Evening star., 1940-04-12
Radical Chance
In D. {. Setup
...t
Out for Session
Announcement by
Kennedy Follows
Subcommittee PorIey
BY JAMES E. CHINN.

ny JAMLS =. On1NNs
No radical changes in the present
form Of the District government will
be proposed at the present session
Of Congress, it was revealed today
by Representative Kennedy, Demo-
crat, of Maryland, chairman of the
House subcommittee in charge Of
legislation to reorganize the munich
pal setup.
Mr.. Kennedy made the disclosure
after his subcommittee last night
spent more than three hours review
ing features of various plans pend
ing before him to revamp the
municipal structure. A group Of
District officials was closeted with
the subcommittee at the time.
1t was indicated by Mr.. Kennedy
his subcommittee might agree on a
compromise" plan-one that would
retain the Board of Commissioners
as both the governing body and the
executive heads of the District, but
at the same time would provide for
new official, an administrative as
sistant to the Commissioners, whose
duty 1t would be to advise them on
what changes should be made in the
organization in various departments
to increase their efficiency.
May Recommend IL Departments.
The subcommittee, Mr.. Kennedy
said, may also recommend that the
plan to place all municipal agencies
under IL departments be changed
to provide for II departments. The
reduction, he said, could be effected
by combining proposed department
Of taxation with proposed depart
ment of finance.
Mr.. Kennedy emphasized that all
Of his predictions were predicated
on tentative decisions at the special
meeting last night, at which he and
Representative Dirksen, Republican,
Of Illinois were the only members
present.
I'VE will have another meeting
some time next week and attempt
definitely to agree on a final pro-
gram Of reorganization to submit to
the full District Committee" he said.
"All we have done so far is to re-
view and discuss the various pro-
posals for reorganizing the District
government"
The plan to provide an admins
trative assistant to the Commits
sioners to keep them in constant
contact with needed changes in the
present setup Of the municipal de-
partments was suggested by the
Commissioners themselves in their
own program for undermining the
municipal government. Mr.. Ken
nedy, however, said his subcommit-
tee advanced a step ahead of the
Commissioners and agreed tenta-
lively that the administrative as
sistant should be well qualified for
the position and should at least
have had prior experience in mu-
nicipal affairs in other cities.
Election Issue Not Decided.
No action was taken, Mr.. Ken
nedy announced, on a proposal that
the Commissioners be elected by the
disfranchised residents of the Dis
trict or that council of nine citi-
zens be appointed to advise them on
tax, budget and legislative problems.
Those are questions that must
be decided by the full subcommittee
later" he declared.
The subcommittee met last night
behind closed doors in the District
committee room in the House Once
Building. Engineer Commissioner
McCoach attended in evening dress,
having been called from a dinner
party. The other District officials
summoned to advise the subcom-
mittee included Corporation Coun-
sci Elwood H. Seal, Capt. H. c.
Whitehurst, director of highways;
Richmond B. Keech and 10 v. Nor
gan, sole member of the District
of Columbia Board of Tax Ap-
peals. Mr.. Seal, Capt. White
hurst and Mr.. Keech, who is
vice chairman of the Public Utilities
Commission. were members of the
so-called Kitchen cabinet" created
by the Commissioners several
months ago to draw up a program
for reorganizing the municipal gov
ernment.