The Star Chamber Water Loan Scandal
Tacoma city officials met behind locked doors to authorize the use of water extension funds for speculative warrant purchases, sparking threats of injunctions.
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.
City Treasurer Boggs secured an option this evening on the $350,000 water extension sack. The plan is to let him cash in $250,000 or more in city warrants. By a vote of ten to four, it was decided in executive session by the city council to remove all restrictions and give the treasurer a chance to buy up warrants as extensively as his judgment dictates. Boggs was the only man present outside of the city clerk and fourteen members, and the doors were locked. It was strictly a council of star chamber. Councilman Boardman had taken legal advice and outlined a plan for enjoining the city if it was thought illegal to divert the fund from the purpose for which it was voted. Councilman Harris gave notice that he would enjoin. All the propositions for depositories and taking the fund out of the hands of Boggs and his friends were deftly sidetracked. If the money is used outright in cashing warrants, then the city will suffer a water famine next year, as there will be no available funds for extension.
“It was strictly a council of star chamber.”
This incident captures the persistent tension between public utility funding and speculative municipal finance in Washington's boom-and-bust era. The struggle over who controls the 'water sack' mirrors modern debates regarding the diversion of municipal bonds and levies from their intended civic infrastructure purposes.
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