The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-21
USE ONLY WARRANTS
PARTMENT WILL ISSUE NO
TINE CHECKS
lessons CHANCE OF ERRORS
Public Examiner Pope Tells How In
vestigation Is Progressing and
What Changes Are to
Be Made.

AS ore of the consequences of the pend
ing investigation of the city engineer
department, important changes will be
made in the method of keeping the
books and records of that office. The
old system of Issuing time checks TO
which is attributed all Of the present
confusion in the pay rolls will be dis
continued hereafter and only the work.
men themselves will be permitted u re-
ceiVe the warrants for their pay. Dis
cuss1ng this plan of the matter yesterday
Public Examiner Pope said to the
G l o be:
Il had conference yesterday with
Comptroller McCardy and we agreed
that the method of issuing time checks,
Whlch has been practicad in the engi-
ners Office, was without authority of
law ana would best be discontinued The
charter of the city Of ST Paul gives the
cNy comptroller authority to prescribe
All OF the blanks and forms to be used
by any of the city departments in the
transaction of its business The law
Whlch placed the city offices of st, Paul
uiluef the supervision of the public ex-
amlner gives me that same authority.
0Ue liot so complete or absolute a de-
sree as the charter does to the COMP
ttoller therefore, to avoid any clash of
authority or possibility of mfslnder-
stahdlng L consulted with Mr.. NfcCardv
VINO 1ully agreed with me that the is
suance OF time checks from the civ
coHnptfoilers Office was without LEGAL
authof1ty ana was dangerous practice
Alter mad seen Mr.. McCardy | called
upon City Engineer, Claussen and re-
quested MIN to issue orders to his sub
.0i INMATES mat no more time checks be
issued. -
under this old plan the foreman OF
eacn crew of men kept what is known &c
a time book, in which he recorded 49,
iiuHlper OF days that each of the mon in
ms crew had worked From these time
poohS the commissioners made IN tho co
Iaiieo TIME rolls from which in turn the
pookkeeper made up his pay rolls Ac-
corolng to law the workmen are onlv on
tltled to draw their money from the citv
treasurers Office on warrants which are
iidoe out from the pay rolls after thew
i ile's oeeh duIy approved by the council.
oea oy dpphcatlon at the city engineers
ONCE the men received the so-calIed limo
checks, showing the number of DAYS
they had worked
TIME CHECKS NOT NEGOTTAprr
These Were not really time checks In
the ordinary sense of the term. for thew
were not in themselves of any CONNER
clal value, and for that reason were nor
hesotiapie. They Were in reality only
memoranda of the amount of work eaen
man ndo done, and were not paya Bile In
cash. out were exchanged for the war
rants drawn upon the city treasurer.
mat system opened the door for all
sorts of Irregularities such as those OF
winch we have complained. The work
men, after negotiating their so-called
time checks with broker never saw
them again, and when the warrants were
drawn they We're turned over to other
persons than those in whose names thew
were made. Thus the workmen did not
Know whether the warrants were for tho
correct amounts or not and it was the
easiest thing in the world that they
should be made out for incorrect amounts.
Then, too, the matter of indors ement nv
persons other than those named in the
warrants were followed, naturally, as
as the workmen never received the war
rants.
AS to the statement printed in the
u o b of this morning as having been
made by one of the men at the city en-
glneers office, that the customary time
checks were not issued on Saturday for
the reason that Mr.. Pope had taken away
all of the books and records of that Of
nee [ wish to say that it is somewhat
misleading. So also is the statement that
two armloads of books were taken to
my Office from the city engineers depart
ment ON Saturday. The only book or rec
ord taken from that office to mine on
Saturday was Mr.. Gehan's pay roll,
which he brought to me himself first
Thursday evening. He said at that time
that he would need it again on Saturday
morning to make out the warrants for
the men, and I told him he could have
it at any time. He called for it Satur-
day morning early and returned it to me
at IL O'Clock the same morning. There
have been. and still are, records of that
office in my possession, but 1 have not
taken from the city engineers office any
| books, papers or records whose absence
from there could interfere in any way
with the transaction of current business
Beside the pay roll to which I have just
referred the records and papers which i
have are all old, and have nothing to do
with current business.
THOSE MISSING ROLLS.
Speaking of the progress of the investi-
CATION of the engineers office Gen. Pope
said: 1--WE have been somewhat retarded
in our work by the fact that some of the
time rolls are missing. I cannot of course
say just how many of them there are.
but we have learned what periods they
cover. Probably they are six or eight in
number Now we are making every eff
fort possible to find these rolls, as we do
not lfke>to accept the pay rolls for those
periods without the verifcation of tae
time rolls from which they were pre-
pared. AS to whether those time rolls
have been destroyed purposely L cannot
say, but the fact that they are missing
certainly looks peculiar to say the least
know that if I were making up those
pay rolls and drawing warrants from
them 1 should be very careful to pre-
serve the time rolls from which they
were made as a record of my authority
for the names and accounts which APP
peared upon the pay rolls.