St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-08-23

Assessor JOhnston's Case Under
Discussion in the Board.


The board OF county commits
sioners put in two hours discuss.
ing matters at last nights ses-
sion. There seems to be some
rivalry over the securing of the expendi-
ture of money on roads, and the using
of the money-at the disposal of the road
and bridge committee as to applying it
towards furnishing immediate work to
the unemployed. This feature took I'D
much OF the time of the meeting. The
MAYOR was on hand early. He had just
returned from a trip to the Brule, and
had n known Of the matter relative to
the assessor not paying his deputies.
lie explained to the members that
he believed it was not necessary
to stop the pay Of Mr.. Johnston. as
he felt satisfied that the matter could
be amicably settled. He stated
that the assessor is at home i'll, and be-
iieved that he did not understand the
answer flied in the suit for services.
The mayor added that he would see the
assessor himself, and would guarantee
that the matter should be straight
ened out. Commissioner Hanna said
he had seen the county attorney
about the matter, and had been in
formed that there was doubt about
the board being able to withhold the
salary of the assessor, although there
was nothing wrong in the resolution.
MI. Burns said that the board
could not tie up the salary
and could not remove the as
SCISSOR, as that was a matter for
the power that had appointed him. Mr..
Johnson could compel him as the au-
ditor to draw the warrant for salary,
Notwithstanding the resolution. He did
not want to be put in the position of
seeking to act contrary to the wishes
of the board, and suggested that under
the circumstances it would be well
to adopt the suggestion of the mayor
and rescind the resolution. This course
met with some opposition from MIR.
Layallee and others, but after some
discussion such couIse was taken.
The county surveyor reported TIM
hohler road is q county thOroughfare.
There are three bridges on it between
Lake Vadnais and Lake Lambert that
are unsafe. The west bridge needs to
have the middle span strengthened, and
the other two need to have the abut-
ments repaired. so as to make them
safe for general travel. This report was
filed for future action.
There was a long discussion over bills
for work done on roads, involving cases
where men had presented bills for work
done by themselves as supervisors,
and aided by other men whom
they had paid. Mr. Lavallee re-
fused to approve some of these bills
as a member of the committee on
claims for the reason that the public
examiner had criticised such coarse,
and stated that the money should be
paid to the men who actually rendered
their services. He stated that a saloon
keeper at New Canada had secured
the money for work done on a
road, and then compelled the men
who did the work to drink out the bill
due them. One of the bills for work
was put in by John Ailoway. who keeps
a hotel at New Brighton. He wanted
s65 for shoveling snow in the months of
February and March. After q long
winded discussion the bills were al
lowed, along with a number of others
that were not disputed.
After some discussion the second
resolution offered by Mr.. McCarron was
adopted. which provides for taking
$500 from the Long Lake road fund to
be expended on the Barlow road near
New Brighton. Mr.. Lavallee wan ed to
keep this money in a general fund,
add to it the amount provided for
roads and bridges in the levy next year,
and use the whole this fall in giving
work to unemployed men in the city.
His proposition extended to working on
the roads neal the city. MI. Daily OPP
posed this move. as he considered it an
interference with his resolution of
Monday, which asked the mayor
to call a joint meeting of the
board and the common council to devise
means to relieve the distress among
working people. 1t was decided to re-
fer the plan of Mr.. Lavallee to the county
attorney to ascertain if it is possible to
issue orders against the road and
bridge fund for the year 1891 and use
the fund in giving work &c the unem-
ployed this fall on roads nea the city.