COMMISSION FORM OF GOVERN MENT. Definition and Origin.— The com mission form of government is that system of city administration in which all legislative and executive powers are vested in a single body of five elective commissioners or councilmen. The plan originated in Galveston, Tex., in 1901. Prior to that time all American cities wire governed by a mayor and various administrative boards exercising the executive functions of government and by a city council of one or two chambers exercising the legislative power. The Galveston experiment accordingly marked a departure from the traditional principle of di vision of powers in American municipal affairs. Its adoption in Galveston was intended as a temporary measure to carry the city through the grave financial emergency caused by a tidal inundation which had destroyed a great deal of private and municipal property in September 1900. But the commission plan proved success ful in its workings and soon attracted the attention of other communities.
Outline of the Galveston origi nally framed, the commission plan in Galveston provided that all powers formerly vested in the mayor, the various administrative boards and the city council should be vested in a body of five citizens of whom three were to be appointed by the governor of Texas and two elected at large by the voters of Galveston. The provision for the appointment of three commissioners by the governor was decided by the courts to be unconstitutional, however, and the scheme was amended to provide for the election of all five commissioners. At the ensuing election the voters endorsed the com missioners who had been already appointed by the governor. •Under the terms of the charter of 1901, as thus amended in 1903, the members of the commission were to serve for a two year term and one of the commissioners was given the title of mayor-president but with no special functions save that of acting as chair man at meetings of the commission. It was provided that the commission should hold regu lar sessions, open to the public, and that by a majority vote of its members it should enact municipal ordinances, make the appropriations, award all contracts for public work and de termine all appointments to positions in the city's service. It was further provided that the commissioners should, by majority vote, apportion among themselves the headships of the four main departments of civic adininistra tion; namely, finance and revenue, waterworks and sewerage, police and fire protection, and streets and public property. The mayor-presi
dent was not to be assigned to the headship of any department but to exert a co-ordinating influence upon them all. These were the es sentials of the Galveston Plan.
Extension to Other Texan Al though it had been prepared hastily, with little or no experience elsewhere to serve as a guide, the Galveston experiment soon demonstrated its success. When the commissioners took over their duties the city had already defaulted in the payment of interest upon its debt; its bonds were selling at 40 per cent below parity and it had a large floating debt which could not be funded. Within a few years, however, this situation had been enormously improved. The city was once again able to pay its way in spite of the great burdens due to the cost of re constructing the inundated sections. Accord ingly, what had been designed as a malceshift to tide over a serious emergency not only be came a permanent scheme of government for Galveston but was within a few years adopted by the other cities of Texas.
The Des Moines In due course this Galveston system found its advocates in other States of the Union. Its progress was slow, however, because of the feeling that the plan concentrated too much power in the hands of a small group of men. While retaining its main principles, therefore, some cities sought to improve its practical applications. Most important among these was Des Moines, Iowa, which in 1907 adopted a new charter providing for a commission of five men nominated at a non-partisan, open prirnary and elected at large with additional provision for the use of the initiative and referendum by the voters of the city as well as (see INITIATIVE AND REYERENDUM ) for the recall of one or more of the commis sioners at any time after three months' tenure of office (see RECALL). The Des Moines plan further provided that no franchise giving rights in the city's streets should be valid until con firmed by popular vote. In general it aimed to establish what the Galveston plan did not seem to provide, namely, some adequate safe guards against the abuse of the large powers entrusted to the five commissioners.