Los Angeles herald., 1891-05-06
THE SUPERVISORS.
THEY PUT EXPERT MOORE ON THE
WITNESS STAND.
The Expert, Though Not in a Position to
Tell all He Knows, Gives Some Straight
Talk-The Result of the Investigation

dress to the Taxpayers Protective asso-
citation. This was an adroit move OF
the board, tor it put Mr.. Moore in the
position of being on the defense, and of
course he was not ready to tell the
board all he knew of their actions.
The first part of the session was taken
up in quibblipg about an alleged asser-
tion of Mt, Moore that the board had at
tempted to "head OFF, his investigation.
Mr.. Moore explained this several times,
and made his explanation hold in spite
OF the adroit cross-examination he was
subjected to.
He said that he heard the board pro-
posed to convene grand jury which
would necessarily stop his work, as it
would take all the books. and he also
cited Aaron Smiths request for an in
vestigation as an attempt to play the
old game. The board had not yet taken
either step, go he was still at work
County Clerk Ward had extended eyery
assistance to him.
Mr.. Lichtenberger, the president OF
the Taxpayers association, made an ad-
dress outlining the purposes of the So
ciety.
After some time the board got down
to business by the following question
from Mr.. Davis:
would like to ask Mr.. Moore if he
stated, as is reported in the papers, that
the steps taken by the Taxpayers union
had already been fruitful of causing the
board to shelve the claim of Aaron
Smith for $4,000 for selling the court
house bonds?
A. made statement something
similar to that.
@. Upon what authority? Do you
know of any such bill ever having been
presented to this board?
A. Yes sir. will put Mr.. McLach-
Ian on the stand, and Mr.. Smith, in re-
gard to that. Mr.. Smith went to Mr..
McLachlan to get his opinion upon the
board allowing that claim. The opinion
was informed that the thing was de.
layed. That is, he made the remark at
the time that the board would not take
any action now upon anything without
his opinion, since the movement of the
Taxpayers union.
q. Then you made that statement
the HERALD published, of factor as
fact-that bill for $4,000 had been pre-
sented apd quietly laid aside by the
board.
A. / don't know where that came
from. l don't know anything at all
about it.
@. You certainly stated that to be
the fact, as you were reported. Now,
there has never been any bill presented
to this board by Aaron Smith at all.
A. Well, l was not aware of the fact.
Q. For any sum for selling those
bonds-$5000 or any other sum.
A. l made inquiry Saturday morn
ing. When made the remark at the
meeting said had been informed that
it had been done, but / made inquiry
that morning of the auditor, and the
auditor told me he knew nothing Of it.
then only had reference to what had
passed between Mr.. Smith and the dis
trict attorney.
@. There is one other question 1
would like to ask you. You are reported
as having SAID that in April. 1889, a
warrant for $48S was drawn on the cur
rent expense fund in favor of a certain
bridge contractor, and no mention was
made as to where the work was done.
We admit that is true; no place was
mentioned-an oversight that perhaps
was reprehensible. And itgoes on to say
"And there is reason to believe that the
work was never DONE" What reason is
there to believe that there is anything
of that kind?
A. The reason is it was charged up
to the current expense fund when there
was $4,000 standing to the credit of the
general road fund.
@. But did you investigate to find
whether that work had ever been done?
A. How could investigate whether
it had been done? 1t was not located.
There was no place named.
Q. The names of the parties who had
done the work are attached to the de-
mand; receipts are given from the la
borers employed. You could very easily
have sent for them to ascertain whether
they had worked on that bridge or not.
A. That will be done later.
Mr.. Davis, after some unimportant
questions had been asked about the
matter, followed with this one:
II you liked this board you would not
make such statements.
A, I am taking every irregular war
rant and demand that has been allowed
by the board, and l am going to show
the reasons why it is irregular when l
get through, and my report will show
each and every warrant that has been
irregularly allowed. | find great many
that have not been certified to, great
many that have not been sworn to at all.
Every one of them is illegal, because
this board has no right to allow any
demand unless it is sworn to, and
have a great many of those, and have
only gone through six months of the
two years as yet. And 1 propose, in
the end, when make my report to
those gentlemen who have employed
me, to show the warrant and the de-.
mand and exactly the irregularity that
there is in it, and will give them IN de-
tail, and then the explanation can come
in afterwards. For the present l am
not asking any explanations at all. /
am only getting ready to make my re-
port to this organization, and when do
it then it will all be open, and then the
explanations can come in. There will
be time then for it.
Mr.. Moore, on the matter Of plumbing
for the old court house, said that he had
been somewhat misrepresented by the
newspapers. He said: They mis-
stated me there in the amount of the
expenditures for plumbing. / didn't
make any such remark. l made the re-
mark that there had been expended for
repairs upon the old court house, and
upon the old church and upon the Jail
and Jail wall, and it had amounted in
the two years to between six and seven
thousand dollars, which l am going to
establish ae q fact when oct IN hrouoh