Seattle’s First Great Austerity Drive
Facing municipal budget woes in 1885, the City Council slashed worker salaries and abandoned the investigation into a scandal involving the Police Chief.
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.
Seattle City Council met pursuant to adjournment. Present: The Mayor, John Leary, and Councilmen Graham, Fowler, Snyder, Harrington, Buchart and Crockett. In order to reduce the indebtedness of the road fund, it was ordered that one-half of the receipts of the city fund be transferred to the road fund. The Council then proceeded to fix the rate of tax levy for the year 1885. The Committee on Salaries made the following recommendations: First, that the salary of Treasurer and Clerk of Council be reduced to $600 per annum. Second, that the salary of the City Marshal be fixed at $1,200 per annum, out of which he shall pay his deputies. Third, that the salary of Police Officers be reduced to $75 dollars per month. It was ordered that the salary of the Treasurer be fixed at $1,000 per year. Councilman Fye stated that it was now the eleventh hour of the present Council, and that the Council would not meet long enough to act through the trial of that officer [Chief Weathery] before the close of the term; therefore he moved that the charges pending against Chief Weathery be dismissed. The motion was seconded by Councilman Frye, and on calling the roll it was carried.
“It was ordered that the salary of the Treasurer and Clerk of Council be reduced to $600 per annum.”
In 1885, Seattle’s fiscal belt-tightening came at the expense of its civil servants and public accountability, shelving a police scandal to save time and money. Today, Seattle still grapples with the tension between austerity, the high cost of living for public workers, and the demand for transparent civic oversight.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.