Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-09-15
THE MILEAGE OF DIRECTORS" QUES.
TION.

Some time ago an interior paper charged
DR.. Harvey, one Of the Directors OF the
Insane Asylum at Stockton, with drawing
illegal mileage, in that it was calculated
from mis- county seat instead of from his
place of residence, Gait. At meeting of
the Board, held soon thereafter, the mat
ter was, DR.. Harvey states, informally
talked over, but no orders entered at that
meeting. He said he was unconscious ofhay-
ing done any wrong, and if he had received
any money not properly belonging to him
it had been without intent on his part, and
he stood ready to right the matter if he
had received money not legally his. Sub
sequently all the law on the subject was
published by the Stockton Independent,
and that article was reproduced in these
columns. The article held that 10 illegal
tation complained of was the computation
called for under the law and that had been
followed without dissent for long time.
On the 9th instant the Board of Directors
again met, and the matter was taken otti-
cial notice of, DR.. Harvey bringing it be-
fore the Board in the form of question of
personal privilege yet, he said, as mat
ter in which all on the Board were equally
interested with himself The proceedings
are reported in full in the Independent.
He referred to the first informal considera-
tion, disclaimed all intention of rejecting
on any member of the Board, bearing tes-
timony, to his belief, in their honesty and
to their faithful labors for the people at
large For himself he did not fear the
closest scrutiny, nor the most rigid inves-
tigation. The office of Director is not
one of profit or reward. The law allows
per diem and mileage-the first not to ex.
ceed $40 per year, ard the latter, in his
case, amounts to sos year. He had
been placed in false light by papers and
in dispatches. The Board had been a
working one, constant in its duty, and
often worked days on duty without either
per diem or mileage. He could conceive
of no motive that should actuate anyone to
iniure him as had been attempted. 1t was
untrue that charges against him had been
entertained by the Board or sustained,
The records show it to be untrue yet it
had been telegraphed abroad as fact. Soon
after it was again telegraphed abroad that
he had drawn illegal mileage since 1872
He read the kilograms he complained
of, and also from a public journal of San
Francisco, alleging that he had been forced
to resign, aid that he ought to be sent to
all for ais crime like any rogue, and still
another of like character from San Fran
cisco paper. He pronounced the state.
ments malicious falsehoods and ISLANDERS,
and asked why he had been singled out as
the one man on the Board for attack when
others Of the body occupied like position
on the mileage question. On the question
of mileage he believed the Board to be
harmonious, as it had been discussed and
agreed that the mileage was to be estima-
ted from the county-seat TO this state
ment the other members of the Board
assented). He said he wanted the fullest
investigation He had been paraded as
stealing mileage since 1872. The fact was
that for three years he drew mileage
from Gait, twenty-one miles, which is
less than the absolute distance travelled.
October s, 1875, he introduced resolution
fixing the mileage from the residences,
which he claimed to be in correspondence
with the statute, making residence to mean
county seat. Five months after the mile
age was reduced to ten cents, or five cents
less than allowed by law. The Board soon
after took up DIR. Harveys demand for an
investigation, reconsidered the action of a
previous meeting, WHEN IL Was IesOiNeu tlat
mileage of Directors should be from county
seats when Directors reside there, and for
actual distance in other cases, in order to re.
move all action by the Board from the way
prior to investigation. Resolutions were
then adopted reciting the attack on Di.
rector Harvey, and that false kilograms
had been sent to the effect that such
charges had been sustained by the Board,
and directing committee to procure
legal opinion as to whether the mileage of
nonresident Directors should be computed
from the county seats of the counties in
which they reside, and report the same to
the Board. DIR. Harvey submitted, and
asked that it be referred to the committee,
a legal opinion by s. NJ. Wilson, R. J.
Wilson and W. L. Dudley, to the effect
that he had not drawn illegal mileage, and
that the computation was properly made
when made on the basis Of the distance to
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