BOROUGH CONTROL.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 February 1923, Page 5

BOROUGH CONTROL.

THE MANAGER SCHEME. ABOLISHED FROM MAY 15. COUNCIL’S DECISION UNANIMOUS. REPLY BY MB. BELLRINGER. The Nev? Plymouth Borough Council decided lost night to abolish the present general manager scheme, which was inaugurated some three years ago, as from May 15 next. There was a full attendance of councillors, and the decision was unanimous. The Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson) moved the abolition of the scheme, and each councillor supported the Mayor. Mr. F. T. Bellringer, the general manager, was given the opportunity of being heard, and he read for nearly an hour from a statement which he had prepared, and in which he made allegations of “star chamber” methods on the part of the Council. ‘‘lt is the wish of most of you,” said the Mayor, “that we should to-night take inro consideration the continuance or otherwise of the system known as the general manager scheme, which, as you know, was brought into operation by the last Council at the end of 1919, and which it was decided should run for three years and thereafter until terminated by three months’ notice. The Council, during the negotiations which have been going on—negotiations which were prejudiced by public discussion .it the lime—decided to hold oyer the matter until January. A letter was also received from sundry ratepayers asking that if my action was taken it rhou.-d be so taken as to be reviewable by them at the election, in April. That was a perfectly reasonable request, as the Council is only the representative of the ratepayers. NEVER SUPPORTED IT. “To bring the matter up,” the Mayor continued, “I move that the system adopted by the Council in November, 1919, of conducting the affa : rs of the Council through a general manager, be discontinued as from May 15, 1923, which will be three weeks after the elections. If the ratepayers then say that they wish the present system to be continued, it will bo settled; and, what is more, it will be settled for a long time. In moving the resolution, I want to say that • while I was not a member of the I Council at that time, as a ratepayer I did not approve of it. I have never.varied that opinion. My objections are based on the system obtaining throughout New Zealand under the Municipal Corporations Act, under which the affairs of the borough are vested in the Council, and if people , stand for election to the Council they must bo prepared, in my humble opinion, to undertake all matters coming before them and deal with them. I make that statement bc&iise I believe that one of tho main reasons actuating the Council was a desire to relieve councillors of as much work as possible.

‘There has been a point made that the system has been in operation in many parts of America and that it is a success there. I may say that I am in favor of the system which the Municipal Conference laid • ’before the Government, of appointing one j or two able men to run the boroughs and I do away with mayors or councillors alto- } gether; but while wc have a council and 1 mayor elected by the ratepayers, we all know that the theory does not work out in practice. We are continually called upon outside this chamber to account for our actions or to meet the wishes of the ratepayers in one way or another. Unless we do control I cannot understand how we can do this. OPINION OF OFFICERS. “The desire of the Council three yearn ago was to do away with all committees except finance and to have a general purposes committee, which would be open to the Press and public. In addition to that, the sundry sub and standing committees were set up, under which the business of the Council was prepared, with a member of the Council and the heads of the departments. I must frankly say that I was against that and have not given effect to it. So long as I have been Mayor I have set my face against any officer of the Council having a say in a Council or committee meeting, as a right. The whole thing, to my idea, is opposed to democratic government. For that reason alone I object. Now, in the particular arrangement adopted by the council at the time, it was proposed that the heads of departments should continue to control their departments as before, subject, to the control of the general manager. It. seems to me that the only change which was made was to interpose an officer between the heads of some of the departments and the Council, which to my mind is quite unnecessary.” The Mayor then moved the resolution. Cr. J. Kibby seconded. He said that having served as a councillor under the general managership scheme, and as a councillor prior to the inauguration of the scheme, he failed to see any improvement; in fact he did not think that the affJrs of the borough were conducted in as good a manner. He was not as satisfied with the Council’s work this time as he was when he started ten years ago. He would certainly say that, as a representative of the ratepayers, it was his business to be conversant with all the works going on. He thought the abolition of the scheme a move in the right direction. At this stage Mr. Bellringer stated that he would like the opportunity to speak. He made the request then so that councillors would have the opportunity of hearing him either before they expressed their views or after, as they wished.

The Mayor said that he had an understanding with Mr. Bellringer that he would be given an opportunity to speak.

“NO REAL NEED.” Cr. T. N. Blackhall said he was always of opinion that a joint managership and town clerkship or secretaryship would never work to the best advantage and for the general good of the community, or a body of directors.’ Many instances could be quoted where the scheme had failed to act as the general opinion thought it would. The general manager simply filled a gap between the heads of departments and the Corneil, and there was no real need for the Council to have a general manager. If it was, there was no need for a Council. The time had arrived, he considered when, if New Plymouth could not appoint men to run the business of the borough without a general manager, it was time to appo’nt two or three men to run the whole of the work and allow the town clerk to be a distinct office. The town clerk, who had been principally engaged in book work, could not be expected to have an understanding of street work, reading,

levelling, quantities of metal, etc., such as would be had by an experienced man. In Mr. Bellringer the Council had an ideal town clerk —he would not say it had not an ideal general manager: but he was of opinion that the office should not exist in the New Plymouth borough. Cr. R. A. Large said the general manager was supposed to procure greater efficiency and economy, but the conditions had not improved in the past two years. Perhaps the Council was now more active than was formerly the' ca§e.

Cr. J. Brown said he would support the motion. “I didn’t like the system before I came on the Council, and I like it less since I have bucn on,” he said. “A great deal has been said about, the way they do things in America and I may say from the beginning that I am not going to follow America in many things they do, particularly in politics, local or otherwise. As far as I know, we are the only people who have tried this experiment. I take it that, it was tr’ed as an experiment. There was nothing to guide people us to whther it would be a good system or a bad one.” To his mind, the general manager—he was not speaking in a personal manner, —must be a general engineer, an electrical engineer and a tramway expert; and he did not think they could get all these qualities in one man. As far as the present general manager was conccrnd it was impossible. He had known Mr. Bellringer for many years, and as far as he. (Cr. Brown) was concerned, he had nothing against him as town clerk, but he would not accent his dictum on road work. They were paying £3OO or £4OO a year for benefits which he could not see. He was totally opposed to the general manager scheme, whether under Mr. Bellringer or anyone else. OTHER VIEWS. ‘‘l want to say, as one of the old Counc.l which supported Mr. Bellringer as general manager,” said Cr. R. L. Parkin “that the Mayor is correct in one of his reasons as to why the general manager was appointed. At that time the hydro works were being commenced, and the then Mayor and councillors were called upon to give a great deal of time to council business, and 1 think that they were called upon to give too much time. I agree that a general manager is not wanted while you have a council. The present, council has been a very live one and has taken a very keen interest in its work. The idea I had in support’ng the appointment was that the work of the Council, particularly in regard to the civil engineering, would be done more promptly. I don’t think that has been 90— what has been done has been done only by the activity of the counc‘l itself.”

Cr. F. J. Hili said he was on the Council at the time the scheme was brought into operation, and he opposed it most strongly, because he did not see how it. could do the work. In the original recommendations brught down by the town clerk, and which were sent back for modifications, ho said that any modifications would defeat the scheme. He referred to the non-appoint-ment of the sub committee, and said that he thought that one reason that was given for the scheme was that there would be a continuity of policy on the borough affairs; but he did not see how that could be, as a new Council might be elected entirely opposed to it. It was also said that the work of the Council would be lessened, but this had not been so. Although he had been opposed to the scheme, he had always gone to Mr. Bellringer for information he required and had found him ready to give it. He honed Mr. Bellringer would be retained as town clerk. TOWN NOT BIG ENOUGH. ‘I am also one of those of the previous Council who was adverse to the appointment of a general manager and voted against the creation of the system,” said Cr. V. Griffiths, after observing the scheme in its workings for three years, he had seen no reasons to alter the opinion he | formed at that time, that this town was I nor. of a size to warrant the dual system [ of a general manager and a Council. The time would come, he believed, when the town would be run by a general manager with a body of experts with him, without any council at all; but while councillors were appointed by ratepayers, if their work was to be of any service, councillors must be prepared to give sufficient time to the work so as to obtain a proper grasp of all its functions. Sufficient reasons had not been advanced to show the appointment of a general manager to be justified, and, after three years’ operations, he was still of that opinion. “Although quite new to council work, I am pleased to say I am an old citizen of New Plymouth and had an opportunity of conversing with the then councillors when the question of appointing a general manager was being discussed,” stated Cr. E. Dingle, who said he had argued the pros and cons of the scheme with councillors and asked for reasons as to what betterment the change would be to the town. The speaker had not been convinced, though he had been prepared to wait and see how the scheme would work. He now saw that, there had been very little alteration in the working of the affairs of* the borough. The time that had to be devoted by councillors to Council work had not been greatly minimised, an argument that had been a big argument by those in favor of the scheme. He did not see that the general managership scheme had been a success, and he intended to support the motion.

MR. BELLRINGER’S REPLY. " When all the councillors had spoken. Mr. Bellringer made a lengthy statement. “Before I make my formal statement,” he said, “I must say that the Council to-night has had an academic discuseion as to whether there should or should not he a general manager scheme. That is not the question; the question is, ‘Have I been successful or not ? and it is my reputation which is at stake and not the general managership scheme at all. The thing has been drifting for some time, as you know, and my reply was made some months ago. In the methods adopted in coming to a decision, 1 had to work in the dark, and nothing was communicated to me and if, in my reply, I hit you harder than necessary it is not my fault, but yours for not taking me into your confidence.” } “I wish to protest most strenuously, continued Mr. Bellringer, reading from his statement,” against the method adopted by the council in arriving at its decision in this matter. Your informed me in October last that you' were unanimous in your' decision and the discussion to-night is, therefore, not a legitimate one, but merely a formal passing of a resolution. Mr. Bellringer referred to the facu that last August the Council let it be known that in view of the decrease in the cost of living it would consider whether the salaries of all the various employees should not be reduced. The matter came before tho Council in August and was again deferred unti 1 early in September. When the matter came before the Council His Worship intimated that it would he taken in strict committee and that the Press and the general manager and heads of departments would retire. Cpnsidcration of a matter affecting the whole of the em-

ployees was then considered by the Council in secret with closed doors, and the individual councillors were evidently bound down to secrecy, for no hint was given to the staff as to what had been done. In all his 21 years of muni••>pal experience he had never previously met a council who were prepared to dea’ with the salaries and wages of a large body of men without the head of the particular department concerned being present and given an opportunity to confer and advise. Yet this was what was done by the present Council and the same Star Chamber procedure was adopted at three subsequent meetings. QUESTION OF WAGES. Why was this course adopted? The resolution now submitted shows why. Ostensibly the meetings were held to consider a cut in salaries and wages. Actually they were hold to consider charges of inefficiency on the part of tho general manager or charges of inefficient organisation. Who made these charges, and what were the charges? Surely he had a right to know of what he was accused, and by whom. Surely he was entitled to an opportunity of defending himself. Yet the Council by its actions had denied these rights and had allowed itself to be influenced and led astray by men who were afraid to make their charges in the open and by men possibly animated by personal animus to himself.

“Tn my opinion,” Mr. Bellringer went on, “the real reason for the resolution is the unreasonable bias exhibited by Your Worship, and several of the councillors, even prior to your election to the Council, were obsessed in their opposition to the scheme and you and they have done everything possible dufing the past eighteen months to render it inoperative. None of you, however, made your views publicly known before your election and therefore you had no mandate from the electors for tho drastic action you now propose. I believe that had your views upon this subject been generally known the mandate would have boon in tho other direction. ! believe that the great majority of the electors are in favor of the scheme and realise its advantages.” His failure to obtain the support of the present Council to the scheme, Mr. Bellringer attributed to an entire misconception of the scheme by tho Mayor and councillors and to tho fact that the heavy expenditure on such streets as Currie, Robe, Gill and the streets along the tramway route, necessary to save them from ruin, had to be refunded out of tho revenue of subsequent years. Tho new Council, seeing the works proceeding and not being conversant with the financial aspect, had anticipated that just as much money would be available during their term of office. This had not been so and there had therefore been little chance for them to make a large show of street works as was evidently desired. BENEFITS OF THE SCHEME. Proceeding to what had been accomplished under the scheme, and in proof that it‘had been a complete success, Mr. Bellringer said that one of the first things which he did after appointment was to make an investigation and report upon the position of the various departments. Those were submitted to the Council and for the first time the Council had a clear “bird’s eye” view of the difficulties which were impeding the successful working of the departments. Some of the present councillors would have been better pleased if he had directly supervised work aud dealt direct tho men on the various jobs. With this view he was totally at variance. Had he been foolish enough to wish to act in this manner the terms of his engagement absolutely precluded him from doing so and required him in all departmental matters to act through the heads of the departments. With this condition he was in complete accord.

Upon the condition of the streets the Council and tho general manager wore judged. Mr. Bellringer went on, and he referred to the state they were in when he was appointed general manager and their present condition,' when they would compare favorably with any in towns of a similar size in New Zealand. More permanent construction of footpaths lifld been done since he took over than over before, while the working plant had also been concentrated and made more efficient., He gave credit to the engineer for the work he had done in this connection, but it would not have been possible had ho (Mr. Bellringer) not, with the support of the previous. Council, been able to see that -sufficient money was available. When ho took over tho management the condition of the baths were a byword and ft reproach to the Council. Even ordinary repairs had not been effected and the whole structure was in a dirty and condition. One of the first things done was to place the baths under tho control of nn entirely different department and to expend something like £5OO in putting the building into decent repair. Within the first year after the improvements were effected the admission fees increased nearly 100 per cent, over the previous year and the baths again became a popular institution. Mr. Bellringer also Claimed the credit for having eliminated the friction which existed between the committee controlling the Carnegie Institute and the council. After dealing with the extension of the light and traffic mains and the metalling of streets in Lynmouth, tho removal of night soil, and the Ngaere leases, which he said he had put in a satisfactory basis, Mr. Bellringer proceeded to deal with hydroelectric affairs and quoted figures to show he had been instrumental in effecting considerable savings on the first contract.

HYDRO WORKS DELAY. Under the heading of “What the present Council has done,” Mr. Bellringer accused the Council of unnecessarily delaying the completion of the hydro-electric works, which would entail a loss of thousands of pounds and cause inconvenience to various industries in the borough in need of the power. He considered that the extra allowance of £2 per lineal foot to the contractors of No. 1 tunnel was illegal, and that the Council had given them a pure gift of £1607 of the ratepayers’ money. The action of the Council in tramway matters was also dealt with, and he criticised the purchase of a second electric ’bus in view of the early extension of the tramways system to Westown. He considered that the Council was to blame for the indignity which had been thrust upon it by the Public Health Department having to order it to carry out necessary works to the Huatoki septic tank. Mr. Bellringer complained that the Mayor and the Council had invariably gone to his subordinates for information they required and had even discussed him and his methods with them, the object, as far as he could judge, being to wean away their loyalty and to destroy all discipline. “Much of the feeling of resentment of the present Council against myself,” he went on, “and the other officers, is due

to your Worship’s admitted lack of grip of the financial operations of the borough. Your Workship has stated on several occasions that you are totally unable to understand sheets of figures. Knowing this, I have had to keen a much tighter grip upon the finances and to continuously keep the matter before the Counc.l. Tho conse-quc-.cc has been that councillors have got the impression that the officers are out to block them when they submit proposals for expenditure, and a feeling of resentment has grown up against the officers. This would not have happened had you adopted the practise of all previous mayors and from time to time dealt with the financial position and showed the councillors what money could or could not be spent.” Mr. Bellringer then referred to the growth of the council’s order paper by reason of their desire to deal with all matters, and he concluded with reference to the fact that the recessity of keeping a tight hand on the finances of the borough, in order to redeem promises to repay, had prevented him from making recommendations to the Council for expenditure on various works. He always perused the recommendations of the heads of departments, and when he disagreed with them they had a consultation. This led to co-operation and goodw. * K When Mr. Bellringer had finished hi? statement, the Mayor said that he had intended to comment on some of the matte A mentioned, but as the statement was extremely lengthy it was not advisable to comment on one without the whole, and he would therefore simply move the motion at that stage. The motion was then put and carried unanimously. Cr. Blackhall asked if the Council wastaking any more business. The Mayor: The business is finished. Cr. Brown asked if Mr. Bellringer would name the men who had undermined h’s authority With his officers. The Mayor again intimated that the business was finished, and the meeting terminated. 4 J