New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-21

REGULAR MEETING.


| Tuesday, June 20, 1876. 5
The Council met this day at twelve
o'clock NJ. in regular session.
Presentation. Charles j. Leeds, Mayor
presiding, and Administrators Bertoil
Brown, Bouny, Burke, Landry, Mccarthy
and Pi!sbury.
The minutes of the previous meeting
were approved and their reading dispensed
with.
Financial and Other Business on Final
| Passage.
! Mr.. Brown called up the ordinance de-
scribed as follows, which, having been read
twice. was now on third reading. and ii
| passed unanimously, the yeas and nays
having been called, and all the members
present at roll call voting:
| "An ordinance providing for the payment
] of the several accounts therein named, De-
ginning Ed. Pilsbury.
Reports of Committees.
By the comittee of the whole, and adop-
| ted:
On the petition of A. Mcclellan, president
of st. Charles Street Railroad Company,
asking that said company be relieved from
paving the bonus levied on passengers. I'm
favorabiy.
A committee of the Mechanics and Work
ingmens Association waited on the Council
and laid before them the preamble and
resolutions adopted by them relative to the
revision OF the budget Of 1876, which was
received and read.
Mr.. Brown asked for further time to COM
plete the revision of the budget, and on
motion of Mr.. Burke, the Administrator
was granted to the fifth of July.
Whereupon Mr.. Burke made the follow
ing remarks:
am now satisfied that every Admins
traitor is convinced that the reductions,
which seemed imperative, in order to
preserve the financial credit of the
CITY, would result in leaving the
streets impossible for the purposes OF
commerce, expose the health OF the CITY
to the gravest dangers resulting from I'M
cleanliness, and property to injury . from
disasters may be added the cruelty OF
thrusting upon the public in the middle of
summer the families Of the poor now en-
ployed, who have no other means OF earn
ing bread. :.;o..o Sc
Public Accounts now appreciates al OF
these considerations as deeply as any mem
Der Of this Council, and in supporting the
motion to defer action upon this question 1t
is with the firm belief that the Admlnistra-
tor of Public Accounts with that fertility
of resource which has heretofore contrl-
buted so largely to extricate the city from
financial embarrassment, will devise the re-
lief now necessary.
From the expressions INDUCED in by many
persons toward the city administration
deem it not inappropriate to call attention
to the fact that when retrenchment has
been necessary the Mayor and Admins
traitors have been the first to set the OK
ample, and while the employees have re-
ceived the whole of their pay for the year
1875, the Mayor and Administrators have
received but half since the first OF July,
and we are ready again to make any sacrl-
fee the necessities Of the city may demand.
The Administrator of Finance has always
reserved the money to pay laborers pay
rolls before any officer has been PAID. Inc
first financial act Of the administration was
to paw the laborers in cash for the month
Of December, 1874, and the officers have
not yet received cent.
Another fact of greater significance is
that the average expenses Of the city gov
eminent, under our control Tor the past
eighteen months, is one-half of the average
expenses tor any like period during the
previous ten years, yet the amount OF mo
ney actually paid to employees, and the
amount of work done to show for 1t. is over
twenty-fi five per cent more than the r. cords
of previous administrations exhibit.
Let US look at the accounts between the
people of New Orleans and the present ad-
ministratiOn.
When we assumed the reigns of govern
ment in December, 1874, the city was upon
the verge of bankruptcy, and overwhe!m-
ingly in debt from the results OF past I'm.
providence. The people were overburdened
bv q taxation that was consuming their
substance and blasting their hopes Of fu-
ture prosperity.
The present city sdm1nistratiOu will have
reduced ths public debt s., 600, 900. reduced
the expenses Of government to one-half OF