The Struggle for a Streamlined Seattle

No expression in Mayor Phelps' inaugural message struck a more sympathetic chord of popular approval than his declaration in favor of a complete revision of the city charter. On this point the concurrence of public sentiment approaches unanimity. The charter should be revised and revised so thoroughly that the altered instrument will be in fact a new charter rather than a revision of the old. The framers of the present city charter endeavored to frame a system of government which would be sufficient for the city for many years to come, however rapid might be its growth. In building on broad lines, they built too broadly for the narrow channel in which a city of the size of Seattle must run. They created a government altogether too expensive for the purses of the taxpayers and too cumbersome for the population to be governed. The framers of the charter fell into another serious error. In the endeavor to distribute responsibility, they succeeded so admirably that responsibility is not easily fixed on anybody in particular. The legislative power was entrusted to a council which needlessly consists of two houses. The executive power was apportioned among a number of non-partisan boards so well that, as has recently been well illustrated, a mayor may be made a helpless figurehead in his own administration.