#The sufferer and the witness wallpaper plus

His gripe was the terms of the bond had been slightly changed, and the city was increasing property taxes by 25¢ per $100 to pay for the bonds – although they hadn’t actually been yet sold. Less than a month later, William Guisbert Skinner went after the city, the Council, the assessor, treasurer, and tax collector along with Robert Effey. That was hardly the end of the anti-waterworks lawyering. Jones likewise sued the city and Council members personally. Jones was upset because construction plans had been updated since the bond measure passed. This time a retired rancher named John M. 2Īnother suit to stop the city’s deal with Effey followed shortly.

#The sufferer and the witness wallpaper plus

Most unusual about the case was that besides the city, he also sued the City Council as individuals plus the city clerk. 1Ī few days later, a lawsuit seeking to block Santa Rosa from making a deal with Effey was filed by a retired farmer named John D. He offered to buy our bond for $161,000, being the lowest of only two bidders. While deciding whether to put the water bond on the ballot, Santa Rosa’s mayor and city attorney had visited that town’s very successful municipal water plant and met him. Stepping up to buy Santa Rosa’s bonds was Robert Effey, a modest investor who happened to be mayor of Santa Cruz. All of those doings were covered in “ THE McDONALDS vs SANTA ROSA.” McDonald the water came from Lake Ralphine, which the Board of Health said was so fetid that his company was “criminally negligent and indifferent to our welfare as a city.” McDonald offered to sell his waterworks to the city at such a ridiculously inflated price it would be cheaper to start from scratch, even though it meant laying another set of water mains beneath every street. At the time Santa Rosa was getting its water from a private company owned by Mark L. You could say the conflict began in May 1893, when voters approved a bond to build a water plant.

It took Santa Rosa awhile to realize it was under attack, but a no-holds-barred war was being waged against it by the man in the mansion on the grand boulevard.