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by this charter. Taxes to be uniform throughout the city and county. Sec. 5. The city and county to be at once formed into twelve distriets, equal in population, and each constituting an election precinct. Sec. 6. At the time of election for state officers, S. F. shall elect hereafter a president of the board of supervisors, a county judge, clerk, police judge, chief of police, sheriff, coroner, recorder, treasurer, auditor, collector, assessor, surveyor, superintendent of common schools, superintendent of streets, district attor- ney, two dock-masters, who shall continue in office two years; the office of harbor-master is abolished; further, for each district, one supervisor, one justice of the peace, and one school director, to continue in office two years; also one constable, one inspector and two judges of election, to hold office for one year. Each elector to vote only for one inspector and one judge of elec- tion, those having the highest votes to receive the offices. Sec. S. Hours at public offices to be from 9 A. M. to 5 P. M. from March to Sept .; in the other months from 10 to 4. Sec. 9. Vacancies in elective offices to be filled by ap- pointment from the board of supervisors till the following election; except for office of dock-masters, to which the governor appoints, and for sheriff, to which the court appoints. Sec. 10. The fees and compensation of sheriff, clerk, county judge, recorder, surveyor, treasurer, assessor, and dock-mas- ters remain as before, yet that of assessor not to exceed $5,000 a year, includ- ing expenses for clerks, etc .; dock-masters to receive $4,000 each a year; treasurer to receive commissions only on receipts, not on payments or trans- fers, and no allowance for clerks and incidentals; surveyor to receive $1,000 salary for all city and county work. Sec. 11. Auditor, police judge, attorney, and chief of police to receive $5,000 cach; supt of streets and of schools, $4,000 each; president of supervisors, $2,000; no fee or salary to school directors or supervisors; inspectors and judges of election, $12 each for each election. No
HIST. CAL., VOL. VI. 49
770
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO
The vigilance movement not only affected the choice and conduct of the officials who held power under
further allowance to any official for rents, fuel, etc., yet the necessary books for auditor, assessor, and supt of streets may be supplied by order of super- visors upon the treasury. Sec. 12. No board or official can contract any debt against the city or county. Sec. 13. The term of office under this act to com- mence on the Monday following the election, unless otherwise provided by law. Sec. 14. All officers must give bond, to be approved by judge, auditor, and supervisors; no banker, or his agent or relative, to be surety for any officer having the control of money; the surety must be worth twice the amount of his undertaking, above all other liabilities.
Art. II. Sec. 15. The police dept to be under direction of the chief of police, with the powers hitherto conferred on sheriffs. Sec. 19-20. The police judge to have the powers of recorders and justices of the peace, fol- lowing recorder's court proceedings; and to try offences against the regulations of supervisors. No appeals from his fines when not exceeding $20; his court to be a court of record, with a clerk appointed by the supervisors, at $1,200 a year. Sec. 22. Fines from the courts of police judge, sessions, and justices, to be paid into the treasury as part of the police fund. Courts have the option of imposing labor on public works, instead of fines and imprisonment, counted at the rate of $I per day. Sec. 23-4. The chief of police, in con- junction with president of supervisors and police judge, to appoint four police captains, each from a different district, and not exceeding 30 police officers, from the different districts, each recommended by 12 freeholders. Sec. 25. Pay of captains, $1,800; of officers, $1,200 a year. Sec. 27. Provisional polic may be appointed for 24 hours, without pay, in cases of emergency.
Art. III. Sec. 30-5 concern schools. Of the school act, May 3, 1855, secs. 19-24 are inapplicable. The petition of 50 heads of white families in any district justify the establishment of a school.
Art. IV. Sec. 36-64 concern streets and highways. The grading, paving, planking, sewering, etc., of streets to be done at the expense of the lots on each side of the street; grading may be opposed by one third of interested prop- erty holders. Property seized for money due on street work to be sold for a term of years.
Art. V. Sec. 65-74 concern supervisors. Their president must sign all ordinances, yet such may be passed over his veto by two thirds of the super- visors. All contracts for building, printing, prison supplies (the latter not exceeding 25 cts per day for each person daily), to be awarded to the lowest reliable bidder. The taxation, exclusive of state and school tax, shall not ex- ceed $1.25 per cent on assessed property. The school tax must not exceed 35 cents per cent. Appointments of public agents or officers, which so far have been made by nomination from the mayor with confirmation from the common council, are to be made by confirmation of the supervisors on nomi- nation of their president. In addition to regular duties and powers, the supervisors may provide ways and means for sustaining city claims to pueblo lands.
Art. VI. Sec. 75-98 relate to finance. Fines, penalties, and forfeitures for offences go to the police fund; likewise 40 per cent of the poll-tax, or such proportion as may be assigned to the city and county; this fund to be aided by the general fund of S. F., if required, the latter fund consisting of unas- signed moneys and the surplus from special funds. Taxes may be paid at one per cent above par value, with audited salary bills of school-teachers, interest coupons on funded debt of S. F., and audited demands on the treas- ury as per sec. 88. Expenditures for fire dept, exclusive of salaries, are lim- ited to $8,000 a year; expenditures not specified by the act must not exceed $70,000 a year from the surplus fund of the corresponding year alone. Sched- ule, sec. 1-10. Until the next general election the present county auditor shall act for S. F., and the present city marshal to act as chief of police, and
571
PEOPLE'S PARTY.
this charter from July to November,31 but out of it sprang the people's party,32 composed of vigilance syin-
the present city surveyor as superint. of streets, and the present mayor as police judge, and the present justices of the peace as supervisors, electing president and clerk, all with the power, duties, and compensation prescribed in this act. The police force to be immediately reduced according to this aet. The board of education of the city to act till the general election. Then shall be elected for city and county a president of supervisors, police judge, chief of police, auditor, tax collector, and superint. of streets, and for the several districts the supervisors, school directors, justices of the peace, constables, and inspectors and judges of election, and all vacancies in elective offices are then to be filled. This act to take effect on and after July Ist. Sec. 9. San Mateo county to be formed out of the southern part of S. F. county; county seat and county officers to be elected on the second Monday in May 1856, as per subdiv. 5-15; a special tax levy not exceeding 50 cents on $100, to be applied to a jail and county house; the ordinary taxation, exclusive of state and school tax, must not exceed 50 cents on $100; no debt to be contracted. For text, see C'al. Statutes, 1856, 145 et seq .; S. F. Consolid. Act.
The main object of the charter, economy, is insured by several provisions, such as the specification of items of expenditure, the legal restriction on pay- ments, the exclusion of contingent expenses, the offer of contracts to lowest bidder, the assignment of street work to owners of property concerned, so as to restrict price as well as extravagance. Aside from the guardianship pos- sessed by each district in its supervisor and recommended police, each party obtained representation through the manner of electing election judges. The several good points of the document do not, however, excuse its defects, which have subsequently found recognition in a host of material amendments, as will be noticed in my next volume. Although S. F. chiefly originated and benefited by the debt contracted for the county, yet the segregated San Mateo should have been assigned a just share. The text of the document is verbose, straggling, and involved, altogether unworthy of so important an act.
Mr Hawes, once prefect of S. F. county, who introduced the bill in the assembly, was mobbed by partisans of disappointed plunderers. The defects of the early charter, or rather the grievances and aspirations of the eighth ward, had in 1853 led to a revision, greatly affecting squatters, which was defeated in six wards, yet carried by the majority of the eighth, only to be lost in the legislature. Text in S. F. New Charter, 1853, 1-24. Out of this grew a duel between Alderman Hayes and Editor Nugent, the latter being again wounded. S. F. Whig, June 11, 1853; S. F. Post, Aug. 3, 1878; Alta Cal., Apr. 15, 1853, etc., claimed that the charter vote was 'stuffed.' The revision question continued in agitation, however, and resulted in the passage of a reincorporation act, approved May 5, 1855, which greatly checked expen- diture. Under this charter was elected Mayor Van Ness and his colleagues, who held office from July 1855. Cal. Statutes, 1855, 251-67, 284; S. F. Ordi- nances, 1833-4, 509; S. F. New Charter, Scraps, Sac. Union, Apr. 28-30, 1855, etc. Changes in ward boundaries may be examined in S. F. Directories, 1852, p. 67; 1854, p. 177; 1856, p. 137, etc.
31 It embraced the county officials, two of the old city staff and a few newly elected men, notably four justices of the peace, who assisted to form the provisional board of supervisors, under G. J. Whelan as president, the mayor being transformed into police judge, according to the schedule of the charter.
32 Which recognized among evils, rotation in office, connection with gen- eral party politics of state and nation, etc. Some even advocated officers elected exclusively by tax-payers for managing finances. Jury duty was upheld as sacred, etc. Dempster's Vig., MS., 17-20. Coon's Annals, M.S., 6-12.
772
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
pathizers, who organized a nominating committee of twenty-one prominent citizens to select efficient and worthy candidates for office, regardless of political creeds and other irrelevant distinctions. This ticket headed by E. W. Burr as president of the board of supervisors, with H. P. Coon for police judge, D. Scannell for sheriff, and W. Hooper for treasurer and collector,33 received the approval of electors, and it was justified by the sweeping reforms carried out midst great obstacles, by an economic administration which reduced expenses to the extraordinarily low figure of $353,300 for the year, or less than one sixth of the amount for 1854-5,34 and by a purification of the city hall from partisan trickery and other disre- putable elements.
Under the heedless rush of expenditure which be- gan in 1850, as noticed in a preceding chapter, em- bracing monstrous self-voted salaries to aldermen, and squandering and peculation under the guise of grading, building, and other operations, a debt of over one mil- lion had been contracted in about a year, which was rapidly growing under a heavy interest of thirty-six per cent, and the excessive charges demanded in view of depreciated scrip payments and prospective deficits.35 Alarmed at the pace, a number of conscientious men bestirred themselves to obtain, not alone the new charter of April 1851, which should restrain such ex- travagance, but an act to fund the debt on the reason- able basis of ten per cent interest, redeemable from a preferred fund within twenty years.36 Under this,
33 C. R. Bond, assessor; E. Mickle, auditor; J. F. Curtis, chief of police; H. Kent, coroner; T. Hayes, county clerk; F. Kohler, recorder; H. H. Byrne, attorney; Cheever and Noyes, to the uselessly double office of dock- master; J. C. Pelton, supt of schools; B. O. Devoe, supt of streets. The supervisors for the twelve districts were, in numerical order, C. Wilson, W. A. Darling, W. K. Van Allen, M. S. Roberts, S. Merritt, C. W. Bond, H. A. George, N. C. Lane, W. Palmer, R. G. Sneath, J. J. Denny, S. S. Tilton.
3+ Perhaps the retrenchment was too severe, for gas and other needfuls were stopped for a while, and streets, schools, etc., suffered somewhat.
3ª The corporation property would at a forced sale have realized barely one third of the indebtedness.
36 Under act of May 1, 1851, accordingly a commission was appointed, em-
773
FUNDED DEBT.
bonds were issued for $1,635,600 out of the two mil- lions due. Among those who refused to surrender their scrip was Peter Smith,37 who procured judg- ments against the city and began to levy upon its property. Instead of raising money, as they could have done, for settling the claim, the badly advised commissioners proclaimed the levy illegal and fright- ened away buyers from the sale, so that the few daring speculators and schemers who bought the property, to the amount of some two millions, including wharves, water lots, and the old city hall, obtained it for a trifle, as low as one fiftieth of the value in some instances. A large proportion of the sales were confirmed, and over the rest hung for years a depressing cloud which added not a little to the sacrifice.38 The county debt was funded in 1852 to the amount of $98,700 at seven per cent interest, payable in ten years. 39
Special loans being permitted under the charter, bonds were issued two years later for $60,000 to aid the struggling schools, and for $200,000 on behalf of the fire department, with interest at seven and ten
bracing P. A. Morse, D. J. Tallant, W. Hooper, J. W. Geary, and J. King of WVm, to issue stock and manage the interest and the sinking fund formed by a preferred treasury assignment of $50,000. The salary of the commissioners was $1,200 each, the prest and sec. receiving $300 more. City property re- quired for municipal purposes was forever exempt from sale. All city prop- erty was to be conveyed to the commissioners. Cal. Statutes, 1851, 387-91; Petition for, etc. Id., Jour. Sen., p. 1820; Id., House, p. 1463-6; S. F. Floating Debt. Mem .; Alta Cal., Jan. 22, Apr. 1, 1851; Sac. Transcript, Feb. 1, 1851. Most holders accepted the stock, although not bound to do so; a few who held aloof or lived abroad were finally paid in full.
37 Who had in 1850 contracted to care for the destitute sick of the city at $4 per day. His claim now was $64,431.
38 The sales took place on July 7, Sept. 17, 1851; Jan. 2, 30, 1852. Among the last was a belt of 600 ft beyond the existing water-front, which brought $7,000. People treated them as a farce, but the aspect changed when in- junctions were issued against the commissioners effort to dispose of the prop- erty. A compromise was offered in Feb. 1852, but failed, owing to the hostile attitude of the council in refusing to support it. The commissioners were widely blamed, some hinting at secret connivance with the plunderers, but they no doubt acted in good faith under the legal advice given. The state in- stituted snit against them for 25 per cent of the sold water lots. Had all claimants joined in Smith's procedure, the lack of available means for the total would have frustrated it. Alta Cal., Nov. 24-Dec. 10, 1852, March 30 1853, is especially full of comments.
39 By act of May 4, 1852, S. R. Harris, F. D. Kohler, and O. Frank being commissioners, who received $500 each for their work, and the sec. $1,500. For sinking fund, etc., see Cal. Laws, 1850-3, p. 365-7.
774
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
per cent respectively, and redeemable within about twelve years. Meanwhile the administration had again relapsed from the momentary fit of economy in 1851, with a consequent accumulation of fresh city warrants to the amount of $2,059,000; but as this sum had been swelled largely by Meiggs' forgeries and other doubtful means, it was compounded under a funding act of 1855, for $329,000 in bonds, bearing six per cent interest, and redeemable in 1875.40 The management of the different debts proved satisfactory, with a steady increase of the sinking funds, besides punctual payment of interest and a partial redemption, so that the final settlement seemed assured.41 The obligations connected with these bonds alone absorbed fully one third of the regular revenue as established in 1856, and accounted in a measure for the ever-recur- ring excess of expenditure, notwithstanding the liberal tax levy, as shown in the annexed note.42
40 Act of May 7, 1855, authorized the council to appoint three citizens as a board of examiners, at the same time the mayor, controller, and treas- urer acting as commissioners at $1,200 each a year. The sinking fund to be started in 1865. Cal. Statutes, 1855, 285-7. A repudiation, Hittell, S. F., 227, terms it. In April 1855 the scrip was quoted at 61-2 cts. By ordinances of Sept. 22, 1853, and Dec. 1, 1853. The school bond sinking fund received $5,000 a mually; that of the fire bonds, $16,666; the respective date of redemption was Nov. I, 1865, and Dec. I, IS66. S. F. Ordin., 1853, 400, 512-13, etc.
#1 By the middle of 1856 the debt of 1851 had been reduced by $136, 600, and the county bonds were redeemed before half the term ha l expired, at a discount of 25 per cent. The city had so far expended for the debt for IS5I $1, 196, 117, chiefly for interest, less than $200,000 going to the sinking fund. The interest on the other three bonds had absorbed $48,367. Then there was a mortgage on the city hall of $27,792, and 827,792 due on the purchase, while the outstanding three per cent monthly serip of IS51 and audited warrants loomed above. Compare statements in S. F. Municipal Reports also of 1859, 1869, etc., and abstracts in journals following the quarter and annual treasury reports, with synopsis in S. F. Bulletin, Oct. 8, 1855; Aug. 2, 1856, etc .; Merc. Gaz., Aug. 10, 1860; Alta Cal., May 16, 1853; June 27, July 7, 1856; S. F. Herald, id., etc .; Sac. Union, Feb. 19, March 14, Apr. 23, July 14, 1855, etc.
42 The rates of taxation since 1850 were:
Year.
City.
County.
State.
Total. $2.00
1850-1
$1.00
$0.50
$0.50
1851-2
2.45
1.15
.50
4.10
1852-3
2.45
1.663
.30
4.413
1853-4
2.00
1.283
.60
3.88
1854-5
2.15
1.101
.60
3.855
1855-6
2.33}
.82]
.70
3.855
6
1856-7.
1.60
.70
2.30
The quarterly licenses under charter of 1851 were from $50 to $100 on auction and commission business with dealings from $25,000 a year downward, and
775
FIRES AND BUILDINGS.
Out of the sweeping conflagrations of her early years, San Francisco had emerged a transformed $150 on dealings above $50,000; merchants and manufacturers paid about } to § more, and wholesale liquor dealers $10 above this. Bar-rooms paid $20 on business below $2,000 per month, and $60 and $100 for limits of $4,000 and over; restaurants and coffee-houses $25; brokers $50; pedlers $100, ex- cept when selling produce raised within the corporate limits; omnibuses $15, two-horse hacks $10, and wagons $8; gambling-houses $50; billiard and bowling halls $25 for each table or alley. S. F. Manual, 1852, 30 et seq.
These sources yielded for:
Year.
City Taxes.
Municipal Licenses.
County Taxes. $119,028
State Taxes and Licenses. $137,003
$478,635
1851-2 ..
3.5,661
276,835
122,632
102,520
810,648
1852-3 ..
397,033
328,039
313,217
93,583
1,131,872
1853-4. ...
592,240
188,508
419,378
210,339
1,410,473
1854-5 ....
582,732
103,784
389,620
291,896
1,368,022
1855-6 ....
424,766
33,054
244,337
180,019
S82,176
1856-7
290,846
59,927
146,959
497,732
The state licenses averaged about $23,000 a year except for 1854-5, when they reached $108,479; and the poll-tax about $3,000 annually for 1850-5, except 1852-3, when $11,833 was obtained; the rest of the state receipts in S. F. co. came from property tax.
The assessed value of property was:
Year.
Real Estate.
Improvements. Personal Prop.
Included
$4,772,160
Totals. $21,621,214
1851-2 .. . . 11,141,463
2,875,440
14,016,903
1852-3.
15,676,356
in personal.
2,805.381
18,481,757
1853-4 .. .. 17,889,850
$6,158,300
4,852,000
28,900,150
1854-5 ... 19,765,285
9,159,935
5,837,607
34,762, 827
1855-6.
18,607,800
8,394,925
5,073,847
32,076,572
1856-7. . .. 17,827,617
8,345,667
4,194,970
30,368,254
The expenditure stood as follows:
Year.
City.
County. $118,988
$1,813,447
1851-2
340,628
115,704
456,332
1852-3.
716,302
292.727
1,009,029
1853-4.
1,440,792
391,033
1,831,825
1354-5.
2,167,227
478,963
2,646,190
1855-6.
525,633
330,487
856,120
1856-7.
As compared with 1853-5 the items for 1856-7 show the following large reductions:
Year 1853-4.
Year 1854-5. $909,948
Year 1856-7. $605
Street dept.
.$479,093
Wharf purchase
265,314
61,119
Salaries .
252,898
320,345
76,244
Hospital dept.
213,364
278,328
40,350
Police and prison
149,305
236,690
59,266
Fire dept. .
126,607
263,120
33,014
School dept.
62,033
137,834
85,323
Advertising and stationery ....
46,144
65,231
344
Assessment expenses.
32,314
45,011
7,292
Legal service.
28,254
31,821
10,700
Elections.
21,669
22,920
784
Street lights
11,692
44,204
Sundries, old debts, etc.
143,138
209,619
39,360
$1,831,825
$2,646,190
$353,292
Totals.
1850-1 ...
-$163,013
$59,591
1850-1.
.$16,849,054
Totals.
1850-1
$1,694,459
353,292
776
ANNALS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
city,43 vaster and more substantial, yet with marked peculiarities, as in half cut away hills and curious grades, and in the business centre by a fortress-like architecture of massive walls, recessed windows, and forbidding iron shutters, to defy the flames. The era of tents and shanties passed into one of brick and granite, 44
See anthorities of preceding note. The Annals S. F., 393-4, calculates that the taxation, including indirect customs duties, was in 1851-2 $45 per head of city population. List of large tax-payers and mortgages in Hunt's Mag., xxxii. 619; Alta Cal., Dec. 13, 1855; Sac. Union, Oct. 4, 1855, etc.
43 As described in the preceding chapter on the city. After 1851, only minor fires took place, the largest of which, on Nov. 9, 1852, destroyed some 32 buildings in the block between Merchant and Clay sts, east of Kearny, val- ned at $100,000. The fire-proof city hall block checked the flames. The Rassette house, corner of Bush and Sansome, burned May 2, 1853, value $100,000. Several of the 416 boarders were injured. The St Francis hotel burned in Oct. 1853. See, further, S. F. Fire Dept Scraps, 12-14; Alta Cal., June 14, 1855; July 28, 1856.
44 Brick fields were established, yet bricks came long from the cheaper and superior sources of Australia, N. Y., etc., lava from Hawaii, granite from China. The first granite-faced building was erected, with Chinese aid, by J. Parrott in 1852, completed in Nov., at a cost of $117,000. It was the three- story building, 68 by 102 feet, on the N. w. corner of Montgomery and Cali- fornia st, at first occupied by Adams & Co. and Page, Bacon, & Co. A still larger building of the same type, four stories high, 62 by 68 feet, rose on the N. E. corner, completed Jan. 1854, costing $180,000. It was occupied by Wells, Fargo, & Co., and the Pioneer Society. Views of both, in S. F. Annals, 415, 514; Montgomery's Remin., MS., 1-2; U. S. Census, Tenth, x. 352-3. The Folsom quarries were opened soon after to add material for houses as well as cobble paving. Sac. Union, June 14, 1856. Among other notable buildings erected by this time were the Montgomery block, on Mont. st, between Wash- ington and Merchant, completed in Dec. 1853, 4 stories, 122 by 138 feet, so far the largest and finest block on the Pacific; Rassette house, on the corner of Bush and Sansome, 5 stories, with 200 rooms, the largest edifice of the kind; the city hall, 3 stories, 74 by 125 feet, costing $240,000 as transformed; custom- house block of 1853, s. E. corner of Sansome and Sacramento, 3 stories, 80 by 185 ft, costing $140,000; Bay State row, Battery near Bush, 175 ft square, 50 ft high, costing $140,000; Orleans row of 1853, N. w. corner California and Davis, 2 stories, 50 varas square, cost $135,000; Armory Hall of 1853, N. E. corner Montgomery and Sacramento, 4 stories, 60 ft square, $125,000; Masonic Hall, Montgomery st, between Sacramento and California, of 1853, 4 stories, 40 by 50 ft, $125,000, including the land; the Empire of 1852, s. w. corner of California and Battery, 2 stories, 89 by 184 ft, $110,000; Merchant-street block, between Montgomery and Kearny, of 1853, 3 stories, 50 ft square, $100,000, including land; Phoenix block of 1852, Clay st, between Montgom- ery and Kearny, 3 stories, 50 by 180 ft, $105,000; the post-office of 1850, N. E. corner Kearny and Clay, 2 stories, 87 by 90 ft, $98,000; Maynard row of 1852, N. w. corner California and Battery, 2 stories, 70 by 182 ft, $85,000; the Battelle of 1853, Montgomery, between Clay and Commercial, 5 stories; court block of Jan. 1854, Clay near Kearny, 3 stories, 41 by 108 ft; Howard's of 1850, which had escaped many fires, 4 stories; Naglee's of IS51, s. w. Montgomery and Merchant, 3 stories, 40 by 137 ft; Riddle's of 1853, Clay near Leidesdorff, 3 stories, 50 by 90 ft; Merchant's exchange, on Battery, an imposing edifice. The not very pretentious custom-house building on Battery st, completed in Oct. 1855, cost over $850,000
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