City charter

“ The word I especially wish to speak, as to charter reforms, is that the reform of the city council is more imperative by far than anything else, taking all the cities of the country together—and that the existing evils of city legislation are by far the most crying evils of city government. ”

“ The law names certain things which each city charter shall provide, and imposes certain restrictions on the powers of cities. There must be an elected Mayor and a body vested with legislative power; the clerk, treasurer, and assessors, and other officers may be elected or appointed. This permits the establishment of a commission system, or of a Mayor and council with distinct powers. Provision must be made for the levy, collection, and return of State, county, and school taxes, for annual appropriations for municipal purposes, and for a system of accounts. ”

“ When any small area becomes thickly and permanently settled, and a certain population is reached (which varies in different States) , the state legislature is appealed to, and a charter of incorporation as a city is granted. This enables the incorporated district to act independently of the county or township, to levy municipal taxes and carry out public improvements. Rapid as has been the growth of cities, the duties required of city governments have increased still faster.
The government of our large cities has become a question of vital importance. ”

“ The right of the municipality in any given case to suppress uses of land depends on the language of its charter, but under a universal charter provision a municipality may protect the general welfare of its people, and many uses of land are enjoined under this general power. ”

“ The original charter, adopted in 1849, was amended in 1905 giving the city practically a new charter. The government is vested in a mayor and a council. The council elects heads of departments and subordinate officials. The city has waterworks, an electric-light plant and an electric street-car system, owning and operating the first. ”

“ These American corporations had the usual English system of borough government, consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councilmen, who carried out the simple administrative and judicial functions needed for the then small communities. The basis for the government of each American city is still a charter, but since the Revolution these charters have been granted by the state legislatures, and are subject to constant change by statute. ”

“ In the municipal life of the city it has urged improvements in the fire service, the water supply, the lighting service and the betterment of streets and interested itself in various other spheres of municipal government reform, among them the securing of the great modern amendment of the city charter which has necessitated the reduction of the number of aldermen to one for each ward, and the creation of a board of five commissioners for the disbursement of money, the awarding of contracts and the purchase of material. ”

“ Cities of the first class are established through a charter drawn up by 15 landholders selected by a vote of the community. If the charter is acceptable to the people and complies with State law, the city government is set up in accordance with its provisions. ”

“ Where a city charter gives property owners an opportunity to be heard before a board respecting the justice and validity of local assessments for proposed public improvements and empowers the board to determine such complaints before the assessments are made, parties who do not avail themselves of such opportunity cannot be heard to complain of such assessments as unconstitutional. ”

“ If the legislature approves, it will become the local constitution. The charter provides for its own amendment by the people without appeal to the legislature. So the present provisions of that instrument may be only a form to be entirely remodeled by the city at its own pleasure until it has no resemblance to the laws to which the state authorities gave approval. That is an extreme delegation of powers, such as we think has never before been made in an American state. The mayor has large powers of appointment and removal. ”

“ A more common method is to deal with each city as a special case, giving it a charter by special act of the legislature, the result of this plan being that no two cities of the state are governed in exactly the same way. ”

“ Nothing could be more encouraging than the fact that in several States the people of individual cities, without waiting for general acts of legislation, have secured civil service reform by means of amendments to their charters. In Louisiana the city of New Orleans has obtained a charter embodying provisions for the application of strict civil service rules to every municipal department. In Seattle and Tacoma, the principal cities of the State of Washington, in the extreme Northwest of the country, similar rules have been placed in the charter by popular vote. ”

“ It will tax to the utmost the resources of any one whose only object it is to deal with this problem successfully and on its own merits. But if the Mayor of the people's choice is elected under such conditions that his primary obligation is toward some other object, a successful installation and administration of the new charter is simply out of the question. If the City Government, by the consent of the voters, is to be treated as party spoil, history is full of illustrations of what is to be expected. The city's work will be done after a fashion ”

“ Quoting from Sec. 7 of the Des Moines charter, which is typical of every commission form charter in this regard, it says: "All legislative, executive, and judicial functions of the city shall be placed in the hands of the commissioners who shall exercise those functions." The Affirmative, then, are standing for fusion of functions, and not concentration of powers.
The Negative do not defend the evils of present city organization. The Negative believe that far-reaching reforms must be instituted before we shall enjoy municipal success. ”

“ I read over again that part of Krebs's speech which dealt with the immediate programme of the Citizens Union. After paying a tribute to Greenhalge as a man of common sense and dependability who would make a good mayor, he went on to explain the principle of the new charter they hoped ultimately to get, which should put the management of the city in the hands of one man, an expert employed by a commission; an expert whose duty it would be to conduct the affairs of the city on a business basis, precisely as those of any efficient corporation were conducted. ”

“ In discussing how far the charter authorized the company to act without the consent of the city, Mr. Justice Sheldon, in the course of an able dissenting opinion, concurred in by the Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Breese, is careful to point out that the right to occupy the streets is not complete in the grant of the charter from the state, and is only capable of being exercised when supplemented by the authorization of the city. And see People's Pass. ”

“ It appears from the charter that, in the execution of the power to make local improvements and assess the cost upon the property specially benefited, the main steps to be taken by the city authorities are plainly marked and separated: 1. The board of public works must transmit to the city council a resolution ordering the work to be done and the form of an ordinance authorizing it and creating an assessment district. ”

“ Q. How populous must a village be, before it can be incorporated as a city?
A. No definite number is required; whenever a large proportion of the inhabitant desire it, the legislature will grant a city charter.
Q. What is the executive officer of a city called?
A. The Mayor. His term of office is one year, unless otherwise ordered by the, charter, as in New York and Albany where it is two years.
Q. What other important officers are elected?
A. Aldermen and Supervisors; one each in every ward unless otherwise ordered by their charter.
Q. What officers form the common council? ”

“ City and county government should be consolidated in cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Los Angeles.
182 CHAPTER X
CITY GOVERNMENT The purpose of this chapter is to explain who the city authorities are and what they do.
To be a city a place must have a charter. What is a City?—The poet Cowper once said that “God made the country and man made the town”, a remark which was not intended to flatter the cities. Nor is there any reason why life in a crowded community should particularly appeal to poets although it may have a strong fascination for more worldly-minded men. ”

“ The view I take of the acts makes it comparatively unimportant to consider the city's charter. There seemed to be a necessity for the acts, and they were complete in themselves, independent of other grants of power, except what were continued or confirmed by them. ”

“ A city may by popular vote adopt any one of these but is not permitted to make a special charter for itself. The merit of this plan is that it allows a city a considerable amount of choice without opening the door for all manner of rash local experiments, many of which bring controversy and lawsuits because they run foul of the state constitution or laws. ”

“ The inclusion in the charter of the principle of the “initiative and referendum” enables a percentage of the voters to compel the submission of measures to public approval. The city's control is centralized, great power being given to the mayor. ”

“ Charter granted to the city with the assent of parliament, 4 Dec., 1377. Before parliament broke up it gave its assent to a new charter to the City.625 Foreigners (i.e. non-freemen) were again forbidden to traffic in the city among themselves by retail, and the City's franchises were confirmed and enlarged. So much importance was attached to this charter that Brembre, the mayor, caused its main provisions to be published throughout the city.626
The subsidy taken out of the hands of Walworth and Philipot, 1378. ”

“ In some states the legislature has passed a general law relating to cities, and their charters are all alike in accordance with the provisions of this law. The difficulty with this plan is that cities differ greatly in size and in the nature of their problems. The charter that suits one may not fit another. A seaport city, for example, needs a harbor commission with power 187to license pilots and regulate the anchoring-places of ships ”

“ Wherever it has been put into the constitution of a state a larger municipal vision has been created and a new brand of municipal administration has appeared. Thus it is a significant fact that many of the most advanced forms of city government have grown up in the cities which have enjoyed constitutional home rule. Given the right to determine its own destiny, the city becomes the hope, instead of the despair, of democracy. And the test which democracy receives will be a fair one. ”

“ The territorial legislature at least had the same authority as that possessed by congress to recognize claims of the nature described. It is a legislative power, and it was granted to the territorial legislature by the acts already referred to. A city is a municipal corporation and a political subdivision of the state, and, what the state could do itself, it has the power to direct its agent, the municipality, to do. ”

“ Places containing a large and close population need a different government from that of ordinary towns or townships. Many of the laws regulating the affairs of towns thinly inhabited, are not suited to a place where many thousand persons are closely settled. Besides, the electors in such a place would be too numerous to meet in a single assembly for the election of officers or the transaction of other public business.
§2. Whenever, therefore, the inhabitants of any place become so numerous as to require a city government, they petition the legislature for a law incorporating them into a city. ”

“ A community organized to comply with the foregoing requirements—divided into wards, having a council made up of aldermen from those wards, having a council authorized to levy taxes at its discretion, having a municipal court, having regularly employed police acting under the direction of the mayor—is a city, as the term is generally used in the United States.
Another reason for establishing a city government is frequently potent, although unmentioned. The pride of the community can be thereby indulged, and more citizens can have their ambition to hold public office gratified. ”

“ It may be conceded, as a general proposition, that there is a substantial distinction between the acts of a municipality as the agent of the state, for the preservation of peace and the protection of persons and property, and its acts as the agent of its citizens, for the care and improvement of the public property, and the adaptation of the city for the purposes of residence and business. ”

“ It shall be proper for said cities to provide, by ordinance, for the exercise of all rights and powers herein conferred upon the City Planning Commission, by a park commission, or kindred municipal bureau or commission, authorized under existing laws. And no person holding office under the government of any of said cities, except the mayor, members of councils, or commissioners, shall be ineligible to serve as a member of a City Planning Commission. ”

“ But we have advocated numerous reforms and have pointed out countless instances of municipal success under various forms, yet all based upon the same fundamental principle, that there be separately constituted departments of government. One of the fatal objections to the gentlemen's proposition is that they are attempting to blanket the whole country with one arbitrary form, regardless of differing conditions. They have completely ignored our cases of successful city government. We demand that they explain them. ”