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Vol. LXXXVIII





DECEMBER 2, igii





No, 23





LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN RICHMOND.

President Cromwell, Years Ago, Developed an Administrative Organi¬
zation Which Has Recently Served as a Model for Other Boroughs.





IT would take a deeper philosophy than
ours to explain the remarkable differ¬
ence in the political traditions ol the two
boroughs of the city that resemble each
other niost industrially and socially. The
borough history of Queens under the
Greater Kew 'York charter is a record of
graft and mismanagement; that of Rich¬
mond exhibits local government at its
best. The administrative organization
developed in Richmond has served largely
as a model for the reorganization of the
borough governments in Manhattan and
the Bronx, put through in the last couple
of years.

Whatever other moral the history of
Richmond may point, it leaves no doubt
that good government is dependent raore
upon men tlian upon charters. Unfor¬
tunately, this conclusion leaves untouched
the question why some communities show
a willingness to elect the right sort of
men, while others do not. The voters of
Richmond have kept their present Bor¬
ough President, George Cromwell, in oflice
since the consolidation of the greater
city, evidently appreciating the import¬
ance of retaining an official of proved
ability at the head of the local govern¬
ment.

RcA-ised   Charter  Brought  Home  Rule.

George Cromwell has been the sole
occupant of the borough presidency of
Richmond since the consolidation of the
greater city. The first four years were
years of centralized government, with
practically no home rule. The borougii
presidents were little more than figure¬
heads, so far as their local work was
concerned, though they occupied posi¬
tions of importance in the Board of Pub¬
lic   Improvements.

The revised charter whieh ■^\'ent into
effect January 1, 1902, abolished the
Board of Public Improvements and
placed upon the borough presidents a
large measure of responsibility, though
even at present the departments con¬
ducted hy the Mayor of the city control
well over 90 per cent, of its expendi¬
tures, while the borough- presidents al¬
together handle much less than 10 per
cent.

The Borough of Richmond had very
scant consideration in the first four years,
but, with the establishment of home rule,
President Cromwell surrounded himself
.with a group of men who through a
.period of nearly ten years have worked
harmoniously together for the betterment
of municipal work. Recognizing at the
start that many of his problems involved
engineering work, he selected engineers
for   the   more   important   positions.

The lines of development, therefore,
were planned largely to the working out
of a harmonious scheme of organization
and action, theory being kept subordinate
to practice, but practice benefited by
theory.

The president of the borough, being
subject to constant call for conferences
with various city officials and for atten¬
dance at various board meetings, found
ft would be impossible to attend to all
of the borough administrative details in
the conduct of public work; consequent¬
ly, his Consulting Engineer, acting also
as Commissioner of Public Works, was
also authorized to perform many of the
functions of the borough president, thus
enabling that official, who could most of
the time remain in his office, to pass up¬
on matters and giA'e flnal decision, to
save the delays that would otherwise in¬
evitably follow. All bureaus, except the
Bureau of Buildings, come, therefore, un¬
der ths Commissioner, their various
superintendents consulting with him
daily as to matters of policy or impor¬
tant details of the work in their respec¬
tive charge. These working bureaus are
'those of Highways, Sewers, Street Clean¬
ing and Public Buildings and Offices.

Breaking away from the old-time cus¬
tom of having engineers assigned to each
bureau, there to be kept either very
actively  employed  or perchance at times





being idle, the plan in Richmond was
eariy introduced to maintain a separate
engineer corps, divided into two main
bureaus.

(1)  Carrying on the topographic sur¬
vey, which forms the basis for all street
planning  and  public  works   design.

(2)  The designing and executing of pub¬
lic ■works, sewers, roads, bridges, cuiA-erts,
walls  and   buildings.

This scheme kept a trained corps in¬
tact, yet possessing a flexibility for ser¬
vice impossible under the old and gen¬
erally adopted method. The result has
been, therefore, that the Bureau of Con¬
struction Engineering has designed and
built sev>'ers, has developed roads, has re-
laid pavements, etc, then, when com¬
pleted, tliese various structures were
turned over to the working bureaus for
maintenance   and   repairs.

Improved  .Vccoiiutlng  System.

In a similar way, along the line of ac¬
counting, the old-time method was the
employment of clerks in each bureau so
as to accentuate their separateness. Un¬
der the method adopted In Richmond, a
central Bureau of Accounts has been es-
■tahlished, which gathers from all of the
different construction and working bu¬
reaus their daily official records and then
prepares in concise and intelligent form
the necessary reports and keeps the ad¬
ministrative books. Each bureau, of
course, employs certain clerks to gather
and tabulate the daily reports from In¬
spectors and foremen, covering work
done, and store accounts; but payments
and payrolls and the larger amount of
clerical service is handled most efficient¬
ly in  the centra!  bureau.

As the Commissioner of Public Works
confers only with the superintendents or
chiefs of bureaus, the superintendents in
turn advise -^vith their chief assistants,
usually called inspectors. The inspectors
in turn are in charge of a number of
competent assistants, usually called fore¬
men, Avho have assigned to them the
requisite number of laborers for their
specific class of work. Foremen are prac¬
tically always on the work. The inspec¬
tors cover their districts regularly; the
superintendents have to spend more or
less time in the office, but as soon as
they are free they go out to inspect their
respective operations all over the bor¬
ough.

The Commissioner, so far as possible,
makes frequent trips throughout the bor¬
ough, so as to keep in reasonably close
touch with the work of all the bureaus
and be able to advise effectiA'ely in the
daily conferences, as also to be posted so
as to report and confer with the presi¬
dent of the borough as often as necessary
on matters of importance. Practically
military discipline is maintained so far
as the character of work permits.
Cost  Records Devised.

Very early In the work of the admin¬
istration the importance of keeping ac¬
curate records showing the unit cost of
work done was recognized, and the rec¬
ords of the Borough of Richmond have
on a number of occasions heen taken as
a criterion for appropriations for similar
work throughout the whole city. Such
knowledge is not alone valuable to
the taxpayer but is of great interest to
the -^vorkers themselves, who can be readi¬
ly trained to take pride in securing bet¬
ter results and lower expenditures -n'hen
reliably advised as to what their former
work  has cost.

The County of Richmond was the first
to avail itself of the County Road law
for constructing macadam roads connect¬
ing various localities. In fact, the Coun¬
ty Road law was developed and became
law upon Richmond's initiative. The
splendid system of highways constructed
prior to and shortly following consolida¬
tion, though not weir maintained for tlie
following four years, have been restored
to not onlv their former excellent con¬
dition   but   are   to-day   maintained   at   a





higher standard, the class of pavement
being changed as rapidly as funds are
provided to suit the changing conditions
of  traffic.

One of the needs of the borough has
been a proper scAi'erage system. This
work required a great deai of prepara¬
tion. Information was consistently and
scientifically gathered by the Bureau of
Engineering, and sewers have been de¬
signed to provide adequately not only for
the present but for prospective future
needs. To a large extent these sewers
have been constructed, but this phase
of public work will have to continue for
many years to come as new districts are
created and old ones are extended.

It was early recognized by the borough
president and his staff that the point of
Staten Island nearest the Borough of
Manhattan (the old City of New York),
spectacular in topographical features,
would in all probability always be the
point first seen by visitors to the borough.
Consequently, here was the place to de-
A'clop such a civic center as should be
suitable, conservative, spacious, and ar¬
tistically beautiful. At this point, there¬
fore, has been erected the commodious
Borough Hall and a reference Public
Librai'y, and an adequate Court House
is now being planned. There is also be¬
ing- considered a suitable structure to
house the growing collections of the As¬
sociation of Arts and Sciences, that some
day may grow into a museum of art and
natural  history.

A Federal building is also thought of
for the St. George district, which now
includes a large private academy and the
Curtis High School, a beautiful building
on  a commanding site.

A   Civic  Center  at  St.  George.

The municipal ferry has an attractive
terminal froni which the civic center is
reached by a superb piece of engineering
work—^the great stone viaduct. The
street in front of the Borough Hall has
been widened to 100 feet, and is edged
by a handsome retaining Avail, unique
in  design and construction.

It is in the mind of the local adminis¬
tration to branch out from this great
thoroughfare (which has a length of
three-quarters of a mile) into the boule¬
vard system that shall ultimately tra¬
verse the whole borough and connect all
its   public   paries—small   and   great.

The street system is being planned, not
according to geometrical lines but for
best adaptation to topographical condi¬
tions and to serve conveniently the dif¬
ferent communities already in existence
the otliers to be provided for. The large
network of main tlioroughfares is natur¬
ally glA'en special study and prominence,
the subdivisions being of less importance.

One special phase of work has been
carried out in Richmond along pioneer
lines which has been so conspicuously
successful as to attract attention and in¬
vestigation by specialists and officials
from all over the United States and in
fact foreign countries as well. We refer
to the disposal of household garhage and
other refuse. Most communities have
scarcely begun to realize that the disposal
of wastes had scientific features as well
as purely practical ones. The hit or miss
system Avas that largely in vogue through¬
out the country—more or less unintelli¬
gent collection and not always sanitary
disposal. After careful study and experi¬
menting, it was decided that for Rich¬
mond's topograpliic needs and distribu¬
tion of population the best method to
adopt was the establishment of liigh
temperature destructors in each larger
locality, so as to minimize the cost of
haulage. A most successful plant has
been in operation for several years with¬
out the creation of any local nuisance,
and a much larger plant is now in pro¬
cess of erection. The mixed collections
possess so mucli fuel value that they
burn without requiring additional fuel,
and  in   the  process  develop   more  steann