The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-01-03
MAYOR POINTS
OUT DEFECTS IN
CHARTER PLANS
Hands Himself Bouquet AS
Student of Municipal
Government.

Mayor Wilson, in a special COM
munication to the Common Council
| last night, told why he's n1adly in love
with the CITY manager form Of gov
eminent rather than the commission
plan. Here's the way the mayor put
| tt:
Pursuant to a resolution by. your
honorable body of December IS, 1916.
| the following charter committee has
been appointed, namely, John S. Pull
man, Hamilton S. Shelton, Guy P.
Miller, Lucien T. Warner, Clarence D.
s. Miller, William T. Hincks, A. C.
! Zones, D. D. S., for the purpose Of
| drafting a charter along the lines of
| the city manager plan for Bridgeport.
This is the form of city managem ent
| most favored by the students of NUM-
| cipal affairs and the one which the
| first charter committee, after much
| consideration, thought preferable for
| our city. I deemed it advisable to ap-
point the same committee, with the
addition of two new members who
had been most active in seeking the
adoption of the ffve-comnfisSiOner
form charter, for the reason that they
would be more conversant with the
subject than an entire new committee
could be.
s"The charter which was considered
at the special election on Novemhe
Is, 1915, contained many objections
which I sincerely hope will be elm
mated in drafting a new charter. One
of these objections was that too much
latitude was allowed in the matter OF
salaries to be paid to various appoint
ees. I believe that if salaries are to
be fixed by charter there should be
maximum and minimum within
which limits salaries of appoint ees
shall be determined by the governing
body.
Points Out Failures
1.-The charter also failed to provide,
after 1924, for a board Of education
of six members as specified in the
charter.
Another objection was permitting
the commissioners to exercise the veto
power upon an ordinance which had
been acted favora bly, upon by the cleo
tors This provision made it possible
for the will Of the electors to be TN
done by three persons.
There are other ohjeetfona bic fea-
lures which might be mentioned but
the few above mentioned MAY suffice
to eliminate from the new charter
some Of the more conspicuous ones.
''At the time the building code for
our city was being prepared, public
hearings were held by said committee,
and those desiring to appear and be
heard were given an opportunity to do
SO relative to the provisions which
were to be embodied in said code.
ut seems to me that it would be
desirable for the charter committee to
hold public hearings. which the old
committee did not dc, and give the
citizens an opportunity to present their
views and ideas relative to the previs-
| ions which it is intended shall govern
| the affairs Of cur city.
4 sin scere1y hope that this eemr1ft-
| tee will begin it's work as soon as pos
| sfble, and present. for consideration,
to the electors Of our city. a proper
| charter, carefully drawn, which I hope
will be adopted by the electors"
Immediate action by his recently
| appointed zone committee was ask ed
/ by Mayer Wilson in another message.
| He asks the committee to get busy at
once SO legislation that possibly may
/ be needed may be enacted.
| On recommendation of the ordin-
! ance committee, the ordinance pro-
| viding fer sprinkling assessm ent was
ordered repealed. The sprinkling will
be paid fer out of the general taxation
Assistant Auditor Henry Waters, who
compiled the sprinkling tax beck, had
his salary raised to $4,000 a year, tie
make up for the $466 cut eff by the
abo1ishing of the sprinls1ing tax an6
its records.
The council ordered the closing e1
the, dead end Of Noble avenue, south
of Burroughs street. The pet:tie1
of Nussenbaum & Si1vernan to cree,
g. public garage at 535 State stree4
I was denied.