The New York herald., 1873-10-21
The Payment. OF Lobby Services Ont
OF the Public Trcasury-some singu-
lar Charges Against Mr.. Green.

OF the Public Trcasury-S0me singu-
lar Charges Against Mr.. Green.
We publish to-day letter addressed to
Mayor Havemeyer by Mr.. John Foley on the
subject of the charges recently made by a
committee Of the Citizens Reform Association
against Comptroller Green. Mr.. Foley urges
upon the Mayor a prompt consideration Of
those charges which have not yet been met
by the Comptroller SO far as the public are
advised. He refers to communications pub
lished by Mr. Waterbury, Mr.. Hawkins and
Senator Tiemann, on the subject of the
extravagant payments made by Mr. Green
for services of counsel at. Albany, and
declares that they form no answer
to the charges of illegal conduct formally
brought against the Comptroller. In regard
to Senator Tiemann, Mr.. Foley makes some
damaging assertions which we can scarcely
credit, although they are SO boldly advanced.
The Senator has written letter, in which he
justiies Mr.. Green for having paid MIR.
Hawkins one hundred dollars day fee and
from nine dollars to twelve dollars day
expenses for services in the Albany lobby,
and declares that he advised the Comp
troller to the course he pursued. Mr.. Foley
asserts that Senator Tiemann has enjoyed
extraordinary benefits from the Comptroller,
and hence is influenced by his personal feel
ings in coming to Mr.. Green's assistance
that the Senator was promptly paid by
the Comptroller the award of over one hun
dred thousand dollars, for his dwelling house,
factory and other buildings taken for
River Side Park improvement and the opening
of 127th street, while other claimants, less
ury door," and that since the above pay
ment was made Senator Temann has been
permitted to occupy his dwelling house, fac
tory and other buildings free of rent and taxes.
We publish the statement in order to afford
Senator Tiemann the opportunity to refute it
if it be untrue
So far as the. action of the Comptroller is
concerned his payment out of the peoples
money of the fees and expenses charged by
Mr. Hawkins for services at Albany" is
clearly in wilful violation of the charter. Mr..
Hawkins received out of the public treasury
personal expenses, averaging from nine dollars
to twelve dollars day, for alleged services at
Albany, and on some of the days for which he
was paid these amounts the Legislature. was
not in session at all and Mr. Hawkins was not
in Albany. For a little over seventy days
alleged work Mr.. Hawkins took just upon
eight thousand dollars out of the pockets of
the taxpayers OF New York. This return to
the old Tammany policy of hiring counsel for
services at Albany" is attempted to be justi-
fed by provision of the Tweed charter But
from May to May 81, during which time Mr..
funds his large fee and expenses, the present
charter was in existence, and the old Tweed
law, of which Comptroller Green had availed
himself, had ceased to afford pretence
for such depletion of the treasury. The
present charter, in section 36, prohibits any
officer or department Of the city government
from having or employing any attorney or
counsel, and leaves in the hands Of the Cor
poration Counsel the sole power of assigning
an attorney ''to any department that he shall
deem to need the same" There is no evil
dence, there has as yet been no pretence, that
the Corporation Counsel assigned Mr.. Dexter
Hawkins to the Comptroller for ''services at
Albany or elsewhere. If he had done SO we
believe he would himself have violated the
charter, inasmuch as the '1egal assistance he
is authorized to assign to q department is
clearly for the immediate official exigeucies of
such department, and not for lobby services
at Albany" When Mr.. Green employed Mr..
Hawkins as counsel between May and
May 81 and paid him with the peoples money
he wilfully violated the thirty-sixth section Of
the charter.
Section 95 of the charter provides that any
officer who shall wilfully violate or evade any
of the provisions Of the charter shall be
deemed guilty of misdemeanor, and, on
conviction, shall forfeit his Office. This is
independent Of the power of removal vested
in the Mayor and Governor by section 25.
The offence committed by Comptroller Green
is, therefore, punishable without the action or
authority of the Mayor If Mayor Havemeyer
chooses to overlook or condone the wilful vio-
lation of the law by the Comptroller
in one instance he creates pre-
cedent full of danger, and which
may return to plague him. If he regards
the payment of one hundred dollars day
and nine dollars to twelve dollars day ex-
penses for 'services at Albany as justifable
at o time when poor laborers and scrub women
are kept out of their hard earned wages, and
when the honest creditors of the city are
driven into the courts to get their money, then
it may be worth while to find out what the
law thinks of such unwarranted expenditures
So Mr. Foley, the Reform Association and the
taxpayers are independent Of Mayor Have
meyer, and have their own remedy against
any public officer who may choose to set him