CIVIC GOVERNMENT BY COMMISSION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17691, 31 July 1919, Page 6

CIVIC GOVERNMENT BY COMMISSION.

■ . By-Gokdon Maodonaid, M.D. I_ have compiled this statement from various magazine articles, but principally from Bradford's "Commission Government in- American Cities, 1911," so that the inforrciation it contains is practically up to date. i The system of government by commission began in Galveston, U.S.A., in 1900. In that year the city was practically destroyed by something of tho nature of a. tidal wave. About 7000 inhabitants were killed out of a population of 30,000. The city councillors, or 6uch of them as escaped tho catastrophe, wero so appalkd at the enormous destruction of streets and property, the ■weight of existing.debts, and tho unknown cost of reconstruction that they refused to act. In this dilemma iu few public-spirited men decided to re-erect the city and reestablish its credit These men felt that for /many years their' civic affairs were grossly neglected and mismanaged. Bonds had been ksued to pay excess expenditure ■without consulting the citizens. Rates lay ■in tire hands of councillors who failed to account for them. Police, social, and sanitary evils were rampant. Corporation officials neglected their duties, and even, appropriated public moneys and goods. Rings elected councillors to serve their own ends, and government by City Council had hopalessly broken down. Looking around for some now system, tho public-spirited citizens sent for copies of special charters that had been granted to two or three American

cities which had suffered from fire or sickness, much as Galveston had suffered from flood. After studying these charters for a month or two they determined to issue the following address to the people:— "We believo that municipal government as it has been administered in this community is a failure. It did not require this catastrophe to bring a realisation of this fact, but it brought it home to us with much greater force. We are seeking relief from the municipal distraction and despair staring us in the face. This committee has laboured diligently to prepare and present to tho people of this city and the legislators remedial legislation adequate for tho grave emergency confronting us. It is hoped that th.e central idea of this new charter —that

of a commission—embodies the practical solution of that hitherto insoluble problem— namely, how to govern cheaply and well a municipal corporation. We are asking for a charter placing the entire control »of the local government in tie hands pf five commissioners designed to benefit the people, rather_ than to provide sinecures for local politicians." Propaganda -work of this kind had to be undertaken for a time. Then application was made to the Texas State Legislature for ' a. charter—which had already been prepared—to legalise the new form of government; After much battling ■ and amending in the State Legislature the charter was granted and Galveston eet out upon a ;' new career. The result of its experiment has been eminently successful. A great sea wall has been erected, the level of the whole 'city has been raised; new streets have been laid out. All old debts have been repaid; .the city has been rebuilt; all the old scandals have disappeared. The new bonds ■ issued to effect all this are a sound and secure investment. The rates are not oppressive, and Phcenix-like a new Galveston has arisen from its own aehesu. , Other cities .in America which were totterjng under mismanagement sent agenis to Galveston to see how things were progressing. All these agents presented very favourable reports. There arose in consequence a great demand for copies of the Galveston charter. To-day some 200 / American cities have adopted the. system of government by commission, andi so far as can be seen, they are satisfied with the result. New cities adopting the scheme -liave evolved new ideas in the various charters. It is needless to give the eon-' tents of any one charter, but the essential features of those acknowledged to be the best may bo summarised. THE CHARTER. •

Charters aro prepared according to- tho population of the towns or cities desiring them. For our. purpose we may take a city of from 70,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. For such a town the charter, as a rule, , provides for the appointment of five commissioners, one of whom shall be chairman or president or mayor, as the people choose to designate. In some charters the candidate who receives the largest number of votes is mayor, whale in others tho mayor is elected by a special vote. Tho voting is by all qualified voters, and there are no wards. Some, charters provide for preferential voting. All of them ' make provision for the referendum, recall, and initiative. Some give the mayor only ens vote, -whilo others give him a casting voto and the • power of veto. Each commissioner is tho head of a department, andi is responsible for at. _ It is pretty wall known in every town which office a particular candidate wishes to occupy. The offices, however, are voted to each man by majority vote of the commission, so that no individual, or party, or the citizens as a whole, can push a man into a. particular department l without the approval of his fellow commissioners. The commissioners have sole control of the election of nil officers and their subordinates. Each commissioner has his superintendent to &3O that works and instructions are properly_ executed. The time which each commissioner has to devote to his duties-is specified, but in largo towns all of them ore whole-tito3 officers. Their salaries are fixed by the charter. In the case of a city of the size of Dunedin it varies from about ■" £700. to the. mayor to £500 for each com- • nnssioner. Some of the charters are most ingenious and complete, giving wide powers 'to the commissioners, and equally wide -powers to the ratepayers to control them. The tsrrn of office varies from two to five years. All commissioners are eligible for re-election. THE ELECTION. Tho election is, as the Americans say, at large"—that is to say, every qualified voter is at liberty to voto. In some instances an effort is mad© to limit the number of candidates, so that no more than two can stand for the presidentship or mayoral office, and no more then eight ft*: the four comrnissioncrships. This plan seems to avoid more or less confusion in "voting, as the electors are not perplexed with the woomg of six or more men for tha odd office. In other instances, any number of candidates are permitted to stand for election. In this event, however, their numbers are thinned out by " preferential voting. Each vote must express preference by attaching tho numbers 1, 2, 3. etc., to tho names of tho candidates. Preference osrtainly removes all cause of complaint both _ from the candidates and the electors as there is an open field) and , no favonr' Itjs now recotrmsed in most American cities that candidates before, or during tho election express a wish to hold a certain portfolio, as it were. The charters however, state definitely that the council men or conurnssionors can only bo voted to their particular office or portofolio by a majority vote in the now council or board. This plan seems to work quite satisfactorily, as no doubt the board will exercise due care in appointing tho men to tho positions for wmch thfry are best fitted. THE BOARD OR COUNCIL. Tho now board enters upon office at once after election. The Mayor, or president of course, is chairman, but in the case of charters whoro no special machinery for tho election of a mayor exists, then tho candidato who receives tho largest number of votes is chairman. The first business is to allocate tho various offices. Excepting in tho case of the Mayor, this is arranged by a'majority vote, and as a result tho quolificatiqns of the men for a particular office are openly discussed. Once tho offices are filled each commissioner is responsible for tho success or failure o£ his department His acts must come before the whole council at its duly constituted meetings, but if ho expresses a strong desire to pursue a certain coutso ho is rarely thwarted foy his colleagues if ho cap show good reason for such action. In some instances tho Mayor has the power of veto over any act of the commissionera. and in others a majority vote carries tho day. Tho Mayor as a rule has chargo of two or three departments which do not entail close attention on his part, for, as a rule, he has the supervision of every department and over every act of his board._ Tho whole time of both Mayor and commissioners ie devoted to tho duties pertaining to their offices. As the salaries attached to the various offices are by no moans largo, only men of moderate capacity and of ambition wonld accept office. Still, so far as report goes, tho results seem satisfactory, and havo been a great improvement upon government by City Councils. Should any member of tho board do any act of which a number of citizens disapprove, or should an individual or tho board as a whole fail to bo sufficiently progressive, tho citizons havo tho power on a 10 to 25 vor cent, petition i to exercise the "recall.-" Similarly they mn.y employ the referendum with initiative. The board nvjst therefore bo on tho alert] ■ for tho citizens can dismiss commissioners from office or compel them to act as to them seems best. SUMMARY OF POWERS. Tho board has power to employ or to dismiss sJI or any of the civic staff, as to it seems well, or to dolocato its powers to its superintendents. It has authority, also

to legislate in any direction it pleaace, so long as its laws do not run counter to the laws of tho Stato.' This atctharity is embodied in tho ohartor, and far exceeds any powers conferred upon city couucils. American city authoritiea have to deal witli poheo and liquor control, so that thoir functions extend beyond thoso that wo aro accustomed to. In this respect they resemblo tho functions exercised by British Town Councils. ABUSE OF POWERS.

The possible abuse of pow<aa .is referred to, but no instances aro given of the occurrence of albuaea. All tho business of tho board is carried on in public, and a record of all its transactions appeaxa in the columns of tho press. No act can be enforced and no work (unless .urgent) can bo executed until it is made public- for so many days. •This provision gives time- for the community to - consider tho pros and cons oil tho mattor in hand. Should the ratepayers! disapprove of any act or work contemplated, then on tho presentation of a 10 to 25 per cent petition to the Mayor ho must- submit tho particular act or work to tho vote of tho people by means of the referendum. Indeed, thoro are so many checks upon thoir personal conduct and official acts that only moa courting a downfall would introduce any act contrary to the prinaiplea of equity and ■wellestablished custom. IMPROVED RESULTS.

Writers agree that in every instanco in which a town or oity applied for a charter there were improved results." One says: " You will ask: How did this happen? Did you have a crowd of grafters who wero robbing you? I have never been able to see anything that I could actually put my finger upon in /the way of stealing. It was not stolen, it just wont, just as any man's money will slip out of his business, and he will assign, if he does not attend to it, or if ho has no good business management. The change brought about personal supervision, and with this came improved results." ' ■

It is probable that part of the improv.ed results' may have been due to each of the larger towns and cities having appointed a business manager, who looked into' and more or less controlled every business transaction. Evervthing is bought upon business lines, and all contracts are executed after the same manner. If an employee from the highest official downwards does not " make good" he is warned tliat another oan do better, and should he fail to take tho hint his services aro dispensed with. There are no local influences, and there aro no social, trade, or political "pulls," sothat the board runs the town on purely business lines, and the results are uniformlysatisfactory. APPLICATION OF THE SYSTEM TO DUNEDDNt. So far as I am capable of -expressing an. opinion I fear it would take years of propaganda work to establish tho commission system here. Our people have been so accustomed to the exercise of petty influences of a personal, local, social, and political character in all elections, that they aro not likely to deprive themselves readily of their powers. Hero again we have had no open " graft" or stealing of public goods_ or moneys, either by officials or councillors, so that tho people lack any pressing incentive to change their present mode of civic government We profess also to be an ultra-democratic community, and we like to suppress and exclude from office what to us savours of plutocracy and caste, and to advance democracy by all legitimate means. As a matter of fact, however, our plutocrats are so.few that they are a negligible quantity, whilst caste is quite common in every grade of society. Hence tho cry that we are apt to bo crushed by these undesirables is morely a bogey to Enghten the less thoughtful portion of the community. As it is impossible, however, to suppress party criee, or to place a sound thinking head on every pair of shoulders, we must endure them, even when they do immense injury to the body politic. As one who has had some experience of work in the Dunedin City Council, I can safely affirm that as a rule most of the councillors strive to do their best for tho city. The lights and the thinking capacity of every councillor are not alike, so that the resultant work is bound to be checkered. I have been asked from time to n time if I knew of any "graft" or stealing of city goods or moneys by any officials or councillors and I have been pleased to answer that I knew of no such things. Tho only thing I ever saw that I did not approve of was a councillor signing a cheque for himself for goods he had supplied to the corporation. Fortunately the amount was within the limits of the law, but it would be discreet in officials to go elsewhere for tho goods, so as to avoid the possible stigma of patronage bv officials or a possible trap for some weak and unwary councillor. The great fault in tho wort of the council is want of personal responsibility. No councillor accepts responsibility for any expenditure incurred or pjiy work executed. Councillors come and go, meet arid discuss matters in committee and leave the chairman to instruct the town derk or the head of a department. The chairman accepts no responsi bihty, and frequently is not even familiar with the works on which his head of department is engaged,. and knows not his mistakes until they are pointed out to him. Councillors meet in council to deliberate upon matters settled in committee, and instead of devoting their minds to the best solution of the matter in hand frequently talk to the gallery. I have heard councillors say in open council .that the council spent thousands, of pounds foolishly. I never once heard anyone say that anv money/was dishonestly spent or that officials acted dishonestly. It was always foolishly, or badly, or extravagantly, or ignorantly spent; and with this conclusion I entirely agree. This, in my opinion, is conclusive evidence- of lack of personal responsibility, and the sooner we make someone responsible for all such mistakes the better for the city. It is quito impossible for the Mayor to be familiar with, all tho details and ramifications of so vast a concern as the affairs of the Dnnedin City Corporation, and so it is hopeless to make him alone responsible. Unpaid councillors will not accept responsibility, so only heads of departments remain. To make them responsible they must be given a free hand to employ or dismiss whom they please. If they -cannot then execute the various works entrusted to them to the best advantage, tho council would have excellent grounds to call them to questkffl, and to deal with them according to their demerits. Mayors, however, are human, and while in office they like to be possessed of as much power as possible. In the affairs of the City Council, as at present worked, it is possible for a strong-willed Mayor to bo the master of every situation. The council consists of 18 councillors and a Mayor. As the Mayor can exercise two votes in the cane of a tie, this makes 20 votes in a house of 19 members. To control this voting power it has been the policy of successive Mayors to increase the number of committees, as deemed advisable. At present there are nino committees, with ninj. chairmen. Both the committees and chairmen are arranged by tho Mayor: that seems to bo his prerogative. It is reasonable to suppose that the Mayor will not appoint anyone as chairman who he suspects would be openly hostile to him; hence the chairmen aro practically his Cabinet. To him they owe what little honour there is in their office, and when in council or out of it if he deliberately expresses a wish in a certain direction, it is rare indeed, in my exuerence, for the council to defeat the Mayor, as every chairman votes with—or, at least, is expected to irate with—the Mayor, thus reducing tho council to an autocracy, or one-man machine, of a very pernicious order. The electors may not be aware of tho autocracy thev support, but they havo merely to enter the Council Chamber and watch proceedings to be convinced of the truth.

Tho council can bo reformed and made to do its work much more efficiently than at present. As one of the councillors, I understand, has the matter in hand at present, we shall have the opportunity of seeing what their combined wisdom shall bring forth. That there is need for reform most councillors are agreed upon, but they lack something. There arc some neophytes and some opportunists always prwont, but there are several men at present in the council who have donned tho purple. We may look forward, therefore, with" interest to see which of them has sufficient courage to bell tho cat.