The San Francisco call., 1898-03-08
SACRAMENTO SUPERVISORS
 TAKE ACTION Accused Mem berS of the Board Are on
 the Rack. Investigation of Witter's Charges Will Begin
 To-Day. , Six Witnesses Summoned to Appear and Give Tes-.
 tinony.
TURNING UPON MIGRATE.
Suspected Officials Declare That He Acted for Himself in Taking
 Rake-Off
Special Dispatch to The Call.

Special Dispatch to The Call
 SACRAMENTO, March 7-To-day's developments in the scandal over the corruption in county official affairs were of a startling nature and insure the probing of the matter to the bot tom at once, instead of several months hence, when the Grand Jury meets The Board of Supervisors, or, at least the members of the body who were present when the monthly meeting convened to-day, decided to take the case into their own hands and ascer- tain whether the Golden Gate Dredg- ing and Reclamation Company was held up by certain Supervisors through an agent, or whether the man who claimed to be an agent of two members was doing business on his own account. Subpoenas were issued ordering P. H. McGrath, Henry Kuck, w A. Gett, J. C. Boyd, N. c. Witter and NJ c. Harris to appear and give their testimony.
 McGrath Is the assistant secretary of the State Board of Examiners, who alleged that he was doing business for the Supervisors. Kuck is the secretary of the Sutter Island Reclamation dis trict, where the Dredging and Recla- mation Company did its work. Gett was formerly attorney fer the district. Boyd is County Surveyor, and Witter and Harris are officers of the corpora tion.
 Sacramento official circles have been stirred by the expose made in The Call on Sunday morning. and little else is talked of. The push" of the capital is wondering where the search light will strike next, and there has been a wild scurry to cover on all sides.
 Anticipating a sensation when the board met this morning, big crowd was present in the assembly-roo The men who are accused by McGrath Morrison and Jenkins-were not present, but the other three members Curtis, Mclaughlin and Dreman-were in their seats. McGrath was not pres ent. When the board was called to or der Attorney Witter, president of the company, asked permission to address the body and Supervisor Dreman, who presided, allowed him the privilege.
 MT. Witter said that as long as Su- pervisors Jenkins and Morrison were not present he did not care to go on with the affair of the Dredging Com
 
 would ask that it be laid over until to- morrow, when Jenkins at least could be present He wanted the case set tied once and for all, declaring that if the bill was not paid he wanted to go before the courts to have the affair adjusted.
 Supervisor Dreman said he thought the matter should be sifted and that if the money were due to the company it should be paid without further delay He did not say anything about the charges of corruption made by Me Grath to Attorney Witter but his man. her implied that he wanted to know all about it.
 Prior to the meeting of the board, Witter and Harris called on District Attorney Ryan. They said that when the first payment of $1440 was due them from the Supervisors they had sent their claim to P. H. McGrath, with the request that he get warrant in their name Instead of this. they said, Me Grath destroyed the claim and made out new claim in his own name, rep resenting himself as agent of the Dredger Company, which he was not.
 The Supervisors allowed this claim, and McGrath drew the money on it, but failed to send it to the company. When asked about it subsequently, he declared that the money had been used
 
 Board of Supervisors in order to get them to approve the remainder of the claim. AS the company was hard pressed for money at this time, it was deemed best not to make any trouble until after the remainder of the claim was paid, and thus matters were al- lowed to run along. As the remainder of the money. however, did not seem to be forthcoming, other demands were made on McGrath, who at last replied that $500 more was needed to induce the Supervisors to allow the remainder of the claim. This, Witter said, was too much for the company, and it was determined to make demand on Me Grath for the $1440 and to look to the Supervisors for the rest.
 McGrath, in response to this demand which was couched in strong terms, paid over 5000, but demanded a receipt for s1440, which was given to him. Witter claimed that this receipt was given in order to get possession of the 5000, but the $40 remaining would be demanded and would have to be paid Witter declared that the work done on Sutter Island had been done to the entire satisfaction of everybody and that they wanted their money from the Supervisors. Ryan said he thought they were clearly entitled to it, and promised to look up the contract at once.
 McGrath and Chairman Morrison of the board were out of town to-day and could not be reached, but Supervisor Jenkins came into town in the after noon and submitted to an interview It is evident that McGrath will be placed n the position of doing a hold up business, ostensibly for others but in reality on his own account. Super