The San Francisco call., 1897-12-22
PASSING UPON CLAIMS.
Extended Session of the City Council at
San Jose

SAN JOSE. Dec. 21-A special meet
| ing of the Council was called by the
| Mayor late this afternoon, for the OBJ
/ jects stated in the call as follows:
The Members of the Common Council
/ of the City of San Jose-Gentlemen You
| and each of you will please take notice
| that a. special meeting of the Common
/ at 1880 2. NJ. this 2lst day of December,
| 1897, at the Council Chamber, in the city
! of San Jose, for the purpose of consider
| ing each and every claim against said
! city of San Jose, now on file in the City
/ Clerks office or to be filed during the
! day, and to pass and allow all or any of
such unpaid claims; to consider reSo-
] luton suspending certain provisions of
| the charter of the city, read for the first
/ time December 20, 1897, and to pass and
adopt the same; to receive and consider
/ the report of the Finance Committee up
/ on the matter of the bid of the Electric
! Improvement Company of San Jose to
/ light the streets of the city, TO act upon
said report, to consider said bid and
/ award the contract to said company, and
! TO read for the first time the resolution
authorizing the same; also for the pur-
! pose of receiving petitions, reports of
! standing and select committees and act
ing upon the same.
1t was near o'clock before the last
member of the body, in the person of
Julius Krieg, made his appearance
The four Councilmen then went into
executive session to consider the $20,-
900 worth Of claims that have not yet
received the signature Of Dittus as a
member Of the Claims Committee.
After being in session for nearly four
hours they reported that they would
require considerable further time to
dispose of the claims, as each claim
was being taken up separately.
1t was near midnight, and the Mayor
called the Council to order to have it
act finally on the resolution suspend
ing the provisions of the charter pro-
hibiting the payment of one quarters 8
/ Indebtedness from funds appropriated
to the city's use for the next quarter.
This was passed by a unanimous vote.
A communication from A Greenin-
ger and 4. H. Martin, the bondsmen
of Councilman J. 2. Fay, was read.
/ They stated that the writer's withdrew
from the bond of Fay. A similar com
munication was received from Edward
/ Ford and T. c. Hogan, the bondsmen
of Councilman William T. H. Noting.
! Both communications were laid over
until the next meeting of the Council.
Councilman Dittus said he could not
| understand why Fay and Noting had
their bondsmen withdraw, and said he
did not propose to take such action.
The Mayor volunteered an explanation
by jocularly remarking:
They probably feel themselves
guilty"
A recess was here taken for luncheon
| and a further consideration in execu
/ tive session of the huge batch of un-
paid claims.
Half an hour later the Council was
again called to order, when the follow
ing report of the finance committee
was adopted:
Your finance committee, to whom
was referred the matter of the bid of
the Electric Improvement Company for
street lighting for 1897 and 1898, beg
leave to report that their bid be accept
ed and that the Mayor be authorized
to sign contract for same"
Final action on this matter will be
taken at the next meeting of the
Council
When the Councilmen came out of
executive session an attempt was made
to pass the disputed claims. The Dep
uty City Clerk began to read them
Dittus interrupted the reading of the
claims, stating that they had been ex-
amined by the claims committee and
the members of the Council He said
they were illegally contracted, and that
it had been impossible for the members
of the Council to come to an under
standing with reference to them. He
asked that the matter be laid over un-
til tomorrow afternoon.
The Mayor said the matter ought to
be settled tonight. The claims. if Just
at ALL he said, ought to be paid, so that
the money tied up in the city treasury
could be at once placed in circulation
for the benefit Of Christmas shoppers.
Dittus replied by saying the claims
had been contracted by the heads OF
departments without proper authority
and in cOntravention of the provisions
of the new charter, which were known
to the various officials. He suggested
that a committee of citizens be selected
to pass on the claims.
Fay ridiculed this proposition and
declared if the matter could not be de-
cided tonight 1t ought to go over until
Monday, though he much desired to
have the matter settled in time to put
the money involved in circulation be-
fore Christmas.
After some further discussion ad-
journment was taken until o'clock
Wednesday night.