CITY GOVERNMENT

Taihape Daily Times, 20 January 1919, Page 7

CITY GOVERNMENT

THE COMMISSION SYSTEM

EXPERIENCE IN EXITED STATES

The American people are seeking to •simplify their city governments and • to make a few elected officers responsible to the voters for the right conduct of municipal affairs, says Professor Charles A. Beard, director of the Now York bureau of municipal research, in an article on municipal democracy in America. Perhaps the most significant change has been the complete abandonment by more than 300 cities of the traditional form of city government by “Mayor and council,” and the substitution of what is called “commission government.’’ The new form of goverment originated in Galveston, Texas, after a great storm ■ in 1900, which destroyed a large part of the city and nearly 6000 inhabj itants. For a time the administration lof the city was paralysed, and the \ I politicians who had been conducting j affairs in a wasteful and inefficent j manner were unable to cope with the problem:, of reconstruction. A committee of citizens, chosen to for- \ mulate a new charter, drafted an V instrument which vested Ihe cntiio 1 government in the hands of five men called “commissioners’’ These men, elected by popular vote, take the place of the old Mayor and council, and the managment of the entire city—the .making and enforcement of laws — is p > i acc 6 ru their hands. ■ The new government proved to bo \ |so effective in carrying on municipal j business that it was rapidly adopted jby other cities, until today at least I 300 cities have the commission sysj tom. The plan varies somewhat from j city to city, but the fundamental principle is the same everywhere — the concentration of the legislative and executive power 'of the city in the hands of a few men, usually five elected by voters. In the greater cities, like Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, the old plan of government by Mayor and council still obtains. In those cities the Mayor is elected by popular vote and the council is composed of members elected from the several wards or districts into which the city is divided. Phila- [ delphia even continues the ancient I practice of having a council of two j houses, modelled after the legislatures jof great nations. Even in the cities j that retain the Mayor |and (council , plan, the Mayor enjoys a large \ power of appointing the heads of city departments.