The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-29
Common Council.
Besro of Aldermen.

| The committee appointed to investigate the
ket Contracts. receivable IN city money. reported
| through its chairman, Mr.. Prados, which was re-
ceved and spread upon the minutes, az follows !:
To the Honorable the President and members Of the Board Of
Aldermen
GentlemeYa-Your special committee appointed
to inquire into the matter OF the public markets
lately adjudicased by the city controller as well
into the contracts for the collection and safety
Of the revenues of the same, entered into between
the mayor and the lessees, beg leave to report
| That the best inquiries which they have been
able to institute, have failed to satisfy them that
| the controller made public announcement that
the markets would be leased out for city money.
This failure, to the mind Of your committee. is
tracesble to the fact that the controller was
justly conscious that ordinance No. 1874. new Sc
| ries, approved December IL. 1867 in no way jus.
titled such an announcement. Yet, your commit
Of things, when they think that they have sub
stantial reasons tor reporting that, to question
privately put by some party then present, he
simply answered that he knew no other money
than city money"
That this want of knowledge existed and was
protested aHteriorly TO the passage of the ord
nance, prohibiting the city treasurer's receiving
into the treasury city money for any dues what
soever; but that the above mentioned ordinance,
under which said markets were sold, makes no
mention of city money, and that, according to the
views of your committee, the controller, in the
face OF positive ordinance, which does not even
imply discretionary power, and in a more scrupu-
lous inquiry into just such powers as that ordi.
nance confers upon him. could not have consider.
! ed himself authorized to determine for what spe-
cies Of currency the markets had to be sold.
Viewing this phase of the question ia that light,
your committee strongly incline to the conviction
| that his ground was mistaken. and that his action
| 10 the premises cannot be binding on the city.
| The action of the mayor, ia signing the respec-
tive contracts, with the stipulation that the pay
| ment of the promissory notes, given by the sew
| rallesseeg. should be made in city money, has
engaged the serious attention OF the com
| mittee.
1t has been 30 much the more seriously taxed
| as, from the official correspondence between his
honor and the city attorney, your committee ex.
perience some difficulty in avoiding the conclu-
sion that the insertion Of the intrusive words,
city money" if not the result of official solicita
| ton, was certainly ratified by free consent,
which your committee, with the best of desires.
| cannot consider as entirely consulting the inter.
ests of the community.
Strangely does the fact seem to have been over.
! looked that the ordinance No. 1874, obligatory
alike on controller and mayor, and leaving 10
| neither decisive powers, warranted no such dis
elimination as was first conceived by the city con-
| troIler and subsequently exercised by his honor
| the mayor, through what your committee are
luctsntly constrained TO consider as an erroneous
use of his signature, attached to the contracts.
Still more strangely does the fact Stubborn
| ly meet the inquiry Of your committee, when
| they come, additionally, to consider that an
I
| mittee, and providing that the market
lessees should be INDUCED until the 10th January,
| 1862 TO pay their notes. in city money, was voted
down in the Boerd of Assistant Aldermen.
In another degree Of strangeness has another
| fact suggested itself to your committee.
That fact is that in the wording of the contracts
between the sales and adjudications, made by the
city controller on the 18th of December, 1868 and
| the 3lst day Of the same month and year. when by
record the CONTRACTS were ratified, the ordinance
prohibiting the collection of any but United States
| currency had been passed, and that still on the
Slst day Of December, 1865, the eve of the day
| when the contracts were sgned-when the ordi-
nance prohibiting the endorsement of any values
| but United States money was about to be carried
1 into operatiOn-the several contracts were APP.
proved by one cityoffcial, 'as to FORM" and con
| cluded by another for reasons which, beyond the
| opinion of the former funetionary, the committee
| have no means TO ascertain.
Suangest of all. however, is that other fact to
which the duty imposed upon your committee he's
| drawn them in the prosecution Of their inquiry.
A printed copy Of one of the contracts, which
| your committee annex pro lorna, and supposed
| to be in sl essentials like the other contracts
shows that, on the Slst Of December, 1865, for a
consideration of SG7.350. IL was entered into be.
| tween OF the lessees to whom we're adjudi
| Gated the Poydras Market stalls and the mayor of
| the city of New Orleans, under and by virtue Of
| the resolution No. 1889, approved December 30,
| 1868. The body Of the contract, as already men.
! toned, is in print, but when your committee in
their investigation come to the clause which pro-
vdes for the cash payment of s56l2, the first in
stsllment for the first day of January, 1862 lust
| one day before the signature of the contract,
| and when the greenback ordinance was to 90
| into operation, they find an acknowledgment of
cash receipt and nothing more of definite char
| acter Proceeding further, in reference to the
monthly notes to be paid for the balance OF the
| leases, your committee find that, by manuscript
marginal note,n ii is stipulated in the notarial
act that the obligations of the lessees are to be
met IN city money.
This stipulation is the result, as it is now as
sumed TO be, first, of the expression Of q want
of knowledge of the controller "of any money but
city money" then, of his honor the mayors doub
whether the expression of the CONTROLLERS igno.
the city to accept that money and lastly, the
dispelng of that doubt by the opinion of the city
attorney, addressed to the chairman of the
finance committee, "that the city is bound to re-
ceive its notes from the contractors and its inser
ton is implied in the contract"
With due Difference to the authority of such an
opinion your committee cannot omit animadvert-
ing on that. which, to them, is presented with
some measure Of difficulty. The recorded facts
show that, already on the 3lst day of December,
1868, the city attorney by the opposition of his
signature, bad recognized the contract cas- TO its
form )" that the mayor by like act of signature,
on the same day ratified the stipuatons and
terms, which authorized the payments Of the
credit Tote in "cty money )" and yet, in what
would seem TO be q conclusion Of the ques-
ton, your committee find his honor, the
ulhJOfs Ou INC Gay Vi Jduuhry, 1903, cdIlng
on the city attorney for an opinion as to the pro.
priety and legality of the insertion in 'he notaraI
deed Of the city money addition, which already
appears In that deed, duly approved by the city
attorney, and finally closed by the mayors sigma.
ture, on the 3lst day of December, 1868.
On the 18th day of January, 1863, your COM
mittee also find the answer of the city attorney
suggesting to his honor the mayor that " he can
give the necessary instructions on the subject to
the city notary, so as to have incorporated in the
rotes and contracts the statement that the notes
are payable in city currency
In view of this opinion, which is entitled
to great respect, and which, &c post fdcto,
namely, 18th Of January, 1869, seems to have con-
frmed the mayor in an act which, in the opinion
of your committee, he had perfected on the Blst
OF December 1868, your committee might be alb
solved from further remarks, did not the contract
give additional weight to the considerations to
which they have deemed it their duty respectfully
to invite the attention of the board. By that
which In the silence of the ordinance, your com.
mittee would consider es an Interpolation, the
lessees are favored with the privilege of paying
their promissory notes in city money, while in