The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1922-08-25
AVON PARK WILL
SOON APPOINT A
CITY MANAGER
Manager T. J. AppIeyard Of Lake.
land Chamber Commerce Ad-
dressed Public Meeting


to citizens decided in favor Of secur-
ng the services of city manager but
retaining The present council, elected
large, the Highlands County Pilot
says:
Going back to the beginning of
h:ngs, lie town Of Aycn Park will
ave Il council ma,fa gel government.
pom he implied pledge of the coun-
IL that it would hire city manager
nd consolidate a multitude of small
uDs into Ute. one job, the mass meet
. here Last nigh, decided to forego
.:e ilaming If Il brand new charter,
md vote on the amendments to BE-
admitted by the council as soon rs
framed. T. ]. Appleyard, Jr., Lake
land, was the principal speaker and
u i.ned the principals. which practi-
lilly st Avon Park. The AvCn Park
.0uIll is already elected a. large,
mere being no ward lines, 80 it Is
practically a commission, and with
he charter amendments authorizing
lie consolidation of numerous small
Jobs under one head to be known as a
..ity manager, the city will have prac-
tically 0mmission-manage form. II
The referendum, recall and initiative
IRE included, it will be the same
thing.
1.-The meeting was called to order by
Herbert f. r. Reck, president of the
Boosters Club, which inaugIrated' the
tn cfn hn fitW
clear of such tangles as its affairs
have been getting in-among them
the removal Gf the delinquent tax
books from the city by former city
attorney, leaving no records here of
delinquent taxes uncollected and just
now the illegality of the City's bond
| issue, because another attorney was
taken for granted" and he took for
granted that he had provided for in
creasng the bonded Indebtedness
limit, when he hadn't.
MI Appleyard introduced as 'one
who knows opened the statement
| that all progressive communities are
coming over to the new form. 1.-TWO
| hundred and seventy-twO cOmmuni-
les recognize the necessity for bust
ness in government" he said. He
| held the city up as a regular bust
ness corporation interest and the citi
zen Just the same as q stakeholder
lie stated no one could get full effici-
ency and 100 cents on the dollar un-
less they put full time man on the
job.
''He recommended very seriously
looking outside for a manager if you
have to- The main thing he stressed
was to get a good man. He suggest
ed that in permitting the commission
to fire the manager, the charter should
tx a probationary period of six months
i, during which the manager might be
fired without redress. After that time
he said there should be a provision
that the manager when fired might ap-
peal for public hearing.
al don't believe, we don't believe
Lakeland and | know you don't be.
lieve that Avon Park is always go
ing to be small city. You can draw
mmissiOn-manager charter today
that will provide for city up to 25,-
coo to $4,000 people
Discussing the investigation con-
duc;ed by Lakeland prior to chang
ing. he said that they sent three or
four inquiries to 272 commission
manager cities They were sent to
presidents of the Rotary, Kiwanis
and women's clubs, the chamber of
commerce and the editors. They got
! replies from 176 cities. Seventy-nine
| papers, forty-four Rotary Clubs thir-
ty-seven women's clubs and sixty-sev-
ell chambers of commerce replied
heartily in favor of the present form
and that they wouldn't go back to
the old system if they had a chance.
Five papers, two Rotary clubs, and
two women's clubs reported they were
opposed to the commission-manager
form. Ten replies were doubtful and
conflicts of opinion were reported by
twenty-five correspondents.
He read some of the replies, all
from cities under 5000 people, and
.hey were heartily enthusiastic, re-
porting tremendous savings.
answering questions. he stated
1t the salary was fixed by the city.
and that the high salary stories
are fallacies. Scores of cities the
size of Lakeland have managers that
cost only $4,000 to $4,000 per year.
You should be able to get trained
man for $4,000
HE told of one of the first acts of
the Tallahassee manageable discov-
cry that the city had $1,000 in the
treasury of which no one knew.
And yet they had some of the best
business man in the city on their
| council said Mr.. Appleyard, un
knowingly striking home a very perth
pent fact to the Avon Park folks who
don't know right now just how they
are fixed in municipual finances as
they have no bookkeeper and part of
their Delinquent tax records are not
here.
President Charles Il. Lanier of the
ely council discussed the budget, and
| rand txuo folaora,,,o froro Mauor Nor