capable man on the council can
render no greater service to the city
than the most incompetent, because
there is no provision made for the
capable man to do more than the
most Incompetent will permit him to
do And when there is failure, no
citizen of the city is able to place
the blame anywhere except upon "the
mayor and council"
The commission plan provides a
government at work every day in the
year. If an emergency arises the
plant on the part of citizen any.
where it can be answered and cor
rected the same day; il there is a
street to repair, sidewalk to mend
or water pipe to be fixed, tele-
phone call to the city hall is all that
is necessary to bring workmen at
once to remedy the complaint
Under the present ward plan the
council meets once week-at night.
TIL city government is actually work
ing one or two hours a week. If a
citizen has complaint he must visit
the council at night his complaint Is
referred to committee the commit