detailed consideration of the reports of the several cities on their financial administration. We believe that there can be no wise legislation with reference to the government of cities, unless it be possible for the officers of this State and especially for the Legislature and the Governor to be able at all times to know with definiteness and certainty the facts relative to the general condition of municipal administration in each of the cities and more particularly to the exact financial situation of each and all of them.

202. Decentralized Municipal Administration

This extract from the address of Mayor Hart to the Boston Municipal Council in 1891 describes the system of city administration commonly adopted when cities first began their remarkable growth in America. It has been by no means entirely abandoned to-day, but it is giving way everywhere before the demand for a more centralized and responsible form of government.

executive

I renew my recommendation for the consolidation of certain Diffusion of Executive Departments for the benefit of the public and the public power. service. The number of separate Departments directly controlled by the Mayor of the City is thirty-nine, with ninety-two separate heads, not including more than a hundred sub-heads or assistants subject to the Mayor's confirmation, and excluding, also, more than twenty-five hundred Executive appointments, made annually subject to confirmation in the Board of Aldermen. If the Mayor wishes to make his appointments from actual knowledge, sufficient time will not be left for administrative work and for the necessary inspection of the thirty-nine separate Departments under his control, not to mention the half-dozen independent Departments and special boards subject only to his general supervision. If the Mayor cannot readily keep familiar with the Departments, how can the plain citizen who comes to City Hall to transact business? The President of the United States has eight Cabinet officers, the Mayor of Boston has ninety-two.

We need a Board of Public Works forthwith, and other con

Divided responsibility in commissions.

Heads of departments should be appointed.

Annual elections

condemned.

solidations in time. There is no valid reason why the five Ferry Commissioners, established by Ordinance, should not be replaced by one Superintendent, to be appointed by the Mayor subject to confirmation in the Board of Aldermen. Mt. Hope Cemetery should be placed under similar control. I think one Record Commissioner sufficient. The Fire Department, the Law Department, the Park Department, the Public Institutions, and the entire Water Department should have one well-paid head each, threeheaded commissions tending to divide responsibility, and to give a less energetic and harmonious service than the public requires. The office of Fire Marshal, established by the Commonwealth, should be abolished, and its duties transferred to the Fire Department. In the Records, Fire, and Law Departments the simplification can be established by Ordinance. Constables should be appointed by the Board of Police. All weighers and measurers should be attached to the Department of Weights and Measures.

Heads of Departments should be appointed during good behavior, and all subordinates, save in a few cases, should come under the civil-service regulations of the Commonwealth, partly to abolish favoritism, that curse of government, partly to save time usually wasted when places in the public service are filled upon the request of interested persons. Officers appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Board of Aldermen, unless in charge of a Department established by Ordinance, should be appointed for one year only. At present Constables, Weighers of Coal, and other minor officers serve until removed, or until others are appointed in their respective places.

I think our present system of annually electing the entire City Government little less than barbarous. There is no sound reason why Mayors should not be elected for terms of two or three years, and why the members of the City Council should not be chosen for like terms, one-half or one-third to be voted for annually. In that way the City Council would become a perpetual body, and the annual elections would no longer give so unfortunate a shock to the public service and the interests of the City. Annual elections

as now held are neither instructive nor useful. Longer terms of elective officers are conservative and will place upon voters a greater duty.

203. The Mayor's Power in New York City

These sections of the New York charter, giving some of the principal powers conferred on the mayor, illustrate a leading tendency in American city government and show how that great metropolis has sought to concentrate authority and fix responsibility:

ecutive

power of

The executive power of The City of New York, as constituted The exby this act, shall be vested in the mayor, the presidents of the several boroughs and the officers of the several departments. The the city. mayor shall be the chief executive officer of the city; he shall be elected at the general election in the year nineteen hundred and five, and every four years thereafter, and shall hold his office for the term of four years commencing on the first day of January after his election. The salary of the mayor shall be fifteen thousand dollars a year.

removal

power.

The mayor may, whenever in his judgment the public interests The mayor's shall so require, remove from office any public officer holding office by appointment from a mayor of the City of New York, except members of the board of education, and aqueduct commissioners, trustees of the College of the City of New York, and trustees of Bellevue and allied hospitals, and except also judicial officers for whose removal other provision is made by the constitution. No public officer shall hold his office for any specific term, except as in this act is otherwise expressly provided. .

It shall be the duty of the mayor:

1. To communicate to the board of aldermen, at least once in each year, a general statement of the finances, government, and improvements of the city.

2. To recommend to the board of aldermen all such measures as he shall deem expedient.

3. To keep himself informed of the doings of the several depart

ments.

The mayor's duties.

The mayor's appointing power.

The commissioners of accounts.

4. To be vigilant and active in causing the ordinances of the city, and laws of the state to be executed and enforced, and for that purpose he may call together for consultation and co-operation any or all of the heads of departments.

5. And generally to perform all such duties as may be prescribed for him by this act, the city ordinances and the laws of the state.

The mayor shall appoint the heads of departments and all commissioners, except as otherwise provided in this act. He shall also appoint all members of any board or commission authorized to superintend the erection or repair of any building belonging to or to be paid for by the city, whether named in any law or appointed by any local authority, and also a commissioner of jurors for the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, inspectors of weights and measures, and as many sealers of weights and measures as may by ordinance be prescribed, and also the members of any other local board and all officers not elected by the people, whose appointment is not excepted or otherwise provided for. Every head of department and person in this section named shall, subject to the power of removal herein provided, hold his office for such term as is provided by this act, or otherwise, and in each case until a person is duly appointed, and has qualified, in his place.

The mayor shall appoint and remove at pleasure two persons who shall be commissioners of accounts, one of whom shall be a certified public accountant. It shall be their duty, once in three months, to make an examination of the receipts and disbursements in the offices of the comptroller and chamberlain, in connection with those of all the departments and officers making returns thereto, and report to the mayor a detailed and classified statement of the financial condition of the city as shown by such examinations. They shall also make such special examinations of the accounts and methods of the departments and offices of the city and of the counties of New York, Richmond, Queens and Kings, as the mayor from time to time may direct, and such other examinations as the said commissioners may deem for the best

interests of the city, and report to the mayor and the board of aldermen the results thereof. For the purpose of ascertaining facts in connection with these examinations they shall have full power to compel the attendance of witnesses, to administer oaths, and to examine such persons as they may deem necessary. Such commissioners shall each be paid the sum of five thousand dollars a year. The board of estimate and apportionment and the board of aldermen shall annually appropriate a sum sufficient to pay the salaries of said commissioners, and in the discretion of said board and the board of aldermen a sum sufficient to enable them to employ the necessary assistance to carry out the provisions of this section.

of the

mayor.

The mayor may be removed from office by the governor in the The removal same manner as sheriffs, except that the governor may direct the inquiry provided by law to be conducted by the attorney-general; and after the charges have been received by the governor, he may, pending the investigation, suspend the mayor for a period not exceeding thirty days.

204. The Council and Municipal Administration *

In January, 1909, the Boston Finance Commission, charged with the investigation of the conditions of government in that city, made a special report to the mayor and city council from which a few passages are given here:

The possession of concurrent power over appropriations and loans aggregating $25,000,000 a year and over the municipal ordinances for a population of 600,000 people would seem to furnish sufficient honor to make a seat in the city council an object of legitimate ambition, and to cause whatever sacrifice of time. may be involved to be looked upon as a civic duty. Membership in the city council, however, is quite generally regarded as a discredit rather than an honor; and it is difficult to induce representative men to become candidates for either branch.

The reason is not that the work and responsibilities of the city

Membership in the city council a discredit.