The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-25
CITY FINANCES SHORT
Auditor BrOderick and the
Supervisors Lock
Horns.
SALARIES ARE HELD OUT.
The Watchdog of the Treasury
Says He Will Dismiss
His Clerks.
CHRISTMAS MONEY rs SCARCE.
An Intimation That the Finance Com.
mite Acted in a Spirit
of Revenge.
CHRISTMAS MONEY rs SCARCE

ment will be in worse tangle during the
next month than they have been for many
years past.
Auditor Broderick is mad through and
through, and declares that if his hands are
tied in his own Office he will see how much
delay and vexation the Supervisors are
willing to stand.
The difficulty began some time ago,
when the Auditor declined to sign the
salary demands of John ]. Sullivan, who
was appointed by the Board of Supervisors
to look into the bonds of persons desiring
to be liberated after being jailed on crimi-
| nal charges. He was to examine into the
sufficiency of the sureties and report to
the Judges in VIII ose courts the cases came
up.
The Auditor, after a consultation with
his attorney and bondsmen, decided that
there was no law which authorized the
Supervisors to make the appointment, and
that to sign the warrants would be to lay
himself liable to pay the amounts col
lected by Sullivan from the City treasury.
He, therefore, sent in short. but curte-
Gus, refusal to sign the demand.
Had the matter ended there all might
have been we'll, but the Finance Commute
of the board decided that if they had done
anything unlawful perhaps the Auditor
himself might be at fault in some direc-
ton or other. So the expert of the board
was instructed TO look into the affairs of
the Waterman OF the treasury's Office.
His report gave the members of the COM
mittee much satisfaction and their salts
faction and the result brought grief and
CONSERVATION into the Auditors Office.
The report was entirely without COM
ment on the state of affairs discov-
cred, but it brought out several
points that the Supervisors at once
seized upon. AS result further investi-
CATION was decided on, and, pending the
inquiry, the salary demands of all the en-
ployes of the Auditors Office except the
head of the department and his deputy,
who do not come within the Jurisdiction of
the board, were excluded from the favora-
BILE report of the committee that was rem
dered before the board on Monday last.
The matter passed without comment, no
one except the Finance Committee noticing
it during the monotonous reading of the
committee report, and the Auditor was
not apprised of the action that had been
taken until yesterday morning, when it
was found that the treasury was closed to
the employees of his Office except himself
and Deputy Thomas. Then Mr.. Broderick
was wroth, and his employees bewildered
as they saw their chances of Christmas
money disappearing from view.
| Members of the Finance Committee,
consisting of Messrs. Hobbs, Taylor and
Re ioy in hot "a
But little satisfaction was obtained from
them, the only answer being that it
seemed strange that the Auditor should
hire his extra help at $125 per month,
while the Assessor and Tax Collector OBJ
| tanned theirs for 500 per month. They
pointed to the following passage in the ex-
pert's report:
1.-The following clerks have been employed
at $125 per month for the purpose of COM
putting and comparing penalties and taxes
due on the real estate and personal prop
erty taxes, rolls 1895, under authority of
section 1888 las amended in statutes of
1895. page 1927 which reads as.follows: On
the second Monday in Deem Der, and on the
books being delivered to the Auditor ne
shall compute and enter against all the
for delinquency, foot up the total amount
of penalties then due and within ten days
deliver the books to Tax Collector" etc.
"It is an outrage" said the Auditor
when he had fully grasped the situation,
"and the Finance Committee may hear
more of this before they get through with
me.
~ have done nothing more than the law
allows, and will fully demonstrate that
what say is true.
GAS matter of fact the Supervisors are
merely trying to get even with me for re-
fusing to sign Bond Clerk Sullivan's de-
mands, when they must know that they
had no right to appoint him and that he
is asking salary for services that were
never performed. They object to my pay
ing SIPS for men, but I would like to see
them get the character of employees l must
have to get the work out for less money.
Most of them are trained accountants, ex-
perts in their line, and could not afford to
work for a smaller amount. Some of them
I>called from places where they were al
ready employed to help me out.
casa usual thing tw enty men are all that
are required to do the work, but this year
the books came to me three days late, so
that was compelled to put on twenty-five
to get the books back to the Tax Collector
within the time required by law. What
makes me feel bad, however, is that most of
these men were depending on the money
derived from this job Tor their Christmas
pleasure, and If the Finance Committee
had its way very little Christmas they
would get.
~ have given them $40 apiece, however,
and if their demands are never paid shall
pay the money out of my own pocket. If
these men do not get their money by jan
uary you can look for something out of
the usual run in this office. If my men are
not to be paid they shall not work.
81 shall send them all away, and my
deputy and myself will attend to the
affairs of the Office.
"Cf course you know what that means.
1t takes six or seven men to do the Or
binary work, and should two of US attempt
to do it the result will be that matters
that should be out of the way by the first
of the month will probably get out about
the last, and before great while the