The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-01-25
WATER Pipe LEAKS.
Showing How the City's
Money Trickles Away.
THE NEW AND THE OLD REGIME.
Result Of Recent Changes in the
Line of Economy and Busi-
ness Methods.

ness MetnOdS.
When the Board of WORKS was under
the notorious and disgraceful manage
ment of the Big Four, it was matter OF
common notoriety that every branch OF
The service within reach of Bill Kern and
his gang was run for the personal enrich
ment of people in the Board or of their
retainers Heelers were paid salaries for
doing nothing; forces many times larger
than were required for the performance
Of the work that lay at their hands were
thrust into the service, and all the public
places under the CONTROL OF the combine
were overrun with supernumeraries, who
were paid for personal political
services out of the city treasury. 1t was
even said that pay rolls were fakes and
that the names OF men, who had no ex-
istence on the face of the earth, were put
on the pay lists and their money drawn
by convenient Shylocks under cover OF
.spowers of attorney" for division among
the public pIuDderers. So it was that
the cost of running the Water Depart
ment, and Of repairing and clearing the
streets, mounted up to figures that were
30 phenomenally high as to bear the evil
dence of robbery upon their face
An era of reform was instituted when
the old Board of Works was transnogri-
fed into the new reetand Water Board.
The sinecures were to be turned out.
The business of the department. was to
be done upon an economical basis.
Enough men were to be employed to do
what there was to do, but only enough;
and they were to be paid 9 fs.ir ce.apenss-
tion for their labor and no more. The
H. RI n mn,
absolute equivalent of public service.
The businesslike management of public
affairs, it was very justly agreed, would
enable the authorities at once to make
the city cleanly and attractive, and The
bill of the taxpayer smaller than the ex-
trayagances of the old Board had made
possible.
PLEASANT CONTRASTS
With the idea of drawing some pleas
ant contrasts between the Big Four rule
of ruin and the new dispensation's rule of
business and economy. began few days
ago to look over the accounts of the city's
expenditure. 1t was necessary 60 begin
somewhere, with some one account. and
perhaps because 1t was the easiest TO in
vestigate, / chose the Water Department
for the first enquiry.
There is less reason here for Auctua-
tions than in any of the other department
managed by the Street and Water Board.
form in supplying the city with water,
and they are done practically the same one
day as the next. 1t is not as in the i'm
provements of the street, where, 1t much
Is done, the outlay must be big: if little,
the outlay should be small. There are
pipes TO be laid, and pipes to be repaired,
It is true. These accounts vary. OF
course. according to the quantity laid
and the extent of the repairs re-
quired: but the average from month
to month is about the same, and even
this fiuctuating account generally shows
something approaching to uniformity.
Then in addition to the practical fxitv of
the outlay in the department. making it
most desirable as basis of comparison, /
found tr easier to trace its pay rolls and
expenditures among the city's vouchers
and upon the city records.
So it was with the expenditures in the
water service that determined to begin
q series Of contrasts. The enquiry had
not progressed far before it became clear
that the pleasant contrasts could not be
deduced from the figures without some
arithmetical difficulty. The expenditures
instead of seeming small under the new
regime appeared on the surface to he
greater than under the reckless manage
mefit of the Big Four. 1t was found that
the October pay roll of last year exceeded
even the expenditures made in March
last, when Bill Kern was filing the city
departm with heelers to fight the new
charter at the elections in April; and a
comparison of the expenditures during
the closing months OF 1889, when the
Street and Water Board WIS at the helm,
with the expenditures of the old Board of
Works during the closing months of 1883
exhibited without break larger expendi-
lures for this fixed public service under
the new than under the old Board.
WHAT THE PAY ROLLS SHOW.
The pay rolls show that Bill Kern's
Board, in October, 1883, expended S10,-
40 on the Water Department em-
poyees. The new Street and Water
Board pay roll for October: eis 1889, amounted
The Big Four's pay roll for November,
1888, ia the Water Department., was
1884, 30: the new Street and Water
Boards pay roll for November, 1889, was
S13. 1884, 10.
The Big Four's pay roll for December,
1888, reached an aggregate of $l2 90S.93
the new Street and Water Boards pay
roll for December, 1889, amounted to
$l3. .S2054
The charter election was held in April.
Bill Kern's fight against its acceptance
was made during the early part of that
month, and the closing days of March.
His anti-charter heelers were thrust into
every department under the control of
the Board. The paw roll was stretched as
far as he, reckless and constituencies as
he was, thought he dared 10 stretch it.
The entries on the record in the Board OF
Finance show the expenditure during
March of $14, ,954. Is.
4 he Big Four's water pay roll for April,
the other month when they filled the de-
partment with anti-charter heelers, as it
was entered up by the Finance Clerks,
shows total of $15,626.
These, it may be assumed, were the
months when the Big Four, with the big
stakes they were playing for in view, be-
came most reckless in the expenditure of
tine public money. Yet, with all their
recklessness, the expenditures for either
mouth, strange as it may seem, fall COM
siderably below the expenditures of
s19,316. "A made by the new Board in doing
precisely the same public service in Oc-
tober last.
1t is enough to deal with the grand
totals in this article The details of the
pay rolls win furnish interesting reading
for another day.
THE COUNTY COMMITTEE.