St. Paul daily globe., 1888-07-29

nine-tenthS of the amount OF uncollected
taxes levied for the current fiscal year
and applicable to such fund. The char
ter also provides that, except for the
purpose of raising funds to pay bonds
already legally issued, neither said
city council, nor any officer or officers of
said city shall, otherwise, without Spe-
cial authority of law, have authority to
issue bonds or create any debt or any
liabilities against said city in excess of
the amount of revenues actually levied
and applicable to the payment OF such
liabilities"
With the exception of the Badger &
Pinney claim of S5.502.11, each OF the
contracts and pretended con ntractS upon
which these claims are based provide
for the performance of the work on or
before a certain day in the year 1887. 7.and
that payment shall be made by the city
in the year 1888, in some instances after
the June settlement and in others on
July l, 1888. For this reason alone the
contracts are, in the opinion of your
committee, illegal and void. No con-
tract is valid unless countersigned by
the comptroller, and the charter pro-
vides that "He shall never cOuntersign
any contract payable out of the revenue
of any other fiscal year than the one in
which such contract shall be per-
formed" We see
NO JUSTIFICATION OR EXCUSE
for this attempt to anticipate the reve-
nueS of the ward and can imagine no
proper motive that could have induced
the attempt. The taxes for 1886 and
1887, were as large as the law would
permit, and the endeavor by the alder
work during their term of Office was
fragrant violation of law. But we are
advised that most, if not all, of these
claims are illegal and void for other rea-
sons.
No contract was ever made by the city
with Roach 81 Wilson, whose claim is
S2,001.07, or with w. j. Bowen, whose
claim is S11, 1850, for the doing of any
part of the work upon which the claims
are based. The charter provides that
all contracts made by the city shall be
signed by the mayor and cOunterSlgned
by the comptroller, and that no contract
shall be valid until counterSigned by
the comptroller. But no contract of
any kind has ever been signed by the
mayor or countersigned by the comp
troller for the doing of any of this work
for which Bowen and Roach & Wilson
make their respective claims. 1t
is true that we find in the Of
flee of the city engineer draft
of a contract signed by Bowen, and in
the office of the city comptroller draft
of another contract signed by Roach &
Wilson, each bearing date July 25, 1887;
but neither of these instruments is
signed by the city or by any one in its
behalf. The city is not in any respect
liable upon these instruments and no
valid claim against the city can be based
, upon them.
Furthermore, the claims of Roach &
Wilson and w. J. Bowen and also the
claims of Charles Filteau, Anderson IL
Douglass and Badger&PenneY are based
upon pretended contracts with the
city which the city council never au-
thoriZed. The aldermen as such have
no powers except those conferred upon
them by the express provisions of the
charter. When they attempt to per-
form an act which the charter does not
expressly authorize, the act is unlawful.
The council never authorized the MAX
ing of any contract for the performance
of any of the work, on account of which
these claims arose, and the aldermen
could not. If they attempted to do so,
their act was without authority and
void.
We deem it no slight matter that grad
ing has been done to the amount of $25,-
942.19
WITHOUT ACTION BY THE COUNCIL
to authorize the same. What streets
shall be graded in any ward is largely
matter of favOritism. The work in
creaseS the value of the adjoining prop
erty at the expense of taxpayers in gen.
eral. Aside from the necessity for re-
garding the law and doing business in
legal way, we think it important that
the entire city council, gathered as it is
from all parts of the city and presuma-
bly, impartial, shall determine what
property shall receive the benefit. The
determination is more likely to be unbi-
ased than that of three residents of the
ward whose personal interests are or
may he involved. Even if the recon-
mendation of the aldermen In the re-
spective wards is ordinarily adopted by
the council, its supervision acts as a re-
Straint upon them and prevents any
gross misconduct. Moreover the
city council can do nothing in
secret. All the acts are published
and accessible to every taxpayer. We
authorized the making of these con-
tracts which, if valid, burden the ward
with so large an Indebtedness. Our OBJ
jections to these claims are not merely
technical. We find what we deem
serious irregularities with reference to
them, aside from the fact that the pre-
tended contracts were never executed
by the city or authorized by the council.
The charter requires that when it is de-
cided to do any work by contract, if the
amount of the expenditure involved
shall exceed 500, public notice shall be
given and proposals invited for the
same. This is an important provision.
so much so that courts have declared
contracts void and not enforcible when
it was disregarded.
The grading done by Roach & Wilson
was ON Twenty-eighth street, from Bry-
ant avenue to Hennepin avenue. On
May 13, 1887, the city engineer was
ordered by the council to advertise for
bids and his report of bids was made on
June "a, 1887, showing that Roach &
Wilson's bid was II cents per cubic
yard and l cent for overhaul. There
upon the contract was drafted and eX-
ecuted by Roach q Wilson, which
named 1S4 cents as the price per cubic
yard, in addition to the cent for over
haul, being an advance of II cents per
cubic yard over the bid as reported. A
bill in favor of Roach q Wilson is now
in the hands of the comptroller, certified
as correct by the city engineer and all
the aldermen, which charges the city
with the increased price of 1S14 cents.
In other words. the officials allow Roach
& Wilson II cents per cubic yard in ex-
cess of their bid as reported, which eX-
cess amounts in the aggregate to S11s36.
w. j. Bowen has graded Lake street,
from Nicollet avenue to Lake Calhoun,
though no bid has been invited or made
for the grading of this portion of Lake
street, except from Stevens avenue to
Lake Calhoun. His bills are now with
the city comptroller, certified as correct
by the city engineer and by Aid. Cooley
and Stoneman. which charges the city