St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-01-03
A LETTER FROM JUDGE ROSS,

A LETTER FROM JUDGE ROSS.
| Some More Candid Talk to Citizens.
Editor of the Caledonian With
your permission, | would like the
| privilege of addressing q few words
| to the voters and tax PAYERS of this
| village. 1t seems to me an OppOrtune
time to do so, as their attention has
| been recently called to the relations
and powers Ofthc trustees in the man
agcmcnt of the affairs of the village
| ann impcllcd to ask this privilege, as
/ fear there exists a general misun-
dcrstanding on this subject.
By the charter certain powers arc
conferred upon the village: among
others the right to employ a police
force; the right to bring water for
| the cxtinguislmcnt of fires and do
mcstic purposes; the right to organ
izc and maintain q fire department :;
the right to build sewers; the right
to maintain the streets and side
walks, and the right to light the
since the village meeting, if the trus-
| tees had not the right, without any
authority from the voters, to change
| the system of lighting the streets and
| to make the contract which they pro-
| fcssed to make with the Thomson
| Houston Electric company. | re-
piled i'll the negative. A moment s
reflection and examination will sat
isfy any one that my reply was cor
rect. These powers arc given to the
village and not the trustees. The
trustees are its officers, servants and
agents to carry out what the village
through the voters may authorize.
They are not the village, although
sometimes in the past they have act
ed as though they were-as when
they have expended more than the
highway tax for building sidewalks,
or erected a building for the use of
the village, or built sewers without
q vote of the village. Any other
view would place the entire property
of the tax payers at the disposal of
the trustees. 1t would, if so dispOs-
ed, enable the trustees to throw
away the present system of bringing
water for the eXtinguishment of fires
and for domestic use; to enter upon
q gigantic scheme of bringing water
for these purposes from Connecticut
lake; and to incur 4 debt, which
would absorb in its payment every
dollar of property owned by the tax
payers of the village; and the tax
PAYERS would be rc1nidiesS to pre-
vent it.
1t need be only stated to show the
absurdity of such 4 claim. Every
power conferred upon the village the
voters have the right to say how, to
what extent, and when it shall be
exercised, and the trustees have no
right to move one inch beyond the
authority conferred by the voters.
In this rests the sole security of the
voters and tax payers. Hence | urg-
ed upon the voters at the meeting
that they should make specific APP
preparations for every purpose, for
which they would authorize expcn-
diturcs. and then see to it that these
trustees did not Overstcp the limits
imposed by their vote. This is their
only safety. | have no sympathy for
tax payers who are voters, who stay
away from the village meeting and
then scold about the way things are
done, or who neglect to vote when at
the meeting.
| deem the ratification of an un-
authorized act of the trustees dan
gerous precedent, for it encourages
them to do such acts, and then to
try to get the voters to ratifv them
g.. l.. 4 Il,
very likely to ratify anything the
trustees ask They do not like to of
fend them. Officers very generally
ask to have their acts ratified, how
ever unauthorized. Were | an officer
of any kind and did an act beyond
what | was authorized, whether
from ignorance or poor advice, |
would not ask the voters to ratifv it
unless they, without any solicitation
from me, thought it was wholly a
disintcrcStcd act and one for their
best interest.
The strong reason urged by Mr..
Bates for the ratification of the I'M
authorized contract for lighting the
village with electricity, was, that at
the meeting of June 9, when the vote
that the sum appropriated would
not light the village. but that they
were willing to eXpend that sum in a
trial of il, so far as it would go.
After having occupied so much of the
time of the meeting, | did not care to
reply to this claim. Mr. Bates, how
ever. well knew that the talk of that
meeting had nothing to do with the
authority conferred by the resolution.
y and b enter into a written con-
tract. If unambiguous when applied
to the subject matter none of their
talk during the negotiation can be
received to show what is meant by
the clearly expressed written con-
tract. When the village puts,
through a lawyer, the authority in
tended to be conferred into a care
fully worded resolution, that alone
Is to be considered by the trustees
when looking for the authority con-
ferred. If all the speakers talk differ
entity it does not follow that the 81
-lent voters would indorse their talk.