The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1916-02-14
CITY GOVERNMENT.

CITY GOVERNMENT.
! Before the Rotary club in Burlington
few evenings ago Mr.. Ben p. Poor
city solicitor, gave some interesting
and sensible views of the government
OF cities. The Rotary club is an or
ganization Of one man from each bust
ness or profession in the city that
meets every Wednesday noon and
the members are expected to give,
sometimes without notice, short talks
upon the business in which they are
connected for the enlightenment or
pleasure of their fellow Rotarians.
Mr.. Poor filled in for the party who
was unable to be present and gave a
very instructive talk. He has been
connected with the city department
in Burlington for six years and there.
fore we'll qualified to discuss the i'm
portant question of city government.
In his talk he tried to bring out that
the substance rather than the form of
government is of primary Importance
and to emphasize the fact that no form
or city government could properly
perform its functions until the state
Lad reversed its niggardly policy of
dealing out piece-meal our powers
and had given to the cities broad gen
eral powers of local self-government.
Some Of Mr.. Poor's conclusions are as
follows, given by request OF the editor,
in letter to The Gate City:
Today the government of all our
cities; those under the commission
plan, managers plan, as we'll as those
under the general law, is greatly ham.
pered by the infexible and uniform
grant OF powers given by the state.
We have only those powers which the
state has expressly granted and my
theory is that city government would
greatly improve if We had all powers
of purely local self government. ex-
cepting such as the state should ex-
pressly deny us.
In other words, cities should be
given full power to manage the af-
fairs that effect the particular city
alone. Or course the state must al
ways be supreme and we should not
be permitted to lower any standards
set by the state in the matter of POI
lice regulations and public health,
but we should be permitted to raise
these standards land we do not now
have that power) when our own Pc
culiar conditions require such stand
ards be raised.
This is no new idea. 1t Is known
as home rule for cities. Many of the
best cities of the middle west and
western states have it. I might add
that there is no thought in this home
rule scheme that would remove the
general debt limit or general tax
limit. We Will all concede, suppose.
that upon such important questions
there should be balance wheel that
could not readily be tempered with;
that would keep cities from exceeding
a reasonable debt limit or imposing ex-
cessive taxes. We should, however,
be permitted full powers to dis
charge the functions of purely local
government and until we get that
city government and city Of
ficials have a good excuse for inef-
ficiency, but an excuse however, which
the public do not seem to appreciate.
There is practically no difference in
ferent forms OF government now pre-
scribed by our code. 1t is good deal
like the city having an antiquated fire
truck with insufficient horse power to
go up some Of the hills in the city
and insufficient capacity to carry
enough hose to properly protect the
city. The efficiency of such equip
ment might be increased by a sys-
tematic chief who would assign his
best man as driver and keep him at
that position and assign other men as
hose men. The efficiency might still
further be increased by hiring an ex-
pert mechanic. who could get little
more action out of the truck The
truck, no matter what form OF man.
agement is given it. will never be sat
isfactory until it is able to go any
place in town and carry enough hose
to reach any house within the fire
limits. Then only will it completely
perform the functions for which it
was purchased.
The city managers has got to have
the proper tools, the commission has
got to have the proper tools, the old
city council has got to have the
proper tools in order to perform sat
isfactory work and until our various
are furnished complete
tool set We cannot expect great prog
ress
/ have no reflection to cast upon the
form. / believe it has
justified it's existence here and do not
doubt that you find it far ahead of the
ward system and the general law
system in Keokuk. I think it gets
more out of the old machine than the
old style Of council did, but it needs
a new machine to work with. [ am
not prepared to say that the managers
form would be much of an improve
ment, especially in a city governed as
you are by three commissioners.