Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-12-14
THE NEWEST NEW YORK F.AtGs.


The New York Tribune has done a useful
ahi crediiable thing in exposing the frauds
10 the department ofpublic works in tie city
government. The frauds arise from me sys-
TEN OF contracts in that department, (of which
Hubert q. Thompson is the head and in
the last seven years have amounted, accord
ing to the 1'ri6Hne's figures, to something
like six millions OF dollars, These frauds
have been made possible by sys GIN oi "uu-
BALANCED bids"-a system originated By the
old State canal ring, Wnic'i was su0Gol on,
by S. J. TliIrn when b. Wa vernon
Of New York. Tie moIus upc.ulN is
as follows: The city co.ls TO-. bids,
by public Advertisement, say fJ7 ex-
ample, for excavatiug 80 many cubic yards
Of rock, and so many cubic yard. OF Garth.
Several honest bids Gre seut in bids of men
who take thu advertised estimates OF the
amount sud character O! tie WJlk TO tc
done as being made in good faith. Ouc con-
tractor who knows, however, bids high
price for the rock excavation, and very
low, almost noninl, plicc Tor the earth ex-
cava'lop, Ills total bid is til lywest, lie and
gets the contract. When tic work is done i,
turns out that there was fav m5r- rock to he
excavsted Than the estimate stated. and faI
who knew, who was in The iinl,n draws al
amount from the city trca:rTyt OF lhlict
as large as his origiIa q! bid. II contractor
bids one cent per cubic yard for cxcava'na
rock and 80 per cubic yard for excays,ipe
'arth the lid is plunly "uMlalhnced.n Iii.
rut Of all asou, ans shows ut glance tina
ii is not honest. But tire departments al,
full Of contracts made on jas; such bids
The Tribune charges that, although hi
system was in vogue when Tweed was Com
missioner Of P.blic Works. l.. IL carli
m to day To n greater extent tLan ever "a
fore.
Tie Tribune gives eight Instances Of III
worSiug Of the "u1halanctd. BID" system u
samples. In one case the contractors bid wa
Slb,616, and the cost to the city was Sll2
0OO in another the bid wus Sso0j, and III
cos, to the city was Sa7, ll5 in lhri n
figures were 81 100 and .3I GO inn fo,lu
S22S6 aud So LIS - and so on. |
Tue sgs'tg"'e, li.s bids wyt- sJ6 G9l
while ihe c5% t. the c.. a
S227, 49,. Bat tots shjws uiy
small part Of the city's loss Street improve
ments were paid for by the issue of bord
which are to be paid of when the asses.
ments are collected from the owners Of II,
property benefited. The assessed propcrt
owners 30 into the courts and prove that III
cost OF the work is excessive, and the courl
vacate the assessments. The loss is then &C
ded to the city debt Since 1876 the CITY he
lost %, 1888, 43l by vacated assessments, nea,
iy all caused by unbalanced bids. Blu, eve
that IS not one-haf the total loss. The cour
have decided that the fact that the work ".
done by contract under public letting Is n
excuse for excessive cost, as the city was NJ
bound to accept such contracts. Hence Ii
board OF aldermen has recently assessc
property owners only what the board COZ
siders the fair value of the work done will
out regard TO the contracts made by the con
missioner OF public works or the park boar,
The excess OF cost over the amount levied
the assessment is charged, among other maj
tiers, to fuad called deficiencies in asses.
menn. This fund, which represents n tols
loss to the city, now amounts 10 S4,494, $50
But this does not cover all the loss. Their
10 an assessment commission to reduce assess
ment when the cost OF the work is excessive
Nearly all the cases coming before this com
mission arise from claims of property own
ers Tor relief because Of unbalanced bids
Altogether the assessment commission ha
made reductions amounting to over 81 900,
600, and In addition has returned neally hal
amillion dollars to property owners who ha
paid excessive assessments. Besides all tina,
Tho city loses the inieros, which 1t has PAL,
an assessment bonds issusd to pr oontrae,