St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-06-19
FLOUR CITY NEWS.
The Eighth Ward Overdraft
Making Very Sad
Trouble.
Judge Hicks Enlivens the Dis
trict Court With a
Fine.
The Ministers Wrestle With
Ungodly Sunday Ball
Playing.
Policemen Who Go to Slug
gings Must Explain
After.
1T CANNOT BE PAID.
The Eighth Ward Overdraft Must
Wait for Money.9

There have been no further develop
mentS in the matter of the overdrawn
and indebted Eighth ward fund, further
than that w. j. Bowen and Roach d
Wilson, the contractors, will get no
money at present. A little investiga-
ton of this case brought out not only
full details, but showed the fact that
screw is little loose in several OF the
city departments, and that the looseneSs
has been of long standing, and will now
be remedied. The letter, if not the
spirit, of the law has been neglected in
the matter of executing contracts and
bonds, and though no evil has grown
out of it, yet it opens the doors to in
Vulnerable evils and should be righted
at once.
In the Eighth ward matter, it is SIM
ply case of giving out more work than
there was possibly money to pay for,
and in this the aldermen we're to blame.
Ii work in that ward were
now stopped, and every OBJ
legation met, there would be
shortage of about $1,000. Two of the
largest claims unpaid are those of w.
J. Bowen, S11 1850, and Roach IL Will
son, S2,0O1, OF. the former for grading
West Lake street, and the latter for
grading Twenty-eighth street to Bryant
avenue. The work was ordered last
year, to be paid out of the fund of 1888.
and has been done and the certificates OF
the engineer given. These certified
orders have been hypothetical by the
contractors and are now in the hands of
the banks, coming in to the city comp
troller for payment at odd interests. 1t
appears that neither the Bowen nor
the Wilson & Roach contract has been
executed by the city, and both are at the
city hall in their incomplete condition.
Comptroller HollbrOOk refuses to count
ensign them while there is no money to
pay them, and City Attorney Smith has
advised him not to pay them. The ward
tax of the Eighth ward was up to the
limit for this year, and will go there
next, but in the meantime these con-
tractors must wait for their money.
Though the work has been done and
properly certified to by the engineer, the
cuted and there is no money available.
For this state of affairs it appears the
aldermen are responsible, as the engi-
neering department simply saw that the
work was done as ordered. In hyphthe-
eating these certified orders the con-
tractors give their notes for the amount
and turn over the orders as collateral
security.
1t was learned, in the course of in
vestigating this affair, that somebody
about the city hall is to blame in the
matter of contracts. For Instance T. j.
Carney was awarded the work of paw
ing the steel bridge; the work has been
done and the money paid, but the con-
fro t hnhnlf nf nit u
and no bond filed. If the block used
should turn out to be defective, or the
work improperly done, the money has
been paid and there is no recourse. In
quiry at the engineers office and after
ward at the comptroller's, showed that
it is and has long been customary to
have work proceed without formal
contract, and each official seemed little
uncertain where the blame should be
laid. The law requires that the mayor
shall sign all contracts in behalf of the
city and the comptroller cOuntersign
them, the evident object of the latter
being that that official, knowing the
money available, will not sign unless
provision has been made for the pay
ment. Doubtless numerous contracts
could be found, the execution of which
is incomplete, and it is certainly not a
business-like method of conducting the
city's affairs. AS contractors cannot, as
a rule, get their money until their con-
tracts are executed in proper form, they
hustle about and attend to them, but it
seems as though some one should see
that it is done in advance. The en-
gineering department claims that it has
simply to see that work is done prop
erly, as ordered by the council and
the aldermen, and that the city attorney
is the official to look after contracts !:
but it would strike an outsider that no
work. under contract, should be per-
mitted, until the contract is executed
and delivered and the proper bond filed.
The present system has been in opera
ton for years, but new order should
obtain.s The delay in the attorneys Of
flee, complained of by the engineer,
should be remedied and if the engineer
would give no data or estimates until
contracts are executed, the contractors
would see that they are promptly forth
coming. No harm has been done, as
yet, by the loOseneSs of the system, but
now that attention is called to it, more
rigid observance of the law should OBJ
tain.