Arizona republican., 1917-04-12
PAVING ALT TO BE GIVEN TEST
 IF THE COURTS

The city commission in regular ses- sion yesterday morning spent d busy hour endeavOring tO arrive at q solu- uon of the problem presented through the tangle resulting from the adoption of Senate Bill No. 50, which may or may not annul the provisions of the paving act of 1915. amending the or isnal paving bill of 1912 As q result two actions were taken. one being the adoption of a resolution of intention to pave North Fourth street with bitu- llthic, the other being q decision to make a test of the law to determine whether the city still had the right 10 advertise for alternate bids. Under e
 motion adopted a resolution of inten- ton to pave East Adams street be-
 tween Fourth and Ninth streets will
 be drafted and probably adopted. call
 Ing for alternative bids. Then the mat
 ter will be taken i-.to the courts for
 final adjudication.
 AS soon as the meeting convened
 yesterday morning the matter of Sen
 ate Bill No, 30 was brought up. At
 torney John L. Gust brought to the commissions attention that City At
 torney Richard r.. Sloan had ex-
 pressed himself at the previous meet
 ing as doubtful whether the cat might
 be held invalid because of the fact that
 the portion of the bin referring to al
 ternate bids was not expressed in the utIe, and whether the constitution re-
 quires that this should be expressed
 IS question of very great doubt In
 thls connection he stated that he had
 tired to get g copy Of the opinion of
 Neese and Parker of Los Angeles. but
 had failed to find any such firm listed
 Tn Los Angeles. He said that il seem
 ed to him, that under Judge Sloan's
 oplnlon as 1t was rendered. the onlv s''te Way would he to start with the resolution of intention and specify one
 kind of material
 Former City Attorney George $. thrlstN, author of the law of 1915. pro
 Ndlng for alternate bidding being asked hy Assistant City Attorney Nel- son for an opinion. stated that if seemed to him a matter of grave nnh. llc moment That if the law of 1915 has been repealed by Bill No 50. then there IS but one thing the commission can do. and that is to call in their resolution of intention, for one class of paFlnS and let bids according to that. but he thought the law should be tested. He suggested that they select S0mc particular street where the prom erty owners had not signified their Cnolce of paving, calling for alternate llds III the resolution of intention. and let some taxpayer bring suit for in Junction upon the grounds that they cannot can for alternate bids becanee the former law has been repeaIed and all the questions involved could be plead In the answered. the city. in- cludlng the title of the bill, that ii 1 was not read section by section upon us lihai passage, etc. and he thought i there could be a decision in about G0 days 0V
 Attorney Nelson stated he thought the commission should look at tbe { mater from q practical as well as a [ legal standpoint, as the people on ! rourth street were anxious to get the paving under way. and the commission vas auAious that they be given what they desire. He said the city attor- ncys office was looking upon the nro- i CeedinBs under the assumption that bhi 90 was valid, but there was cor ] !t .ainly one safe way to proceed. while ! It ilEolNed some delay, yet it might. in tne long run, save time. and that is to start proceedings anew and pass a 'eSoiutlon Of intention calling for one material. He said that in any event, that portion of Bill 50 which anoItens tune of publication. would ne declared valid and asked MT. Gust IT thls were not his opinion.
 MT. Gust stated that 1t was his opin- 'oh that as much of the bin as is in the title would be valid.
 MT MaeBean moved, seconded by Jones' that the city engineer be in- structed 10 prepare a resolution of in teutlon for improving Fourth street. calilhg Tor bitulithic paving. to be pre- sehled at the next meeting. This mo- ton carried
 Mr Gust then suggested to the city attorney that in taking un the ques- lion of the validity of Bill 5O that no reference be made to that portion 'eIatiFe to shortened publication
 The resolution for the improvement Dt certain portions of Portland place Vas again presented for reading, also resolutions for improvement of certain portions of Monroe street. and North lnlrd avenue. These were laid over,
 It was decided to make 2 test case 1t Adams street between Fourth and ,Ninth streets, and the engineering de partment was instructed to draft ;, .esolution of intention calling for all ternate bids.
 E. fo"er Conway suggested that it would only take the engineering de- partment few minutes to rcdraft inc resolt'tlon of intention for Fourth street and it could be passed at this meeting. The engineering department was instructed to redraft it and pre- sent it for adoption.
 The resolution for the improvement of certain portions of Fillmore street ana Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues was presented for reading and laid
 Just before adjournment a redraft of .ne resolution of intention to pave North Fourth street with bituIithic 2. as presented and with plans. speci- -icu0lons and maps was adopted.