Omaha daily bee., 1897-10-12
SURPRISES FoR THE Committee.
Geraldine Discloses Some More Inn
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Geraldine Discloses Some More Inn
portnnt Information.
At the meeting of the executive commit.
tee Of the exposition held yesterday after.
noon at the Commercial club rooms the
principal matter before the committee was
a resolution introduced by Manager Rose
water designed to curtail the arbitrary au-
thority he etofore exercised by Dion Geral-
dine, superintendent of construction of the
Department OF Buildings and Grounds, in
the purchasing OF large amounts of supplies
and hiring OF high-priced men without any
authority or without the knowledge OF the
executive committee until the bills were re-
ceived. The resolution provided that the au-
thority granted the depat tment be limited
to the purchase of supplies to the extent OF
$50 and the employment Of day laborers.
Manager Kirkendall insisted that the de-
peTtment had never been granted any such
authority and stated tkat he had never failed
to lay all such matters before the executive
committee before taking action. In reply to
this Mr.. Rosewate: referred to the testimony
given by Geraldine in his own defense when
under investigation, in which he stated that
he had understood that he had authority to
buy supplies and hire men and had acted
along those lines. Mr.. Kirkendall stood by
his former contention, but said he would
rot object to the portion of the resolution
referring to the employment OF day laborers.
The resolution was changed to eliminate
all except the portion giving the department
authority to employ laborers and after some
discussion 1t was withdrawn entirely.
During the discussion on this matter ref
erence was made to the written defense
made by Geraldine to the charges filed against
him, especially that po tion of the document
referring to Rudolf Ulrich the landscape ar
chitect, where Geraldine makes answer to
the charge that the ground plan OF the bluff
tract as prepared by Ulrtch had been
changed by Geraldine without the knowledge
or consent of the executive committee In
this statement Geraldine said that Ul!ich had
sent his written resignation to him (Geral-
dine) August Z, and he attached what pur-
ported to be Urichs resignation to the
written defense. Mr.. Kirkendall expressed
some surprise at this portion of Geraldine's
statement, and admitted that he had known
nothing about Ulrich resignng, although
Geraldine stated that he had had the resig-
nation for over two months
In this connection Mr.. Rosewater stated
that he had written to Ulrich after he learned
Of the alleged resignation, and he produced
a telegram he had just received in reply from
Ulrch reading: 81 will do your work salts
factory. letter follows"
The remainder of this portion of Geraldines
statement was also read to the committee,
being to the effect that after Ulrich's resig-
nation was received by Geraldine the latter
came to the conclusion that the plan as
drawn by Ulrich was too expensive and con-
cluded to change it and had employed men
| for that purpose, stating, further, that when
he had fixed it to suit him he had intended
| laying II before the executive committee.
The members of the executive committee
were speechless after this display, and the
| matter was allowed to rest until the re-
ceipt Of Ulrich's letter.
Manager Bruce announced the appoin tment
| of Edward Whtcomb of Friend superin-
| tendent of the Apiary bureau The appoint
| ment was confirmed.
| Mr. Rosewater asked that the committee
! meet tomorrow noon to take up the report
/ tai ninfn tn in
vestigate Geraldine provided it is ready to
| report, in order that action might be taken
| on the matter before the meeting of the
| Board of Directors at p. m. today.