Tacoma City Council in Total Chaos
Local taxpayers move to overthrow the entire city government following a series of corruption charges and aggressive infighting between the council and the board of public works.
The board of public works, against which the city council has preferred charges of irregularities for failing to obey orders and properly let contracts, further offended the council today by refusing to investigate charges against Assistant Superintendent of Streets Shannon. For calling a council member a 'damn fool,' the council moved to prefer formal charges against him. In response, taxpayer W. H. Grattan, himself a councilman, filed a resolution arguing that because the mayor is accused of bossing the government, the board of public works faces charges of high crimes, and the council itself is accused of illegally blowing funds on Fourth of July parties and entertaining out-of-town editors, the city attorney should be instructed to institute proceedings for the 'overthrow and removal of the whole city government.' The council has indefinitely postponed action on the resolution but will arraign eight officials in September for various counts of fraud and mismanagement, including the misuse of city teams for private work.
“Resolved, That the city attorney be instructed by the taxpayers to institute proceedings for the overthrow and removal of the whole city government.”
Tacoma's 1892 political crisis, driven by mutual accusations of graft and incompetence, captures the early, tumultuous period of the city's incorporation. It is a striking historical echo of the perennial friction between professional administrative boards and populist city councils in Washington's evolving municipal history.
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