For better or worse, Phoenicians with a sense of civic pride claim as their finest achievement not a magnificent city hall as in San Francisco, or a great subway system as in New York, or the breathtaking parks of Cincinnati. No, it is the efficient, professional handling of city business through the council/manager form of government. It's the most populous city in America without a strong mayor (with the city council acting as a legislature).
And it all began with the charter government movement of the late 1940s. Anyone that wants to understand Phoenix City Hall today or contemplate changes such as a strong mayor, must have at least a basic understanding of how we got here.
Once upon a time, Phoenix was a wide-open town, full of vice, politics dominated by unsavory bosses, and city hall eminently bribable. Then a group of crusading young businessmen, who knew the city could not grow and prosper under this corrupt yoke, threw out the rascals and created the cleanest city government in America. They went by the name of the Charter Government Committee. The rest is history.
But history is written by the victors. And the real story of Charter is more complex...and far more interesting.
II.
Phoenix in the late 1940s was a city that had been upended by Depression and World War II. Even in the 1930s, its population had grown almost 36 percent. Despite the war, and partly because of it, the city increased another 63 percent in the next decade. But the political system was a creaky thing.
Elected leaders sat on a four-member city commission led by a mayor, one of many Southern-flavored elements that remained in the city. Sometimes each commissioner oversaw specific city departments (rather like Bull Connor, the police commissioner in Birmingham, Ala., a very different role than the official who holds the same title in New York City).
This naturally led to a high politicization of even the basics of municipal work. There was a city manager, but he was weak under the existing city charter and was required to be a resident of Phoenix before being hired. Thus the rising field of professional city management was kept from penetrating the fortress guarded by the carved stone Phoenix birds at City Hall.
Officials came and went and often came back. Commissioners were defeated by an effervescence of "reform" and then elected again two or three years later. Efforts to piecemeal change the charter failed. This whirligig also tended to shake up city departments and result in the sacking of the hapless city manager with disturbing regularity. (That is, until James Deppe, at the end of the commission era, tried a power grab, openly defying Mayor Nicholas Udall and reinforcing the need for change).
At the least, this chaos and antagonism caused city government, built for a much smaller and less complex place, to be inefficient and slow to respond, much less anticipate the demands of the post-war years. A growing city needed more services, and not ones that ebbed and flowed with every election. There was also a growing awareness that this was bad for business and tourism.
III.
Just how corrupt the city was is a source of ongoing debate and should receive more scholarship. More than one person has told me that some commissioners were involved in the prostitution and gambling rackets. The city had been declared off limits to soldiers for a time early in World War II because of concerns about levels of venereal disease in Phoenix brothels.
Organized crime enjoyed a growing foothold in Phoenix, first with liquor distribution and bookmaking, then as a back office for Las Vegas. On the other hand, much of the "bribing" at City Hall appears to have been small-time palm-greasing or simple favoritism. Such "bosses" as existed were small-timers, notably Ward "Doc" Scheumack.
The police force was compromised. Some cops looked out for protected gamblers, pimps and mobsters. Some acted as bagmen. City commissioners tied to vice could count on most officers to look the other way or get them out of trouble.
The department was also still reeling from the 1944 murder of Patrolman David Lee "Star" Johnson, who was black, by white Detective Frenchy Navarre. Johnson and his partner Joe Davis, both in uniform, saw Navarre run a stop sign in the Deuce. Navarre was off duty and might have been drinking. Johnson approached Navarre alone, the two argued, and Navarre shot Johnson multiple times including in the back.
Like the Southern town it still was, Phoenix empaneled an all-white jury that acquitted Navarre and he returned to duty. A few months later, Johnson's partner Davis came to headquarters for revenge and Frenchy, despite his two pistols and famed marksmanship, was on the losing end of the gunfight. Bullet holes from the exchange were in the station walls until it closed in the early 1970s. (After two trials, Davis was convicted of manslaughter and was paroled in 1947).
The event divided the department, and the city, like Phoenix's version of the Dreyfus Affair in Belle Epoque France, and not strictly on racial lines. For example, the late Glenn Martin, a young white officer, rushed the mortally wounded Johnson to the hospital. Johnson and Davis were well-liked by merchants and citizens on their downtown walking beat. Many whites were happy the abusive Navarre was gone and approved of the leniency shown Davis. Phoenix was segregated, but most whites held a paternal brand of racial views. They were proud the town never had a racial-based lynching.
Many Phoenicians also knew that Johnson and Davis were making arrests in the "hotels" (bordellos) protected by the corrupt pols and quietly owned by their wealthy patrons. These bribe-paying whorehouses — said by some to even help with city revenues — were protected by certain detectives. After Navarre was arrested and charged with murder, he was bailed out with $10,000 cash, delivered in a black suitcase (a PPD detective in 1944 made $212 a month).
Before this searing event was pushed into the collective quiet room, it was emblematic of the city's conflicts. Phoenix was a modest-sized but ambitious city chasing the modern. Yet under the skin, it remained a small town and in many ways a frontier town, vice and all. Conflict arose because some Phoenicians, notably Del Webb, had been made rich by the war. Others were struggling. Vets came home, or moved there, only to find a housing shortage and the nasty 1947 recession. Two years later, city finances also tanked, partly because of mismanagement.
People were ready for change.
IV.
Two broadly competing political visions sought to "fix things." One was more old fashioned — openly spoils-based, where the victors took care of their supporters. The other appeared modern, pushing the practices put forward by the National Municipal League and Louis Brownlow's Public Administration Service. These had been implemented successfully in Cincinnati.
In Phoenix, the visions were not clean cut, because neither were the political allegiances. The war, growth and newcomers from the Midwest scrambled the old order. And even it was not rigid. The most influential players were virtually all businessmen. Even "Boss" Scheumack was manager of Valley Paint and Supply.
The Chamber of Commerce was powerful under the formidable Charlie Bernstein, but it tended to represent the banks and bigger companies. Some small businessmen resented this and pushed for wider representation of their interests, winning the commission in an insurgent moment then splintering.
Unions still were a force in Phoenix, especially with the railroads and construction, even though paralyzing post-war strikes had left them in bad odor, even with Harry Truman. Taft-Hartley had wounded them nationally and Arizona passed a "right to work" law. Returning veterans formed a new political bloc. It was a time of ferment and ideas. Many of the disagreements would seem arcane, anachronistic and obscure to us.
Most of this took place within the Democratic Party, the GOP being the historically weaker competitor. And the battle lines were not hard. Alliances shifted and blended and broke up. By the late 1940s, most sides wanted to claim the mantle of reform, to amend or wholly remake the charter. We can only imagine the many strategy sessions and arm twisting that went on at such smoky places as the Hotel Adams coffee shop, the Hotel Westward Ho or Tom's Tavern.
Two waves of change settled the issue. In 1948, voters approved charter changes that created a six-member city council in at-large seats; members would have no administrative duties as did the commissioners; the city manager would be strengthened, and elections would be non-partisan. Districts and a strong mayor were considered but not recommended. The next year, a solid slate of "reform" candidates selected by a 100-member Charter Government Committee won in a landslide. They included Udall, jeweler Harry Rosenzweig and department store owner Barry Goldwater.
Privately, Goldwater joked, "Harry, we're running against everything we like!" But they crossed the Rubicon.
Charter Government Committee candidates would rule City Hall for the next quarter century
V.
The interior dynamics behind Charter's victory are as important as the many overt steps that utterly changed Phoenix government. The CGC had the strongest hand. Not only the money and influence of the Chamber of Commerce, but the most talented operators. Notable among them was Frank Snell, lawyer and quiet civic fixer who would go on to be one of the city's most effective leaders. Snell had been battling the commission since the early 1940s.
Charter also had Eugene C. Pulliam's Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette, which had been crusading for "clean government" since 1945 and reporting extensively on corruption real and exaggerated, as well as explaining ideas of progressive city management to readers.
Pulliam was 60, Snell a decade younger, and both were at the height of their abilities. (The "young reformers" part tale is not a myth: The Charter Committee had its roots in the efforts of leaders of the Young Democrats and Young Republicans joining together; much of the ground game was done by the Junior Chamber of Commerce).
The Charter members also brought great focus in a crowded election field of 1949, a focus burned bright by the Pulliam Press. The papers relentlessly pilloried the candidates backed by Scheumack and Deppe for sins real and imagined. Unfortunately for them, enough of the incompetence was real, as the financial troubles showed. Unfortunately for organized labor, it cast its lot with Scheumack and in losing began a nearly terminal decline as a private-sector force.
But the real genius was Charter's conceit of taking politics out of City Hall. It was in creating an ethic of a common good, a city-wide good, served by disinterested candidates selected on merit.
Every election cycle, the committee picked a slate of civic-minded candidates, typically from business or the professions, always with a record of civic club activities and volunteering, and ran them. They were to be free from special interests and largely political novices. With the exception of Goldwater and Jack Williams, a future mayor and governor, Charter candidates were expected to serve no more than two terms and then return to the private sector. It claimed to be — and in many ways was — the antithesis of the old commission or even today's council.
Charter was not a public relations hustle. It quickly hired a professional city manager, Ray Wilson, and established the system that endures today: The council sets policy and hires and fires the city manager. The city manager has day-to-day control over city administration, including hiring and firing city department heads. The National Municipal League model was put in place. If Phoenix didn't invent the system, it did see it to its biggest success. In 1950, Charter's reforms won the All America City award.
VI.
What became known as "Charter Government" (even though the city had been under a charter for decades) achieved much. It gained more solid control of water for the city in agreement with the Salt River Project and buying water companies. This gave Phoenix the whip hand over the little towns that would become suburbs, at least for decades. Despite its business and growth orientation, Charter councils also became very good at landing federal money for cities.
Charter elected the first woman (Margaret Kober) and the first Hispanic (Adam Diaz) to council in the early-1950s, the first African-American (Dr. Morrison Warren) in the mid-1960s. It oversaw aggressive annexation to keep Phoenix from being hemmed in. City Hall became more streamlined and efficient. A planning department was established. As seen from, say, 1980, these leaders had presided over the stunning rise of a major city with remarkably clean government.
Although the Charter leaders were rightly criticized as highly establishment, most were not reactionaries. They led, for example, saving Camelback Mountain and assembling the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. Prodded by the minority communities and more liberal Anglos, Charter embraced civil rights and anti-poverty programs. At least until the late 1960s, Charter was able to adapt to the electorate and demands of governing, be much more supple than it is remembered by critics — so much so that it was facing steady challenges from the right and the John Birchers from the late 1950s on.
Their failings came in the neglect of downtown, aside from the brutalist Civic Plaza, and an unwillingness to move beyond bureaucratic planning functions to true city building. From a mania for linear expansion without adequate transit. And yet, in the era in which most of them served, the automobile and low-rise suburbia were "the future" and Jane Jacobs was ... who? (Alas, the latter is still true for some council members). Charter believed in a pragmatic "city that worked." It lacked the visionaries to build great monuments or see that the growth model would eventually destroy Phoenix. Indeed, its selection process would have filtered them out as "too ambitious."
The mob continued to do business in Phoenix. Reforming police Chief Charlie Thomas admitted he couldn't clean up the entire department, only make some headway. Years into Charter's reign, a young patrolman stopped a suspicious man with a large amount of cash he couldn't explain. Taken to police headquarters, the man waited to be questioned while the money was inventoried. After a phone call came in, a superior told the officer: Give the man his money and let him go. The young cop had unwittingly interfered with a protected bookie's runner. It was almost as if it were 1943 all over again.
Charter died with a whimper in 1975 when Margaret Hance broke with the slate and ran for mayor on her own. The other Charter candidates lost. Gadfly lawyer Gary Peter Klahr also won a council seat, serving from 1975 to 1977. Future Mayor Terry Goddard successfully campaigned for district representation.
The decline had been coming for years. It was a remarkable run, but the city had grown and changed too much. Experienced politicians were needed in this more complex world, not merely well-intentioned overseers of the city manager.
The bones of the Charter Government Movement are still there: In the professional staff, the strong city manager, and council relegated, in theory, to setting broad policy. This has continued even after reforms that brought district representation. But like 1947-49 and 1975, one senses that the status quo cannot hold.
The charter City Council of 1951. Standing (left to right): Frank G. Murphy, Barry Goldwater, Hohen Foster. Sitting (left to right): Margaret Kober, Mayor Nicholas Udall, Charles N. Walters, Harry Rosenzweig (Barry M. Goldwater Papers, Arizona Historical Foundation Collection, Arizona State University Libraries.).
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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.
Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.
Wasn't Morrison Warren the first African-American on City Council about 5 years before Goode?
Posted by: westbev | February 07, 2014 at 08:38 AM
When I was young and even more self-righteous than I am today, I loathed Charter Government. And why not? It was an insiders' club of businessmen along with a few tokens. The business of Phoenix was business and government was an expression of that certitude. Don't get your hands grubby with unions, Italians, and various rackets. Yet looking back, I marvel at a time that was still hurly-burly with messy things. If Phoenix was mostly about commerce, there were still tantalizing hints of naughtiness. Bodies were still being dumped in the Arizona Canal. Land fraud flourished. Phoenix got things done not in spite of that but possibly because of it.
Today, my high dudgeon seems quaint. The mafia is broken but so is Phoenix. After Charter Government wore out is welcome, the Phoenix 40 embodied the no-nonsense approach to civic life. By the early '90s, their influence waned. Today, it's a mystery if there is any stewardship class left at all. Sal DiCiccio, anyone?
Rahm Emmanuel is breaking thumbs in Chicago and downtown gleams. Tinpot plutocrat Michael Bloomberg spitshined New York City to a high sheen. Rust-belt cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland reinvented themselves, capitalizing on legacy greatness and good bones. Phoenix, on the other hand, continues to shovel sunshine.
Democracy or its reasonable facsimile is mostly public relations. Real power follows the money. What happened in Phoenix has less to do with clean government than a city finally reaping what it sowed. Phoenix went from farm town to Sun Belt mecca in a generation. Anything seemed possible before the soufflé finally collapsed.
We tell ourselves stories - morality fables mainly - about the past because it maintains a convenient fiction about our ability to control the present. Phoenix once was crude, violent, vibrant, and coherent. Today, it's an overgrown also-ran. I left Phoenix because I knew there was no longer a sustaining myth I could believe in. I loved the sun, the low taxes, and the desert. What's left now is the wonder of a single life mirroring that boom and bust.
Posted by: soleri | February 07, 2014 at 09:14 AM
Westbev,
You are correct, of course. I finished that part at about 1 am and wasn't thinking straight. Then the Internet crashed. I will fix asap.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | February 07, 2014 at 09:23 AM
One of my favorite Photos Jon. I have a lot of memories tied to that building and those steps into that building.
I recall coming down those steps late one afternoon with Police Chief Lawrence Wetzel after briefing him on the "suicide" of a police union official. His parting words that day are etched in my memory.
"Watch your ass, Lash".
Wetzel as a young officer was one of the first officers to arrive at the Gus Greenbaum home where they had been murdered, apparently while barbequing.
Gus was reported to be linked to the Chicago Mob and an associate of Bugsy Siegel infamous (and killed)for skimming from the mob while building his Las Vegas Casino. Only the casino builder survived the "outfits" anger.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 07, 2014 at 10:18 AM
Jon, I believe the most respectable Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale's should be noted here as they were far reaching in bringing the white and black community together. And they were a strong influence on city politics and interested in bringing culture to town.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 07, 2014 at 10:22 AM
Jon, Organized Crime (OC) has never left. It has evolved. Cops wearing Fedoras carrying bags full of money have been eliminated as unseemly and unnecessary. Many high ranking police officials and other department heads counting their take for the day have lapsed into history. The mob is gone organized crime is now better called high finance or corporate economics (white collar crime) and Professional sports. If one follows the money from (from the time of Al Capone’s tax evasion conviction) Chicago, Kansas City and the East coast outfits are still alive and well. The bag men or foot soldiers are now called lawyers and accountants. This evolution has led to not corrupting large numbers of law enforcement or city officials but having a very small number who sit at the top of the heap. They get rich on insider trading tips rather than a bag of cash on their desk.
http://www.alternet.org/story/54093/twenty_things_you_should_know_about_corporate_crime/
Charter government didn’t have much effect on land fraud state wide but one reason charter wanted to clean up the ugly old democratic mob crime was the folks behind Charter were about to rezone and grow Phoenix into the vast empty Great Sonoran desert. Zoning was the new crime. Crimes against land and nature. Crime to bring fat white folks with money to play shuffleboard amid green golf courses. Soil Bankers from the Midwest that got paid not to farm came to the “Valley”.
Charter government had 40 business persons to meet and steer. After Mayor Hance arrived (driven not driving) the Phoenix Forty (Charter) slowly melted down. Today there are few power brokers that are a major influence on Phoenix government. Even caring participants like Marty Schultz have slowed down in their civic actions. (And other caring folks like Jon Talton and Walter Hall have left town). The current mayor has not left town but he has slowed down and is building downtown NW of Scottsdale. And he will surely run for national office leaving Phoenix with a council that I believe will fall to infighting.
Currently, Phoenix still has strength in its control of water and this is a reason the octopus arms of the Phoenix sprawl have not dried up and fell of the body. YET.
May Edward Abbey HAUNT the dark corridors of downtown Phoenix. (Read the Good News).
Posted by: cal Lash | February 07, 2014 at 11:15 AM
Just to gin up the anti-Seattle crowd, I'll post these (which could also go on the previous thread):
"Have the Seahawks killed Seattle Nice," by a writer who performs much the function here that I did (do) in Phoenix:
http://crosscut.com/2014/02/03/mossback/118597/seahawks-super-bowl-killed-seattle-nice-berger/
"Five 'placemaking' lessons from Seattle's amazing Super Bowl parade":
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2014/02/5-placemaking-lessons-seattles-amazing-super-bowl-parade/8329/
"36 reasons why Seattle not only won the Super Bowl but also wins at life":
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/04/seattle-wins_n_4717220.html?utm_hp_ref=travel
There may be lessons here for the open-minded. And just to be clear: I would still be writing in Phoenix fulltime if I could get work there.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | February 07, 2014 at 11:37 AM
Jon, there are people in Phoenix but few with the purpose or passion to make it a "Great" city. The bigots of brown people and developers of more sprawl have no interest in giving you a job. I cant ever imagine Phoenix having the diversity that exists in Seattle. A friend advises me that the Arizona population mindset stifles creativity. But the friend spent 30 years in NY/NJ.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 07, 2014 at 12:37 PM
thanks Jon for the other blogs. I think the Five Place making article explains why the "Valley" will probably never get it together.
Reference the "nice not so nice" article
I wonder if a tough head butting Mayor suffers concussions.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 07, 2014 at 12:56 PM
Good News:
The New Robber Barons are 0 and 79.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/1440e19b79457fbe
Posted by: cal Lash | February 07, 2014 at 03:11 PM
These historical retrospectives are my favorites, and thank you for the work.
I know you're working on that history book, dammit. ;) The money will come, the dam will break, the clouds will part.
soleri & cal have left particularly interesting comments and info here as well today.
Great post & thread!
Posted by: Petro | February 07, 2014 at 05:59 PM
Seattle Nice? No it is Minnesota nice, don't ya know?
Posted by: Knute | February 08, 2014 at 07:51 AM
Enjoyed our coffee today, cal & Reb.
Don't like to "blogwhore" much, but since I've not posted for over two months, I wanted AzRebel to know that I meant it when I said I'm starting to get a bit angry (thanks for the inspiration):
The Cowardice Of The Right: A Haiku
Posted by: Petro | February 08, 2014 at 06:30 PM
Petro, Good conversations of La Voz or the Club de Jon at Virginia's Urban Bean. Good coffee and great Mano a Mano Poblano sandwiches. Only lacking
http://www.hightimes.com/read/basic-cannabutter-infusions
The Good News:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/snowden-used-low-cost-tool-to-best-nsa.html?referrer=
Mr. Snowden did not specifically address the government’s theory of how he obtained the files, saying in a statement: “It’s ironic that officials are giving classified information to journalists in an effort to discredit me for giving classified information to journalists. The difference is that I did so to inform the public about the government’s actions, and they’re doing so to misinform the public about mine.”
Posted by: cal Lash | February 09, 2014 at 10:10 PM
I found it very interesting...but...are you sure the "crooks" have disappeared ??...I seem to recall the City manager who recently left for a job in CA.... He painted such a rosy picture of Phoenix financial state and because he did "such a great job", he received a very large bonus...and left. Problem is, NOW "they say" (our illustrious City leaders say we are upwards of 56 MILLION in the hole!! Boy isn't that. Surprise!
Posted by: Skip | February 10, 2014 at 04:02 PM
Skip, They evolved (see above post)
there is less of them but the few get really big payouts.
Forbidding that some fire fighter or police officer gets to put his sick time he didn't use into his pension.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 10, 2014 at 05:08 PM
Do you have a source for the claim of a 56 million dollar debt? I haven't seen that anywhere. Thanks.
Posted by: Yawn | February 10, 2014 at 06:01 PM
Yawn try this for a start.
http://ballotnews.org/2014/01/31/pension-hotspots-phoenix-az-and-vetura-county-ca/
Posted by: cal Lash | February 10, 2014 at 07:14 PM
aside
a Sinclair note
As I have noted previously, americans get little news about the big neighbor south of the border (and not much from the neighbor to the north). For Mexico News I recommend frontera list. Here is a story about an important issue from the Texas Observer.
http://www.texasobserver.org/american-media-misses-story-mexican-oil-reform/
Posted by: cal Lash | February 10, 2014 at 07:40 PM
For a followup on Oil in Mexico (our neighbor)google the following.
RE: [frontera-list] American Media Misses the Story on Mexican Oil Reform...Texas Observer
Inbox
x
Gordon Housworth via googlegroups.com
to frontera-list, mollymolloy
Posted by: cal Lash | February 10, 2014 at 09:28 PM
Journalists in Mexico have short lives.
The body of Veracruz reporter Gregorio Jimenez was found today in Los Choapas, Veracruz. Two other bodies were found at the site. State authorities also detained 4 people in connection with the kidnapping and murder of the journalist.
The article reports that 10 journalists have been murdered in Veracruz during the administration of the current governor, Javier Duarte.
I have not seen any reports so far in English. molly
See also: http://www.animalpolitico.com/2014/02/encuentran-muerto-al-periodista-veracruzano-gregorio-jimenez/#axzz2t3vQ1I8j
Posted by: cal lash | February 11, 2014 at 05:32 PM
Phoenix should be 88 degrees come Saturday but from Soleri's Oregon to Jon's old home town of Atlanta.
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/02/11/with-dire-storm-forecast-many-in-ga-stay-home/20827850/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl3|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D441868
Thank you god for the great Sonoran desert. What's left of it since the land rapers arrived.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 11, 2014 at 10:50 PM
another reason why Washington state is a more sane place than AZ.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/washington-death-penalty-suspended_n_4768424.html
Posted by: cal Lash | February 11, 2014 at 11:13 PM
I heard this may have happen to soleri.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/09/portland-jogger-falls-in-snow_n_4755952.html
Posted by: cal Lash | February 11, 2014 at 11:46 PM
come on Phxsunfan throw us something positive. Like the Phoenix market cafe re-design has proven to be a huge success and lite rail ridership has climbed dramatically.
Posted by: cal Lash | February 12, 2014 at 12:03 AM
Cal, I wisely decided not to run in the snow, but as that clip shows, there were still quite a few runners out there. Late Saturday, the fluffy kittens of meteorology turned into pit bulls - freezing rain. Merely to step outside was hazardous. By Monday, Snow White turned brackish, so even the aesthetic pleasures vanished. Thank God (or Ronaldus Magnus) for the rain, which washed that floozy away.
When I first got here, I wondered how I'd cope with months of drizzly weather and temps in the 40s. After this last weekend, not that bad at all.
Posted by: soleri | February 12, 2014 at 07:17 AM