Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-25
THE MAYORS ADVICE
city Council Refuses to Accept Nctocs
of tt,nf officer.

When the council met last night Mayor
Cleaver had a couple Of communications in
tho shape Of vetoes to lay before the alder
men. The first was the veto Of the settle
ment made by the council Of the claims of
Gesler and Mrs. Peterson for a defective
sidewalk and the judiciary committee had
recommended settlement Of their claims for
S175 ea6h. The council had concurred in the
report. The mayor stated his reason for
votoing the settlement TO BE-: The record
of the action taken by the committee Of the
whole, and passed upon by the council in
my absence, wes Incorrect and did not in
terpret the action taken by that body. In
my judgment the Peterson case is not en-
titled to a monetary consideration at the
hands of this council, and should be tabled
indefinitely"
Barstow moved that tae message be re-
iected, and on the call of the roll every mem
ber voted to kill the veto. The mayor vetoed
one of these settlements last summer when
the Judiciary committee reported in favor
OF allowing settlement CT the claim for
$3.50, and the veto was then sustained.
The next veto was of more direct personal
interest TO the members OF the council, for
IT sliced off $50 year from each of the
aldermen's salary. The communication read
by the clerk was as follows:
To the Honorable City Council-Gentle-
mnen: | herewith return unsigned. the or
dlnance entitled AN ordinance fixing the
ing ordinances heretofore passed. for the
following reasons:
Personally, ! do not favor the reduction
of the sa aries of any of these Offices from
the standpoint that to obtain the services
OF competent and conscientious men, le-
opinion the compensation Of city treasurer
as therein fixed, is not comm ensurate with
tn the duties and and responsibilities Of the Office
time to it, and furnish boni, in the amount
OF Sio9 oo9 for the faithful performance of
s2uncil it seems necessary to enforce at
least temporary retrenchment, outlined
in the ordinance, I would suggest that the
ordinance be amended as follows:
urer sha receive the sun sum of ssoo M s per Year Year
Following section /, No G: Each alder
man receive the sum of $500 per year
This was something of a severe surprise
to the council. The members had received
some intimation that The mayor had prepared
veto message annulling the ordinance
passed at the last meeting, reducing the
sclaries Of the city officers, and they eX-
pected that it would refer To all the officers
whose pay was cut. They were consequently
not prepared to receive propos ton cutting
their own meager pay. The silence that en-
sued did not last long. A motion was made
TO pass the ordinance over the veto. A
faint hearted second was heard and the
roll call followed Every member voted aye,
and the aldermen saved their own pay.
Mrs Lena Miller asks to have her prop
erty, lou l. DlOck D, Haag s extension ex-
empted from taxation for the year 1898. for
the reason that she was unable TO meet the
expenses Of living and pay her back taxes.
The matter was referred to the judiciary
committee.
Alderman Greenshields brought up the
matter of removing the street car rails that
had been laid to hold franchises or take
advantage Of contemplated improvements in
various parts Of the city, but which had
never been used and only constituted dan
gerous obstruction to street traffic. He put
his motion in the shape of a resolution direct
ing the marshal to remove the pieces of track
on North Eighth street. on Ninth avenue
from Main street to Ninth street and or
Upper Broadway. provided the street car
companies owning the tracks and responsible
fer their construction did not remove them
within reasonable time. The resolution
passed without debate
Alderman Shubert reported that his atom
tion had been called to the unsafe condi-
tion Of a bridge on Avenue Il, near Courtldnd
beach, on the public highway leading irnm
the beach to Omaha. Half Nf the bridge had
been covered with hard pine planks ard
the planks had become rotten ahd dangerous.
The matter was referred t. the committee Oh
bridges and city properly with instructions to
investigate as to the liability Of the city. and
if the city was found to be liable for the re-
pairs to have the work don, at cnce.
After some minor routine business the
adj