The Struggle to Fix Seattle's 'Cumbersome' City Charter
Mayor J. T. Ronald argues that Seattle's government is too costly, fragmented, and better suited for a city many times its current size.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The mayor has at last taken the first step looking to a revision of the present cumbersome city charter by addressing a communication on the subject to the city council. It is certainly to be hoped that the matter will receive the immediate and careful consideration that its importance warrants.
The mayor sums up his objections to the charter as it now stands as follows: 'In attempting to hedge against, or to curtail powers and divide responsibility, it practically places power everywhere and responsibility nowhere. It is adapted to cities having many times the population of ours and, therefore, in many respects it should be made more elastic, so that it can be applied to our present needs and likewise to meet our great requirements, from time to time, in the future. For the present the municipal machinery is too costly and cumbersome for a city of this size.'
The principal reforms proposed by the mayor are the abolition of one branch of the city council, a reorganization of the board of public works and the abolition of the police, fire and park commissions. The mayor further suggests that the city ought to have a special officer to act as purchasing agent. 'Our experience completely demonstrates,' he says, 'that the present plan has not worked well. The city of Seattle pays for everything she purchases more than any of her private citizens pay for goods, wares and merchandise purchased from the same vendors.' All of these suggestions are in the right line. What the people want is a simple municipal government, because such a government would do away with a host of useless officials and save expense.
“In attempting to hedge against, or to curtail powers and divide responsibility, it practically places power everywhere and responsibility nowhere.”
The perpetual tension between centralizing administrative power and maintaining neighborhood representation has defined Seattle's civic history from the 1890s to the current Charter Review Commission debates. Ronald's 1893 critique of a 'cumbersome' government mirrors the persistent modern frustration with the city's complex, overlapping bureaucracy.
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