The First Step Toward Public Power
City council members consider the radical move of bringing electricity under public ownership rather than relying on private franchises.
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.
Resolved by the board of aldermen and the house of delegates of the city of Seattle, in city council assembled: that a joint committee of the city council, consisting of three members of each house, be appointed to investigate the question of the best means of lighting the streets of the city and for that purpose to take into consideration the advisability of the city's owning and controlling its own electric light plant, and to report their findings to the council as soon as practicable, with their recommendations and with an estimate of the cost of a suitable electric light plant to provide the streets of the city with sufficient light by means of a public system to be owned and controlled by the city.
“Take into consideration the advisability of the city's owning and controlling its own electric light plant.”
This resolution marks the beginning of a long-standing Seattle tradition of public utility ownership, which would eventually lead to the formation of Seattle City Light. It mirrors ongoing discussions today about how much control municipalities should have over essential utility infrastructure in an age of privatization.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.