The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-23

Help for the Evil for Months.
1t is going to cost the county off,
Gals lot Of time and the county a
good deal Of money to finally get away
attempt to put into, operation the law
OF 1895 which was passed by the legls-
lature for the oStensible purpose CT
reducing the compensation of county
officials. 1t is even probable that there
will be a good deal of litigation, in
addition to what has gone before, and
no one will be satisfied when it is
settled-the taxpayers least of ALL As
things stand now, under the last de-
ciSion Of the supreme court, the clerk
of the district court has occupation for
several Of his men for some days or
weeks to get out the necessary GER
tif1cates for the payment Of the sheriff 9
fees in connection with the latter's Of
flee. Sheriff Wagner has a lot Of
deputies who have had no money from
the county since last December and
whose compensation will have to be
adjusted at once by the sheriff, and the
latter will have to make report of all
his business for almost two years past,
get his claims audited and then pass
ed upon by the county board. He can
A1OS
ports have been verified
Register of Deeds Krahmer will be
able to settle easily enough, for he has
been retaining his fees since last De-
cember. when the question of the
Validity of the law came up
Abstract Clerk Bazille has simply q
straight claim against the county for
the difference between the amount he
has been receiving and the legal salary
iy,cr 70 -
ing been established that the laws
passed since then do not affect him.
The 1895 law has not been and is
not now generally understood. It was
a bungling attempt to reduce the sal
aries Of the officials Of counties which
included cities Of more than 100000
population. The title of the bill in
Dictated this as it's purpose. The bill
itself went on to specify means where
by the reduction Of compensation
should be effected. 1t provided that at
the general meeting Of the county
board in December. 1896, in the case
Of all officers except the clerk Of the
district court, and at the meeting in
December. 1898, in his case, the salaries
OF all officers should be fixed; that
those on a fee basis should be fixed
at sum within the amount of COM
pensation gained by the officers from
their fees, the other expenses of the
offices than the compensation of the of
fcers being considered in fixing the
salaries. The business of the year 1896
was to be taken as criterion in fix
ing the salaries.
The returns from all of. the offices
We're taken and the salaries fixed at
$4,000 in the case of sheriff, and other
changes made all through the list,
actual reductions being made in the
offices before that time paid by salary.
The auditor was put on a specific sal
airy and treasurer also paid fixed sum,
the other expenses of these offices be-
ing paid directly by the county, as be-
fore
1t was anticipated by the trainers
Of the law. which was introduced by
Senator Stevens, that the salaries
would be put at sums which the coun-
ty could readily pay in addition to
paying the balance of the office en-
penses and then have a balance. This
had to be done to make the law eff
fective.
This was not done in 1897 The
sheriffS office cost more under the SAL
airy law than the fees amounted to.
The same was true Of the register Of
deeds Office, though the margin was
small in this case. the expense being
$4,000 and the income 1913 less.
Then followed the contention that the
law was nugatory in that it did not
reduce but increased the cost to the
county and was rendered nuga tory by
it's own operation. This is the conten-
ton that has been sustained by the
supreme court. AS the county board
can only change the salaries once in
five years the officers affected will get
their fees for the past two years and
In the future.