St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-30
HE WILL INSIST ON THE FIXED
FAT SALARIES THAT HAvR
BEEN PAID.
COUNCILS ACTION ILLEGAL
SUCH WILL BE THE POSITION
TAKEN BY THE CITY COMP
TROLLER.
HE WILL GET PAY ROLLS AUG. ;.
But Will Not Send Them tn IL.
Aldermen Until Au-
gust g.

Inc keenest curiosity prevaY7s
among the city officials whose SAL
aries are presumed to be reduced by
the resolution of the common coun-
Gil TO know what action City Comp
troller McCardy will take when the
July pay rolls come before him to
be audited. The Glob is in a
position to relieve that criosity.
The pay rolls will reach the comm
troller Thursday, Aug. 1. There is
a regular meeting of the assembly
scheduled for that evening, but the
comptroller will not send the nav
rolls to the council until one week
from tonight, when the board of al
dermen will hold it's regular meet-
ing.
The pay rolls are originally made
out in the respective city offices to
which they belong. For instance.
that of the workhouse force. upon
which appears the name of Supt.
Fitzgerald, is prepared at the work.
house. This case is instanced mas
much as the resolution referred to
purports to reduce Supt. Fitzgerald's
salary from $4,000 a year to $4,000.
The first question that arises is will
the various departments make out
their pay rolls in accordance with
the resolution or will they simply
insert the good old salaries and let
it go at that, and wait and see
whether Comptroller McCardy will
substitute the reduced figures? In
qulry at all of the city offices, with
the exception of that presided over
by the comptroller himself, ELECTED
the general reply:
''We shall make out the paw roll
for our Office in the same sum as
usual.'
How the Workhouse roll will read
when it reaches the comptroller is
not known, but that is not material.
The responsibility for the result
rests entirely with Comptroller Nc
Cardy.
Comptroller McCardy is averse to
talking for publication regarding the
action that he may take upon mat
ters that have not reached him
officially. After he has acted, then
he can say a word or two, but then
the cat is out of the bag, and MIR. Nc
Cardy's subsequent remarks lack
the spice of fresh informa ton. It
Will therefore be source of rare
pleasure to the public to learn of
Mr.. McCardy's intentions in advance
and so anticipate his subsequent re.
marks.
WILL NOT BE REDUCED.
In word, the salaries of st. Paups
city officials will not be reduced.
Not a single one of them will receive
cent less pay than he has hitherto
been accustomed to draw from the city
treasury for a months work. The city
attorney, city treasurer, city engineer
and city clerk can smile in anticipation
of drawing one-twelfth of S., ,OOO. Even
the grim comptroller himself can pock-
ct his monthly share of the invidious
$500 per year allowed him, and gaze
with serene and compassionate calm
upon those Democratic aldermen who
would make him work for $3.50 per an
mum. AS for the four members of the
prosecuted board of public works
relegate to private life; whom Aid.
Milham designated as 'chair warm
ers," for whom $500 a year was a
princely salary; whom Mr. Moore
holds to be a useless burden upon the
tax payers-why these gentlemen SIM
ply won't do a thing but continue to
draw their salaries at the rate of $500
a year.
1t is awful to contemplate, for more
contemplation conjures up the appall-
ing vision of the two judges of the
municipal court still feeding upon the
fat four thousand apiece at the ex-
pense of the tax payers. Then there is
the clerk of that institution who, it
was fondly hoped, would cost the city
only s., 500 a. year, but will still do busi-
ness at the same old stand and at the
same old figures-$2, 500. Superintend-
ent Fitzgerald, of the worl1house, will
also rejoice, as will Secretary Caulfield,
of the water board, who is reputed to
favor his salary of $500 in reference
to the reduction to s., 400, or any other
reduction ever proposed.
WHAT WILL ALDERMEN DO?
After Comptroller McCardy has
audited the pay rolls, which will con-
form exactly to those of preceding
months as far as the salaries are con-
cerned, they will be sent to the coun-
ell. The board of aldermen will have
the first opportunity to pass them.
And the aldermen must pass or re-
iect them. They cannot amend or
change them. They will hardly reject
them and thereby keep every city Of
fetal out of his pay.
The comptroller will refuse to audit
any pay rolls made out in accordance
with the reduced schedule on the
ground that the city council has no
authority to change the salaries of any
city official whose compensation is
fixed by the state law. 1t is true that
the resolution also reduces salaries of
all clerks who receive more than S1O0
a month, and as to these employees
the resolution would seem to be oper-
ative, but as it was the evident If not
expressed intention of the council not
to make the reductions apply to the
clerks alone, the comptroller will act
oooordinp1V and the nav rolls he SUBJ