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Our Present City Charter

Our Present City Charter image
Parent Issue
Day
30
Month
January
Year
1895
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

There ís considerable talk about makimg viario'us and sundry amendments to the city charter, some of wMch are very good, and sotne of which are very bad. To oone who keeps thoroughly posted om city affaire it would seem as if the city charter needs few amendments 5n tlhe interest of good goveroment. The city never was managed Tetter than it is today. unded the present charter and amystep tending to former methods tinder the old charter, ís a &tep backward. There are soone changes, however, that cooild be unade in the interest ol the city, ome f which is the power o-f appointinent and remoral of the entire pólice forcé of the city by the mayor, without himderance from the the council. This would put the entire responsibility upom the mayor, where it belomigs. It no:w attempts to hold hilm responsible but divests Min of authörity. Tliere are two of the city officials who ehould be better paid. The city clerk and tlhe city treasurer. With the latter a stated salary ought to be provided, and no collection fee chiarged tax-payers. If this is not done the fees sbould be changed from 1-2 to 1 per cemt. The amount of work and responsibility now forced apon the treasurer is worth doublé the amoiunt he now recelóles, which is about $600. It would be a bemefit to the city finnncially could a contract foir Hgtoting the city be made foir more tluan ome year. The Ipiroposed change of the term oí the mayor from one to two yeare, and then miakiïig lidm ineligible for re-electiom, is not partícula rly beneficial in any Ts-ay. The proposition to do away witb. the president of the council and make the mayor the presiding officer, is . step backward. The (board of public works, and the other boards of the city -govemment shomld not be touched or changed. Tfaey are all right, and Tinder tneir eupen-ision the affairs of the city ha,Ye prospered, and been properly and economically taken care of. It is possible that au addition of two more members Ito the board of public woa-ks anight be benefic'ial, but it is yery doubtful. What especial benefit that -vould be, is difficmlt to percieve. It would only make two more to jaaig-le over things, wlik-h is utterly useless. The proposition to gi-e the varioiis wards representation in the council according tto population avould seeim to be trictly just. Either that or the división of the city into more wards. It doesn't seem exactly right that the lst ward, with lts 500 votes should have only the saine repa-esentation as the 5th word, with its 200 votes. Tliere is ome thing that appears 1o be evident. There are two extremes of opinión meeting in tliis charter changing business, and as that document takes the conservative middle groun-d between th ctwo, it is probably quite safe as it is. It is do'ubtful if our representativo at 'Lansing could be induced to favoicithcr side to any great exlent, when a large majority of the people are content to let well enough alone.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier