The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-06

The feature of the assembly meeting
last night was the report of the special
Joint committee appointed to inveStl-
gate as to the action of City Treasurer
Horst in depositing city funds in the
Allemannia bank. The special COM
mittee held an executive session yes
terday afternoon, and for nearly three
hours considered and discussed the re-
port. The question of toning down the
report was discussed and considerable
of the ginger was stricken out by
the committee in the executive ses-
sion. President Arosin read the report
at the assembly meeting and brought
the more important points out in h
manner which showed he was for some
reason interested in not overlooking
anything. He explained, in answer 20
questions put to him during the read
ing by members of the assembly, that
under the charter not to exceed $147,-
600 could lawfully be deposited by the
city treasurer in the Allemannia bank
This, he said, was under that portion
of the charter which provided that an
amount not exceeding the assessed
valuation of the capital stock of any
bank should be deposited. Another
provision also stated that a bond in
double the amount deposited should be
given. The bond under which the bank
was receiving deposits, even, had it
been good and sufficient one,
was only in the sum of $250,00 and the
bank on numerous occasions had near
ly that amount of city funds on de-
posit.
The report as read was as follows:
The treasurer and the employees in his Of
hce have courteously assisted the committee
in the matter of the examination of the
been materially assisted thereby. The re-
port quotes in full the letter sent to the COM
mtttee by City Treasurer Horst at the first
meeting of the body, and then says:
1t will be observed in the foregoing that
the treasurer goes back to the time when
he took possession of the Office in June, 1894
so that much that is contained in the state
ment is not in any way connected with the
investigation directed by the council at this
time and has no relation thereto. Coming to
the time when the treasurer entered upon the
discharge of his duties such official, in
June 1886, he states that he went to the
assistant city attorney and called his atten-
tlon to the bond OF the Commercial bank. and
to the fact that the bank had changed it's
name and that at this time he also called
attention to a bond given by the Merchants
National bank and says that "in both cases
the assistant city attorney held that the bonds
were good and sufficient" Mr.. Phillips, the
assistant city attorney, denies that he made
this statement, but says that he simply advised
the treasurer that these bonds were all right
as to form. In scrutinizing the statement a
little further you will find that the treasurer
admits that he knew that on July %, 1885, the
council advertised for bids from the various
banks of the city desiring to be designated
as repositories of city funds and you will
observe that he admits that on Oct. 49, 1885,
quite a number of banks which had been
designated as repositories of the city funds
executed bonds and rendered them to the
city, and that all of these bonds have since
been approved by the common council. The
treasurer shows how little it seems to con-
Germ him whether a bank had bond or not
when he says he had knowledge of the
number of banks that had rendered bonds at
the time. 1t would seem that it should have
been of great Importance to the treasurer
who had charge of all the moneys belonging
to the city to keep informed of the action Of
the common council in the matter of desig-
mating the banks in which such funds might
be deposited and requiring the execution of
new bonds to protect such deposits. 1t very
clearly appears from the following clause in
his statement that the treasurer was familiar
with other circumstances in reference to these
resolutions of much less Importance to him.
He seems to have had exact knowledge of the
number of days it took before the bonds
were approved and quotes one paragraph of
the resolution in full, and then asks: what