The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-07-29
CITY MANAGER PLAN
IS UNDER FIRE IN
4. 4 EAST CLEVELAND
New York SUM


East Cleveland, the first city in the
United States to adopt the plan of
having a city manager In LEU Of a
mayor, thereby banning politics from
the administration of the city, has
just completed it's first year. There is
a division of opinion as to whether
the plan Is a success or not.
Many claim that under city man
ager the citizens of the town have
taken this attitude: 1T is the man.
ayers business to run the city, why
should we worry about the details OF
policies? Mind your own business
and let the city manager mind the
city's." This public apathy has be-
come so real that many Of the citizens
are already advancing the proposition
that it would be we'll to have few
candidates for public office just to
keep the people in mind that there is
really such a thing as city govern
ment. These men declare that there
Is nothing like the old system to keep
the voter awake. c. M. Osborn, the
city manager, in his first annual re-
port, comments on this public apathy,
and expresses the hope that the resu-
ments would awaken the citizens In
lcISoI Ill lu0 UuSLuCbo VI IuCll Wy
Why No improvements
A city manager Is in no wise exempt
from criticism; angry citizens are ask
ing why no public improvements were
made In the first year Of his reign. His
reply is that he has kept the city's ex-
penditures within it's income, and that
1t was war year and that all unnec-
essary public works had to be post.
poned.
Furthermore, he says that the city
has no excess public funds, and that
1t was good business not to launch any
ambitious program of public improve
ment without having the money to pay
for it. The city manager, he asserts,
was put in to give the city business
administration, not to run the city into
debt and then ask the citizens to dig
down In their pockets to foot the bill.
East Cleveland has a population Of
$4,000, an area of three square miles;
1t has no slums, therefore no big So
cial problems. The city managers
task is largely one of administration.
purely a question Of getting the full
value for every cent of the $165,000
that 1t takes to run this venturesome
little city that went SO far as to try
to collect taxes from John D. Rookie
Teller, who has home there. They
failed.
Business Men For II
The business men who have deal
ings with the city manager administra-
ton are all for 1t. They agree that
they are treated in a more business
like way, and that the manager sys-
tenn eliminates the political personal
ity angle for contracts. Bids are
studied, accepted, or rejected. simply
on their merits; much quicker action
is the result.
In regard to applying this system
to large cities, students of East Cleve-
land are reluctant to express their
opinion. They realize that a healthy
and lively interest in municipal af-
fairs is essential to the maintenancev
of good government, and the apparent
lapse of all interest whatsoever that
has come over most of the citizens
of East Cleveland has caused many of
the students to refrain from drawing
hasty conclusions.
They assert that the attitude of
municipal Indifference is only temp
oral condition, brought about by the
decision to give the city manager free,
full, and unhampered control of the
city affairs, to show just exactly what
he can do in his first term of office.
They also ascribe a large part Of the
indifference to the natural reaction
from the strong partisanship that was
developed here by numerous bitter
factiOnal fights