Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-09-15
By provision Of Sec. 40 Of the Code
Iowa. the salary of the Clerk Of

IAShy PROVISION OF sec. 4stO OF Inc COdo |
4UF Iowa, the salary of the Clerk of
District Court is abolished, ana ne Is
to receive in lieu thereof certain fees
particularly specified. He is to keep
an exact account Code, Sec. 4.3l of
all fees received; and that account is
to be Open to the inspection of any
person. He is to keep a "fair table
thereby posted up in his Office Code,
Sec. 4l66l; and if he wilfully takes
"higher or other fees than are al
lowed by law" he is guilty of mis-
demeanor and punishable therefor.
Code, Sec. 4l67.
But lest the compensation of the
Clerk in any County, being thus
derived from fees, should inl any
manner become too large, Section i32
Of the Code provides that the total
amount Of his compensation for all
I4sn~snlsxervfe 1ssllnatssSt Stenessdrs y, 900
per annum.
But how shall his gross income be
ascertained, in order that ii may be
restricted to the 5000 and the sur
plus paid in to the County Treasury?
Here the law makes specific, imper-
ative aGd repeated provisions. 1t is
an important point, and therefore
well guarded. OF the three especial
safeguards given by the law under
this head, we here select but one:
Section 43l of the Code requires
that the Clerk shall "report to the
Board Of Supervisors of his County,
at each regular session thereof, a full
and complete statementof the amount
Of fees charged, and for whole servi-
ces, the amount received, and for
What services rendered, which report
shall be sworn to by said Clerk"
We have thus shown what the
law requires under this head, and
why it requires It. Let ii be remeIn-
bered that this is but one OF the
stringent provisions of the law in
this respect--for unless the law were
very precise and stringent dishon-
est Clerk would have fine field for
swindling the people, and might
grow rich easily from their hard
earned substance--but this require
ment.of the Code is clear, plain and
unmistakable.
What, now, has been the course OF
the present Clerk OF our County"
Mr. Bouscuet was sworn into Office
In January Or 1900. Tho Dourd of
Supervisors held regular session in
June Of that year, and he made no
report 10 them. They held regular
meeting again in September Of that
year, and he made no report then.
The October meeting followed, and
| two DAYS Of its session passed without
any report from the Clerk. Bat on
the third day, after these two onis-
sions, he presented a sort Of report Of
, "iecs received by him in Probate
and other matters from January 18th
to October 18th, inclusive, amounting
to &485.55." This report was received
and ordered placed on file. see
page u Of the Minute-book, October
seesion, 1863. But this report was
! so incomplete and unsatisfactory that
on The next day, namely, the fourth
.day Of the same session, the Board
passed a Resolution Minute-book
page\38. OF that session. requiring
him 30 make q full aud complete
report Of al fees received by him by
virtue Of his oificc--in compliance
with thestrict provisions OF sec. 43i
Of the Code.
Punched up now 50 plainly, Mr..
Bousquet presented to the Board at
their January session Of the present
year a mixed mass Of rcports--not
one complete report, but three sepa-
rate and partial ones, If we rcco!lect
aright-in which appear such items
as this: ''To 30 Marriage Licenses,
sIO.n In one Of these same reports
he has himself credited by 3month5'
/ clerk-hire, ~ $40, $l2ow Now, we
| would ask any lawyer or other per-
son to explain what business this
credit Of 1920 for clerk-hire has in
this report? Is not the Clerks office
\ feed Office entirely? I5 not his
whole compensation to be the fees
| he receives, up to $1,000, and moth
ing moro or otherwise? BY what
right, then, can he credit himself
500 for clerk-hire? We frankly
confeg, that we cannot see the ob]ec'
Of this entry, unless it were to dimin-
jsh the sum total Of debit for fees Sc
that it should not exceed the S2,O00'
Bot these reports are on file IN the