St. Paul daily globe., 1892-12-30
FALLS TO The EARTH.
The Charges Against the Ex-
Treasurer Prove to Be
GroundleSS.
Examiner Kenyon Will To-
day Submit a Long
Report
Which Practically Sustalns
the Course OF That
Official.
MIR. Refs Acted in Good Faith
and to the City's In
tereSt.

State Examiner Kenyon's investiga-
ton of the administration of the city
treasury by eX-City Treasurer Reis Is
now completed, and, as was expected
even by many of the Republicans, the
charges preferred by the present city
treasurer have fallen TO the ground. A
more grOundleSs and foolish affair was
never institigated by an official. and it
illustrates fUrcibly the caliber of MIR.
Miller
Mr.. Kenyon's report, which was prob
ably filed with the governor late yeSter-
day afternoon, very clearly eXonerate5
Mr.. Refs. The report sets forth that
Mr.. Kenyon has examined the receipts
and disbursements of the Office at off
ferent dates, and from the systematic
manner in which they were checked up
he is satisfied that all moneys received
and disbursed by Mr.. Refs were ac-
counted for.
Miller's communication to the common
council is set forth in full. and following
it is the communication of Mr. Refs,
with an appended request that it be
closely and carefully read. Mr.. Kenyon
comments upon it in this wise: That it
is apparent that Mr.. Refs must have at
times lab0red under great difficulties
owing to the complicated nature of the
proceedings involved. "There can be
no doubt in anyone'6 mind that Mr. Refs
did the best he could for the interests
of the city under the circumstances.
Mr. Kenyon refers to the following
letter, which he received from }. c.
Quinby, president pro TEN. of the board
of public works:
''Hon. NJ. d. Kenyon. Public Exam
iner-Dea1 Sir: The board Of public
works has from time to time. when the
immediate collection Of an assessment
appeared 10 be especially burdensome
(bY reason of having been made long
prior to completion of the Improvement
for which the same was made), request
ed the treasurer TO be as accommodating
in the collection as possible, and the
board has occasionally recommended
suspension of arbitrary collection when
an Improvement was temporarily
stopped, the collection of assessment for
Langlord park grading being case i'll
point"
Mr. Kenyon's comment following the
this is that there is no doubt that the
different officers making Or attempting
to make changes produced some inc
qualities. Then, he says, no matter
how much Mr.. Refs was mistaken as to
the authority of the different officers,
there can be no doubt that he acted as
i'll his Judgment was best for the city.
Mr.. Refs, in his statement to Mr.. Keu-
yon. set forth the following:
Zone great cause OF judgments being set
tied for the original assessment was the liti-
CATION arising from the question as to the
legality of the public printed, the DAILY
GLoGE.
THE decisions of the courts invalidated all
the publications and applications for judg-
ment, as well as the assessments themselves,
and the judgments entered or obtained by
these publications which were declared
illegal Tnis covered quite a number of
years. and at one time the city was brought
10 full stop and had theG SSl6 306 SO of as
sessments and judgments on hand, which
were all affected by this decision; any one
could easily upset these judgments and put
the city to the trouble of reaSseSsirg, and,
without paying any more gain years extra
time.
In all these cases where judgments had
been obtained which were affected by this
decision, a new assessment was ordered by
the council and made by the board of public
works for the amount of the original assess
ment, for it could not be made any more
under the law. These new assessments were
sent down to the treasurer for collection i'll
place of the old assessments and judgments,
which were then cancelled"
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