The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1926-03-18
New Charter Commission
Organizes Thursday Eve
---LaW Changes Probable


so at that time he first saw the pc
tition with the proposed amendment
to the Charter providing for election
of the Water, Light and Power Com
mission; that he believed that no
amendment to the Charter should be
put through hastily but should be
carefully studied so as to fit in with
the rest of the document and that the
Charter Commission was created and
supposed to perform that function.
He also explained the reason
for the appointment of the Com
mission by the District Court and
stated that he believed that appoint
ment of the members of the Commits
sion by the City Council would be
the best method of selecting these
members and that he had refused to
qualify to prevent hasty action and
to give an opportunity to present to
the Commission the possible amend
ment of the Charter so that the Wat
er, Light and Power Commission
would be chosen by the City Council.
This method he said was preferable
to election because there are many
well qualified men who would not be
candidates at an election, but who
would accept office through appoint
.ment; also that in case of a number
of candidates, a poorly qualified per-
son was apt to be elected and also
that many elections turn not on the
qualifications of the candidate for Of
flee but on some side issue such as
the wet and dry question.
He also stated that there were
several other amendments which
should be proposed to correct weak
nesses which have been shown to
exist in the Charter and suggested
that all of the city officers give the
Charter careful study and suggest to
the Commission for consideration
any changes which would be for the
betterment of the city. r
Ben Dubois suggested that the
last paragraph of Section 81 which
reads as follows: "In addition the
commission shall pay over to - the
City Treasurer, to be credited to the
public utility fund, an amount equal
to ten per cent of gross receipts of
the light and power plant to be in
vested by him in interest bearing GER
tifcases of deposit, which sum, to-
gether with accumulated interest, is
to be available only for the replace
menC of plant or machinery, but not
fer repairs or additional machinery
be changed so that the Light and
Power commission will have the au-
thority to use these funds, which are
now on deposit, for the retirement Of
the outstanding bonds of the light
rlant. His contention was that it was
no longer necessary to have this furd
on hand as the city had recently en-
tered into contract with the North
ern State Power Company to supply
the necessary current and no replace
ment of machinery would probably
be made for the next ten years. Prior
to the execution of this contract there
vas considerable likelihood of re-
placement of this machinery so that
it was necessary to keep the fund III
tact. The bonds outstanding amount
t. $4,000.
There is quite strong sentiment
among several members of the coM-
mission to draft another amendment
to Section 81 relative to the appoint
ment of the Water, Light and Pow
er Commission. These members feel
that the best interests will be served
by delegating the authority of the
appointment of the Commission to
the City Council, instead of electing
them by direct vote.
Chairman Kells will call the COM
mittee together the latter part of
the week to carefully go over and
prepare the amendment asked for in
the petition.
1t will undoubtedly take several
weeks for the Commission to thor
oughly familiarize themselves with
the charter and carefully consider
and draft the necessary amendments
to correct the defects.
Had the amendment asked for in
the petition been hurried through and
voted on at the general city election
April 9Th it would not have become
effective until next year as the amend
ment provides that the members of
the commission shall be elected at
a general election.
Very likely after the charter is
thoroughly gone over a mass meeting
of the citizens will be called and the
proposed charter changes thoroughly
explained and discussed.