The Shasta courier., 1858-05-22

| the payee of the same This indemnifies the
county against the presentation and payment of
the original. This precaution is nece sary from
the tact that warrants Nos. 9l4 and 932 which
were issued to B. H. Ward one for Sc 90 and
one for SIS 90, were (the original warrants)
paid 10 the sheriff for taxes, and afterwards a
duplicate was issued to B. II. Ward for princi
pal and interest added, and which is also regis
| tered by the Treasurer and now in circulation
On page 81 Record of Board of Supervisors.
appears an order for cash to be paid to j. A.
Dreibelois, without stating the amount to be
paid, and the records do not show what amount
was paid The same fact appears on page 2l3,
in an order to pay Skillman & Dosh cash out of
the Road Fund. A like occurrence should be
avoided in the future.
| | report to you the fact that some persons
holding unaudited claims against the county,
have been in the rabit of assigning said ac-
counts to third parties either before or after
they were audited by the Board or Auditor, and
the Auditor has drawn the warrants payable to
the assignee, and the Treasurer has registered
them in the name of the assignee. Many of
| these warrants have been paid in for taxes by
said assignees. The whole amount of this kind
of warrants issued by the Auditor reaches the
sum of S3,27l 80. find no law authorizing
the Auditor to issue warrants IN the name of an
assignee of an account, and the law clearly con-
templates that the warrants shall be issued in
the name of the individuals performing service
for the county, the better to guard the rights of
those persons holding prior registered warrants
| against the county, and not paid for want of
| funds"
| The Auditors Book shows that on the 2Sth
day of Sept, 1857, John A. Dreibelbs, sheriff
and collector of taxes, was charged with the
extended tax-rol for 1878 with the sum OF
| SAB 1872 IS, and that on the 5th of Oct. he was
| credited S5.304 54 per receipt of Treasurer,
which leaves charged to him S3S, ,OOS Il, and
the records do not show any final settemen,
with said officer for said list at the close of his
term of office. The law passed April goth
1857, Secs. 33, "a and 43, authorizes the sheriff
elect to collect all taxes remaining unpaid when
the late sheriff went out of office; that officer
should be credited with the amount of lis, un-
paid ard the present sheriff charged with the
same. This is the more necessary from the fac
| that sec. i3 of said act requires the collector o
taxes on the third Monday in Oct, to levy fiv,
per cent. all taxes unpaid in addition to the
| former assessment increasing the roll tha
amount As the books were at the time | ex
amined them, the present sheriff had not beer
charged with one dollar of said roll This may
create confusion, and needs your early atten
ton.
On examining the accounts of Foreign Mi
| hSi biSCHoe lhA Ut tue ClOsc VI W H. n. Nun
nally's term of Office as Sheriff, find the book
show him to be indebted to the county in tn,
sum of S494 40, which still remains unsettled
| SO far as have been able to ascertain.
Sheriff Dreibelbis account of Foreign Miner:
Licenses find all properly balanced in the Au-
ditor's book.
| have prepared Balance Sheet which shows
the amount of receipts and disbursements Of
the several funds from Oct lst to Dec. 3lst
| ls55-thence to Dec. lst, l956-thence TO Oc-
| tober 9TH, 1857, which is made part of this
report and marked schedule % A."
On examining the accounts on file as having
been audited by the Board of Supervisors, it is
apparent this important branch of our county
affairs has been careessly and ruinously con-
| Quoted. In some instances find that when two
persons have performed the same service and
| made the same charge, that one person has his
full bill allowed and the other person has only
one half of his bill allowed leave the facts to
speak for themselves.
The Supervisors Record and the Auditor 5
| book of warrants show that the County Auditor
has been paid a salary of $50 per month, and
also that he has charged and been allowed fees
contrary to law, to large amount. For instance,
the Auditor has in addition to receiving his SAL
ary, been paid forty cents per folio of one hun
dred words for issuing county warrants, jury
| certificates, and that too, when the county has
| furnished him printed blank warrants at a cost
| of $50 per one thousand. In addition to this
the Auditor has charged and received in cash
the sum of $50, 90 for each quarterly settlement
| with the County Treasurer find no law for
this extraordinary charge. He has also received
three per cent. in cash on all Hospital capitaton
| tax. For the legality of this charge cite you
to an ''Act to provide for the INDECENT Sick"
passed March 3lst, 1855; also, an "Act to pro-
- Il g. l., a. e.
purposes" passed March 18th, 1s56-Sec. 4.
The law regulating salaries of officers evil
IDENTIFY contemplates that when an officer ac-
cepts a salary for discharging the duties of an
office, that he is to perform ALL the duties
quired of him as such officer, and receive only
the salary, unless the statute expressly gives
him special fees. If this system be carefully
followed by the Board in allowing accounts, our
county will soon cease running into debt at
the rate of over ten thousand dollars a year.
The act creating Board of Supervisors in
the counties of this State and to define their
duties passed March Goth, 1855, Sec. Z provides
that the Clerk of the Board in Shasta county
shall receive per diem allowance not exceed
ing three hundred dollars year, and "that the
Clerk shall receive no other compensensaton
whatever for any services connected with the
Board" The Clerk has received S25 per month
according to law for his services; he has also
charged and received forty cents per folio for
transcrbing the proceedings of the Board" from
check book or botter kept by him, into the
Records of said Board. An account on file
dated June Sd, 1856, allowed to the Clerk for
| transcrbing l59 folios of record of Board of
Supervisors from October lst, 1855, to May 6th
1856, amounting to S63 so; also, another for
the same service over again, dated November
4th, 1856, allowed to Clerk for transcribng rec
ords of Board of Supervisors from October lt
1855, to October 10th, 1s56--240 folios at 40
cents per folio amounting to S96. Each of
these accounts are endorsed allowed by the
Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. These
few instances have cited will be sufficieutssto
show you the manner in which the auditing de-
partment of the county has been conducted, and
it is unnecessary for me to multiply instances Of
these unlawful allowances.
careful examination of the audited ac-
counts, which were filed at each term Of the
Board from Nov. term 1856, to and including No.
vember term, 1857, was unable to find sin
gle account of the County Clerk, or Auditor of
any description, IN said files, notwithstanding
the record of the Board shows allowances to said
officers during that period. The balance Of ac-