Omaha daily bee., 1897-01-03

the future; laborcd efforts upon a lengthy
! pamphlet purporting TO come from hin
/ as city engineer without anything In II
| that should come from him as such en-.
| Eineer except the remark that "The water
| plant Is In good physical condition." his
apparent design to thwart the objects OF
| fer with the mayor and council, to settle
| upon the proper relations that should exist
| between the city Of Omaha and the Omaha
! Water company, and to determine what
| terms Of agreement, IL any, could be ar
| ranged to be binding upon both that
| would be moro satisfactory than the then
! assumption OF insight foresight and wis
! dom, that he intimates the council does
! not possess; his claim to the possession Of
| startling secrets found In the musty files
of the United States courts and the courts
OF the state of New York. justifying, In
his estimation, reputation, contiscation
and piracy; the guilty manner of reading
TO the public between the lines of his
pamphlet; the fact that he had applied to
be manager of the water works when he
became suspicious that the secret was out
ana That he would be charged with It. and
| other facts that might be mentioned, are
all damaging circumstances against him.
| The acts Of his Co-conspirators are not
! subjects of this investigation, and therefore
are only incidentally referred to in this
report.
Considering all the evidence in the case,
there exists no reasonable doubt of the
quit of the accused. The undersigned,
! therefore find the charges made against
| r. I}. Howell city engineer. true in every
| particular as made and charged. ConsId-
erlng the Importance to the city of having
an honest, truthful and honorable man to
discharge the duties of city engineer the
great responsibilities of the position and
tho liability of the city to be swinded by
false estimates that may be given to con-
tractors and Others for the payment of
which large sums of money must be appro-
priated and paid by the city, the recon-
mondation Is hereby made that the mayor
proceed without delay to remove the said
X, - HoWell from the office of city en-
holds. nv"
SIMPLY A SUGGESTION.
The majority of the committee reported
they found that the city engineer did not
demand. but did suggest" to Il. L. Bierbower
and A. b. Hunt and also to Stockton Heth
that 5. h. Wiley should be appointed as a
director OF the water company at a nominal
salary or 500 or $3.50 month. They stated
that the evidence showed that this "sugges-
ton was made October Z thus indicating
that the city engineer periured himself
when he swore That he had had no such
conversation on that date, but had mentioned
the matter to Mr.. Berbower sometime in
July. The report further stated that in the
opinion of the majority of the committee
Mr.. Howell was entitled to the benefit Of
the doubt. His action had been very in.
discreet, but was prompted by desire to
do friendly thing for Mr.. Wiley" The
report wound up with the following very
lucid conclusion:
Your committee finds and submits to the
city council that Mr.. X. b. Howell CITY
engineer under all the circl instances, of his
application for the position of general man
ager while holding the Office of city engi-
neer, made his request for Mr.. Wiley's ap-
pointment as director, an act of such indls-
cretion as a man Of his years and experience
should have avoided; and such action on
his part placed him in an embarrassing
position so far his subsequent reports
and duties were concerned in his official
capacity, with reference to the water works
question and the city's interests"
The recommendation was simply that a
copy Of the report should be furnished
the engineer and mayor
BARBER BILL TURNED DOWN.
The bills Of the Barber Asphalt company
were apparently finally turned down as far
as the present council is concerned.
Immediately after roll call. Wheeler moved
the reconsideration OF the vote by which the
city attorney was directed to confess judg-
ment in favor OF the asphalt company Ben
ava moved as an amendment that the matter
be postponed until the next regular meeting
This was lost by a tie vote In support of
his motion, Wheeler stated that at the secret
meeting held in the mayors office about
ten days ago, 1t had been settled that the
mayor would approve the bill if it was or
dered paid by the council. He had since
been informed that the mayor had changed
his mind and proposed to veto the resolu-
tion, and consequently the asphalt company
had brought suit. AS the matter was now
in the courts 1t would be advisable to re-
consider the resolution. Some of the mem
bers evidently thought there was something
behind this very plausible argument for
five of them, who are VIGOROUSLY opposed to
the resolution, voted against the motion to
reconsider. The motion was declared car
ried, however, and the clerk was directed to
inform the mayor of the action.
The mayors veto OF the water works fran
chise extension, which has been postponed for
several meetings. on account of the restrain
ing order issued by Judge Keysor. was taken
up and the veto was sustained. Duncan and
Wheeler were the only members who voted |
to pass the resolution over the veto
A resolution was adopted authorizing the !
comptroller to include in each monthly ap- |
ordinance an item in favor of |
the city treasurer for an amount sufficient to |
defray the interest due on the bonded OBJ |
legations of the city.
WATCH FOR HASCALL.
BY way of variation Wheeler rose to a |
question of privilege at this point and pre-
sented |. S. Hascall with a handsome watch |
and chain. This he explained, was a token |
of esteem from his fellow councilmen and |
friends in view of his approaching retire
ment after many years of service in that
body Hascall accepted the gift in a very
graceful speech, in the course of which
ne referred to his many vigorous argumenta-
tive collisions with his fellow councilmen
and declared that in retiring he carried
lothing but the kindlest of feelings with
lm.
The following statement from the comp
roller of the condition of city funds was
placed on file: