Evening star., 1933-07-30
A City Manager for Washington

and still-deferred choice of Commis-
sioners for the District of Columbia. the
possibility of a later reorganization OF
the District government with zone
man" or a "City Manager" in charge
is the subject of recurring comment in
news stories which reflect the tenor OF
gossip around the White House
Nobody knows certainly what the
President has in mind concerning
"one-man" government for the Dis
trict as he has been as silent on that
matter as he has been on the choice
of Commissioners. If the President has
a reorganization of that sort in mind,
which Congress would have to approve,
It will be made known in time for the
careful consideration and a weighing of
advantages, pro and con, by the
voiceless community Of taxpayers in
whose behalf it would, of course, be
advanced
AS far as "one-man" government
for the District is concerned, We have
it pretty much today. The President
himself is the lone man" and the
Commissioners, whom he selects to
carry out his policies and execute his
wishes, are directly responsible to him.
If lone man" were substituted for
three this condition would remain sub
stantially the same. The President
would remain the lone man." Instead
of three Commissioners, however, there
would be one Whether this would
eventually make for a more efficient
form of local government is, OF course,
debatahle If one man may act more
quickly and decisively than three there
is the offsetting factor that one man
does not bring into his decisions the
considerations and the experience Of
three. But whether one man is more
efficient in fulfilling certain limited
executive functions than three, acting
as board, is more or less an abstract
proposition. 1t might be said good
naturedly that three men could hardly
take more time to settle the question
of the District comissionerships than it
ADD ldhCll OllC 14ldAA, ll1C l ACoAoSA3C.
A city manager, as the term is under
stood, usually represents the effort of
community to cut through some of the
highly expensive and often inefficient
ramihcations of political machine. His
choice is usually the result Of munich
pal revolution against the wastefulness
and inefhciency and even the corruption
of an organization that has built up a
machine of Office holders and depends
for its success upon outlandish grants of
public funds To be successful the city
manager must have complete authority.
Otherwise he is showed under by the
very forces which he was supposed to
supplant.
Congress, of course, possesses the ex-
elusive power Of legislation, including
the power to tax and to spend, in Wash
ington. How much authority would it
grant to city manager? Would it be
any more far-reaching that the mini
mum of authority now granted the three
Commissioners? Would anything be
gained by city manager bereft of au-
thority Of independent action?
These are matters that may come up
for more discussion later on. For the
time being, it is to BE- hoped that the
President bears in mind that small
vestige of home rule" for the District
of Columbia that is now safeguarded in
the laws requirement that the two
civilian Commissioners shall have been
''actual residents" for the past three
years in the District of Columbia and
'claimed residence nowhere else" And
later, when and If the President under
takes reorganization of the municipal
government, the essential considera-
tion here is whether there are to be
effected changes which will take away
from or add to the indirect and ap-
proximate hcme rule enjoyed by the
taxpayers of the local community
Anything that minimizes the slight
amount of home rule now existing
ought to be regarded as unthinkable