Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-05-10
meettnr ofthe C,tx CounciI.

| Common Council took place at o'clock
P. NJ, yesterday, President Cotton in the
chair.
An interesting report of the Finance
Committee and Auditor was read and filed.
Mr.. Lellyett moved that the report be
withheld from publication. He did not
take issue with any fact stated in the re-
port, but thought its dolefai tone calculated
to depress the credit of the city.
The question was further discussed By
Messrs. Walsh, Winston, Cotton, Rhea,
Morris, Duncan, Lellyett and Wilson.
After which motion in lieu, to receive
the report and publish it, was adopted
The following is the report:
AULIToR's OFFICE, Nashville, May 6,
15e7.-To the Mayor and City Conncil-
Gentlemen: Your Finance Committee and
Auditor, under a pressing sense Of duty,
beg leave TO submit TO your consideration
certain facts and suggestions regarding the
municipal finances, and invite your imme-
date attention thereto.
This duty is approached with reluctance,
for although it is not deemed necessary to
present you a detailed statement of che
corporation debts and entertainments, and
the sore straits to which we are subjected
in order 10 meet demands already past due
and pressing, we feel it to be imperative
TO inform you, frankly, that the finances of
the city are greatly embarrassed, and that
some system of retrenchment, and some
we'll devised and judicions provision for
the salvation of the financial credit of the
corporation must be adopted and rigidly
adhered TO.
The state of things now upon us has not
been altogether unforeseen. Six months
ago, as many of you will doubtless remem-
Der, there was a meeting of the chairmen
Of all the various committees Of the City
Council, in which the impending crisis was
discussed. 1t was then determined that the
expenditures for Improvements, and every
variety of outlay, not absolutely necessary,
should be retrenched. If this resolution
had been carried into effect, it would have
materially curtailed expenses in every de-
partment; it wonld have prevented the
great depreciation now existing in city
checks it would have enabled your dis
bursting officers, out of current collections,
to liquidate maturing obligations; it
would have maintained the solvency of the
city credit; it would have tended also to
restore each department of city business to
its proper and legitimate channel, from
which many of them are now driven on
account Of the pecuniary stress which press
es all alike.
The failure to adhere to this wise deter
mination has led to large increase of ex-
penditures, since that nearly doubling the
amount for the same period preceding, and
in the confusion which has resulted from
this apparent recklessness, all thought of
iudicious retrenchment has been lost sight
of. 1t has placed the current cost of main
tanning the city government largely in ex-
cess of current collections of revenue-even
if all collections were had in money; and
left the interest on funded securities utterly
without provision for their payment. A
continuance of this course can only end in
ruin, and we feel compelled to inform you,
in plain terms, of a contingency, which,
even the most superficial knowledge of our
affairs, cannot have failed to suggest to YOU
already, as possible at least
1t can scarcely be expected to derive a
greater sum than $250,0OO from tax col
lections for the ensuing year, and this will
require extraordinary exertion upon the
part Of the Revenue Collector 1t is, per-
haps, safe to say that not exceeding ten
per cent. of this amount can be collected
in money. The large majority of our
heaviest tax payers have already provided
themselves with corporation treasury war
rants, which are rendered by brokers and
on the streets at discount of ten to fifteen
per cent. The most careless and thought
less tax payer will soon learn the
improvidence and folly of paying
taxes at 100 cents in the dollar when il
can be 80 readily done at eighiy-fve cents
or less. One hundred thousand city bonds
fall due on the first of April, 1869, and no
preparations have been made to meet them.
The sinking fund set apart for such pur
poses has already been exhausted, having
been used during the municipal year Of
1866, by the consent of the commits
sioner, TO pay actual and pressing demands
during that time for interest. Coupons
already past due on city bonds are being
presented, and if not met or satisfied in
some way, holders will shortly commence
legal means to secure their rights, and still
further cucumber any steps that may be
taken to extricate the city from its debts.
The Finance Committee have used strenu-
GUS efforts in regard to this latter point,
and have at length been forced to restrain
the collections in the hands of the Record
er, Water Tax and Revenue Collectors,
temporarily, at least, for this purpose.
This is a brief summary Of the financial
situation, but we trust it will be sufficient to
arrest your attention, and induce you to
take some considerable but prompt and de-
cided action in the premises.
We believe it is yet in the power of the
City Council to retrieve the condition, and
avert the discredit and injury which will
be entailed by inability TO liquidate our
financial obligations and sustain the ex-
penses of the city government.
This can only he done by decreasing ex-
penses, and we would, therefore, earnestly
urge that all contracts for improvements of
a permanent kind, even though in course
of execution, be suspended indefinitely, or
at least for a time, and that all in contem-
plation be dismissed without further con-
sideration. We recommend also that no
more vacancies be filled in the police de-
partment, and that all assistant or special
policemen be discharged from service, and
that all other such employees, whose
positions can be otherwise supplied,
be also discharged and that men
from the regularly elected police
iOItt Dt dnSikuCN thtHC hhbiNos w et'S
recommend that any committee, and par
ticularly every officer, charged with the
outlay Of public moneys, be required to
reduce their estimates and expenditures to
the lowest practicable point, and that the
Council take such action as will secure con.
| formation on the part of all to the resolu-
tions of retrenchment in every department
of the municipal service.
RoBT. THOMSON, Chairman.
A. J. DUNCAN,
X J. MORRIS, r,;uoo ~,
| J. w. WILSON, '''''''>'
NJ. c. COTTON,
THos J. HAYS, Auditor.
IN CONVENTION.
The two houses here met in convention
for the purpose of electing Revenue Col
lector, Mr.. Cheatham, President of the
Board Of Aldermen, in the chair.
A. V. Rutland and Nat. F. Dortch were
put in nomination, and on the first ballot
| Mr.. Rutland received twenty votes and Mr..
Dortch nine. Mr.. Rutland was declared
duly elected.
DR.. Joseph Jones, Health Inspector, read
10 the convention a report giving in detail
the work done in his department, with
view to improve the sanitary condition of
| tba c;tv askinr for instructions on certain