The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1921-08-25
form of government. Mr.. Frost saida
Address by Mr.. Frost

Address by Mr.. Frost.
1.-TWO weeks ago you heard something
about our city government and the
functions of the mayor and members
of the common council, and as an
nounced by the chairman of our enter
tainment committee for the month, 4
am supposed to give you at this meet-l
ing an outline of what is known as tho
comn1issi on-manager form of munici.,,
pal government. Ny principal qualif-I
cation for this honor seems to have
been my total ignorance of the subject
but ] find on investigation that there,
is a tremendous amount of materials
available to anyone who cares to make
study of the proposition, and will
say frankly that what follows consists
very largely of quotations.
During the last ten years, lao Amer-i
lean cities and towns have changed
their mupieip rters and adopted
the q ia aaa form CT government.
his plan has aroused vide attention
and the results are already so strikingl
that city managers are being seriously
advocated in such cities as Chicago
Cleveland and Kansas City. Briefly
the plan is as follows:
The Plan in Brief.
"The city-manager plan, Cor councils
manager or commission-manager plan,
provides for a single elective govern-l
ing board of popular Representatives.
usually called a council No othert
elective officers The title of mayor
is sometimes given to the chairman of
the council, but he has no veto or
separate administrative powers. The
council receives only nominal salaries,
if any, and the members give only their
spare time to municipal work, and
thus are left free to continue their
private careers without interruption.
Their functions are to hire and SUI
pervise an appointive chief administra-
tor, the city-manager, who holds Office
at their pleasure; also to pass ordi-
nances and to contribute to the city
government the amateur and repre-
sentative element.
"The city-manager, as chief exeeu-
tive, appoints, directs and can remove
the rest Of the administrative staff,
subject to the usual civil service re-
strictions. He is not usually a locaI{
resident. Supposedly he is an expert
in matters of municipal administration.
In small cities, say less than 10000
population, he is frequently practical
civil engineer, thereby making a sep
arate city engineer unnecessary. In
large cities broad executive experience
is. of course, major requirement. The
city-manager's siary is the largest in
the city's servic A logical exception
to the appointive power of the city
manager is a civil service commission
appointive directly by the council.
No GUSHING of Employees.
"One of the favorite political maneu-
vers to defeat city-manager charters is
to stir up the municipal employees by
the assertion that they will lose their
civil service protection and become
subject to the within of the new man
ager who will discharge them ali, in
GLIDING the uniformed fire and police
forces. In no manager-city has any
thing of this sort ever transpired. On.
the contrary, it happens that the record !
of the manager cities in dealing with
labor and the civil service is particu-
larly good
"All nominations are made by petit
ton and appear on the ballot at the
primary election in alphabetical order
or in an order determined by lot or by
rotation, without party labels. The
highest names in the primary election
go on the ballot at final election two
or three weeks later If a political
party endorses a candidate, the action
is apt to be denounced as contrary to
the spirit and intent Of the charter as
adopted by the people and the partisan
becomes an unweleome
handicap to the candidate. Under both .
the old commission plan and the man
ager plan, the non-partisan election
feature works exceedingly we'll :
Recall IsfFeatured.
NEARLY all the city-manager chareI
ters include the initiative, referendum
and recall, but as yet they have BEEN
little used in any of these cities. In
cities, at least, these devices Dc not /
seem to have proved to be as important !
as their supporters assert nor so dan
gerous as their opponents fear. TiEs
city-manager. government is SO prompt
" responsive to public opinion that
the gun behind the door stays there.
"In 1908 the mayor and ecunel Of
Stanton, Va, in disgust over tbs IN
fContinued on PnxB-Sa