Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1922-10-04
COUNCIL TO CALL
ELECTION FOR A
CHARTER BOARD
Formal. Resolution to Be
Passed in Session To-
night
ONLY TWO OPPOSED It
Heights Aldermen Say
They Instructed Vote
Against 1t

In a formal resolution whcih will
be passed at tonight's special session
of council an election for charter
board to revise Palatka's charter will
be called. The election cannot be
held on November 7, as the statutes
require that forty days notice of
election shall be given. tt is prob
able that the election will be held on
November 21.
Discussion of the proposal to elect
charter board occupied a greater
part of last nights council meeting.
The matter was brought up when
Alderman Jarrett, under the head of
new business, stated that the city at
torneys had found technical objec-
tiOns to the resolution which was laid
over from the last meeting. Mr..
Jarrett said that while the resolution
might not meet the technical re-
quirements of lawyers, it represent
ed the sentiments of those who wish
ed to see it passed, and would serve
the purpose of allowing the citizens
of Palatka to go to the polls and
register their choice on a change of
government. Alderman Johnson sug-
gested that the matter De taken up
at a special meeting of council to-
night, and on motion council went on
record as favoring the passage of
! the proper resolution. Two hayes
were registered against the resolu-
! ton, Aldermen Porter and Mullis.
! W. P. Dineen, of the legal depart
ment of the city, again offered every
obstacle possible to the carrying out
of the expressed desires of hundreds
of citizens, all of them technical. He
said that the signers of the petition
should have had their addresses aft
Ter their names, that if charter is
prepared and is voted down by the
people it will be impossible to get
other amendments to the present
charter before the next legislature
for passage and that no one knows
who will be elected to the charter
board or what the board will propose
Mayor Steen also threw a little
cold water on the proposition, saying
that he thought it better to have
council appoint committee to pre-
pare a new charter He did not know
at the time that council has no such
authority and that the people would
probably vote down any proposal
where the regular democratic form
of legislating is deviated from. The
mayors attention was called to the
fact that even if a committee were
lappointed by council to prepare char
, ter amendments that the amendments
/ would have to go through the same
| procedure as would charter prepar-
ed by a regularly elected board
/ President Smith summed up the
situation when he said that councils
duty was very clear, and that its au-
thority in TIE premises was prescrib-
ed by law. The people, he said
i seemed to desire an opportunity at
least to try out a change Of govern
ment, and that it was not councils
fright to say that they should not
have that opportunity. Speakers
representing the Rotary club, Cham
j Der of Commerce and other organiza-
tions presented the sentiment as de-
veloped during the circulation of pc
titions, and explained just how fair
and Just were the privisions Of the
state law for making charter
changes.