In 1871, Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act, which merged the various town, city, and county governments that controlled the District of Columbia into a single 11-member legislature led by a territorial governor.
When expenditures on city infrastructure by the Board of Public Works came close to bankrupting the city in 1874, an outraged Congress passed legislation on June 30, 1874, abolishing the territorial government and replacing it with a "temporary" three-member commission [REF].