The age-herald., 1899-01-22
For Every Day in Year-Alleges That Mr.
 Lacey Drew for One Extra Day.


the court of county commissioners may at tend at the court house daily in order to superintend the general business or the court, and said commissioner so seiectea' shall receive his regular per diem.
 The purpose of this law is plainly to re- strict the compensation of the commlssloh- CTS to ten days in each month, excepting the time of the equalization of taxes.
 Section of an act passed and approved December IT, 1894, provided for the making and maintaining of the public roads ana bridges of Jefferson county, reads as 1oi- lows: That every commissioner shal nave the immediate supervision of the roads Ill his district, and shall personally go over and carefully examine all of the roads in hls district as often as may be necessary ana at least once every quarter" etc. This pro- vision evidently contemplated quarterly in- spections of roads, and that no other ih- spection should be made unless necessary.
 It will be noticed that this act makes no provision for compensation for such ser vices From the testimony of the commis- sioners, they sought the opinion of an at torney upon the subject, and he told them they were entitled to their regular per diem while engaged in the performance or road inspection. From the testimony or the coin- missioners, which accompanies thls report' it will be seen that no itemized or sWorh statement of services rendered was ever presented to the court for allowance. They state that in drawing their compensation they kept no account, but relied upon Heih- ory, and when desiring their pay 1t was the custom to make verbal application to the clerk of the probate court, stating that they had been engaged so many oays on general business of the court, or so many days inspecting roads, or as special com missioner at the court house, and upon this representation warrants were issued them to have been, with the exception of few instances to draw pay for the entire month, with the exception of Sundays They agreed among themselves, in defiance Of law Whlcn eVi- dently contemplated that one of them only should be selected to take 1t turn about at the court house in the capacity of special commissioner, and the stubs from which the warrants were detached usually showed the time divided as follows: Ten days gen eral business of the court, ten days inspect ing roads and six days special eommlss1on- CT at the court house. and sometimes as jury commissioner. The irregular times In which they drew their compensation were such that in order to make this report as accurate as possible 1t was necessary to take the stub books, from which the war rants upon the treasurer were drawn, page by page and state an account against each of them. MT Stratford during his lifetime was the only one who furnished an ltem- ized statement of how his time had been employed.
 This was presented monthly. and allowed by the court The others would draw at va rious times during the month and some times the months would merged into each other. I have, after much troupe and time succeeded in stating monthly account of each of them. These accounts have been stated and shown the commls- sioners. and no objections raised to same Of Mir. StratfOrQ ana his successor MT. H. W. Crook, find that inc commissioners took pay for horse and buggy hire in inspecting roads. In the ln- stance of MT. W. s. Morrow the proot showed that he hired teams for this pur- pose from the Tennessee Stable company the accounts of which were presented to the court by this company and paid according 1v The proof also shows that Messrs Lacy and Young used their own teams, but were allowed pay for the use of the same Dy the court. Noticing that since September, loso' the commissioners have not drawn Tor morse hire, asked the reason. They replied that since Judge Stiles came into the office or nrobate judge. he had told them that he did not think the court should pay for it. They again consulted their attorney ana ne gave them an opinion that it was not legal charge against the county. The following are the amounts drawn by the commission CTS for the year ending 1S9f
 w. S. MORROW.
 Salary for 303 1-2 days... .sl,olloo Horse hire paid Tenn. Stable Co.,. 4o25 a1uaoaa .. ...... 80 Car fare inspecting roads...... ..... 3oo Expenses to Montgomery in interest
 of road law...... ............ ........ l1n
 H,5S37s Mir Morrow testifies that he hired teams ., ,,o ona elca exceDting the Tennessee Stable company, and the price agreed upon was for horse and buggy per day $2.5o, and saddle horse s1.5O per day. The vouchers show that nearly one-half Of the amount ,aid for hire was for horse and buggy. From this it will be seen that not more than 25 days were employed on roads,
 L. D. LACY.
 Salary for 314 days...... .... .'''Sio'o'Vo Horse and buggy, furnished by him
 Self...... ...''''. ''''''''''''' oo oo Mileage...... ......' ..'''..' ''''' .'''
 tx. trfnr