The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1951-09-06

think of the more than four hours
| wasted at a so-called public meet
ing and Council meeting in the City
Hall on Tuesday night, when l could
have been at the ball game.
The meeting 2 of "a Comedy
of Errors" a late summer replace
ment put on by the cast of Hagers-
towns version of ITO Be Or Not To
Be-" could have-and should have
been over in half an hour, but in
stead, nearly three hours were vast
ed. First by a series of arguments
between former city attorney Urner
and Mayor Mills; followed by more
arguments by some of the other at
torneys present; and finally by
vain effort on the part of Mayor
Mills to settle the question of shop
ping center in the North End by
means of a referendum by the resi-
dents of the area in Zone l.
AS I'm sure everyone knows, the
sole purpose of the meeting called
by the four Councilman who favor
North End shopping center was-by
permission of the judges of the Cir
cult Court who have taken under
advisement a suit brought by a
group of residents of the North End
against the Mayor and Council-to
give the city chance to make a
"procedural correction" in the ION
ing ordinances, this correction being
the posting of notices all over the
city for period of fifteen days, fol-
lowed by another public meeting.
The fact that a new set of or
dinances were drawn up prior to the
so-called public meeting, is, in my
opinion, proof positive that council
men Broom, Hellane, Jennings and
Knight were not the least bit inter
ested in what might be said at the
meeting, but were solely concerned
with just going through the motions
of a public hearing and then calling
a special session of the Mayor and
Council-which they did immediate
ly the public meeting was adjourned
at which they could again pass
the zoning law that permits the
shopping center,
At that meeting, which should
have lasted about twenty minutes,
but dragged on until nearly mid
night, Mayor Mills again brought up
the subject of a referendum by the
residents of Zone l on the shopping
center question, during which both
he and Councilman Elliott, the only
Councilman opposing the coming law
in its present form, pledged them
selves to abide by the result of such
a referendum, but the other four
councilmen-and their attorneys
would have no part of it, despite
the fact that at earlier meetings
some of these same councilmen pub
licly stated that if referendum was
taken in Zone l, it would result in
favor of the shopping center.
With this matter disposed of,
Councilman Mel Jennings, offered
three typewriter motions-one re-
pealing the original Zone l ordi-
nance, the second repeating the city
wide ordinance, and the third a mo-
ton to re-enact the city wide zon-
ing law, in which provision is still
made for shopping center in the
North End.
Following their adoption by the
same four councilmen, Councilman
Broom, after first failing to get
through motion to call another
special meeting for yesterday, pre-
sented another motion, which was
carried by the same 4 to l majority,
calling upon Mayor Mills to call
special meeting this Thursday
afternoon at 400 o'clock, at which
meeting he must either accept the
ordinance or veto it. The purpose
of this was obviously to give these
four councilmen, should the Mayor
veto it, an opportunity, if they so
desire, to override the veto at the
regular council meeting, which will
be held at 7:30 tonight, the council
men and their attorneys being well
aware that if they waited until to-
nights regular meeting for the May
or's action, they could not act on
veto by the Mayor until the next
regular meeting in October.
My guess is that the Mayor will
exercise his power of the veto and if
he does, it remains to be seen wheth-
er or not Councilmen Broom, Hell
lane, Jennings and Knight will over
ride the veto or allow it to stand.
was very happy to read the state.
ment from Gene Raney, on the front
page of Friday afternoons Daily
Mail, in which he confirmed the