The 'Kicker' of the City Council
A councilman breaks his silence to accuse the Yakima city government of blatant corruption and insider contracting.
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.
I realize when a man accepts a public office he is subject to criticism by the press, and I am willing to receive my share of censure, but as a councilman I think you have been giving me allopathic doses of medicine while the balance get the mild homeopathic potion. I do object to such things as Councilman John Reed making a report that Front street should be opened up, at a cost estimated by himself at $60 to $75, and immediately after council meeting make a contract with the chairman of the committee to do the work for $80 and next meeting present his bill and have it referred to the finance committee, of which he is a member, and when the 'yeas' and 'noes' are called vote for his own bill. This is against parliamentary usage, violates common decency, and I think in most states is a crime. The idea of one dollar out of every eight that the taxpayer turns into the treasury must be paid out to the members of the council is not right in my judgment. You may form 'rings' and 'combines,' but very soon the man who follows the plow and swings the hammer will have some say about our government.
“You may form 'rings' and 'combines,' but very soon the man who follows the plow and swings the hammer will have some say about our government.”
J. Jay Chambers' 1891 letter to the editor regarding 'rings and combines' in city government highlights a perennial tension in local politics: the balance between developer-led growth and public accountability. Even over a century later, questions of conflict-of-interest and who benefits from municipal contracts remain central to civic engagement in rapidly growing cities like Yakima.
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