Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-21

| that ct first he made verbal demands for the
money. These demands not being responded
! to, on November IL, 1881, he made written
demand. A copy of such letter is on file in
| the public archives of the Controllers office
| IL begins by the statement, II havs again to
remind you" etc., and proceeds to say that
the money in Mr.. Berkey's possession was
| obtained from delinquents in San Francisco
and Tuolumue counties; that it remains un-
| credited on the tax rolls of the counties men
toned, and clouds the title of real estate by
reason of remaining q lien against such real
property as originally assessed and returned
as delinquent. The letter is very urgent
demand for immediate settlement, and. as
before indicated, is dated November IL, 1881.
| By the provisions of the laws Of this State,
when moneys belonging to any city. county.
or the State, are IL the hands of any officer
J where no specific law as to the time of pay
ment Of such moneys exist, the officer entitled
| to the custody of such money is authorized to
make a demand for its payment, and if after
such demand, the money is not paid within
twenty days, such failure or refusal shall
constitute felony. punishable by morrison
ment in the State Prison, and the officer SO
refusing TO pay shall be disqualified from
| holding any office ID the State.
The provisions of the Code in relation to the
| ofanse are thus briefly summarized:
Section Ii s24 Title H. of crimes against the rev.
enue and property Of the State.
Section 42i. Every officer Of this State or Of any
county, city, town or district Of this State, and
| cry other person charged with the receipt, safe
keeping, transfer or disbursement Of public moneys,
who either
same or any portion thereof to his own USE or to
| the use OF another; or,
| 3 Fails to keep the slme in his possession until
disbursed or paid out by authority OF law; or,
/ Is. r init IN nvar la
mand, any public moneys in his hands, upon the
| presentation of a draft, order or warrant drawn
upon such moneys by competent authority or.
8. Willfully omits to transfer the same when such
transfer IS required by law; or,
10. Wilfuly omits or refuses TO pay over to any
officer or person authorized by law 10 receive the
same, any moneys received by him under any duty
imposed by law, so to pay over the same;
is punishable by Imprisonment IN the State
| Prison for not less than one nor more than ten
Years, and is disqualified from holding any Office in
| this State.
Notwithstanding the formal demand made
| BY Controller Ksnfsld in the matter, the
money has not been paid. It is stated by
| the Controller that in addition to the written
| demand he has mads repeated verbal requests
| to the delinquent County Clerk, and has re-
| ceived from him promises OF an early adjust
ment OF the balance due the State in this
| relation.
Recurring now to the provisions Of the law,
| briefly set forth IN this statement, it will be
seen that the proper course for the money to
| take from the hands of the Clerk would be
| into the hands of the Tax Collectors of San
Francisco and Tuolumne counties. The
| statement is derived from the Controllers
| office that 1887 has been received from San
Francisco on account of the taxes delinquent
| for the twenty-third and twenty fourth fiscal
| years, but whether so secured were paid by
| County Clerk Berkey to the Collector of San
francisco, and by him transmitted to the
State Treasury, and that Mr.. Berkey is
thereby entitled to credit for this amount, is
not definitely known at the Office of the Con-
| troller. WHAT is definitely known is that the
whole amount of the delinquency was So, 600.
in round numbers, and that the amount of
credits TO which Mr. Bsrkey is known to be
entitled Is $500. leaving the amount Of 50 700
| due the State.
Under his general powers it was of course
tbs duty of the State Controller, through the
Attorney General. to enforce the collection of
this deficiency. The facts of the case, however,
were not known to the Attorney-G
until Saturday, and the information came
to his knowledge then only in the course of
the inquiry Instituted by this paper. From
the office of the Attorney. General we learn
that no official notification of the delin.
quency has ever been made to that officer,
and. unless it was made on Saturday after
noon, has not been made up to the present
| time.
To recapitulate briefly the whole state
ment, the Controller claims that moneys be.
| longing to the State in the amounto So, 66S
| came into possession of the Clerk of this
county, major portion of the amount being
received in 1879 ; that 81, 73l of that amount
still remains unpaid, notwithstanding the
official demand of the Controller CT State
and the repeated verbal requests of that
| officer for payment.
| The forapn;p, ,,r,.ar4, A. e..
tanned from the Controllers books and from
the State and county officials. and also the
law bearing upon the SUI sct.
MR.. BERKEY's STATEMENT.
Having sscertained the condition of the
| official records, representative of the
| RRCoRD-UNIoN visited MIR. Berkey, when in
| the presence of friends of that gentleman the
following interview took place:
Question.-The official records of your
| Office and the Controllers offics show that in
| 1879, 1880 and 1881 there came into your
| Possession sums aggregating So, 66S g.. Sub
sequently there was placed to your credit the
[ amount Of 1897. leaving balance Of g..
| 73l "a due from you to the State. What are
| the facts in relation to this matter?
Mr.. B4rkey-Whsn l came into office the
accounts concerning the delinquent taxes were
running, my predecessor in office having had
| charge of them. placed the keeping of the
accounts in the hands of deputy. As chief
in the Office l became dissatisfied with the
manner In which these accounts were kept. /
therefore took them out Of his hands. La SO
doing it was necessary for me to study the
accounts to understand what had been re-
| ceived end what had been paid out. The
statement derivable from the accounts was
| never satisfactory to me. l was not Satisfied
| that [ could do myself Justice and settle at
the amount which the accounts showed l
owed the State. My recollection is that about
June s, 1879, l went to San Francisco to set
tie with the Collector of that county. The
settlement Of the amount l cwed him was
verified by Mr.. Johnston, who acted for
Presley Dunlap, the attorney for
the Controller. 1 have here some
memoranda of the settlement that was made
at that date with the Collector of San Fran.
cisco. There is no date upon the paper, but
my recollection is that it was about June 8,
| 1879. These memoranda show that l paid
over, in the form of checks, one check for
! 81, 259 So. one for 81, 909 A. one for S1S5 70,
one for So. 629, and one for 1856 IL, and to
make up the amount which Mr.. Johnston
thought was due to the Collector of San
Francisco 1 added to those checks cash
amount in the sum of S13, making total of
$40 352 IL. If, then, at the time of this
transaction, l had paid over to the
Collector of San Francisco all mon
| cys budb uhu CUhS lubc my n2QQS
| on account of delinquent taxes, some of
the items charged against me on the Con-
| troller's books which precede that date must
| be erroneous. On one occasion went to the
Controllers Office to have a disputed account
Strengthened. Mr.. Johnston had charged me
with the sum of SlS9 which he had paid him.
self to the Controller. / went there for the
purpose of having that matter Strengthened
| up. wanted to have the account corrected
before / went to San Francisco to make
my next payment. 1t is my belief
that there is credit on the Col
| lector's books at San Francisco which
should appear on the Controllers books in
his Office, the amount Of which is 81, 500. /
! believe that full examination of these &C.
| counts aud q complete statement Of them will
show that am entitled to that additional
amount Of credit. To sum the whole matter
up, there is an open account between myself
and the Controller. The amount due from
me TO the State has not been ascertained By
a definite settlement. My opinion is that l
| owe the State about from 81, 800 to 81, 700.
| That amount am willing to pay and will at
once pay. Whatever other amount the Con-
troller's books show 1 am indebted to the
| State L will deposit or pay under protest
until full settlement can be arrived at. If,
after full adjustment of the account which
now stands open between myself and the Con.
troller. am found to be indebted in any
sum, propose to pay it at once.
QCestion-Did Controller. Brown send for
| you, and, in the presence Of Mr.. Kenfeld,
exhibit your receipts and return the receipts
| over to MIR. Kenfeld as his successor in
| Office !?
Mr.. Berkey-I have no recollection of such
| o transaction.
Question-Did you receive witten GER
ti6cste from Kenfsld, dated November IL,
1881. TO make good the deficiency due from
you to the State?
Mr.. Berkey-I did. But in subsequent
conversations Mr.. Kenfeld said to me that if
thu money was paid by pext September il
would reach the State treasury as early as if
paid sooner; that the settlement made by
the Collector Of San Francisco would be made