The Unincorporated City of Seattle

To the Hon. the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Seattle: The undersigned, to whom was referred the petition of John S. Anderson and sixty-nine others, praying that the inhabitants of certain territory therein described be organized into a City Government, hereby report as follows: The territory described in said petition is embraced within the corporate limits of the City of Seattle. It appears from the written statement of thirty-eight of the signers that it was signed by them through mistake and misapprehension, and they direct that their names be stricken therefrom. For these reasons, the petition should be rejected. This report might properly be closed here, but owing to the very peculiar and delicate situation in which we are placed in regard to our City Government, I submit the following: In order to avoid the effect of a decision of the District Court in the case of the City of Seattle vs. H. L. Yesler, wherein it was held that the Territorial Assembly could not create a city by special act, we have been seeking relief through Congressional legislation and the passage of a general incorporation act. There is a constant menace hanging over the head of the city and city officers, and certain disaffected individuals, always to be found in any community, lose no opportunity to embarrass and obstruct the due administration of municipal laws. As a necessary consequence, the city suffers, its finances are deranged, taxes are unfair, and the city scrip is depreciated. Under all the circumstances, I am strongly inclined to the opinion that the time has arrived when it is advisable to make use of the General Incorporation Act, by reorganizing under it, and therefore recommend the serious consideration of such movement to your honorable body.