by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Continuing with this detailed look into the report of Los Angeles City Auditor Lewis H. Schwaebe for the year concluding 30 November 1904, we turn to the report of City Clerk Harry J. Lelande (1871-1965), a native of Sonora, in the gold country of Tuolumne County (where F.P.F. Temple had major investments prior to that) and who was raised in the Angel City.
Lelande worked in and owned bookstores, was a fire insurance agent and became a devoted coin and stamp collector in his early adulthood and then moved into city government by the turn of the 20th century. From 1910 to 1919, he was Los Angeles County Clerk before he was forced to resign over a controversy involving his signing of deeds in a long-running fight over the large San Fernando Valley estate of Miguel Leonis, whose adobe is the centerpiece of a historic site in Calabasas.
His report was simple including a table of liquor licenses issued during the year, including a mandated limit of 200 for saloons, between 49 and 59 for wholesale establishments, from 61 to 68 for restaurants, and from 1,346 to 3,499 general ones, totaling north of 30,600 for the year and revenues of just shy of $420,000.
Lelande, who was in his second term as clerk, added that there were 1,329 ordinances passed by the City Council, nine street railway franchises for new roads and extensions, along with spur track and other permissions, that there were 1,246 street lights in use with payment of $6.75 per fixture, and that city garbage, well before landfills, was burned at the Dixon Crematory, on Santa Fe Avenue outside city limits, on a three-year contract through December 1905 at $1,790 monthly.
The Board of Education, which had offices in the New Chamber of Commerce Building, where the Los Angeles Times complex is now, had seven members, including President John D. Bicknell, a prominent real estate attorney and developer at such San Gabriel Valley towns as Azusa and Monrovia, as well as attorney Charles Cassat Davis, lawyer and civic leader Joseph Scott, educator and historian James M. Guinn, and developer Jonathan S. Slauson, founder of the Los Angeles County Bank and also of Azusa (having sold some of his holdings there to Bicknell and others), while also namesake of a major east-west thoroughfare running from near Culver City and Inglewood to Whittier.
The superintendent of schools was James A. Foshay, who served in that capacity from 1895 to 1906 and is the namesake of a K-12 school west of Exposition Park and one of his clerks was Grace Kingsley, a name found in many posts in this blog because of her years as a film critic, the first, in fact, for the Los Angeles Times. An autobiographical listing of all board members since the late 1880s was also provided, along with one of the superintendents since the founding of Los Angeles public schools in 1854—one of these was board member Guinn, who served in that role from 1881 to 1883. Notably, there was no superintendent from 1870 to 1873.
Foshay’s report included the 58 grammar schools—all named for streets—along with the two high schools, Los Angeles and the Polytechnic, this latter opened in 1897 as the commercial branch of the city high school. Of the 684 rooms in these campuses, 85% were deemed in good condition, with 13% considered in fair shape and just a dozen—all at the high school—determined to be in a poor state.
Monthly salary ranges included from $46 to $54 (more than half of the 43 at the upper echelon) for kindergarten assistants; $56 to $75 (43 of 46 at $64) for directors at this level; $40 to $100 (almost 60% in the $76 and $80 categories) for primary and grammar level teachers (including Mary Julia Workman, grand-niece of Homestead founders William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste); $85 to $215.50 (44% in the $125 to $140 domain) for principals at those latter schools; $52.50 to $175 for high school teachers, with about two-thirds making $125; the two high school principals earning $300; and seven special teachers earning $140, $150 or $225, with five of them at the middle level. In all, with 770 teachers and principals, monthly salaries were almost $64,000 per month, and there were not far under 30,000 students.
For some reason, the education report was followed by a photo of the city council chamber in the city hall on Broadway between 2nd and 3rd streets, a list of those who served on that body between 1879 and 1905 (though why 1879 was chosen is not stated,) and floor plans of the chief municipal building and the health department annex. Following this is 73-page second annual report of the Civil Service Commission, recently established by reformers to improve the quality of city government and with one of the five members being a leader in that movement, Dr. John Randolph Haynes.
The statement included a table of examinations given under the auspices of the body, totaling just shy of 1,800 for the two years of the organization’s existence. Of those, 38 were rejected, 35 withdrawn, and 136 lapsed because of non-appearance and exams were held for positions in the departments of police, fire, water, engineers, street, health, clerk, park, school, building, electrical, library, assessor and mechanical engineering. All applicants were to be “of good moral character, of temperate habits, [and] of sound health.”
In the aggregate, of 1,362 exams, the pass rate was 60%, but it is interesting to note these rates by department, which varied as low as 43.5% for engineers 101 applications) and to above 90% for the library (11 applications.) For the fire department, there were 129 applications and the pass rate was not far under 60%, while the police department had 127 applicants, of whom 45.7% were successful. The “Eligible Lists” provided figures for those who passed exams and how many per position were to be considered for positions and there were 563 appointments. Of these 69 were in the police department, 57 in the fire department, and 45 in the clerk’s department, among the top three. Emergency appointments were also explained.
With respect to current employment figures for the city, the total was 958, almost a 20% increase from the prior year. There were 201 in the police department, 183 in the fire department, 137 in the water department, 90 in the engineering department, and 86 in schools. The report contained copies of letters sent by the commission during the year, and a table of expenses with lists of individual items.
The Manual of Civil Service Examinations includes standards for the minimum and maximum weights and minimum chest sizes of firefighters and police officers, so that the former had to be at least 5’6″ with a weight range of 135 to 150 pounds and a 33-inch chest minimum, neatly increased five pounds per inch and varying chest sizes, while the latter had to be no shorter than 5’10” with a weight range of 150-185 pounds and a 35 1/2-inch chest minimum and, generally, the same five pound increase per inch.
Weighting on examinations was also laid out in terms of the subjects of penmanship, dictation, copying rough drafts, orthography, arithmetic and composition and a point system. For each division and class, a scale of weights was given along with the exam questions. For police detectives, temperament and address was one of the scale items and, among the questions were,
Suppose at the place where a murder has been committed, a large piece of cloth has been found, manifestly torn from a coat but not from that of the murdered person, what would you do?
If a person is found shot with a revolver having one chamber empty lying at his side and no evidence of loss of property (jewelry, etc.), is found, what would be the character of the investigation to cause you to believe that suicide has been committed?
Suppose a prominent citizen, known to be very wealthy suddenly disappears without his disappearance being accountable, what six inferences can be advanced from his disappearance?
Yet, prospective detectives were also asked to give a “minute description” of the commission’s secretary, though in no more than 100 words and to solve math questions and compute by addition and multiplication.
For a fire lieutenant, a rather complicated question had to do with what do when responding to a cottage fire in calculating distances with hoses of varied types to structures a certain distance from the house, while learning that there wasn’t enough water pressure from the nearest hydrant while also lacking a fire engine. Other queries were about why sliding poles and winding staircases were used in engine houses and how much a hoseman would save based on salary and expenses of given amounts over a nine-month period of 30 days each.
Engineer applicants, naturally, had far more complicated math questions to answer, while surveyors had to deal with complex plotting of survey lines and a lineman in the electrical department was to go into detail about copper vs. iron wire, voltages of varying degrees, and about resuscitation in case of being shocked. A street sweeping inspector had to answer questions relating to why public street sweeping was handled by the city, what differences there were between hand and machine sweeping, and “does the constant standing of horses in one place, on an asphalt street affect the pavement?”
Presumably this latter does not concern calls of nature! This was more the in the line of the sanitary inspectors and queries about bathrooms, garbage disposal, stables and manure, and the like. Why janitors, though, were asked the names of five states and the largest city in those, as well as the names of ten American presidents, the name of the Angel City’s mayor, and “how many stripes are in the American flag and why that number” is strange—unless, that is, one ponders what a civil service exam could otherwise ask someone seeking that position. There was a question about what the order of cleaning of a six-room school would entail and the applicant was instructed to “explain everything in detail—step by step.”
Salaries are also provided for the many positions listed, including $150 monthly for the auditor (yet, $200 for the deputy), assessor and city clerk; $1800 annually for a police captain and captain of detectives, and $900-1200 for patrol officers; $115-$125 monthly for fire captains, $60-$80 for hosemen, laddermen and tillermen; $4.50 to $5.00 daily for surveyors; $90 monthly for the city hall engineer; $166.66 monthly for the city electrician; $100 monthly for the first assistant librarian and $75 for the second, with $50 for the high school librarian; $110 monthly for the meat and milk inspectors and garbage inspector; $2.50-$3.00 daily for asphalt workers and gutter layers; up to $175 a month for janitors and $40 for elevator men; $150 a month for the water overseer, $100 for the reservoir keeper; $80 for the pest house keeper; $69 to $77 for the park foreman; and $150 for the city chemist. Charter provisions for the commission and its operations, as well as for city employees, and the rules and regulations for the board and municipal positions are also reproduced.
The electrician’s report noted that “owing to the rapid growth of the city . . . the construction force of this department has been exceptionally busy rebuilding fire alarm and police signal circuits” and lists of replaced equipment were given. It was also noted that “the number of police signal boxes in service is totally inadequate,” with location changes to try to cover need, but it was added that “at least fifty more boxes should be added as soon as funds permit,” while signal lights were recommended to be added rather than phones for reasons of cost. Inspections of electrical systems in the city leapt by more than threefold since 1899, while the deputy fire marshal acted as a department deputy in inspecting businesses and factories. Finally, 183 street lamps were added during the year for a total of 1,246 in service.
City Engineer Harry F. Stafford, in his third term, bluntly told city officials that “the work of this department continues to grow to such an extent that I have become discourages over ever attempting to get caught up with it.” Among his concerns was the delay in getting the outfall sewer to the Hyperion outlet at the coast completed “as there is a very large proportion of our people without sewer facilities.” Stafford did note that an 800-foot long pier was built out into the ocean for the outlet “and we hope no serious cause for complaint will arise.”
Fortunately, the storm sewer system project was progressing nicely, while bridge work included completion of the Macy Street (now Cesar E. Chávez Avenue) and Pasadena Avenue ones finished during the year. Nearing completion was the Fourth Street Bridge and the Aliso Street one was “under good headway.” An overhead crossing at Sunset Boulevard and Lake Shore Avenue, just north of Echo Park, for rail and other traffic was begun, as well.
Tables of street improvements undertaken in the last year gave the name, limits of the work done along those thoroughfares, the type and lengths of cubs and gutters, and other details. A list of general drafting work was also given, including maps, plans, profiles and more, while field work lists included almost 2,900 surveys. Expenditures totaled almost $78,000 against about $20,500 in receipts, with salaries including Stafford’s $3,000 annual pay and those of the office and field engineers of $2,000 and $2,250, while other salaries were charged to various accounts. Supplies came to just north of $3,400, with nearly a third comprising drafting material and another significant amount, nearly 15%, in lumber. Finances for various projects with sewers, bridges and other work were also presented.
Finally, the bonded indebtedness of Los Angeles County through the end of 1904 was given in table form, showing that the $190,000 came from issues of 1885, 1887 and 1890, due in 20-year terms, with the original issues totaling nearly $900,000. A table of state and county tax rates and valuation from 1889 to 1904 showed a steep drop from 1889 to 1890 as the Boom of the Eighties went bust, from almost $94 million to under $70 million, with some ebbs and flows through 1895 between $77 and $85 million. A jump to nearly $100 million then took place, with declines over the next few years, with the 1900 total cresting that nine-figure amount. After a modest increase to 1901 and a larger one to 1902, there was another significant growth to $169 million for 1903 and then to $201.5 million for 1904.
Here we’ll pause and return tomorrow with the sixth part including reports from the Fire and Health departments, which are filled with very interesting information about their operations, so check back then!