If there was any question about the Mayor’s intentions to institute reforms in the City of Buffalo, the Common Council was about to find out quite rapidly at their second meeting.

At the first session of the Common Council, a piece of loose legislation was hastily put together proposing the creation of a city morgue. The council had chosen the place for the morgue, who would be the keeper of the morgue and his salary. What they did strangely omit was any specific duties and regulations for his conduct.

What the council didn’t anticipate was this new mayor who came fresh out of private life was a stickler for details, he was able to read between the lines and he knew far more about the workings of city government than they had anticipated.

Mayor Cleveland studied this legislation and soon realized that they were trying to create a easy patronage position for a ward politician and not only that but this order was legally void under the city charter. This was the first veto they would receive at the second meeting of the Common Council. Cleveland went on to say:

“The preamble to the resolutions upon the subject introduced on the thirteenth day of May last contains a recital to the effect that there is a great and growing necessity for the establishment of a morgue for certain general purposes therein stated, connected with the temporary care of the dead. A committee was appointed pursuant to these resolutions. This committee subsequently reported recommending the establishment of a public morgue. The report was adopted; and then followed a resolution of the Council directing the superintendent of public buildings to provide accommodations for such morgue in the building occupied as police headquarters.”

“The above, so far as I can find, is all that has been done establishing the proposed house of the dead. The precise objects of its establishment; the conditions under which subjects shall be received into it; how they shall be cared for while there, and under what regulations they may be taken away; what disposition, under various circumstances, shall be made of them; the care and disposition of property which may be found upon the persons of the dead, and many other things necessarily incident to the conducting of such an institution, are left entirely unprovided for.

“The terms ‘morgue’ and ‘public morgue’ do not necessarily imply all, or, specifically, any of these things. Careful provision should be made by ordinance formally establishing this dead house, regulating the manner in which it shall be conducted, specifically defining the duties and responsibilities of those in whose charge it shall be placed, and what security, by bond or otherwise, shall be given for the faithful performance of their duties, and prescribing such penalties as shall be found necessary for its efficient administration.

“Might it not be well for your Honorable Body to review the proceedings already had, with a view to such future action as shall be necessary to accomplish the objects which I have indicated?

“I commend the whole subject to your careful consideration, with the assurance of my cordial co-operation in perfecting an establishment which, if not an absolute necessity, may prove to be a great public convenience.”

Another resolution that was passed by the council was for the payment to the newspapers for the publishing of the proceedings of the council. This was something that was provided for in the charter, but was something that Cleveland was opposed too on principle that it was a subsidy. He was right, it was a subsidy, a political one. For under the old system that the council was used too, the money would be handed out to political favorites and at a rate of 85% above the normal rates for such work. In this resolution they were providing for additional payments to the German newspapers for printing a synopsis.
This caught Cleveland’s attention and he clapped a veto on it,

“Let me further call your attention to some considerations of a business nature, which I think furnish reasons why the resolution under consideration should not become operative.

“The German newspapers mentioned in the resolutions depend for their success upon the amount and value of the news or information they furnish to their patrons. We will assume that some account of the proceedings of the Common Council—in other words that a synopsis of such proceedings—is of importance and interest to their readers. I am quite sure that we may safely calculate that from motives of self-interest the proprietors of these newspapers will publish a synopsis much more satisfactory to their subscribers than any which the city clerk would be apt to prepare; and they would do so for their own profit, and without any compensation from the city. If this is true, the effect of the resolution under consideration is to give these newspapers eight hundred dollars each for doing no more than they will in a sense be obliged to do without it. This comes very near being a most objectionable subsidy, which I think a little reflection will satisfy us all we ought not to encourage, and which I am sure the people are not prepared to tolerate.

“No reason in support of this resolution can be derived from the consideration that we pay an English paper for publishing the official proceedings, and therefore we should pay the German papers for publishing a synopsis. A sufficient answer to this argument is that the Legislature has wisely or unwisely provided in our charter that the journal of the proceeding of the Common Council shall be published in the official paper, and in this matter we have no discretion. A proposition to pay any other English paper to publish the proceedings or a synopsis of them would meet with general disapproval.

“By advertising for bids before designating the official paper your Honorable Body has very properly, it seems to me, established the principle that all the publishing done for the city, should be open to competition and awarded to the lowest bidder. And yet by the terms of the resolution under consideration, a certain Sum of money is given to the papers mentioned without even any specification of the amount of work to be done therefor.

“This is such a departure from correct business methods, and from the ride so lately arid so commendably adopted by your honorable Body, that if there were no other reasons I should deem this abundantly sufficient for my action withholding my assent to the resolution herewith returned.”

Another issue that Cleveland had criticized was the method of accounting and payment of salaries to city employees. To satisfy his recommendations, the council proposed the following resolution:

“WHEREAS, The present method employed in the payment of the salaries of the officers and employees of the city is not only clumsy and complicated, but involves a vast amount of unnecessary labor as well as needless expense, and tends to encourage the practice of assigning claims for salaries in advance of the date of their payment therefore,

“Resolved, That the following plan for the payment of salaries of the officers and employees of the city be hereafter substituted in lieu of the system hitherto in use, to wit:

“Upon the presentation of the pay rolls by the heads of departments to the city clerk, a certified transcript thereof shall be made and presented to the Council, and a warrant may be ordered in favor of the comptroller for the aggregate amount of the rolls, to enable him to pay the same. Said transcript shall contain a space for the signature of the payees of the roll, to receipt the amount due them, and the comptroller shall accept the signature of no person to such receipts except of the persons named in the pay roll, unless it shall be shown to him that the person or persons entitled to the compensation is or are sick or otherwise prevented from applying in person therefor. The original pay rolls shall be filed and placed in the manuscript minutes of the Council, and the certified transcript shall be filed in the comptroller’s office.”

In this first thirty days of his administration, the mayor had shown an indication that there was little that the council could get by him, even minor abuses. Public sentiment was behind him and through his short term as mayor, his recommendations were adopted one by one, but since jobbery and favoritism had ruled the city for so long, the ring kept trying, they had more tricks up their sleeve as we shall see.

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