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Home My WebLink AboutLarchmont A Case Study in Civic Improvement 1959 LARCHMONT A CASE STUDY IN CIVIC IMPROVEMENT BY HERBERT E. HERRMAN 1.0_ so . y a p ag ..;3' a`^Ab`� ; 5 gip; $ G" "`sj '•.f f 1 y } Ya } �_ \.:::::','.:�P L a .. nom„ x� ; � g rh L� 3' 2 a+c Y,x}•+'b*` 1 16 ?' "'c .•�a°e E�.r } ` xt a n Y . .6 a x H} �K *fiy y•a h , h N II :.-..,:..,.im:gai.;',V.;:-Nilim'ivii.:::-''':.:':vmii.nien:::::M:'iNiMITT .'.••. * ..:.,'::::: , #ma + : s:.,..}3 ' . ) ti 's'""."i3`: :::7' ,, of 2" Lal-chmont: A Case StudyCONGRATULATIONS were ex- tended recently to Herbert E. Herrman, second from right, by CIVIC PROGRESS TOLD Larchmont Mayor John B. Cof- finberry on the publication of BOOK Mr. Herrman's book, "Larch- IN HERRMAN'S BOOK Imnt, a prove ent.Case Study. Herrman lis chairman of the Mayor's Com- The Village of Larchmont's new- need was indicated, assisting, with. mittee for Civic Improvement. est agency, the Mayor's Commit- out invading, the services of the The event was held at the Ma- tee forCivic Improvement, i t s respective boards and commis- maroneck Beach, Cabana and aims, purposes and accomplish- sions." Yacht Club. Mamaroneck Town ments, is the subject of a 42-pageSupervisor George D. Burchell, Mr. Herrman in subsequent left, added his congratulations as in o Civica Impro em ntA Case Study chapters tells the story of the va- Betty Sullivan, committee secre- sale, and wtitten by Herbert E. riOus projects his committee un- tary, says it with a smile. Mr. dertook. Some were advisory, Herrman's book deals with the Herrman of 10 Sound View Dr., some investigative, others con- activities of the committee. the committee's chairman. ceived within the committee itself It has been printed privately and and reported to the Village Board, is priced at $2.50. It is well docu- and still others were of a leader- mented, has several graphs and ship nature, such as the Clean Up, i charts, and closes with two pages Paint Up, Fix Up program. of bibliography. Leadership Proved Mr. Herrman states at the be- that "many people are It was in this last program that - more deeply and intimately in- the committee showed its leader- , volved in public administration ship abilities. It organized many - than they realize," and once in- of the Village's 100 or more orga- volved i:9 a cooperative communi- nizations into an anti-litter crusade 1; ty effort "is part of the public ad- that has resulted in a cleaner busi- • ministration process." ness section. Mr. Herrman devotes Widening Scope considerable space to the organiza- o Because of the widening scop-e- cope t'on, functioning and results of h of administration, t h e author that program. c states, into even the social life of In conclusion .Mr Herrman 1 the communit, a need in Larch- says: mont for a committee with no fixed The Mayor's Committee, be- function became apparent. In 1956 cause of its broad character and i • - Mayor John B. Coffinberry formed long range perspectives, necessa- t - the Civic Improvement Committee rilY sees the emerging problems and appointed Mr. Herrman chair- overlapping into its sphere of pol- i man. icy formation. That is as it • Among its important functions is should be, for cooperative, admin- i to act as a fact-finding body for istrative efort is the value prem- • . 1 ise on which it was founded. As other community agencies which, + the author states, have fixed func an experienced public administra- for once put it, 'this earnest striv- I '_ tions. Such agencies, listed by the author, are the Zoning Board of ing together to make our adminis- Appeals, Planning Commission, tration more effective is one of the Traffic Commission, Architectural keys, if not the key. . .to the sur- • Board of Review, Park and Rec- vival of free peoples."' n reation Committee and the Library This book should be of great as- Board of Trustees. sistance to residents in understand- Before getting into the accom- ing their community better, and to - ,- plishments of his committee, Mr. those in other communities who • Herrman notes that Larchmont feel that something is lacking and e residents, by and large, "are from a similar committee can be the an- e the viewpoint of economic status ewer• in the higher income brackets." 0 The Village is largely residential, QUIT SCHOOL EARLY of the suburban type, and was once s a luxury resort. It has been con- MEXICO CITY Ls' —Mexican verted, he says, "into a settled children quit school in increasing i community with a variety of corn- numbers after their first year, and plex administrative problems." Education Ministry survey shows. - One of the reasons for establish- According to its figures 2,399,000 . ing his committee, Mr. Herrman children enter the first grade each states, was that many residents year. This drops to 1,247,000 the felt that "the general public second year, 825,000 in the third was not sufficiently aware of the and by the sixth it is down to ., local government and its prob- ' lems." Residents felt that there 7 should be a "bridge" between gov- ernment and the citizens. They 1 were not dissatisfied, Mr. Herr- . man says, but interested. T h e y appreciated the free services pro- vided by the various commissions - and committees, but realized there was little unity among them. The Mayor's Committee for Civic Im- ,., provement was felt to be the agen- 3-` cy that would bridge the gap. r. 3 Triple Purpose + a f According to the minutes of the gr i '� .. first meeting, Mayor Coffinberry . d outlined three reasons for his op- ` pointment of the group: "One is ,,,4:„ �* to be able to assist the Zoning ` Board, the Planning Commission ..` ,•,,,.::::"..:•-ii::::-.*:.,......:•.....:',..i v.::•? ,?••••::••••::,. and the Traffic Commission to do $ .............. things they do not have time for ., , outside of set duties outlined for them by law. Another is that, after I getting together, this committee x ,m - will come up with initial activities • - of its own which can be presented -' to the Board of Trustees for de- cision. Another project specifical- ly would be to assist in whatever way possible on the sign violation survey being conducted by the vil- lage engineer." PROPOSED 'new one -s t o r y In short, Mr. Herrman states, building at Mamaroneck a n d Mayor Coffinberry conceived of the Bradford Avenues, to be occu- committee "as a general purpose pied by American Olean T i 1 e agency, coming to the aid of the Co. Inc., as office and ware- j community when and where the house if a variance is granted Officials Praise Herrman For His Book On Larchmont The recent book called "Larch.- Mr. Herrman deserves "m u c h mont, a Case Study in Civic Im- credit for all the time and efforf provement" by Herbert E. Herr- put into it. I hope all our citizens man of 10 Sound View Dr., Larch- have the opportunity to benefit moist, has received high .praise from it." from a number of local and county 'Worth-While' officials: Village Assessor Parker L. Wat-1 The book, published privately,by son told Mr. Herrman that he has i Mr. Herrman, is a factual outline "made available to the people-of: of the activities of the mayor's Larchmont some very worth-while: committee for civic improvement information, for which I think you of,which he is chairman. It covers deserve a great deal of credit. the work of the committee from Nils Hanson, chairman of the its appointment three years ago to T o w n Republican Committee, the date of publication. Iwrote that "a quick perusal does County Executive Edward G. Mi- indicate that you have done an chaelian found it "stimulating and outstanding job in compiling your interesting. In the writer's 22 years material. in publiclife, it is the first publica- Former Assemblyman Hunter tion of its kind that has come to Meighan, candidate for the State his attention." Senate, wrote: "I am sure I will 'Outstanding' acquire an,education when I com- Mamaroneck Town Supervisor plete reading it." George D. Burchell called it "an Rep. Edwin B. Dooley of Mama- outstanding job. ..noteworthy both roneck said, "It looks like a suc- r for its beautiful format and inter- cint and trenchant tome and I will esting and informative" content." read it with interest at the first Town Councilman Christine Hel-opportunity." wig told Mr. Herrman: "You are 'Competent' to be congratulated riot only on the "I think it is very well done," achievement of your committee, Rabbi Irving Koslowe of the West- but for, making such a clear and chester Jewish Center in Mama- challenging record of'your activi- roneck wrote, "and a unique con- ties available to, us all." tribution to the Larchmont cam- Village Trustee Wilam G. Ball munity. It is a very competent #Jr. wrote that a copy will.be kept job and you are to be commended 1 at all times in the Municipal Build- for its initiation and completion. I t ing, adding that the book _is am sure that .it will have a very c "unique." wide and deserved circulation." Trustee Alfred J. Gaynor called Letters received from others, in- e the book "most informative and eluding G. Keith Funston, former enlightening." I Larchmonter,,express similar.sen- P Village Clerk Margaret Lord sa}d.timents and appreciation. } t I t r � Manor Beach and Horseshoe Harbor,Larchmont,N. Y. "Wo IL LARCHMONT A Case Study In Civic Improvement I BY HERBERT ERLANGER HERRMAN Chairman of Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement Village of Larchmont k/ PRICE $2.50 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 General and Particular Aims............................................................................... 1 TheProject .......................................................................................................... 2 Mayor's Committee for Civic mprovement ................................................ 2 Its functions in Larchmont's Administration ........................................ 2 Methodology ...................................................................................... ..--.. 8 ResearchOrientation ..................................................................................._... S A Consideration of Sources---------------------------------------------------------------------------- S Aimsof the Study....................................................................._.........------------ 4 Geography and History of Larchmont......................._....................................... 4 Change From Resort to Residential Area ................................................. 5 Character of the Village of Larchmont................................................................ 6 Budget of Village of Larchmont ................................................................ 6A The Free Services and Government ................................................................... 7 Organization Chart of Government ........................................._................. 8A II. ORIGIN OF THE MAYOR'S COMMITTEE FOR CIVIC IMPROVEMENT 9 Reasons for Establishing the Committee .......................... 9 Picture of Original Committee ......................................................._........... 9A The Inspiration of Action .................................................................................. 10 The Founding of the Committee.......................................................................... I I Character of the Committee ................................................................._............... I I The Committee's First Meeting.........................._.._........................................... I I Objectives of the Committee ..................................................................._... I1 Relation to Other Services ..........................................................._............... 12 III. THE COMMITTEE'S SUBSTANTIVE WORK; ITS COOPERATION WITH ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES ..............................................._............... 14 The Leader in a Committee.................................................................................. 14 The Problem of Traffic........................................................................................ 15 TrafficViolations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Parking -----------------------------------------------------_--------------_----_------------------------------- 16 The Committee's Tasks.................................................................................. 16 The Question of Taxi Service ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 The Committee's Program --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 The Committee's Part in Settling the Question ........................................ 17 The Proposed Shopping Center............................................................................ 19 The Committee's Survey and Protest......................................................... 19 AL CHAPTER PAGE IV. SCOPE AND RESOURCES OF THE COMMITTEE ..........................._........... 21 Relation to Village Public Services......................................._.........._................. 21 Peopleand Plant ........................................................._......................................... 21 Structure of the Committee .-•-•--.......................................................••-•.........._... 22 Democratic Procedure of the Committee............................................................ 23 The Committee in Relation to the People.......................................................... 24 Appraisal of the Committee by Administrators.......................................... 25 TheProblem Defined ..---•.................................................................•..._............._. 27 PREFACE V. THE COMMITTEE AND THE SCIENCE OF SANITATION .................... 27 Having been written at long intervals during the past three UntidyLocations ..........._............................................................................... 27 years, this case study in village improvement, includes the The Quaker Cemetery.......................-......-.......................................... 28 _ _ 28 major work of the Mayor's Committee in the Village of Larch- Hogan's Alley .............•--•••--...••................._ mont, N. Y. This Committee was inspired by the American Refuse and Garbage Disposal .....................-..-.................................._....... 29 Council to Improve Our Neighborhoods. Role of the Committee ----....----.................._......-......_......................... 30 The Committee's Polity Formulation.......................................................... 30 My thanks are due to the Committee itself for their assist- ance completely on a voluntary basis and the cooperation of VI. THE COMMITTEE'S LEADERSHIP ROLE ..•..........................................._....... 32 two of its officials, Mayor -John B. Coffinberry and Mr. Harold The Question of Tolls....................•----....----••---.........__.._.......-•---..__.._............_._. 32 V. Bozell. The cover and the illustrations were drawn by my The Committee's Proposal .......................___........... ..... 33 wife, Evelyn Sanders Herrman, for which I am most thankful, Clean-up,Paint-up,Fix-up Program.............................................. ......_. 83 and also thankful for the help of New York University's Gradu- The Experience of other Communities...................................................... 34 ate School of Public Administration and Social Sciences. The Committee's Procedure in the Campaign .......................................... 34 THE AUTHOR Launching of the Clean-up Campaign......................_............................. 37 Appraisalof Campaign .............................•--•-•--•-•--•------..._.........._.................. 38 VII. BY WAY OF CONCLUSION ..................................._............_................................ 39 Achievements and Unfinished Business ....................................._....................... 39 EmergingProblems -------------------------------------------------_.-_----•------------------------------- 40 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................•-------••---...............---........-----...•.-................_......................_...... 41 APPENDIX......................._............_.._..-......_.........._-............. _.._.._.._.._.._.........._.._... 42 �I ©Copyright 1959 Herbert E. Herrman CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION General and Particular Aims. Many people are more deeply and inti- mately involved in public administration than they realize. Actually once a person involves himself in a cooperative effort affecting his community, irre- spective of its territorial size, he is a part of the public administration process. This is not to be confused with private administration. The two, of course, have many similarities. Speaking broadly, we are concerned with the area comprising the activities and agencies of a village government. More specifi- cally, our main interest is the Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement in the Village of Larchmont,of which this writer has served as chairman. It is not gratuitous to say that the increasing cooperative activity in the Village of Larchmont has been keeping pace with the trend at national and state levels. The scope of administration has widened with the exten- sion by government into spheres of social life, hitherto considered inap- propriate for governmental activity. History has undermined the old FIGURE PACE Jeffersonian principle that the best government is one that governs least. As far as it is possible to anticipate, governmental intervention in the 1. Manor Beach and Horseshoe Harbor lives of citizens will not diminish. There has been a shift from party patron- ..._._...._...... ___..._.._.._.._.._.._.._.. .._. Frontispiece age to merit, with public servants chosen for their competence. The prob- 2. Distribution of Expenditures of Village of Larchmont, 1958-1959 ............._......_... 6A lem this presents, therefore, is how to attain efficiency in the public administration. And if efficiency is the criterion then the problem is to 3. Chart of Government,Village of Larchmont-------------------_--_.._-.-..-._.._.-_.._.._-._----- 8A get trained and experienced public servants. According to a first-rate exposition of public administration as a science, training in public 4. Photograph,the Original Committee in Session.________........__._.._.._.._......_.._.._.._... 10A admin- istration is concerned with the attainment of two goals: to understand how 5. Map, Village of Larchmont and Town of Mamaroneck ................................. 40A organizations and people involved in administration behave and operate; and to recommend practical means for organizing agencies that will produce the best results.' Efficient public administration takes its departure from the Baconian maxim that knowledge is power. Knowledge here is meant the inducing of human beings toward the object of realizing a program, consistent with democratic planning. Knowledge, not in the complete sense, for that is extremely difficult to attain, but in a limited sense, permits the choice of alternatives and the weighing of the consequences in each case. This intro- duces psychological and sociological factors. A head of an administrative agency, if he is to have the maximum unity of effort and inspire wide participation, without regard to political or other considerations, cannot escape his responsibilities: first, to his co-workers of the agency; then, to other committees and agencies; and finally to the public at large. Nor can he forget that an instrument of administration has an internal environ- ment. If that is recognized and used for its larger goals, administrative advantages can result. Because its relation to other agencies of the admin- istration necessarily becomes intricate, the reason is all the greater for integrating its work with the administrative government as a whole. The entire course of operation has been suggested by Philip Selznick's syn- thetic concept of "cooptation," which he defines as "the process of absorb- s �ro ing new elements into the leadership or policy determining the structure Methodology. The methodology we have employed has been essen- of an organization as a means of averting threats to its stability or exis- tially historical, analytical and descriptive. As we shall show below, the tence."2 Cooptation as a method of procedure endeavors to explore the Village of Larchmont has a long tradition as a residential area. More than that, it has been historically conditioned as the abode of families in area between leadership behavior and wide local participation for the the upper middle class bracket. The residents have through the years purpose of having it yield its potential of good administration according built up a spirit of free service to the end of achieving a high degree of to the standard of rationality. rationality in their public administration. Historical data has therefore The Project. These are the perspectives and criteria of our project, been introduced to put the Village administration and the Mayor's Com- "The Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement," Com- mittee in their proper setting. The work of the Committee proper can the youngest agency of administration of the Village of Larchmont. Its name suggests that it be best presented by the analytical approach to its problems, combined with a descriptive account of its procedure in order to approximate its has no fixed functions. To have fettered it with a specific office would goal. Its problems, its record testifies, are of the kind peculiar to the econ- have hampered its behavior to attain its big goal. It is an over-all body, omic standing of the residents. Slum clearance, congestion, juvenile delin- dedicated, as its title says, to community improvement. That implies a quency, to name but three problems, have not preoccupied the community, program of action that takes it into every avenue of the Village Admin- at least not in any disturbing sense. The Committee instead has cooper- istration and life. For this reason it interests itself not only in all the local ated with the committees and other agencies of the Village in the fields public agencies and their course of conduct and objectives. It also concerns of parking, traffic, parks and recreation, planning, and service to and itself with the community's 100 organizations, serving "the interests of from the station. It has undertaken various general duties and services social, political, religious, civic service and educational groups.' 3 Since to the community not delegated to other agencies, such as toll rates on the Committee operates along the lines of democratic action, with an eye the highways, litter and the general appearance of the Village. Each of to the highest possible efficiency, it has often appealed to these organiza- these questions will be analyzed in the light of the evidence. Also de- tions to line up with it in behalf of given aims. scribed will be its behavior to get results. An important function of the Committee is to act as a fact-finding For the purposes of decision by the Committee and the recommen- body for the other agencies of the community. This is fundamental to dations it must make, the inductive and deductive methods were unavoid- purpose behavior in the science of administration. Thus the Committee able. Otherwise the coordination of its findings and their adaptability carries on investigations on immediate problems, relays information to to its objective would be ineffectual. the respective agencies and drafts proposals of policy. Beyond that, it Research Orientation. For a general orientation we have been guided coordinates the efforts of the community's social organizations to execute by the two outstanding texts, already referred to: Herbert A. Simon, the policies of the administration, visits non-compliant residents to win Donald W. Smithburg, and Victor A. Thompson, Public Administration; their cooperation, acts as a liaison between the Village government's and Philip Selznick, TVA and the Grass Roots, A Study in the Sociology agencies and itself by delegating its members to their meetings, invites of Formal Organization. Many periodical articles, pamphlets from series recommendations by citizens and their active participation to improve of publications, and booklets -of the American Council to Improve Our the community, and finally serves as a center where citizens may bring their Neighborhoods have been extremely suggestive. The second third types grievances and suggestions. For the success of an organization, we are of publications have made us aware of efforts on a national to improve reminded by Simon, Smithburg and Thompson, depends upon its ability, community living. whether by promise or performance, to get others in the community "to The literature on our project consists, in its major part, of unpub- behave in terms of organization values to a sufficient extent.' 4 The above lished records such as the minutes of the Committee's meetings, letters courses of action to gain the Committee's objectives will form the substance it has received from residents, its communications with agencies outside 1 of' the thesis. of the Village of Larchmont, and minutes of meetings of local boards and commissions attended by its members. To these must be added the multi- (N Admin- istration (New York: Alfred A. iHerbA. Simon, Donald Smithburg and Victor A. Thompson, Public Admin- graphed official reports of the Mayor and Board of Trustees. The absences Knopf, 1950), p. 19. 2Philip Selznick, TVA and Grass Roots, A Study in the Sociology of Pormal of printed material bearing on the Committee, save the accounts in the Organization (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1949), p. 13. Mamaroneck Daily Times, which by and large have been the Committee's 3The figure and citation are from the League of Women voters, Survey, (Larch- releases, or stories of reporters, necessarily makes our project a trail- mont, ca. 1952), p. 2. blazing effort. Studies on the Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement 4Simon, Smithburg and Thompson, op. cit., P. 61. have not been hitherto attempted, perhaps because it is only two years 2 3 old, having been set up in May 1956; perhaps, too, because only members and the Village of Larchmont together constitute Larchmont proper.5 of the Committee would be competent to do it. To our knowledge an Politically the two are separate. Each has its own governing body, police agency like the Committee has had no models to follow. Its work has and other services, but both cooperate on garbage incineration and the • been of a pioneer nature, an experiment undertaken without the benefit public Library; and each gets from Westchester County such benefits of like experience in other communities. We must acknowledge, however, as public health, social welfare and public works, to name but three. our indebtedness to the publications of Action, a non-profit organization. Town and Village are drawn into even closer relations, since the first serves Its literature has been helpful, not by any pattern it presented, but by the second by supervising elections, assuming charge of jury lists and the suggestions derived from its case studies. issuing marriage licenses. Furthermore, the citizens of both areas may Our project, we hope, will serve as an example to communities that and do attend the meetings of their respective governing bodies. Also, may plan similar committees. Encouraged by the requests for informa- Town and Village form with the Village of Mamaroneck the Free School tion on the Committee's program and activities, we believe that a thesis District, having a common budget and a single Board of Education. on it, if it is accessible to persons in public administration, may serve to The Village of Larchmont sits snugly on the coast line of Long Island guide them or at least to convey to them ideas on correlating the activi- Sound. Its natural harbor, shaped like a horseshoe, makes it desirable ties of agencies in their communities. as a place of residence. Expansion of the town has been from the Harbor Printed sources, related to the Village of Larchmont, have provided of Larchmont into the interior. But this started after the first decade of the twentieth century. Before that it was primarilya fashionable resort, us with background on its changing climate and on the development of thanks to its accessibility from Manhattan, its natural beauty, and its water- its free services. Particularly useful have been Philip Severin, "Old Y� Larchmont," a series of articles in the Mamaroneck Daily Times, October front which appealed to lovers of water sports. 14 - December 22, 1949; William G. Fulcher, Mamaroneck Through the The early history of the Village was inseparably bound up with its Years, 1661 - 1936 (Larchmont-Mamaroneck: The Larchmont Times, immediate neighbor, the Town of Mamaroneck. The older of the two, 1936), and Edward H. Tatum, The Story of Larchmont Manor (Larch- the Town, traces its beginnings to 1661 when the Englishman, John mont: Larchmont Manor Park, 1946). Richbell, purchased it from the Siwanoy Indians, of the Algonquin nation, Aims. Let us say at the outset that as a property-owner and resident for an odd assortment of commodities, consisting of kettles, skirts and stockings, hatchets, ammunition and firearms. The surrender of the Dutch of long-standing in the Village we have developed a pride in its appearance to the English in 1664 validated his claim to the territory and determined and generally favorable conditions for satisfactory living. Naturally we have been partial to all efforts aimed at the improvement of the commun- its future lines of development as a British possession, although years of litigation, growing out of the Siwanoy Chief's sale of the same land to ity. Probably this sense of community has brought us closer to the Village a certain Thomas Revell, intervened before Richbell was secured in his administration and motivated our participation in it through its agency, title of rightful owner. Meetings of inhabitants and free-holders date the Mayor's Committee. Because of our intimate connection with it, we from 1697 when a form of government was set up.e It endured practically believe that we are qualified to tell its story, to point out its triumphs as well as its failures, its strength and its shortcomings. As we shall show unchanged for 237 years, that is until 1934, when a council form of govern- concretely, our long experience as a public servant and as a founder and ment was established, in keeping with a new State Law. member of many organizations has equipped us to value public adminis- The name Larchmont derived from the larches which had been tration and to appreciate the objectives and activities of our particular planted on the hill where stood the old Manor House.7 Unfortunately Committee. We have settled on this subject for a thesis with a feeling they survived only about twenty years. And the Manor House itself, the of responsibility to those who are deeply interested in efficient public oldest residence of Larchmont, built more than 150 years ago, and once the center of its only developed part, no longer stands. Westchester at administration. Geography and History. Our first concern is with the structure and the turn of the century, we are told by an old resident, was a farming area which still had an annual county fair.$ What is today the Village of composition of Larchmont. This invites a look at its natural features, its position in relation to other localities, and its development. Larchmont was, to a large degree, a luxury resort which drew well-to-do inhabitants of Manhattan and summer visitors from the world of enter- It is located directly on the historic Boston Post Road, about twenty- bSee Appendix 1 for map of the geographical divisions. five miles from New York City. It is one of a cluster of three territorial Wor this early history see William Gershom Fulcher, op. cit., pp. 7-31. divisions, the other two being part of the Village of Mamaroneck and 7The history of the Manor House has been told by Edward H. Tatum, op. cit., what has been designated as the Unincorporated Area, referred to as pp. 25-28. the Town, lying between and contiguous to the two Villages. The Town a Philip Severin, "Old Larchmont," Mamaroneck Daily Times, October 14, 1949. 4 5 tainment. Among the celebrities to be seen were Mary Pickford, when she was courted by Douglas Fairbanks, Anna Pavlova with members of her handsome troupe as her guests, Florenz Ziegfield, and J. Hartley, author of "Peg O' My Heart," and his attractive wife, Laurette Taylor.9 Among the prominent political leaders who came to Larchmont were Wil- BUDGET OF VILLAGE OF LARCHMONT liam Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Our Income Larchmont, like the rest of rural America, had its period of the horse and buggy and gas-lit streets. The cinema and automobile were introduced in the first decade of 1900. The speed limit, it may be noted, was ten miles, which the single policeman of the Village tried to enforce on a bicycle. The Village was incorporated in 1891, in response to the demands of the residents around the Manor for their own, independent, admin- istrative agencies, in particular the one for fire protection. The first Fire / $ 44,722 Department of the Village came into existence around the Manor House –ILL with almost sixty volunteers at the start, and an apparatus that had to $ 597,635 VILLAGE TAXES p�SH be pulled and pushed by the fire-fighters. In view of the fact that a large portion of them were high in the social register and sometimes reported STATE AID $ 21,568 for duty in white flannels and blue jackets, sometimes in the evening O in dinner clothes and even "tails," the department was humorously labeled ;%� the "millionaires' Fire Department."10 Its social character has since $ 54,380 changed with the growth of population, but the idea of free civic service it symbolized has been an example to citizens of the Village. The shift of population to the Village has transformed it from a fashionable resort to a suburban community. Within four decades, from 1910 to 1950, the size of the population has nearly quadrupled. The num- Expenditures ber of small business houses rose in proportion, steadily moving from the old shopping center near the station, on Chatsworth and Larchmont Ave- nues and the Boston Post Road, to Palmer Avenue and adjacent streets. With the possible exception of two small plants, a machine establishment $ 254,718 and a lumber yard, each employing about twenty-five persons, the Village PUBLIC SAFETY is free of factories. It has continued to be essentially residential, thanks I , HOSPITAL $ 500 III d,I�111, to its successful campaign against a large shopping center, partially organ- I!l hliil��'i IIII,II III, ized by the Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement. Its part in the $ 77,901 SARI victory illustrates two points made by a respected student of public admin- ION,;11,, l it 11 pl�l,`'lii i " "'.I;,'' o!" GENERAL EXPENSE I nU , ", istration, namely, that "Individual behavior must fall short of the standar I Illhlll,li $ 112, 888 of rationality"; and that "a higher degree of integration and rationality can be achieved, because the environment of choice itself can be chosen and deliberately modified."" $ 54,250 \ketiv�-ao`'' $ x,984 Character of the Village of Larchmont. The residents are, by and large, from the viewpoint of economic status, in the higher income bracket. $ 86,849 g \ 14� $ 106,215 91bid., November 2, 1949. The long overdue biography of Laurette Taylor was recently written by her daughter, Marguerite Courtney, Laurette (New York: R.inhart and Company, 1955). loSeverin, Mamaroneck Daily Times, November 4, 1949. TAX RATE per $1,000 - $20.80 (1958-59) 11Herbert E. Simon, Administrative Behavior (New York: The MacMillan Com pany, 1957), p. 79. 6 In the absence of accurate figures, we are compelled to rely on the less conclusive, yet indicative, evidence of real estate taxes. The Village tax- rate, at the time of writing is $20.80 per $1,000, an increase of $.90 over the previous year. The rate is comparatively high, higher by 2.12 than that of the Village of Mamaroneck, and by 4.85 than that of the Town of Mamaroneck.12 The present tax-rate of the Village of Larchmont, moreover, is exclusive of the school tax, levied on property. The school tax-rate now is $25.86 per $1,000 which represents an addition of 1.53 to the previous rate to pay the cost of enlarging the Junior High School. Finally, the type of houses, the care bestowed on them, the masonry, the foliage and flower gardens—all these are signs of a community of a relatively high economic standing. The Village is of the suburban type. The majority of its residents live in 1,410 private dwellings. Apartment houses provide rented units. More than 130 retail businesses provision and serve the increasing local population. In sum, the Village, once a luxury resort, has been converted into a settled community with a variety of complex administrative prob- lems. The Free Services and Government. According to an estimate of the Mayor and Board of Trustees, the Village of Larchmont is more than a $28,000,000 business, that is, its assessed valuation, exclusive of Village owned property, amounts to that figure.13 The cost of the administration, without its free services, would inevitably result in a much higher tax- rate than now prevails. Most of the Village income from taxes, more than $597,000, goes to labor, including paid civil servants, supplies and equipment, library, insurance and pension funds, taxes and debt retire- ment. Services like fire-fighting, zoning, planning, architecture, recreation, traffic and civic improvement, are given gratis by public spirited resi- dents. The accompanying chart on the Village budget we have prepared shows the distribution of its income. The Fire Department, save for nine full-time men, who drive and maintain the equipment, has 230 vol- unteers who do the actual fire fighting and other services.14 The rest of the activities are performed without compensation. Free service has been the guiding spirit of the public agencies from the Mayor and Board of Trustees, who are elected, to their appointed seven boards and com- missions or committees. The seven, comprising a total of over fifty citizens, are as follows: 1. Zoning Board of Appeals, Chairman, Leo Goldsmith, lawyer, hears appeals for variances under Village ordinances. 2. Planning Commission, Chairman, Frank Mitchell, a retired exe- cutive, investigates and advises on various problems, from land usage to 12 See Village of Mamaroneck, Budget (Fiscal Year, June 1, 1958-May 31, 1959), Exhibit A. 13John B. CofHnberry, Mayor, and Board of Trustees; "A Report to Larchmont Village Taxpayers," (multigraphed), p. 1. 141bid., pp. 1-2; Village of Larchmont, "Budget Document" (Fiscal Year, June 1, 1958-May 31, 1959), pp. 2-22 (Stenciled). 7 the sufficiency of Village facilities, and makes recommendations on changes of the zoning ordinances. 3. Traffic Common, Chairman,issiChaian, Harold V. Bozell, a trained engin- • uzF v� eer, administers the regulations governing traffic and parking, except such ' 120 (P tu matters as fines, parking license fees, speed limits and parking meters. ` a n F °` 'a Almost all its responsibilities involve consultation with the Police Depart- �� W a d ment and Village Engineer. ~ 4. Architectural Board of Review, Chairman, C. Paul Jennewein, O a� T o an eminent sculptor who has been a Fellow of the American Academy in = a o a N Rome, has the function of furthering the architectural consistency and * mo beauty of the Village. Plans for new construction or major alterations need o o o o N the approval of Board. It advises, without charge, on proposed structures. 5. Park and Recreation Committee, Chairman, Mrs. F. Warren Green, Q + o V w �. a J past president of the Larchmont League of Women Voters and a co founder �, U,, W W (4 the local Babe Ruth League, is made up of delegates of local civic organ- Cc Z Z wZ izations. It advises on the planning and improving of the Village parks, 4 UJ 4I1 on recreation, and on the operating of the summer playground program o Q N j at Flint Park and in other village playgrounds. 6. Library Board of Trustees, Chairman, Platt K. Wiggins, a lawyer a W ~ and an ex-Mayor of Larchmont, has charge of administering the Larchmont >_W Z Q z public Library. z � o W Herbert E. * e ;0 cc 7. Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement, Chairman, Q Q g J N Herrman, a graduate of New York University's Graduate School of Public V a w o m z o Administration and Social Science and a member of the New York and , 0 ,•' American Stock Exchanges, acts in an advisory capacity to the Mayor,,inves- cc c ligates projects not covered by the other agencies and those projects on lJ F 3 °; i which its assistance has been requested, and recommends ways of improv- W * a; z �p k ioac � ing the Village. Its relationship to other agencies of the Village and its place J > LEin the Village Government have been diagrammed by us on the added W W arc uzi chart. The Committee's objectives and the decisions it has had to adapt N ; to them form the substantive part of the thesis. j Z Before proceeding from this preliminary chapter to the Mayor's Com- v o a o o mittee for Civic Improvement, one final remark may be made. The high * zal` LU level of personal achievement, competence, education, and status of the oma '° committee chairmen would suggest that organizations are composed of L N c C O N OC ~ highly qualified people. By and large they are men and women of high cali- bre in their respective pursuits. Of course, competence and experience in one JO cue o area of activity may not necessarily be carried over UJ to another. A successful z N o g business man may be a poor public administrator. But by and large, those Z " * a L w with education and previous experience in business management, those behave purposefully may be highly disciplined by their own careers to ~ 3 Qa serviceable in public administration. Ample evidence of that can be found Q in the history of federal and state administration, which operates on the < Z o maxim that knowledge is power, a trained personnel is the first big step v toward the attainment of "value premises," to borrow the appropriate W * ¢� _s >°a term of three publicists. 16 H V Q N ie Simon, Smithburg and Thompson, op. cit., P. 59. 8 I � CHAPTER II 4 ORIGIN OF THE MAYOR'S COMMITTEE FOR CIVIC IMPROVEMENT It is almost axiomatic to say that the existence of a problem is the primary condition of an organization. When the problem arises, it does so in two consecutive ways. It stems out of community life; and it enters recognized as serious, requiring solution; and then the public demands a remedy. It is at that point that government intervenes either through legislation or the creation of an agency to meet the problem. Citizen's organizations, designed to serve the community, may be of two types. One is called into being for a special purpose, and consequently has a defined objective. The other arises in response to a widely felt need for the unrelaxed maintenance and improvment of the community's stan- dards. The goal in this case will be inevitably long-range; and the reasons for the agency will be in keeping with the goal. The objectives to be realized in the present will bear the indelible marks of the program for the future. For the second type of organization there is what Herbert A. Simon has referred to as "the environment of choice."' Reasons for Establishing the Mayor's Committee. Many civic-minded Larchmonters had long felt that the general public was not sufficiently aware of the local government and its problems. Between biennial elec- tions of the Mayor and the four members of the Board of Trustees, the electorate and the residents in general seemed to fall into slumber poli- tically and administratively, in the belief that once they had performed their formal duties as citizens they could rely on their elected officials to do what was necessary for the good of the community. Actually that has been the pattern of citizens' behavior on a national scale. But these concerned Larchmonters were not satisfied with perpetuating the status quo. Accustomed to think in terms of integrated functions adapted to the making of decisions and the attainment of objectives, they sought a way to bridge the gap between the government and the citizens. This is not to say that they were displeased with the volunteer public services. On the contrary, the activities of the appointed Boards and Commissions were maintaining the standards of the community at no cost to the taxpayers. Each in its own sphere was exploring the best techniques to advance its particular objectives. But under that structure there was little unity among the agencies save their common responsibility to the higher admin- istrative bodies. Moreover they lacked factual resources—the basis of any action calculated "to reach any high degree of rationality."2 And what was equally deficient, from the democratic point of view, was wide citizen participation in the planning of the administrative services. From the viewpoint of local government, an administrative instru- ment was required that would at once serve as antennae to sense the needs 1 Op. cit., p. 79. 2Ibid., p. 79. ..I 9 �I I of the public, activate it around some readily realizable objectives, and with ?he goal of constantly improving the Village, work out a program that would coordinate the purposeful behavior of all administrative agencies. In other words, the aim of the local government was to bridge the hiatus between itself and the public. A biennial election would then be a means of gauging public opinion. Does it confirm the government's course of conduct or reject it? In either event, the slumbering citizens would be transformed into active ones, continuously on the qui vive. Such an aim, some may argue, is influenced by personal political ambitions. Those in office want to continue in office. But there need be nothing unethical or irresponsible in personal political ambition. Politi- cal ambition can stimulate civic leadership. The criterion of ambition is its effect on "value premises" or the ends to be realized. If the ambition of public administrators results in a behavior that raises the standards of the community, it will be respected by the citizens. It may even inspire them to imitation. The Inspiration of Action. The Mayor's Committee for Civic Im- provement was an answer to a problem recognized both by Larchmonters and their administration. It should be said at the outset that no one, as far as we know, looked upon such a committee as the be-all and end-all to a solution of a defective condition in the administrative machinery. The approach was experimental. The Village administration and its civic minded citizens had to feel their way, so to speak, to start from the bottom and _A� construct the contemplated agency. The first step was to get the advice of Action, the pneumonic for American Council to Improve our Neighborhoods, organized in 1954, as P g g a non-political, non-profit organization, with broad objective of "better living for all Americans."s Literature received from it, at the request of n Mayor John B. Coffinberry and Mr. Herbert E. Herrman, was studied by s, a number of citizens.4 Action's findings, it appeared, were of primary con- ti cern to communities with standards different from Larchmont's. Yet it had something to tell us. It proposed a course of conduct which has been gen- erally applicable to administrative agencies, be they volunteer or paid. It put up signposts with these directions: "Alert your neighbors to the oppor- tunity of community improvement;" "Talk to community leaders; get them to join you and help;" "Insist in a start being made right away, no matter how small;" "Organize the widest possible participation;" "Never give up."5 Above all, Action offered suggestions for organizing a committee. It conveyed such ideas as "the organization should be simple, practical, and s Action (New York, American Council to Improve Our Neighborhoods, 1956), p. 3. 4 Very suggestive have been three booklets: Time for Action, New York: American Council to Improve our Neighborhoods, n.d.); Citizens Organization for Community Development (New York, American Council to Improve our Neighborhoods, 1955), Action Research Memorandum, No. 6; Sources of Aid to Community Development (New York, American Council to Improve our Neighborhoods, 1955), Action Research Memorandum, No. 10. 5 Time for Action (pagination lacking). 10 democratic;" "It is necessary to spread out and tap talent, representative of the community as a whole;" "and, once set up, the organization should work out a program of action."6 It further instructed to work "without fanfare," "to make your organization a coordinator" of interests and per- sonalities, to make public its doings, to provide facts to the press, and to have liaisons with the other administrative bodies.? The Founding of the Committee. Actually the Committee was the fruit of Mayor CofFinberry's thoughts on the improvement of the Village services, after his election to office in the Spring of 1956. He, too, had read the reports of accomplishments in localities of the United States. More- over, he tossed about the idea of a Committee for Village Improvement among members of the Board of Trustees, appointed officials and citizens. Finally, at the meeting of the Board of Trustees, on May 21, 1956, a com- mittee of seven members was appointed to serve as The Mayor's Com- rnittee for Village Improvement, since revised to read The Mayor's Com- initte for Civic Improvement, and a letter was sent by the Village Clerk to the respective appointees notifying them of their designation.s Mr. Herbert E. Herrman was named the chairman. The Character of the Committee. The membership of the Committee has changed little since its establishment. We have added the accompany- ing photograph of the original Committee in session. From the side of continuity and team work this has been an invaluable advantage. Only a few alterations in personnel have taken place in the two years of the Com- mittee's history. Its number was raised from seven to nine in September 1956, and one resigned in June 1958. On the other hand two more names were added later. Its present membership consists of ten men and women, with exper- ience either in private administration or in their professions. A sup- plementary feature has been the variety of its members' training and background. The personnel of the Committee will form part of a subse- quent chapter. Its selection, it may be added, was motivated by the aim of making it representative of the many interests in the Village. It can but benefit from the diversity. The different experiences brought to its deliberations will inevitably contribute to the definition of objectives and to the canons of efficiency. The Committee's First Meeting. The evening of June 1, 1956, the members of the Mayor's Committee assembled for the first time in the Trustees' Room at the Village Hall. Present too, were Mayor John B. Coffin- berry, the Village Engineer,Mr.Frank T.Griffin, and the Village Clerk, Miss Margaret E. Lord, to whom we have been indebted for her full and accurate report of the meeting.9 After its opening by the chairman, the Mayor gave the reasons for the establishment of the Committee. They were three, which 6 Citizen's Organization for Community Development, pp. 2-7. 7Ibid., pp. 9-10. s MS. Letter, May 23, 1956. 9 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, Friday, June 1, 1950. 11 we cite from Miss Lord's account: "One is to be able to assist the Zoning man, five members of the Committee were named delegates to the following Board, the PlanningCommission and the Traffic Commission to do thins g g agencies: Mrs. George E. Stewart to the Park and Recreation Committee; they do not have time for outside of set duties outlined for them by law. Mrs. Anne Bear to the Planning Commission; Mr. John T. Batterson to the Another is that, after getting together, this Committee will come up with Zoning Board; Mr. Julian S. Colyer to the Traffic Commission; and Mr. initial activities of its own, which can be presented to the Board of Trustees Michael Harper to the Board of Trustees. Mr. Harper, who resigned from for decision. Another project specifically would be to assist in whatever way the Committee, was replaced by Mrs. John Hay and Mr. Michael Mermey. possible on the sign violation survey being conducted by the Village En- Mr. William Scoffield subsequently took over Mrs. Hay's duties of delegate. gineer." In September, 1956, when Mrs. Bear became secretary of the Committee, The Mayor assigned the Committee a wide scope of activity. Without Mr. Philip Severin was appointed its representative to the Planning Board. spelling out its functions, he conceived it as a general purpose agency, com- The purpose of sending delegates to the other services was to dovetail and ing to the aid of the community when and where the need was indicated, coordinate the separate branches of the Village administration. assisting, without invading, the services of the respective boards and com- An administration, if it is to be an effective instrument of social policy, missions. What was implied in the Mayor's reasons was expressed by the must avoid setting its sights too low. It must look beyond everyday func- chairman, Herbert E. Herrman, in his summary of the many viewpoints set tions, for example, garbage disposal, and traffic control, to the attainment forth in the discussion. The unpublished minutes of the meeting report of what a former mayor called "a positive sense of well-being."12 him saying that "this committee should serve (a) as an advisory tool; (b) as The long range objective can best be striven for through a partnership a research board. In other words, we would not conflict with any function of government, individuals and voluntary agencies, that is, a partnership of in any other premise. The Board may have some problems which it wishes public and private resources. Irrespective of high performance, a public to farm out. and the same with other committees or commissions." administration must enlist the services of an agency to mobilize the resources During the subsequent airing of views, the Committee's broad tasks and make them available in order to maximize the high values of the com- were further underscored. Mayor Coffinberry thought that it might facili- munity. That in a broad sense was the overriding reason for bringing into tate the work of the Architectural Board of Review and the Zoning Board existence the Mayor's Committee. by making suggestions regarding "any new homes being considered." He The consensus of the meeting was that the Committee should serve as also called on it to prepare for the next meeting a list of places in an untidy a fact-finding body, an integrating group, a clearing-house of complaints, a condition, and to be vigilant in the enforcement of ordinances. Others an- device for carrying out assignments given it by other agencies, and a kind ticipated it, in addition to everything else, as a clearing house for grievances of reviewing body of administrative inadequacies requiring rectification. and complaints, for a resident had already written to it asking whether any- Thus the Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement was launched on thing could be done to clean up Hogan's Alley, lying between two business its career. Let us look at the record of its firstear. streets.10 Actually the alley is not filthy, but littered. With planning, to y involve the merchants, it can beut in order. The fact that a resident looked P lz Stephen K. Bailey, "Leadership in Local Government," Yale Review, XLp (June to the Committee, in its initial stage, to remedy a condition was significant. 1966), 666. It meant that the Mayor's Committee was being accepted as a useful agency of the Village Administration. The organization meeting made several decisions calculated to advance the standing and service of the Committee. An agreement was reached to publicize its program in the press and to request the cooperation of the public in reporting laxities in the observance of cleanliness and safety regu- lations. It was also the general opinion that before drafting a program for the community, the Committee should formulate a number of ideas that would be the basis of a public panel discussion. The second decision was consistent with the new, growing emphasis in public administration, which one writer has described as a trend from structure to "a recognition of ad- ministration as a social process."11 Finally, at the suggestion of the chair- 10 MS. Letter, undated, from Mrs. B. B. Underhill to Mr. Herbert E. Herrman. 11 Charles S. Ascher, "Trends of a Decade in Administrative Practices," Public Administration Review, X (Autumn, 1950), 232. 12 13 i CHAPTER III to assign delegates to other administrative agencies gave promise of its object THE COMMITTEE'S SUBSTANTIVE WORK: ITS to make its behavior purposeful for the attainment of the general adminis- COOPERATION WITH ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES trative goal. Our experience in business and in community organizations has ac- The Problem of Traffic. It was quite consistent with the dangers inher- quainted us with the fundamentals of leadership. Placed in that capacity, ent in modern living that traffic control was the first important problem in a person should know how to harness human resources in behalf of the which the Mayor's Committee participated. The problem divides itself into general goal, foster programs at higher administrative levels which might two major parts, parking and traffic violations. The Traffic Commission, release local initiative, in sum, keep vigorous the sense of community. A charged with the overall question, availed itself of the new administrative leader should be sensitive to the attitude of his group, recognize members' tool to approach the problem with the benefit of substantive material it was qualities, in brief, behave cooperatively. Related to that are a number of likely to dig up. The attendance of the Committee's delegate, Mr. Colyer, obligations: to keep authority in reserve; to search for and promote the most at the Traffic Commission's meeting of June 12, 1956, served to remind its widely felt interests of the community; to set goals within the range of pos- membership that something new had been introduced into the process of sibility, yet consistent with the vision of a better tomorrow. This calls for policy proposals. The chairman, Mr. Harold V. Bozell, called attention to the unfettering of the imagination without which public administration the presence of the Mayor's Committee's representative and of its offer to can be but a dull affair. Once a leader observes these obligations he can cooperate with other Village bodies. Accordingly, when the ordinance on "act as a catalyst," to use the phrasing of three authorities and of an experi- unobstructed vision at intersections was referred to, he accepted, on behalf enced public administrator.' of his Committee, we cite from the unpublished minutes of the Traffic A leader needs to take account of practical details for the effective func- Commission's meeting, to "undertake a survey around the Village and report back to the Traffic Commission all those laces in the Village where the tinning of a committee. In that connection useful suggestions were pro- p g y vided by an article in the Public Administration Review. The author, would recommend that the owner or occupant be requested to trim shrub- Robert L. Hubbell, made the following four points: bery to comply with the ordinance."4 1. The role of a secretary exceeds the taking of minutes. It includes Mr. Colyer also agreed, for the Mayor's Committee, to take a census, supervisory functions, namely, those of calling for decisions and seeing to on a typical day, of the vehicles parked in the metered spaces on the Village their execution. side of the railroad station.5 In the interest of clarity, it should be said, that, 2. The meetings should be prepared in advance, with an agenda drafted since the Village and Town meet at this point, parking here is of mutual to give prominence to immediate objectives, with substantive reports, and concern to the two communities. When the Town's Police Commissioner, with invitations to administrative agencies, directly concerned, to be present. at the meeting, promised to survey his side of the area, the Village could but fall in line and offer to make a similar inspection. The information 3. Meetings should be conducted efficiently to complete the agenda. collected by both sides would then be studied, with the object of relieving 4. The minutes must be reported in full, for the purpose of informing congestion. absentees of the discussions.2 Two investigations were thus assigned to the Mayor's Committee. One With these thoughts on leadership and on the effective functioning of involved traffic violations regarding obstructed vision at intersections; the a committee, we assumed the chairmanship of the Mayor's Committee for other the matter of parking near the station in order to determine the num- Civic Improvement. Before its first meeting, summaried in the previous ber of persons using the area who did not live in the Village. A letter from chapter, its formation was common knowledge in the Village and in neigh- Mr. Bozell, Chairman of the Traffic Commission, officially requested the boring communities. The Mamaroneck Daily Times had devoted to it a Committee to proceed with the two surveys.G half column.' As we have shown, a letter from a resident, received before Mr. Colyer assumed the task of making the rounds to discover the the Committee, met, requested it to look into the condition of Hogan's extent of the non-observance of the ordinance. In this connection, the Vil- Alley. That, the Committee rightly interpreted, was a sign of its favorable lage administration was merely enforcing the State Law which requires an reception by the public. People were beginning to count on it to raise the open view of twenty feet of roadway at a crossing. Of the thirteen cases of standard of their community. The fact that one of its initial decisions was obstructed view Mr. Colyer recorded, ten were caused by high hedges, two 'Simon, Smithburg, and Thompson, op. cit., P. 103; Bailey, op. cit., 570. by low hanging branches of trees, and one by high grass on the outside of 2Robert L. Hubbell, "Techniques for Making Committees Effective," Public Admin- 4 Traffic Commission, Minutes of Meeting, June 12, 1956 (mimeographed). istration Review, VI (Autumn, 1946), 348-353. 5Ibid. smamaroneek Daily Times, May 22, 1956. GMS. Letter, Harold V. Bozell to Herbert E. Herrman, June 19, 1956. 14 15 the fence at the Larchmont Yacht Club. 7 All thirteen cases were brought to of having been refused service on short runs, and finally, of congestion at the attention of the Mayor's Committee and Traffic Commission. Visits to the station during rush hours. The correction of these alleged abuses be- the respective owners by members of the Committee resulted in the correc- came a kind of cause celebre in the Village. People talked of it, passions tion of more than half of the violations, according to Mr. Colyer who made rose, and the entire public administration was forced to take a hand in it. another tour of the Village on September 1 and 2. 8 At the meeting of the Mayor's Committee, on September 12, his report was the occasion of a long The Mayor's Committee plunged into the thick of the controversy. The question was raised at its meetings; and two of them were devoted discussion. A resident, Mrs. White, had come to the meeting to register a almost exclusively to it. The meeting of March 18, 1957, was particularly strong complaint against the dangerous corners. Two decisions were Coffin- reached: one, that members of the Committee should visit the violators to vital. Present, besides the members of the Committee, were Mayor Coffin- ask for their cooperation; the other, that letters should be sent to those resi- dents who had acted promptly in response to the request of the Committee.' Mr. Harold V. Bozell, Chairman of the Traffic Commission; Police Chief Keresey of the Village, Police Chief Paul Yerick of the Town, and repre- that they had been remedied without recourse to legal action. 10 The Mayor's Committee was gratified to say in its first annual report sentatives of the local cab operators. The discussion revolved around asix- It should be added that the problem of obstructed vision has not been point program Mr. Herrman had introduced for the Mayor's Committee. solved once and for all. Other complaints of the breach of ordinance have The program, calculated to improve the service, called for: been coming to the Committee and Mr. Colyer has investigated them with 1. The proper posting in cabs of the driver's license with picture. satisfactory results. They are referred to here to show that the problem is 2. The posting of zoned rates by means of a map, indicating prices for a continuous one, calling for vigilance by the Traffic Commission and different parts of the Village and Town. Mayor's Committee. 3. The fingerprinting of all drivers. The census of the cars at the Village parking space became the responsi- 4. The setting up of a police "demerit" system on complaints against bility of the Committee's chairman, Mr. Herbert E. Herrman. His first step drivers. was to recruit the help of the Boy Scouts. A group of them was instructed 5. The widening of the approach to the station to eliminate con- to list the license numbers of the vehicles parked on the Village side of the gestion. railroad station. At the suggestion of Mr. Bozell, members of the Com- mittee, armed with a letter from Mr. William Keresey, Village Police Chief, 6. The break up of the taxi monopoly at the station. went to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles at White Plains to record the names The sixth point had almost unanimous backing. The sole opposition and addresses of the car owners, conforming to the license numbers. A was that of the Yellow Cab Company which had an exclusive franchise, report on the geographical spread of the users of the lot was forwarded to given to it by the New Haven Railroad, to operate at the station. The Mr. Bozell. 11 In his letter of thanks to Mr. Herrman, he wrote: "This will permit was renewed every 30 days, it was learned. Mr. Leon, a cab driver be very helpful not only for Larchmont use, but also in connection with and former owner of Leon's Taxi Service, contended that some of the abuses our joint studies with the Town." 12 The facts have been serving the Traf- could be eliminated if competition prevailed. Mr. Fagarazzo, speaking for fic Commission in its plans for new parking facilities and the flow of traffic the Yellow Cab Company, denied the value of competition. Moreover, it in the anticipation of the construction of a new station. would cause disagreement among the cab drivers. Sentiment at the meeting The Question of Taxi Service. Simultaneously, the Mayor's Committee leaned decidedly to the anti-monopoly side. Overwhelming support also was drawn into the question of taxi service in the Village. Of immediate went to the recommendation to post in the cab the driver's license and interest, was the service to and from the railroad station, affecting many picture. commuters. On several grounds this has been the source of constant irrita- The other four points met stronger opposition. Opinion was about tion. People have complained of excessive rates, of having been driven all evenly divided on the matter of posted rates. The alternative of installed over the Village before arriving at their destination, of having been com- meters in cabs, proposed by Mr. Herrman, was rejected by the operators. pelled to ride with other passengers to the respective ends of their journey, But they all favored the widening of the approach to the station, something 7 MS. Letter, Julian S. Colyer to the Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, which was being studied by the Traffic Commission, according to Mr. Bozell. June 18, 1956. Police Chief Keresey was not enthusiastic. What he knew of the traffic situa- s MS. Letter, Julian S. Colyer to the Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, tion near the station caused him to believe that the result would be more September 4, 1956. 9 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, September 12, 1956. and not less congestion, if the approach was widened. Fingerprinting and 10 MS.Report of the Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, July 1, 1957. the "demerit" system were equally divisive questions. The representatives 11 MS.Minutes,Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, September 12, 1956. p of the Town reported that they required the fingerprinting of drivers and 12 MS.Letter,Harold V. Bozell to Herbert E. Herrman, August 27, 1956. 16 17 owners. But they saw no value in a demerit system. Police Chief Keresey but charges on luggage were regulated. The first article of hand baggage said that a thumb-print would be sufficient, but the operators rejected that.13 would be free, but for each additional article the cost would be ten cents. The above account of the meeting on March 18, 1957, ironed out but It was specifically stated that all licenses "may be revoked at any time by the few difficulties of the taxi problem. It was not easy to resolve, as everyone Board for good cause." 17 present observed. It required more thinking, more inquiry into the state The Proposed Shopping Center. The Mayor's Committee's fight against of affairs at the center of all the trouble, and further discussion of the out- litter is best left over to another chapter. More fitting, at this point, in the standing differences. There seemed to be a general feeling that a conference story of its substantive work, is the part it had in preventing the construc- at the station, between the operators, on the one hand, and the Mayor's tion of a shopping center in the Village, or to put it differently, in stopping Committee and Village officials, on the other, might be productive of a the conversion of the community from a residential to a business area. The satisfactory record. Since this was acceptable to all parties, a meeting at the question came up forcefully at the meeting of the Board of Trustees on station was arranged. The Mayor's Committee was represented by Messrs. July 2, 1956, when Mr. Frank Gagliardi came before it with a petition from Colyer and Herrman. Messrs. Frank and Jose Rodrigues. The burden of their request was that They made their report at the Committee's meeting of April 8. Agree- their Nursery in the Village should be rezoned for business. Their plan was ment had been reached on the following: The issue of an open or closed to develop their property into a shopping center for about seventeen stores, station, that is, competition or monopoly, should be left to Village action; the largest to be a supermarket of the Penn Fruit Company. The Board the picture, name and license of the driver should be posted in the taxi; referred the petition to the Planning Commission, with the instruction to meters should not be installed but some method for determining rates would submit a report at the next meeting. 18 Since the Planning Commission be decided in the future; taxis should be identified with portable signs, took longer to study the matter than had been expected, it had nothing to obtained from the Chief of Police, and license plates should be clearly dis- report at the next meeting of the Board of Trustees. played; the practice of first come first served should be in force in the taxi The citizens of the Village were all agog. The projected enterprise service. In the interest of getting an understanding on these questions, of the Nursery owners, if it were sanctioned, would be damaging to the real fingerprinting and demerit cards were put aside for later consideration. 14 estate business and transform the character of the Village. Its middle class In accordance with the decisions at the conference, the Mayor's Com- dwellers, it was foreseen, would steadily be replaced by a more fluctuating mittee pressed for action. Its purpose, it stated, was to obtain reasonable population. More serious still, a large shopping center would aggravate the service for the citizens, not to make rules. That function properly belonged problems of traffic and litter, perhaps introduce the question of delinquency to the elected Village administration. 15 from which the Village has fortunately been free. Two Garden Clubs voiced The road was cleared for it when the railroad cancelled the lease of the their opposition to the project. The Pine Brook Association and the Wood- Yellow Cab Company. 16 The Village took over the licensing of taxis, and bine Association, real estate groups, reported that according to their own asked its attorney to draft revised taxi ordinances. canvasses, the residents were against it; and the Real Estate Board wrote to the Board of Trustees, asking for a delay, until October, of any action In their final form the ordinances not only incorporated most of the regarding the rezoning of the Nursery property. Actually no other course above recommendations that came out of the conferences, but also included rules on which there had been differences of opinion. Three of the revisions was possible, for the promised report of the ,Planning Commission had not had been recommended by the Mayor's Committee in its six-point program. yet been handed in. 19 The new regulations called for the fingerprinting of drivers and the inside The Mayor's Committee was meanwhile investigating the rezoning display of their names and photographs as preliminary to the issuance of request of the Nursery owners. It polled the opinion of the residents, in- licenses by the Village authorities at the rate of $10.00 per month. Drivers quiring whether shopping under existing conditions was a hardship to them. and owners of taxis were to post their license numbers. They had to com- Its findings showed that the Villagers were overwhelmingly opposed to a ply with the reasonable requests of the police and with such additional shopping center. The sentiment was strongly in favor of maintaining the regulations considered necessary by the Chief of Police and the Board of the high standards of the community and to continue it as a non-commercial Trustees. The principle of first-come-first-served was made binding. Though residential area. The Committee therefore drafted a letter to the Planning Commission, informing it of the prevailing opinion, and reminding it of the ordinances were silent on the proposed demerit system, they provided the pledged obligations to the citizens, manifested by their wide participa- heavy penalties for violations. No mention was made of meter installations, 17 MS. Copy, Chapter V-A of the Revised General Ordinances of the Village of 13 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, March 18, 1957; Larchmont. Mamaroneck Daily Times, March 19, 1957. 1s MS. notes of Mr. Michael Harper, Meeting of the Board of Trustees, Village of 14 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, April 8, 1957. Larchmont, July 2, 1956. 15 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, June 10, 1957. 19 MS. notes of Mr. Michael Harper, Meeting of the Board of Trustees, Village of 16Ibid. Larchmont, August 6, 1956. 18 19 tion in the free services, not only to keep the present character of the Village CHAPTER IV but to improve it. That was the prime purpose of the Mayor's Committee SCOPE AND RESOURCES OF THE COMMITTEE and it was determined to prevent the deterioration of the standards by the construction of a shopping center. In other words, the Mayor's Committee, Relation to Village Public Services. The previous chapters have shown with the facts before it, stood resolutely against the project of the petitioners. that the Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement came into being to fill The letter ended with the urgent request to deny the construction of the a broad need in the public administration of the Village of Larchmont. business center. 20 That need was recognized by the Mayor and Trustees, all of whom, Mayor Coffinberry in particular, were the initiators of the Committee. It was not a The Committee was gratified to learn that its letter made a deep im- pression on the Planning Commission and Board of Trustees. Its arguments matter of more records which, in the last analysis, are secondary, but one of laying a pipeline between the people of the Village and the Administration, were not those of a small group; they epitomized the residents' opinions. y g p p P p g so that sentiment could flow from one to the other and decision making This meant that the people had given their verdict as if they had been called would be a social process. Before having records, said an experienced British upon to cast their ballots. The representatives of the Mayor's Committee p g p restated its arguments at the meetings of the Planning Commission and administrator, "You must first have people who trust each other, meet each Zoning Board. Democratic action triumphed. In its report to the Board of other, consult and act by word of mouth."' Because the Village administra- tion regards decision making as a continuous process, it has looked on the Trustees, the Planning Commission recommended the rejection of the peti- Mayor's Committee as an important instrument of inter-communication tion. The Trustees acted accordingly and refused the request of the Nursery between itself and the citizens. This is momentous in a democratic activity. owners. 21 Professor Norton E. Long once wrote that "a major task of administration is The role of the Mayor's Committee in defeating the Nursery owners, it the formulation of policy proposals for consideration by the political execu- has been generally acknowledged, was crucial. It spoke not for any special tive and the legislature." And he added: "The capacity of our administra- group, but for the public at large. For that reason its voice was heard above tive organizations to perform rationally and responsibly the task of formulat- the din of clashing interests. By canvassing the citizenry, it alone could ing the policy alternatives for politically responsible superiors is the major speak with authority on whether or not a shopping center was desirable. It criterion of organization efficiency." 2 is not an overstatement that, by crystallizing public opposition to the rezon- Though;Professor Long had in mind public administration on national ing of the Nursery Property, the Mayor's Committee shared in the policy and state levels, his remarks are equally applicable to the Village of Larch- proposals for decision making by the politically responsible superiors of the mont and its administrative organizations. If we are to judge by results, Village. The outcome was a social process principally because the Commit- they have proved their capacity "to perform rationally and responsibly the tee's purposeful behavior was within the framework of wide citizens' task of formulating policy alternatives for politically responsible superiors." participation. And in the performance of their tasks, the Mayor's Committee has had a 20 MS. Letter, Herbert E. Herrman to the Planning Commission, September 12, 1956. share. In the enforcement of traffic regulations, in the problems of parking 21 MS. Report of the Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, July 1, 1957. and taxi service, in the prevention of a projected shopping center, it not only investigated conditions to establish the facts; it also served as an arm of the directly involved agencies and came up with "policy alternatives for polit- ically responsible superiors." This part of its substantive work was the burden of the previous chapter. People and Plant. The Committee, in common with the other adminis- trative organizations, operates in a suburban community. Its area is 640 acres; its population, close to 7,000, predominantly in the upper middle class. The majority, as we have already pointed out, lives in private dwell- ings of the type which indicates a relatively high economic status. The im- provement of the community, already with a high standard, is a standing challenge to the administration. A method the Committee has employed, which has shown great potential, is its appeal to the community's 100 organ- 1 Lyndall Urwick, "Experiences in Public Administration," Public Administration Review, XV (Autumn, 1955), 247. 2 Norton E. Long, "Public Policy and Administration: The Goals of Rationality and Responsibility," Ibid., XIV (Winter 1954), 22. 20 21 5f _ III izations which reflect the varied interests of the residents, from religious Structure of the Committee. It is of some significance that the effective- nessgroups of. the Committee won commendation, in the first year of its history, Y , both from the Ma Y to Parent-Teacher Associations. From the Committee's viewpoint, 11 or and local public servant _ p t, they a y p sand from outside organiza form a large reservoir of human energy that can be tapped and directed tions. But we are anticipating a section of this chapter. Were we to seek a toward the rational and responsible performance of a task. We have already primary source of the Committee's efficiency we would undoubtedly find it said that to get a census of the cars parked near the station and to trace in the personnel. We said in a previous chapter that the diversified back- their owners at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in White Plains the Commit- grounds and experiences of the membership were not accidental. Its selec- tee recruited the help of the local Boy Scouts. Without their assistance, the tion was premised on the knowledge that members drawn from different assembling of the facts, now in the hands of the Traffic Commission, would businesses and professions would equip the organization with the capacity have been a long, arduous process, possibly to the detriment of members' to perform rationally. businesses and professions and to the agency charged with the regulation of Let us look briefly into the training and doings of the Committee's ten traffic. This participation of residents to raise the efficiency of the Com- members. It should be said at the outset that nearly all are college graduates. mittee has become inseparable from its course of action. We shall observe, Eight of the ten are in some form of business, such as insurance, real estate in the case of the "Clean-Up, Paint-Up, Fix-Up Program," that practically and chemical research, public relations and stock brokerage. Of the other the entire community was involved, with many social organizations con- two, one is a portrait artist, and the second, an editor of the Garden Clubs' tributing litter baskets. journal. The Committee's members are as follows: In view of its broad purpose, the Committee has had to extend antennae 1. John Batterson, a graduate of Amherst, is an optician in New in many directions. It has been in communication with the social organiza- Rochelle. tions and with individual residents, when their cooperation was needed to 2• Mrs.Anne Bear, with a B.A. degree from the University of Syracuse, correct existing defects and violations. In line with its over-all character, it is head of the Anne Bear Real Estate of Larchmont. has sent delegates to other administrative organizations, including the Board 3. Mr.Julian S. Colyer, general partner of the Colyer Company Pectin of Trustees. The reports of the proceedings brought back by the delegates Research, was trained as a chemist at Cornell University. have furnished it with the knowledge of the policy proposals in the process 4. The portrait artist, Mrs. John Hay, a member of the Royal Can- of formulation, and hence with value premises in determining its behavior. Mr. Harper's reports on the meetings of the Board of Trustees, to cite but 5. Mr. Maurice Mermey, Marketing Consultant of Shoppers' Guide, one example, brought to the attention of the Committee the project for a and a partner in the Public Relations firm of Baldwin and Mermey, was shopping center. With that looming dangerously before the residents of formerly in the following executive posts: Executive Secretary of the N.R.A. the Village, the Committee's decision to poll the opinion of the people was Retail Code Authority; Comptroller's Advisory Council on Emergency Tax- the best calculated step to get the widest possible participation in order to ation in New York City; and Director of Exhibits and Concessions at the form a. thick wall of opposition. The popular resources proved to be the New York World's Fair. most effective in putting an end to the threat of converting the Village into 6. The recent addition to the Committee, Mr. William Scoffield, a aduat . Similarly Mr. Col er s accounts of the meetin s of gT e Chemist of Cornell University and a past member of the Archi- a business communit Y Y Y g tectural Board of Review, is an insurance broker. the Traffic Commission served as the Committee's point of departure to 7. The Larchmont Realtor Philip Severin, studied landscape architec- assist in resolving the traffic problems. P p ture at Cornell University. His series of articles on "Old Larchmont," in Without trespassing on areas assigned to Boards and Commissions, the the Mamaroneck Daily Times from October 14 to December 22, 1949, Mayor's Committee has been broadening its program to include adjacent earned him gratitude and respect among Larchmonters. He was the candi- communities. In connection with the proposed correction of the hum- date of the Minority Party for Mayor of Larchmont at the last election. mocks, lying entirely within the Town of Mamaroneck, yet near enough to 8. Mrs. George E. Stewart, a graduate of Hunter College and past the Village, Mr. Severin argued, according to the minutes of January 13, President of the League of Women Voters, is at present the treasurer of the 1958, "that we should favor any general improvement in our neighborhood Woman's Club of Larchmont President of the Garden Club of Larchmont as a whole and not only along and within general boundary lines." Consid- and Editor of Grapevine, a .publication f o the Ninth District erin the undecided opinion of the members, the Committee avoided the p P s ct Federated g P Garden Clubs of New York State. taking of a stand. But it voted to send a representative to the Committee 9. Miss Betty Sullivan, a graduate of New Rochelle College, is an that was being formed to study the question. 3 executive of the Young Republican Club and the Business-Secretary of the 3 MS. Minutes, Meeting of the Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, January American Investor's Service. She has taken over the duties of secretary to a I 13, 1958. the Committee. 22 23 I • 10. The Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Herbert E. Herrman, a Daily Times. This newspaper has generously opened its columns to the graduate of the College of Commerce, Accounts and Finance, and the Committee, printing summaries of its meetings, recounting its activities, Graduate School of Public Administration and Social Science of New York interviewing its members and publishing its appeals for cooperation in University, is a member of the New York and American Stock Exchanges, behalf of its enterprises. Our practice in conveying to the public, via the the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Canadian Commodity Exchange, press, the problems and the activities of the Committee brings to mind a and a director of four companies. Among his organizational activities the question raised by Mr. Philip L. Graham, President and Publisher of the following may be listed: Past Treasurer and Vice-President of the Larch- Washington Post. In his address to the American Society for Public Admin- mont-Mamaroneck Young Republican Club; First President of the Larch- istration, he asked: "What can reasonably be expected of the press in report- mont-Mamaroneck Lodge, B'nai B'rith; Chairman of the Larchmont Olym- ing and analyzing administrative problems of government?" His answer pic Fund Raising Committee; Vice-Chairman of the Larchmont Division of was: "Slow but steady improvement." 6 In terms of our own knowledge in the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York; Vice-Chairman of the matter, the answer sums up the Committee's experience. Activities, Siwanoy Council, Boy Scouts of America; President of the Broth- erhood of the Westchester Jewish Center; and Noble Grand of Alert Lodge Thanks to its publicity in the Daily Times, and to its own achievements of Odd Fellows. in improving conditions, the Mayor's Committee has been winning the confidence of the Village residents. Since its origin it has received from them The Committee does its business on a thoroughly democratic basis. At many letters that were read at its meetings. 7 Let us glance at some of the its monthly meeting, discussions are free and open, with consideration for letters in the Committee's files. Three directed its attention to the danger- every point of view. It is not uncommon to see in attendance the Mayor, ous intersections due to overgrown shrubberies. One of the three cor- Trustees, and citizens of the community who have been encouraged to come respondents, Miss Natalie Thurston Shelton, ended her letter with this Sen- to the meetings to state their views on problems or to present their griev- tence: "It is gratifying to learn that a committee has been appointed in our ances. Let us select one illustration among many. Attending the meeting village to provide safety on our streets. All power to you." 6 A second, Mrs. of November 10, 1957, besides the members of the Committee, were Mayor Betty White, wrote: "We are all watching the work of your Commission Coffinberry, the Village Engineer, Mr. Frank Griffin, and representatives of with great interest." 9 Mrs. Lucy Scheidlinger expressed her gratification � five separate Village organizations. that a project was on foot to beautify the area of the Village Dump. 10 Mrs. If it is borne in mind that on critical questions, directly affecting the Henry B. Coakley, President of the Junior League of Larchmont, wrote on character of the Village, the Committee samples or canvasses citizens' senti- February 4, 1958, stating her wish "to attend the meeting of the Mayor's ments, its policy proposals are the result of a social process. Consequently it Committee, relating to the Clean-Up Campaign." 11 enlists as many as possible in the definition of its objectives and in the These samples of citizens' backing of the Committee are evidence of its greater demand 6 or what one student has termed "social knowledge and success in getting wide participation to raise its efficiency in formulating understanding." A particular decision, in terms of its goal, is but part of policy. Further indications of that will appear in the account of its efforts the continuous and cumulative process of decision making. to make the Village the cleanest in Westchester. Recently, through the Minutes are recorded by the secretary and read at the next assembly. Mamaroneck Daily Times, the Committee called on all Village citizens to The reason for that is twofold. First, to keep absentees abreast of what was forward suggestions or camplaints that would assist the administration to done, and second, to give continuity to the Committee's activities. Even at improve conditions. 12 Thus far, the response has been encouraging. Mrs. the cost of repetition, we should add that its representatives at the meetings Scheidlinger wrote, regarding the unsightly appearance of the Village dump. of the Village Boards and Commissions and the requests for aid it has been The residents on Revere Road complained about the rubbish along the receiving from the separate agencies are the warp and woof which have curbs. The wife of a Committee member requested that a study be made of fixed the Committee in the design of the public administration. 6 Philip L. Graham, "Public Administration and the Press," Public Administration The Committee in Relation to the People. A purpose of the Committee Review, XIII (Winter 1953), 87. has been to keep in constant communication with the citizens. To speak 7 E.G., MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, September 12 and 16, October 2, and December 10, 1956; April 8, November 12, 1957; June 10, September figuratively, they contribute to the pool of ideas that are pumped to it. In 9, 1958. the final analysis, it is they who are best placed to turn the searchlight on B MS. Letter, Miss Natalie T. Shelton to Mr. Herbert E. Herrman, August 24, 1956. spots that need improvement. 9 MS. Letter, Mrs. Betty White to Mr. Herrman, undated. 10 MS. Letter, Mrs. Lucy Scheidlinger to Mr. Herbert E. Herrman, February 16, 1958. An effective method the Committee has used to convey its policies and 11 MS. Letter, Mrs. Henry B. Coakley, to Mr. Herbert E. Herrman, February 4, 1958. achievements to the public has been the press, particularly the Mamaroneck 12 Mamaroneck Daily Times, October 2, 1958. MS. Minutes, Mayor's committee for Civic Improvement, September 9, 1958. The revised name, Mayor's Committee for Civic 4 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, November 10, 1957. Improvement, instead of Village Improvement, was adopted by it at its meeting of May 5 Charles S. Ascher, op. cit., p. 232. 12, 1958. 24 25 a the proposal by the Telephone Company to set up booths in three loca- CHAPTER V tions of the Village. She was opposed to it; and so was the Board of Trustees, THE COMMITTEE AND THE SCIENCE OF SANITATION it was pointed out. Finally, Mrs. Charles W. Bellows, Chairman of Com- It is scarcely necessary to argue that hygiene is elemental in community munity Service for the Camp Fire Girls of Larchmont, wrote to offer the living. That is true of an p area where people settle, irrespective of their girls' services to the Mayor's Committee. 13 sociaand economic standing, for the rules for the preservation of health The meaning to be drawn from the four letters is that the Committee has are applicable wherever a settlement exists. Sanitation, of course, is gen- been succeeding in getting citizens' participation to advance toward its goal erally a more acute problem in business or industrial communities than of civic improvement. Its share in removing some of the obstacles, has been in residential ones, and even in those of this category the problem varies. the purpose of the previous chapter. We shall have occasion to point out The fact is that the approach to it and the methods for resolving it must later in this essay that other obstacles have stubbornly resisted being be looked at in terms of each community's standards. Looked at from the cleared. But with its base in the people the Committee is confident that it will perform its task rationally. Without that base its behavior and eviewpoint of the Village of Larchmont, the problem can be broken down efficiency into two major parts, litter and garbage disposal. Fortunately the two would have been lamed from the start. are not outgrowths of overcrowding or insufficient care by the responsible Relevant at this point is the appraisal of the policy proposals and service, but are the normal consequence of a situation stemming from a behavior of the Mayor's Committee by local administrators and outside settled area of nearly 7,000 inhabitants. It is with this consideration in organizations. On two different occasions, Mr. Bozell, Chairman of the mind that we come to the problem of Village sanitation, especially as it Traffic Commission, wrote to thank it for its assistance, first, in having affected the behavior of the Mayor's Committee. collected data on dangerous intersections and parking,14 and second in having participated vigorously and effectively in the taxicab situation.15 On Litter. It is often difficult to separate the matter of litter from gar- May 13, 1957, Mr. Herrman reported to the Committee that, at a meeting bage. But for the sake of clarity we must treat litter as a particular division of the Mayor and the Chairmen of the Village Boards and Committees, of the bigger problem of sanitation, with the understanding that the its activities were held "in high esteem."18 Several months later it received word, as it is here used, means untidiness caused by discarded material. letters of commendation from Action, the Chairman of the Town of Taken in this sense, litter is a term encompassing particular locations,Mamaroneck Republican Committee, and the Supervisor of the Town of noticeable for their refuse and disorder, and waste on streets. Let us look Mamaroneck." Finally, Mayor Coffinberry, summarizing the work of the at them in their order. Committee in its first year spoke of it as something "different from any Untidy locations. Under this head, we may cite the examples noted we have had before." The Committee, he went on to say, took on difficult in a letter to Mayor John B. Coffinberry by Trustee William G. Ball, Jr. tasks, which did not fit into the work of any other agency, "and did them He listed the following spots where littering was acute: The Railroad well." Trustee Robert McCann similarly praised the Committee.18 Station; the corner of Palmer and Chatsworth Avenues; the corner of The unique character of the Committee, as the Mayor indicated, has Palmer Avenue and Depot Way West; Vanderburgh Park; and Larchmont determined its scope. Its breadth has given it spaciousness for action, so Playhouse. The five locations are in the business area which has been a source of man complaints from i ll n the � been regarded b it as Y p is om residents. The Trustee called o i that every question of public administration has g y , coming within its area, provided it does not eclipse the duties of other ;Mayor and the Board as a whole to discuss ways and means to correct the services. The Committee has observed this limitation, unless called upon situation. Meanwhile he proposed five remedies: A survey to determine by any of them to investigate a problem and to assist in the formulation the gravity of the littering problem; trash receptacles, affixed to posts; a of policy. If it has performed rationally it is because it has had the capacity law compelling business establishments and apartment house owners to to draw on the rich, popular resources of the Village. provide containers for garbage, waste and other rubbish, all of them to be screened from adjacent properties; stipulated penalties for multiple 13 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement, October 13, 1958. offenders; publicity of the discussion." 14 MS. Letters, Harold V. Bozell to Herbert E. Herrman, July 2, 1956, and August Trustee Ball's anti-litter program was put before the Mayor's Com- 27, 1956. 15 M. Minutes, Meeting of the Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, June mittee. In a letter to it he inquired whether a law had been enacted to 10, 1957. help correct the condition. Such a law did exist, but was not being en- 16 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, May 13, 1957. forced. He suggested that the question be placed before the school children 17 MS. Minutes, Meeting of the Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, Sep- and that prizes be awarded for the best posters to remind residents of the tember 16, 1957. 1 MS. Letter, Trustee Ball to Mayor Coffinberry, August 22, 1956; MS. Minutes, 18 Mamaroneck Daily Times, June 11, 1958. Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, October 2, 1956. 26 27 " a 3 :ittering situation. The method had been used successfully in New Ro- aggravate the situation, the Alley is without proper drainage, so that large chelle.2 Confronted with the question by a top Village administrator, the pools of water are formed after heavy rains. Committee gave much time to its consideration. It conferred with Mr. F. The Committee, in response to complaints from residents, has studied T. Griffin, the Village Engineer, and with the governing authorities. Its the question of giving the Alley at least a semblance of cleanliness. Its participation in the attack on the problem will be examined below. More representatives have visited the owners of the businesses with an opening in order at this point is its preoccupation with two particular locations on the passage way and have won their cooperation in making it more that demanded its attention, namely, the Quaker Cemetery and Hogan's presentable. In December 1956, it was reported to the Mayor's Commit- Alley. tee "that the conditions in Hogan's Alley have been improved."6 But it The Quaker Cemetery. This was an eye-sore. Facing the Boston must be said that full correction requires some reconstruction at the cost Post Road on one side, and bounded on the other three by commercial of the business men directly concerned. A drainage system is necessary to establishments and residences, the Cemetery became an unsightly dump- prevent stagnant pools from forming. To compel the undertaking of such ing ground for all kinds of refuse, and as such was the cause of many an expensive job is beyond the area of the Committee. It can only aid complaints. Shortly after the election of Mayor Coffinberry and the present in formulating policy proposals for consideration by the responsible super- Board of Trustees, the matter was taken in hand. The job was entrusted iors. Besides, while the matter of Hogan's Alley has demanded particular to the Village Engineer who had the clean-up operation done at a cost + effort, it is part of the bigger problem of refuse and garbage. to the Village of approximately $550.00.8 I Refuse and Garbage Disposal. It is beyond the purpose of the present What contribution did the Mayor's Committee make to the removal chapter to make a tour of the locations that have been singled out for of the offensive condition? Obviously it did not take part in the task their unclean state. Actually, the area of the retail trade has several spots of cleaning the Cemetery. Nor could it serve as a channel for complaints on which letters of complaint have been received by the administration.7 from the residents to the public administrators, for only less than three~ But they, like Hogan's Alley, are inseparable from the larger question of weeks had elapsed since its organization meeting. Its involvement came litter. ifter the situation was remedied. It was called upon by Village Engineer, Ever since the election of the village administration in the Spring F. T. Griffin, to send letters, on its own stationery, to seventeen residents, of 1956, the question has been on its agenda. It has been a point of long property owners and business men, bordering on the Cemetery, request discussion at meetings of the Board of Trustees and of the Mayor's Com- ing their cooperation in maintaining it in a tidy state. Consequently, mittee. The Village Engineer has been kept active, studying ways of cor- the Committee sent the following letter, over the signature of its chair- recting a situation, generally regarded as unsatisfactory, and getting the man, to the individuals directly concerned: participation of Village agencies and organizations to improve the condition. The Quaker Cemetery adjacent to your property has been cleaned At the Committee's meeting of October 2, 1956, a letter from Trustee by your Village. We all want it this way. Please be good enough Ball was read, on the littering of Larchmont's streets. Present at the meet- to report at once any dumping of refuse on this property to the ing were Mayor Coffinberry and Village Engineer Griffin. How to overcome Village Police Department.4 the littering problem was the question before the members. The problem, The Committee's appeal brought letters of thanks and promises of it was observed, was -most pressing among the business establishments cooperation to the Village Board of Trustees. The tidiness of the Quaker and apartment houses. Mr. Griffin reported on a refuse receptacle, made Cemetery has since remained a closed question. by the Leach Company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which would permit sani- Hogan's Alley. That much cannot be said of the narrow way in the tary storage of garbage and avoid spilling during its collection. Equipped heart of the retail business of the Village. Residents have often described with a tight fitting cover, the container would eliminate scavenging and it as filthy, but that is an exaggeration. To be sure, it cannot be recom- the breeding of insects. It was large enough to hold more than seven thirty mended to picnickers or romantic couples. The best characterization gallon garbage cans, was mounted on casters for easy rolling through door- of it was made by Mrs. B. B. Underhill in a letter to Mr. Herrman, just ways to the garbage truck and automatically emptied, thereby reducing after the Mayor's appointment of the Committee. She said that it "in the "garbage can clatter." All this was done in a few minutes. Moreover, no way conforms to the rest of the village."5 The worst that can be said it had a drain plug for easy cleaning. Its cost was high, $145.00, but it of it is that it is in disorder. Lying between retail stores, it has been their offered a santiary solution of refuse and garbage collection. Printed mater- ial, received from the distributor of the containers, told of their successful backyard where their discards have found a temporary resting place. To operation in Middletown, Ohio, some Cleveland suburbs, the Los Angeles 2 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, September 12, 1956. s MS. Letter, F. T. Griffin to Herbert E. Herrman, June 20, 1956. 6 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, December 10, 1956. 4 MS. Letter, signed Herbert E. Herrman, July 9, 1956 7 E. G., MS. Notes of Michael Harper, Meeting of the Board of Trustees, August a MS. Letter, Mrs. Underhill to Mr. Herrman, undated. 6, 1956. 29 28 l School Board, and a number of big industries, like Douglas Aircraft, In the long run this type of proposed container will prove Singer Sewing Machine and International Harvester.8 as economical as present containers required by law. Your cooper- With this information before them, the members of the Committee ation in this matter is requested. were ready to talk to business men and apartment house owners. It was The demonstration, announced for April 2nd and 3rd, was postponed learned from Mayor Coffinberry and Engineer Griffin that the Village to the fourth. Judging by the turnout, the Committee was encouraged would buy the necessary attachment for their trucks if institutions, restau- to believe that business men and owners of apartment houses would fall rants and stores could be induced to purchase containers. Mr. Colyer in with the project. Unfortunately, only a tiny minority of them, less volunteered to visit the respective places to bring the information to them, than the required five, offered to buy containers.12 The Village adminis- and to contact the Leach Container salesman.9 tration has no power to compel their purchase. All it can do is to enforce This was not all to the Committee's part in the problem of refuse the anti-litter ordinance which, at the suggestion of the Committee's dele- and garbage. At a subsequent meeting the decision was reached that mem- gate to the Traffic Commission, has been printed and distributed among bers should meet with Mr. Frank Griffin to draft a letter to be sent to the merchants, the worst offenders.19 merchants, relevant to the refuse container.19 It was further agreed to pub- The problem of refuse and garbage continued to face the adminis- licize the project through the Mamaroneck Daily Times. An article on tration. The only gain the various public agencies could possibly claim the container appeared in its columns." for their publicity on the question was the sense of urgency they had com- Three days before that a letter, written by Messrs. Griffin and Herrman, municated to the citizenry. That, of course is no small benefit. Yet, from went out to the merchants and apartment house owners of the Village. The " the viewpoint of the practical achievement of objectives the Mayor's letter, signed by Herbert E. Herrman for the Mayor's Committee, and Committee and the other services considered the problem undented. Very enclosing a mimeographed copy of the published statement of the problem few apartment house owners and business men were willing to invest and its proposed solution by means of the Leach container, said that "the $145.00 for a sanitary receptacle. matter of garbage and rubbish disposal in the business and multi-family Public opinion, however, was sympathetic to the administration pro- areas" was being carefully studied. The problem, as the enclosed state- posal, and thoughts were exchanged at meetings on how best to harness ment said, "is of increasing concern to Village Officials." "At present," it ::nd direct opinion toward the rational performance of the immediate task. continued, "there are many locations throughout the business area where A speedy advance to the larger goal, experience proved, was out of the garbage and rubbish is stored in violation of Village Ordinances." The question. At best it could be reached piecemeal. The suggestion was made Committee, in its own letter, added: that women's organizations might be asked to police the business area in At present most of the storage places at the rear of business an anti-refuse campaign, similar to what had been tried successfully in stores and apartments are unsightly eyesores, and the maintenance New Rochelle. But it was decided first to seek the advice of the Board of and cleaning of such locations are very poor. We are convinced Trustees and the Village Engineer.14 Another idea was put forth that that this new style of container used by individual stores or several Garden Clubs and other local organizations should form a group of civic combined, based on the volume of garbage and refuse, will result monitors who would make the rounds, report on conditions, perhaps remind in a more efficient and sanitary procedure. owners of their disregard of the sanitary ordinances.15 The Village cannot allow the present unsightly condition of Participation by special organizations in policy formulation has always garbage storage to continue and will strictly enforce present ordin- been considered highly desirable. In the matter of refuse and garbage, ances and future necessary amendments as required. Our Village forces recommend this new type of container and are in favor of it inspired the Mayor's Committee to broaden the participation into a its use. The Village officials are willing to invest in the required Village enterprise around a single program, summed up in the title: attachments to the Village garbage trucks to handle these con- '`Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up." Having taken the initiative, the Commit- tainers and put in use. We have arranged demonstrations of tee found itself in the role of leader. This side of the Committee's behavior the equipment for 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, April 2, and Wednes- will be the essence of the next chapter. day, April 3, 1957, at the rear of the Larchmont Lodge Parking 12 S. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, April 8, 1957. lot off Franklin Avenue. The Committee would like you to attend 13 MS. Letter, Julian S. Colyer to Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, either of these demonstrations. January 11, 1957. 8"Sanitation Division is Bouncing Bab 14 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, November 11, 1957. Baby," article reprinted by permission of The 's Committee for Sunday News Journal, (undated) Middletown, Ohio. 15 MS. Minutes, MayorVillage Improvement, December 9, 1957. 9 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, October 2, 1956. 10 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, December 10, 1956. 11 Mamaroneck Daily Times, March 23, 1957. 30 31 �s CHAPTER VI We, therefore, suggest the following: to have Westchester offer a yearly commuters' stamp for unlimited passage through the tolls, THE COMMITTEE'S LEADERSHIP ROLE such stamp to be affixed to the left front window so as to be visible Purpose, to adopt a phrase of Professor Arthur Macmahon, has an to the toll attendant. The price for this stamp is to be approxi- "endlessly special conditioning role" in the life of an administrative agency.' mately .s If, in addition to purpose, we consider the ability of an organization to The Commmmitit tee made the decision on its own initiative, believing that its step was to the advantage of the community. Copies of the resolution convince participants to behave in terms of its values, we have the explan- ation for the survival and success of the Mayor's Committee. Its con- were sent to the Village Board, the Town Supervisor, George D. Burchell, tribution to the maintenance of the residential character of Larchmont, and the County Board of Supervisors. Thus three governing bodies in the its aid to administrative bodies in the problems of traffic, taxi service and Westchester Area were informed of the lead the Mayor's Committee had litter, irrespective of results, have demonstrated its capacity to coordin- taken in the opposition to higher tolls. It of course had no power to compel ate the activities of boards and commissions, to provide the necessary find- the Parkway Authority to accept its alternative plan. All it could do was to ings for policy proposals, above all, to utilize the popular and organiza- be the spokesman for a large number of daily travellers from Westchester tional resources that are esssential to an understanding of administrative to New York. Whether or not its protest had any effect on them cannot be performance. It is fair to say that this functional behavior of the Com- determined. But the Supervisor of the Parkway Authority reported, after mittee has determined its methods and character, and defined its objectives the first full day, a 20 per cent drop in traffic, although the revenue increased Also consequential has been the confidence it has acquired in its compe- nearly 100 per cent.4 The same fall in traffic and rise in revenue were re- tence to give a richer meaning to public administration by bringing to ported on the first Saturday and Sunday, or May 17 and 18.5 it, however modestly, "social knowledge and understanding,"2 to repeat The Committee continued to press the fight against the Parkway Au - a happy phrase we have already cited. This confidence has actuated the thority. The suggestion that the commuter's rate might be set at $75.00 was Committee to assume leadership in two separate causes: Reasonable tolls inquired into at the meeting of June 10, 1958. There was still no answer on the Saw Mill and Hutchinson Parkways; and the tidiness of the Village to the Committee's resolution, save the promise of the Parkway Authority through a "Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up" campaign. The two causes, that it would study the proposed annual fee.6 But the charge recommended obviously, are not of equal importance. The permanent values of the by the Committee was finally turned down. Holding to its original state- second clearly outweigh the first. Both, however, are examples of the Com- I ment that the cost of roads had forced it to set the new rates, the Parkway Inittee's fitness to lead when the interests of the citizens are at stake. Authority ruled out all designs to reduce them. The Question of Tolls. It came up at the Committee's meeting of May Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up Program. The Committee has had more 12, 1958. Three days later, that is May 15, would go into effect the ruling success in the clean up campaign. We showed in the previous chapter that, of the Westchester Parkway Authority, raising tolls on the Saw Mill and with all their publicity, administrative agencies had made little or no head- Hutchinson Parkways from ten to twenty-five cents. The reason advanced way in the problem of litter and garbage. The worst offenders of the sani- was that the old rate was insufficient to pay for the original cost of con- tary ordinance were business men and apartment house owners. Called upon struction and the continued maintenance of the roads. The Mayor's Com- to purchase sanitary equipment, they refused, principally because it was mittee was out of sympathy with the decision of the Parkway Authority and too expensive. The Village government lacked the authority to force them; called it arbitrary. The lengthy discussion of it showed that it had stirred nor could it make the initial investment for the receptacles without raising strong opposition which the members voiced in a resolution. Their posi- taxes. Yet the problem was there. If allowed to continue uncorrected, it tion was not one of clear antagonism to the general principle. Higher costs would very likely grow more serious. The Committee's members had first- of maintenance, they acknowledged, and the small return on the original hand information that residents and social organizations were highly dis- investment justified a reasonable rise in tolls. But they felt that the boost pleased with the impasse in the situation and were ready to participate in a was excessive, especially to daily users of the highways. Their resolution substantive program to improve matters, provided it was set about dynami- stressed the fact that the increase meant thirty cents per day, or $1.50 per cally. week. On an annual basis that added up to $78.00, not counting trips on s MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement, May 12, 1958; Copy of weekends. If these were included the annual extra charge would be $100. 1 resolution in our possession. in round figures. The resolution concluded with a counter-proposal: 4 Mamaroneck Daily Times, May 16, 1958. 5Ibid., May 19, 1958. 1 Cited by Wallace S. Sayer, "Trends of a Decade in Administrative Values," 6 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement, June 10, 1958. Public Administration Review, XI (winter, 1951), 4. 2 Charles S. Ascher, op. cit., p. 232. 33 32 It was at this juncture that the Mayor's Committee crystallized public II wash their windows. To correct the litter situation, the decision was made sentiment. It saw, from the start, that the opportunity had presented itself to request business and service clubs to donate $35.00 for a refuse can, each to enlist the aid of all potential resources in the community. Something of can would be marked with the name of the donating group. The breadth their nature has been said in a previous chapter. The Committee dipped of the appeal was best indicated by the list of organizations to which letters into them in the belief that the major criterion of efficient functioning and would be sent by the Committee. They were: The Lion's Club; The Benev- policy proposals is the widest possible citizen participation. olent Protective Order of Elks; The Chamber of Commerce; The Woman's Club of Larchmont; The Larchmont Masonic Club; The Independent The Experience of Other Communities. Its course of conduct had the Order of Odd Fellows; The Larchmont Shore Club; The Larchmont Yacht benefit of experiments on a national scale. Thanks to the National Clean �, Club; and The Junior League of Larchmont.$ Up—Paint Up—Fix Up Bureau, there has been a booklet of instructions on procedure in an effective clean up drive. Like the literature of Action, the The general character of the roster indicated that the Committee re- booklet has been based essentially on the experience of localities with stan- garded the campaign as a community enterprise to be correlated to the ad- dards quite different from Larchmont's. Their objectives were therefore ministrative government as a whole. Its entire process of absorbing new inapplicable to the Village. But the methods outlined by the Bureau were elements into its policy formation, seen from the angle of its existence, could suggestive and useful. In the first place, it strongly advised the recruitment but give it more stability. Its behavior was illustrating that public admin- of the local civic organizations, woman's clubs, Scouts and Campfire girls, istration is a social process. churches, schools, trade associations and the Chamber of Commerce; it rec- Before turning from the meeting of November 10, we must refer to ommended wide publicity to the campaign, in order to arouse enthusiasm helpful remarks by several attendants. Mr. Danson, President of the Wood- and to present the task schedule; and it proposed that the start be advertised bine Park Association agreed to aid with the publicity. This evoked a sug- by some public event, like a parade, and a proclamation by the Mayor. gestion from Mr. Colyer to enlist local publicity talent to further the cam- Interesting points were made regarding the task schedule. It should be care- paign. Regarding plans brought forth for the improvement of play and park fully calendared,and inspected on a set date by responsible officials; it should areas, Mayor CofTinberry informed the audience that this would better fit be the motif of school assemblies and the subject of the children's assign- into the next year's budget.9 When the meeting adjourned everyone felt ments; and it should be put before storekeepers.7 that the campaign had gotten off to a good start. The Committee's Procedure in the Clean Up Campaign. These direc- Perhaps the most significant effect of the meeting was the general tives were eminently applicable to the Village of Larchmont. The Commit- acknowledgment that the clean up problem was serious. The appearance tee profited by them in its own course of conduct. It should be noted that of the streets and of the business area in particular was a source of consider- while the booklet called for the formation of a special volunteer agency to able displeasure, said members of the Committee at its meeting of January head the drive, the Village already had one in the Mayor's Committee which 13, 1958. It was the opinion of Mrs. George Stewart that the women's clubs was prepared both structurally and programmatically to take up the task on should be activized. All the civic bodies should be consulted and their a community-wide basis. assistance asked, other held. It was therefore voted to have another meeting It lost no time in assuming leadership. Once the failure of the anti-litter to which the organizations would be invited to send representatives.10 Ac- campaign became evident, it stepped into the void by summoning civic cordingly the following letter, signed by Herbert E. Herrman, went out to organizations to meet with it. Present at its meeting of November 10, 1957, many organizations: were the Mayor, the Village Engineer, and delegates of the following bodies: We believe that a dynamic, well-planned Clean Up, Paint Up, The Larchmont Recreation Committee; the Women's Association of the Fix Up Campaign will achieve the phenomenal results it has Larchmont Avenue Church; the Junior League of Larchmont Inc.; the brought in other communities. We are asking the assistance of Woodbine Park Association; and the Woman's Club of Larchmont. A mes- your organization to help us complete the task. Please attend or sage was read from the Chamber of Commerce, promising cooperation, with have a representative attend our meeting at the Trustees' Room man-power if necessary. The Junior League was designated to canvass the in the Municipal Building at 8:15 p.m. on Monday, February 10th, schools and either speak at assemblies or have the principals do so. The to complete plans-" purpose was to alert the children to their responsibilities in the clean up drive. Boy and Girl Scouts would be assigned the job of distributing 100 8 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, November 10, 1957. window displays; and to aid their exhibit, storekeepers would be asked to B Ibid., 10 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, January 13, 1958. 7How to Organize a Clean Up, Fix Up Program in Your Town (Washington, D. C.: 11 MS. Letter, January 27, 1958. National Clean Up—Paint Up—Fix Up Bureau, [ca. 19531), pp. 2-21. 34 35 11 attended. Without counting the mem- the crusading audience that the Boston Post Road and abutting streets The scheduled meeting was we a g g g bers of the Committee, there were present a number of residents, the Mayor, might well merit full attention for the time being; and he sagaciously the Village Engineer, and delegates from ten organizations. Mr. Herrman brought back to the minds of his listeners that there still were Hogan's Alley acquainted the audience with the procedure of other communities in start- and its adjacent parts, which never ceased reminding the administrative ing a clean up campaign. It was outlined, he said, in the booklet referred government of the sanitation problem. The exciting meeting closed on this to above. Briefly, he indicated that the job required distribution among sobering note.12 volunteer groups, working under the leadership of the Committee. The Launching of the Clean Up Campaign. At subsequent meetings, the launching of the drive would be a public event, highlighted in a proclama- Committee fell in with Mr. Griffin's proposal that the drive should last a tion by Mayor Coffinberry. Mr. Herrman then called for comments. Mr. month. Its official start was set for the evening of April 15th; and its goal Batterson of the Committee cited the example of New Rochelle where the was epitomized in its slogan, "Keep Larchmont Lovely." More than twenty combined force of the women's organizations was successful in tidying up civic bodies were invited to attend the opening event, and to hear the read- the business section. Among the things they did was to place little boxes at ing of the Mayor's proclamation. spots where debris most accumulated. Mr. Severin believed that attention should be centered on the Boston ,Post Road. Mr. Cole, speaking for the The turn out was larger than had been expected. Mr. Herrman, after Chamber of Commerce, asked that landlords of neglected places should be opening the meeting, welcomed the representatives of the organizations and reported on the preliminaries under way to promote the campaign. He said named but Mr. Batterson felt that remedies might be accomplished without ' that about 125 colored cards were ready to be distributed to storekeepers the landlords. Judged by the prevailing opinion at the meeting, they had little sympathy among public spirited citizens. by the Boy and Girl Scouts. Later he announced that, out of the estimated twelve receptacles needed in Larchmont, four had been contributed by the The uneasy problem of rubbish collection was again raised. Mr. Griffin junior League of Larchmont, the Larchmont Garden Guild, the Larchmont explained that that was the private concern of business men in the business Garden Club, and the Larchmont Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Griffin out- area. The Village was not equipped to undertake the job. But it was pre- lined how refuse would be collected during the clean up week. Landlords pared to serve the residents. He asked that they be called on to clear should be asked to contribute to the campaign, thought Mr. Bogard of the cellars, attics and garages, and that one week be set aside for the collection Chamber of Commerce; also the Yacht Club, added Mr. Breunich, the ex- of discards. The incinerators would be kept going during that week. To ecutive secretary of the same organization. Upon Mr. Herrman's recom- the beautification of the Village as a whole, Mr. Griffin would devote a mendation large posters, bearing the campaign slogan, would be placed at full month. four points on the Larchmont line, on Boston Post Road and Palmer Ave- Many good ideas were exchanged. But they were useless, Mayor Coffin- nue, for residents and business owners to sign the posters, thereby pledging berry observed, as long as the necessary jobs were not delegated. A mapped to help realize the aim proclaimed by the slogan. Its practical application out plan of operations was then laid before the audience. It was compre- would be the burden of Scout patrols in uniform, said Boy Scout Commis- hensive, involving the participation of many civic organizations and public Fioner Alfred Kronheimer. He went on to say that they would publicize the services. One felt as if a large machinery was being set in motion, with each campaign by example and word of mouth.13 part in its proper place, and all functioning in harmony. The Mayor's Proclamation, then made public, set aside the month, The plan apportioned the tasks in the following way: The members of April 14- May 14, for the Village of Larchmont annual Clean Up, Paint the Chamber of Commerce were assigned the inspection of the business dis- Up, Fix Up Campaign. It read as follows: trict for the purpose of recommending remedies; the realtors were to survey neglected properties, give their findings to landlords and to the Committee; WHEREAS, the general health and welfare of our citizens depends upon wholesome surroundings arising from good clean in beautifying the Village the Garden Clubs were given an important part, with the active assistance of the children. Mr. Griffin consented to keep the living conditions, and litter collecting crew at full force during the clean up week. The Boy and WHEREAS, the lives and property of our people are en- Girl Scouts consented, according to the plan, to distribute window displays; dangered by fire and accidents caused by littered and cluttered and the Junior League was elaborating a system of block captains to work conditions in homes, schools, places of public assembly and streets with sectional organizations. The press, asked for space on the campaign, and readily agreed to give it all the publicity it needed. WHEREAS, a clean and beautiful community is a proud and The program was ambitious. Perhaps the drive was too sweeping, the prosperous one and Mayor thought. Like an elder statesman,with much experience behind him, 12 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for village Improvement, February 10, 1958. he asked that the salient sore spots be not overlooked in the bustle. He told 13 Mamaroneck Daily Times, April 15, 1958. 36 37 i WHEREAS, unity of effort is required for the future develop- CHAPTER VII ment of our community, BY WAY OF CONCLUSION THEREFORE, I, John B. Coffinberry, Mayor of the Village Whatever success has been credited to the Committee, it is traceable to of Larchmont, do hereby designate April 14th to May 14th inclu- the fact that its course of conduct, irrespective of its part in the administra- sive, as Clean Up Weeks and most respectfully call upon all de- tive objectives, has avoided the realm of chimera. To adapt the phrasing of partments of this Village, its commercial organizations, civic clubs, a hard-hitting critic of public administration, its "area of the possible" has schools, churches, boys' and girls' clubs and all other associations equalled "the area of the explainable,"' It has set itself objectives that are and our people in general to take an active part in this constructive readily understood by the citizens. Perhaps for that reason they have been program of community improvement to insure its success. regarding it as an instrument for improving the standards of the Village, This, the 14th day of April. and have generously lent it their aid. Having started as an administrative MAYOR JOHN B. COFFINBERRY14 agency, without a defined program, its behavior in assisting other adminis- trative services in their policy formulations, and, when the situation arose, Appraisal of Campaign. The results of the month clean up drive should in initiating goal oriented action, has steadily clarified its methods, shaped be evaluated from several sides. From the viewpoint of immediate advances, its program, and endowed it with qualities singularly its own. the litter problem has been considerably reduced. This is due in part to the We are far from claiming for the Committee an uninterrupted line of inspection of the Scouts and women's organizations; in part, too, to the triumphs. Our narrative has shown that its activities in certain areas, as- cooperation of the Chamber of Commerce and to the vigilance of the Village signed to it by Village agencies or, for that matter, cut out by itself when a Engineer who diligently carried out his self-imposed assignment during a purpose arose, have failed to achieve, either totally or partially, the deter- week of steady pick up of discarded materials. Perhaps the telling effect mined objectives. We need only recall the cases of the sanitary containers should also be laid to the receptacles, contributed by organizations in re- and Hogan's Alley and the matter of increased tolls by the Parkway Author- sponse to the appeal of the Mayor's Committee. The eleventh was donated ity. We may even cite the example of the clean up drive, although that is on October 1, 1958, 15 and a twelfth, it was announced, was forthcoming not amenable to solution once and for all. The Committee's awareness of from the American Legion. 16 That will make up the estimated quota. this was reflected at its meeting of May 12, 1958, when it proposed that the Placed at key points of the Village, the receptacles have been conducive to slogan, "Keep Larchmont Lovely," should be one of the themes in the the diminution of litter. Inspection tours, during the campaign, by mem- Memorial Day Parade. 2 But it can rightly claim part of the credit in the hers of the Committee proved to it that a community project, commanding satisfactory solution of the taxi service and in defeating the proposed the support of civic groups and of the citizenry in general, can be immensely shopping center. productive of benefits. If that is taken into account, in considering the re- We have shown that the Committee has gained in stature and won the sults from the side of the governing administration, the campaign has been esteem of citizens and high public administrators. A fundamental reason a centripetal force. Government and community have been pulled together for its strengthened position and continued existence has been its prospect- more intimately than ever before. This has been evidenced by the popu- ing for and use of greater popular resources, as was exemplified by the larity of the administration. Looked at from the vantage point of the Com- Clean-Up, Paint-Up, Fix-Up Campaign, of which it had assumed leadership. mittee the clean up drive it led, has given it more cohesiveness structurally From the outset it has behaved on the premise that democratic procedure and a pivotal place among the people. The civic bodies that answered its and wide participation in policy formulation is the rational way to achieve call behaved in terms of its values, partly because the Committee's own results. behavior has fitted the mores of the community. Seeing the campaign in However unfinished its business in certain areas, the Committee has retrospect, the Committee's policy formulation in a field of wide participa- tion, stands out as crucial, for it has strengthened the character and person- � been optimistic, in the knowledge that administration is a continuous pro- tion, of Larchmont's youngest administrative agency, namely, the Mayor's cess, preferably social, if one of its dimensions derives from the popular (committee for Civic Improvement. resources of the community. Nor has the Committee been blinkered by present policies to the exclusion of questions that are likely to emerge. No community is immune to the law of change. Notwithstanding the 14 MS. Copy, in our possession. goal of the administrative government to "Keep Larchmont Lovely," above 15 Mamaroneck Daily Times, October 2, 1958. 16 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement, September 9, 1958. all to maintain it as a suburban and residential area, free from unsavory problems, there is the fact that it is not isolated. These problems have come 1 Graham, Op.Cit.,p.88. 2 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement, May 12, 1958. 38 39 E: to plague neighboring communities. Larchmont has been priding itself on the absence of juvenile delinquency. Still, Mayor Coffinberry informed the MAP { VILLAGE OF LARCHMONT Committee on October, 1957 that he had been at a meeting on Juvenile TOWN OF MAMARONECK Delinquency with officials of other towns. 8 His attendance, to be sure, was an anticipatory step, more to explore the nature of the problem than to seek ways of combatting it, for it had not yet invaded Larchmont. A year later, however, deeds of vandalism were reported in the Village. Window-break- ing, light-smashing, damaging park equipment and street signs, smearing of tar on the footbridge across the railroad tracks — this willful destruction of Pa Village facilities confronted the Board of Trustees and the police. 4 It is �P� ° -,to easy, of course, to blow these unsocial acts out of all proportion. Probably they are nothing more than examples of child mischief, no different from �or�`' S 1 o what our present eyebrow raising elders did when they were children. ;" Nevertheless, in view of the wave of juvenile delinquency sweeping the na- tion, it is well properly to assess the destruction and to forestall its develop- ment into something very serious. The Mayor's Committee, because of its broad character and long range w; `p 12 f~"'�•t �`�� perspectives, necessarily sees the emerging problems overlapping into its Z sphere of policy formulation. That is as it should be, for cooperative, admin- C,, 21 I ; istrative effort is the value premise on which it was founded. As an experi- < enced public administrator once put it, "this earnest striving together to Q 'd�r 20 make our administration more effective is one of the keys, if not the key 2 20 151 . . . to the survival of free peoples." 5 3 MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement, May 12, 1958. 2 19 I I I 1' 16 ao 4Mamaroneck Daily Times, May 6, 1958. 30 I dlI 5 Urwick, op. cit., p. 250. b � 4�y 9 �r t � 9 8 10 10 11 _ i i / .' Prepared by the League of Women Voters KEY VILLAGE OF LARCHMONT UNINCORPORATED AREA ............. .......... . . . mim m BOUNDARY OF UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT N° 1 ---— NUMBERS REFER TO ELECTION DISTRICTS 40 AL • x BIBLIOGRAPHY A. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDE Greer, Sarah, A Bibliography of Public Administration, New York: Institute of Public Administration, Columbia University, 1933. pp. 1-90. B. BOOKS Courtney, Marguerite, Laurette. New York: Rhinehart and Company, 1955. 433 pp. Fulcher, William Gershon, Mamaroneck Through the Years. Mamaroneck: The Larch- mont Times, 1936. 64 pp. Jenkins, Stephen, The Old Boston Post Road. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1913. 453 pp. Selznick, Philip, TVA and the Grass Roots:A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organiza- tion.Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1950. 274 pp. Simon,Herbert A.,Administrative Behavior.New York: The Macmillan Co., 1957.259 pp. Simon, Herbert A., Donald W. Smithburg, and Victor A. Thompson, Public Administra- tion.New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950. 582 pp. Tatum,Edward H., The Story of Larchmont Manor Park. Larchmont: Larchmont Manor Park Society, 1946.45 pp. C. PERIODICAL ARTICLES Ascher, Charles S., "Trends of a Decade in Administrative Practices," Public Administra- tion Review,X(Autumn„ 1950),229-35. Benson, George C. S., "Internal Administrative Organization," Public Administration Review,I (Autumn, 1941),472-84. Durisch, Laurence L., and Robert E. Lowry, "The Scope and Content of Administrative Decision—The TVA Illustration," Public Administration Review, XIII (Autumn, 219-226. Finer, Herman, "Administrative Responsibility in Democratic Government," Public Ad- ministration Review,I (Summer, 1941), 335-50. Graham,Philip L.,"Public Administration and the Press,"Public Administration Review, XIII (Spring, 1953),87-8. Hubbell, Robert L., "Techniques for Making Committees Effective," Public Administra- tion Review,VI (Autumn, 1946), 348-53. Long, Norton E., "Public Policy and Administration: The Goal of Rationality and Responsibility," Public Administration Review,XIV (Winter, 1954), 22-31. Sayer,Wallace S., "Trends of a Decade in Administrative Values," Public Administration Review,IX (Winter, 1951), 1-9. Simon, Herbert A., "Rational Choice and Structure of the Environment," Psychological Review, LXIII (March, 1956), 129-38. Urwick, Lyndall, "Experiences in Public Administration," Public Administration Review, XV (Autumn, 1955), 247-50. 41 D. PUBLICATION SERIES Anon.,Action (New York: American Council to Improve our Neighborhoods, 1956), 8 pp. Anon.,Action for Cities,a Guide for Community Planning. Public Administration Service, No. 86. Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1948. 73 pp. Anon., Citizen Organization for Community Development.Action Research Memorandum, No. 6. New York: American Council to Improve Our Neighborhoods, 1955. 12 pp. Anon., Do You Know Larchmont? (Larchmont, New York: League of Women Voters of Larchmont, ca. 1957), 24 pp. Anon., How To Organize a Clean Up,Paint Up,Fix Up Program in Your Town (Wash- ington,D. C.: National Clean Up—Paint Up—Fix Up Bureau, (ca. 1953), 26 pp. Anon., Sources of Aid to Community Development. Action Research Memorandum, No. 10. American Council to Improve our Neighborhoods, 1955. 15 pp. Anon.,Survey (Larchmont,New York: League of Women Voters of Larchmont), (ca. 1952), 20 pp. Anon., Time for Action (New York: American Council to Improve our Neighborhoods, 1955), pagination lacking. Black, Russell van Nest, Planning for the Small American City. Public Administration Service, No. 87. Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1944. 86 pp. E. SERIES OF ARTICLES Severin, Philip, "Old Larchmont," Mamaroneck Daily Times, October 14-December 22, 1949. F. UNPUBLISHED MATERIALS Budget Document,Village of Larchmont,Fiscal Year,June 1, 1958-May 31, 1959, mimeo- graphed. Coffinberry, John B., and Board of Trustees, "A Report to the Larchmont Village Tax- payers," April 12, 1957, mimeographed. MS. First Annual Report, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, July 1, 1957. MS. Letters from Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, 1956-1958. MS. Letters from Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, 1956-1958. MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Village Improvement, June 1, 1956-May 12, 1958. MS. Minutes, Mayor's Committee for Civic Improvement, June 10, 1958-October 13, 1958. MS. Minutes,Traffic Commission, June 12, 1956-December 30, 1957. MS. Notes of Mr. Michael Harper, Meetings of the Board of Trustees, Village of Larch- mont, July 12 and August 6, 1956. G. NEWSPAPERS Daily Times (Mamaroneck), 1956-58. 42