New City Hall Advocated In Mayor Brown's Message

NEW CITY HALL ADVOCATED IN MAYOR BROWN’S MESSAGE
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It Can be Built Under an Enabling Act of the State Legislature
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The Streets Should be Put in Shape, Taxes Kept Down, Pest House Built, Parks Laid Out, Street Lighting Improved, Overdraft Paid
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Mayor Brown's first annual message was read to the council Monday night and contains many most important recommendations. It was as follows:

Ann Arbor, Mich., April 20, 1903. To the Honorable, the Common Council of the City of Ann Arbor:

Gentlemen – I am pleased to confer with your honorable body in reference to the administration of the affairs of the city. In doing so I do not wish to be understood as attempting in any way to usurp the prerogatives of this council, but simply to give you the benefit of my experience in municipal affairs and my judgment upon such matters as are liable to come before you for consideration.

KEEP DOWN THE TAX RATE.

The most important question in the administration of city affairs is the one of taxation. For many years Ann Arbor has enjoyed the proud distinction of having as low, if not the lowest, tax rate of any city in the state, and I doubt if there is another city in Michigan where real property is as valuable or where the price is maintained at as even a value year after year, as it is in this city, and it is my opinion that our low tax rate has materially aided in bringing about this condition.

I believe that it is the duty of this and all future administrations to make special efforts to see that no material advance is made in our tax rate and that a decrease in the value of all city property will immediately follow any material advance in the rate of taxation and that people will not be as eager to build their homes in our city as they have been in the past.

WIPING OUT OVERDRAFT.

During the last two years the overdraft of the city, which was brought about in the first instance by the construction of the macadam pavements on Detroit Street and the Hill street storm sewer system, has been reduced from about $28,000 to less than $13,000, notwithstanding the fact that the city has sustained large damage by reason of the flood of July 7th last which cost the city some $10,000 for the repair of culverts along Allen's creek, and although I am opposed to paying this overdraft in a single year, yet I do think that the affairs of the city can be so administered during the next two years that this overdraft can be wiped out.

To do this I would recommend that before the tax levy for next year is made up that you make a careful estimate of the fixed charges that the city will have to pay during the year which will include the expenses of the different department, such as the police, fire, lights, water, poor and the salaries of city officers, together with the principal and interest on city bonds maturing during the year, and with the aid of the Board of Public Works, the City Engineer and Street Commissioner, and your committee on streets, that you also estimate the amount necessary for street work which should include crosswalks ad the amount required for sidewalk grading and sufficient Street work to put our streets in a condition safe for public travel, and that when your tax levy is made up and apportioned to the different funds that you use every effort in your power to keep the expenses of the different departments within the appropriation, for you have no legal right under our charter to allow warrants on funds that are overdrawn.

EXPENSES AND TAX LEVY.

The expenses during the past year of some of the different departments of our public service are as follows:
Fire department $8,361.39
Police department 3,643.90
Poor department 1,907.28
Water 7,234.69
Lighting 8,936.75
Salaries 4,751.01
Total $34,835 01

The tax levy for 1901 was $64,900 and for 1902, $73,450, and the city received each year about $10,000 for liquor tax.

The city will be obliged to pay during the year certain installments upon paving and sewer bonds, together with the interest maturing thereon, and I give you the above figures for the purpose of assisting you in making up the tax levy.

GRADE SEPARATION AND FRANCHISES.

Proceedings were taken by the last council looking toward the separation of the grades of several of the streets along the line of the Ann Arbor road, which if carried forward to completion, will be a splendid improvement. The progress of this work has been temporarily restrained by several courts of the state, and it will be some me before this matter is free from litigation and before the work can proceed. If the ordinance granted to the Ann Arbor road shall not be sustained by the courts, and it becomes necessary to pass another franchise or ordinance for carrying forward this much needed improvement, I hope you will proceed with said matter with the utmost care and caution and give the city the benefit of your best and united efforts in securing a franchise that will not only protect the city treasury but the citizens along the line of the road. The ordinance passed for this work provides for the construction of a viaduct at the foot of Ann street, the cost thereof to be paid for by the city of Ann Arbor; this provision of the ordinance was made necessary by the franchise heretofore granted to William A. Boland for the construction of an electric railroad, ind in order to obviate the necessity of the construction of this viaduct by the city, I recommend that the i so-called Bolnnd franchise be repealed as soon as the time limit therein contained has elapsed, and that a new franchise be granted to Mr. Boland or to those who now own and control the Boland interest whenever they are ready to complete said railroad, as there is no reason why the taxpayers of this city should lay out the sum of $10,000 or any other sum for the benefit of this road or any other road. And in this connection it may serve a useful purpose for the council to always bear in mind that those who are employed to represent corporate interests such as railroad companies, telephone companies, water companies and electric light companies and other large corporations, are usually far better equipped to guard the interest of those they represent than are those who are entrusted with the administration of city affairs, and that in making contracts with such companies or passing ordinances that in their nature are contracts you should take ample time to properly consider the same so that the provisions thereof can be discussed, pro and con, in our city papers and the people made acquainted with the terms of said contracts or ordinances before the same are given final passage, and no ordinance which changes a by-law of our city or passes a new one should be passed at a single meeting of this council.

IMPROVING THE STREETS.

The streets in our city are a disgrace, and the less said about them the better, but I do hope that this council and the Board of Public Works will take hold of this matter in a businesslike way and during the coming year give to the taxpayers of this city a material improvement in our streets in consideration of the vast amount of money expended thereon. The city is now expending a very large sum of money each year for cleaning paved streets and our pavements are never clean. I would recommend that the committee on streets look into the question of the advisability of the city acquiring a complete outfit for cleaning the streets, consisting of one or two good teams and wagons and one sprinkling wagon, so that the streets can be sprinkled and cleaned at night, which, in my judgment, can be done with the street sweeper at a cost of not more than one-half of what it now costs the city to clean said streets with hand labor.

PAVING.

Proceedings have been taken looking toward the pavement of Liberty street and a part of South Fourth avenue. If this work is to be done this year, I would recommend that contracts therefor be made as soon as possible so that the work can be completed within a reasonable time; the work of paving both of these streets ought to be done in not more than eight weeks and only a portion of the street should be torn up at one time, but to do this, contracts should be made without delay, for the way the work of paving State street last year, and other streets in years gone by, was allowed to drag along month after month was no credit to this city and to those having the work in charge.

COLLECTING FROM D., Y., A. A. & J. RAILWAY.

West Huron street from the west line of Ashley street along the line of the Detroit, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor Jackson railroad to the city limits has been made almost impassible by the construction of that railroad. under the terms of this company's franchise they agreed to leave this road in as good condition as before the track was laid. Some few days ago I called on Mr. S. F. Angus in reference to this matter and after some talk he asked me to have the matter taken up with him by mail and he promised that he would lay the matter before the officers of his company, and I recommend that the City Attorney be directed to do this at an early date, and that at the same time the question of said company's indebtedness to this city for graveling along the company's tracks in the year 1901 and for the company's share of the cost of paving Huron street, which has been allowed to drag along for months, be taken up and adjusted, which I think can be done without further delay, if undertaken in a business-like way and without so much bluff and bluster.

STREET LIGHTING.

For a number of months the service rendered by the Electric Light company has been far below the requirements of the company's contract.

Upon an investigation of this matter I have satisfied myself that the company has been rendering as good service as it could under all the existing circumstances; they are now and have been for several months engaged in connecting their lighting plant with what is known as the Geddes power, and the officers and directors of this company agree to have this change completed within sixty days and when completed they promise to furnish service that is fully up to the requirements of their contract with the city.

The city is without funds at the present time with which to pay it lighting bills, and as the service which has been rendered by this company has not conformed to the contract, the payment of these bills could not be enforced by the company, and I would therefore recommend that the consideration of lighting bills under our contract be deferred until said company is in a condition to render the service called for in its contract and until the taxes are collected in July next.

CITY SCALES ADVOCATED.

There has been a strong feeling among many of our citizens for a number of years that the city should establish and own a set of city scales, and I believe that a long felt want will be filled if the city should acquire and maintain a set of city scales. This could be done at a cost of about $400, and the scales could be located on North Fifth avenue adjacent to the Fireman's Hall and operated by the members of the fire department, and if a small charge for services be made the same could be maintained without extra expense to the city.

NEW CITY HALL BUILDING.

In the year 1895 the city purchased at a cost of $5,000, a piece of land situated at the southwest corner of Huron street and Fifth avenue for the purpose of building in the near future a city hall to be used for city offices. This is is good a location for such a building as could be found in the city, and I have never been able to understand why it has not been utilized for the purpose for which it was bought. Year after year the city has been losing the interest on this amount of money and at the same time our city offices have been located in the second story of a rented building; people having business with the city are made to climb a long flight of stairs and our city records are left to the tender mercy of the first good fire that is liable to destroy all that is valuable of city records that have cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars.

HOW IT CAN BE BUILT.

The legislature of two years ago passed an enabling act permitting the council upon a vote of the people to issue bonds to the amount of $30,000 to build and furnish a city hall upon the land above mentioned. I believe city bonds for this purpose bearing 3 per cent interest can be readily sold at par to our citizens. If this could be done we might have a city building with all our city offices located upon the ground floor and containing ample vaults for our public records and the cost to the city would be little more than we are now paying for rent in the dilapidated old fire trap where our city offices are now located.

Ann Arbor is essentially a resident city. It is not and never will become a manufacturing center, and there is no reason under the sun why this city should have its city offices located in the second story of a rented building, and no reason why we should not have a city building that is an ornament and credit to the city and to every citizen therein. Every year the state of Michigan expends thousands and thousands of dollars in the erection of public buildings in our city and now we are to have a beautiful public building for a postoffice, and it seems to me it is high time this city got in touch with the spirit of public improvement and erected upon its lot a substantial building for our city offices.

LONG-TIME BONDS FOR IT.

I do not think that the present generation should pay the entire cost of such a building, for if the same is properly constructed it will last for centuries, and if this question is to be submitted to the people at a special election, I would recommend that the $30,000 that we are authorized to raise by the sale of bonds for that purpose be made payable one thousand dollars annually, so that those who come after us and have as much use of the building as we, shall help to pay for the cost thereof, and that the first payment upon said bonds be deferred until said building is completed.

FRIENDLY TO PARKS.

I hope that no backward stop will be taken upon the question of parks and that in the near future we may be able to see the land lying north of the Michigan Central railroad and the property known as the "Cat Hole" converted into objects of beauty, and I dare say that when this is done that no citizen of Ann Arbor can be found who will object to the expenditure of the money necessary to bring about this much needed improvement. Ann Arbor has been for many years widely known as a beautiful residence city; certainly no city in our state of the size of Ann Arbor can boast of so many fine houses, well kept lawns and beautiful shade trees, and I most heartily endorse the movement inaugurated by Dr. Copeland to convert these unsightly places into beautiful parks and hope this council will take the necessary steps to push this work to completion.

PEST HOUSE AND DETENTION HOSPITAL.

Provision ought to be made for a pest house and detention hospital for this city. An epidemic of smallpox such as occurred this last year in many of the Michigan cities would sweep the University of students and work great injury and large financial loss to many of our people.

The Physicians' Club of this city have appointed a committee to try and interest the authorities of the University in the building of a hospital that can be used for a pest house and for detention purposes, and I believe it would be wise, if such a measure can be brought about, for the city to unite with the Board of Regents in establishing something of this kind and would recommend that committee, with Health Officer Hinsdale as chairman, be appointed to take this matter up with the Regents.

ASSESSOR SHOULD HAVE MORE SALARY.

Mr. E. L. Seyler has been City Assessor for the past four years at $1,000 per year. This is far below what Mr. Seyler is worth to this city, and I am a firm believer in the doctrine that “every man is worthy of his hire,” and believe the labor performed by Mr. Seyler is worth to this city far more than $1,000. No man with the ability of Mr. Seyler ought to spend his time at his age in performing this important work for such meagre compensation; no city in Michigan can be found where its assessing officer does not receive far greater compensation than that paid to Mr. Seyler, and I hope that this council will take the necessary measures to see to it that his salary is raised so that the city will not lose the services of so valuable a public servant, for I am reliably informed that efforts have already been made to get Mr. Seyler to go elsewhere. If this meets the approbation of this council, I would suggest that a committee be sent to Lansing to secure the necessary amendment to charter for this purpuse.,and I am told that there is a skeleton bill now introduced in the house of representatives that can be used for this purpose or other purposes if desired.

You will always find me ready and willing to co-operate with you in any public improvement that tends to the permanent benefit of the city. By carefully guarding the expenditure of all public money and keeping close watch upon the appropriations for all public work, I believe that we will best serve those that we represent.

Very truly yours,
ARTHUR BROWN,
Mayor.