The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-07-26
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. STATE OPINION. :
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What City management Can De-
In view of the fact that one Of tho
strong planks In the platform that W..
p. Smith offered In his candidacy for
mayor Of Miami was the promise OF
an initiative within three months after
his Induction into office Of steps lead
Ing to the adoption Of . commission
manager form Of government for Mi
ami. local civic organizations and all
thinking citizens will do well to ret
all the data possible relative to the
working Of such a government in 9TH
er cities.
The American City magazine. New
York. publishes authoritative infor-
nation ON this subject. and 10 in a
position tc cite sources from which
special data can be secured In the
current issue-July-is an article UNI
der the caption, Progress in Wheel
ing Under City Management Govern
ment," that is we'll worth reading.
Wheeling. West Virginia, Is q city of
sixty thousand, 80 comparisons with
Miami may be made with profit.
The article says that friends of
clean and efficient city government in
Wheeling recently issued q pamphlet
from which the following interesting
record of achievement is taken:
Coming into office with . treasury
practically empty and with unpaid
outstanding orders aggregating $685.
S35.25, with utilities owned by the city
in bad shape. much OF the machinery
Anticipated and useless ard the eff
cheney of the remainder sadly impair
ed due to lack of necessary repairs
and overwork, the present city admins
istration faced a task that looked al
most hopeless
Its first important act was the se-
lection of the late George o. Nagle as
Wheeling's first city manager. Mr..
Nagle, in accepting the responsibility,
Instituted program of efficiency
that had most admirable results. Real
izing the serious difficulty of accom-
plishing the many things that were
imperative, hampered by a lack of
necessary funds, he set about with
undaunted energy to have the affairs
of the city conducted in an economical
business-like fashion, and to provide
ways and means OF Increasing the
city's revenues. and to secure for it
the many things 1t SO sadly lacked"
Some of the gains during his admin
istration were as follows:
1. Raised wages OF all city en-
ployes. Saved on salaries, by COM
bining offices. $4,000.
2. Provided city with complete new
motor fire apparatus.
8. Wiped out Red Light District
and stopped gambling. including the
punch boards.
4. Gave city new electric street
lighting system, without extra ex-
pense.
5. Secured new contracts for pur
chase Of gas and electric light at old
rate. although companies demanded
same rate from city as from other
consumers. Saving on gas yearly ap-
proximately $500. Saving $4,000
K Esnt. for - '--.-'~ t1.nunr-
s. Made contract with traction
company to pay one-half Of cost Of
two new bridges.
Z. Settled garbage problem by es-
Establishment OF q piggery. saving $5o.-
00O-cost Of new incinerator, and sew
eral thousands on yearly expense.
s. Recovered $125.000 from the
county which had been withheld
against court decision.
9. Discovered that old board of
control had signed away rights of city
in a telephone merger; started suit,
telephones, use of company's poles,
etc.: net gain to city estimated at
$4,000.
10. Sold for $4,000 old city gas
plant used eight years. cost $4,000.
IL. Saved on lighting bills of mu-
nicipal building $1,046 first year.
IL. Saved thousands Of dollars car
fare for residents of Wheeling and
surrounding towns by proving to pub
lie service commission that traction
companies had overvalued their prop
erties.( Mr.. Nagle was for thirteen
years general manager of the Wheel
ing Traction company.
13. Appointed commission on I'LL
tration and with it studied problems
of a pure water supply. Wheeling
uses raw river water. treated during
this administration with chlorine. and
it was Mr.. Nagle's chief desire to
provide the city with the best and
most permanent system of pure water.
Plans submitted provided for a me-
chanical filtration system at a cost Of
$1.620.000. The bond issue. however,
was defeated at a special election. less
than 40 per cent Of voters voting
IA. Saved city manager plan for
Wheeling by fighting in Legislature a
ripper bilp' to combine office OF the
mayor and city manager. reduce sal
airy and make office of chief of police
elective-Miami Metropolis.
Advertise Your Town
Response to the efforts OF the
chamber of commerce to raise an adj
vertising and general publicity fund
for the city OF Lakeland has been
spontaneous and generous. and the
committees in charge OF the WORK arc
now assured that they will easily go
beyond the goal set for their efforts
-$2.500-as in two or three hours yes
terday afternoon they had increased
subscriptions to a total OF over $4,000.
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