The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-12
THOROUGH INVESTIGATION.
Park Board VIII Make 1t Immediately
After Election.

After ElecIlOm.
After comforting yesterday the three
members of the Board of Park Commits
soners who are in the city-Chairman
Claypool and Messrs. Perry and English
decided not to meet during the day to take
action TO have the application de novo that
is on file in the Circuit Court amended SO
as to strike out Taggart's bog. This action
will be taken soon-perhaps the last of this
week No matter what the result of the
election may be, the present commission
ers continue to hold office Mr.. Claypool's
term expires Jan. /, 1898; Mr.. Perry's Jan.
/, 1900 and Mr.. English's JAM l. 1899. Albert
Lieber, who is absent in Europe, serves
until Jan. l. 1902. A successor to Mr.. Holt
will be appoirted. His term would have
expired JAM /, 1901. There is a quorum of
the board now in the city, but it is claimed
that it takes unanimous action to transact
any business, in other words that a ma
jority of a quorum cannot act. So far as
the bog scandal is concerned the three com
missioners who are here want it cleaned
up ana expurgated from the records. On
this they are agreed. Neither one of them
was in favor of taking the land at any
time, and have 50 expressed themselves
repeatedly. As shown by the facsimile of
the agreement signed by Commissioners
Holt and Lieber last February both of them
were committed to expending $4,000 for
land at the Belt road and White river. 1t
was because of the known opposition of
Messrs. Claypool English and Perry that
it was necessary to resort to a trick to get
it into the court records, where 1t stands
to-day, and where it must stand until all
reference to it is stricken out by leave of
court, as the Journal has been informed by
competent attorneys.
AS this assertion has been made the COM
missioners are agreed that the only course
for them to pursue is to make a thorough
investigation of their records in order to
find their exact status. 1t is the intention
to go through them from the beginning so
that everything that has been done may be
carefully reviewed. This will take some
days. The board will insist upon having
competent legal advice upon every step
that has been taken, so that if anything has
been omitted or any Irregularities appear
in the records proper steps to rectify errors
may be taken. After reaching this con-
cluson the commissioners decided yester-
day that further action should be postponed
until after the election. When there is less
excitement and less liability of taking hasty
and ill-cOnsidered action the work of re-
viewing the boards work will begin. The
review will extend from the appointment
of the original members down to date.
There have been four designations since the
board was organized, Messrs. Leedy, Maus,
Allen and Holt having resigned. w. Il.
English was appointed to succeed Mr.
Allen last fall Mr.. Lieber succeeded Leedy
and Mr. Holt succeeded Mr.. Maus. The
present members of the board know but
little of the action that was taken by their
predecessors. Regret is expressed that the
boards sittings has not been attended by
an attorney who could have given advice
as to each step that was taken. If such a
method had been followed the Taggart land
could not have got into the court records
without the knowledge of Messrs. Claypool
English and Perry. Hope was expressed
yesterday that the next mayor would ap-
point man to succeed Holt who has
knowledge of legal proceedings, if a man
can be found who has time to devote to
-athe-.work The park commissioners receive
no compensation.