The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-03-15
A COMBINATION OF DEALS
(Continued from First Page.)

(Continued from First Page) | said: ''The board of finance is com | posed of some nice gentleman who are not indebted to the city for election, | but to the favor of the mayor for ap- l pointment. The common council is a revising board and should have oppor-
 tunity to say how public money should be expended. The members of the board of finance are not infallible. They
 may be college men and bankers, but
 they make mistakes the same as other
 people do. The representatives elected by the people should have something to say as to how the city's money is to be spent, and to crowd this matter
 of reviewing the estimates into three days is an insult to the people" Mayor FarnsWorth spoke on the mat
 ter opposing the amendment. He said:
 Tt so happens that a majority of the
 statements of the gentleman are un- true, and I trust you will take them
 with grain of allowance. The major
 ity of the members of the board of fi-
 nance are elected by the people, and
 OAiy LHlGC Ol lllc SGNCil 1llSHlbGIS tLl G
 appointed by the mayor. The court of
 common council as at present consti-
 tuted is mostly combination of deals.
 The charter provides that when the
 board of finance submits estimates then
 two-thirds vote of the common coun-
 ell is necessary to change them, and it
 would be better if a seven-eighth vote
 was required. As soon as the estimates reach the common council, the seventy
 live members try to turn appropriations
 to this or that ward and combine to
 change the vote of the board of finance
 and the result may be to benefit the
 whole city or it may not
 Alderman Chillingworth-'I deny the statement most emphatically that the court of common council is a combna-
 ton of deals. That statement is abso- lutely false. His Honor, the mayor, was very careful not to call together the common council in time last year to consider the estimates. It is not fair to ask the common council to go over in three nights that for which the board of finance requires forty nights. The mayor appointed at least three members of the board and with himself a mem- Der, he controls it.
 Alderman Donovan also spoke in favor of the amendment and concluded by saying: "As for the remarks of the mayor as to deals, I know of none. Per haps, he being on the inside may know of some" Alderman Corcoran also fa- vored the amendment.
 As parting shot at the amendment, NT,, .x1. much reason why the estimates should be submitted to the board of health as to the common council. It has been in- timated that the power of the mayor has been improperly exercised in the board of finance. During my experience as member of the board, there has been nothing to give the slightest suspi- cion that anything was being done which was not for the best interests of the city. Any mistakes which have been made were not made because the mayor dominated. We are not a Tam board of finance in any par ticular.' Previous to making this last statement Mr Curtis had said that the board of finance followed the methods of the board of estimates in New York ;lty. JOSepD H. MdlliIlHS SpphC III luNpI of the amendment.
 Other amendments considered were those to place the department of educa- ion on the same footing financially and Tn the same relation to the common council as are the other departments. | James T. Moran of the board of educa- ion spoke against this, saying that | here was no public demand or necessity | hat the schools should be placed under | he jurisdiction of the common council | He argued that the schools should be , xept out of politics.
 Another amendment considered was he one to give the mayor power to ap- point the superintendent of the fire de- 3artment. The aldermen had voted un- avorably on this and had also voted in- truction to the corporation counsel to oppose all bills for amendment not ap- proved by the common council Never- heless MT. Ely said that the idea of the harter was to centralize the city gov rnment and that he saw no good reason vhy the superintendent should not be pponted by the mayor.
 Alderman Donovan spoke in oppos- ion to the amendment, saying he was fraid it would engender some of the calls of which the mayor was so afraid. other amendments considered were: To How the board of finance to make ransfers in appropriations without the onsent of the board of finance; to en- ower the board of finance to borrow 1oney in anticipation of the sale of onds; to compel the boroughs of Fair Haven East and Westville to pay the xpenses of their borough elections; to mpower the fire commissioners to give re protection to corporations doing usiness in New Haven, but whose lants are not within the twelve wards.
 The committee will hold hearing to- ay on other proposed amendments to he New Haven charter.