The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-07-28
That is What City Officials Are
Doing With Bills.
Knocking Them From One De-
partment to Another.
TO MAKE A SHOWING
Heads Of Departm ents Formu-
lating Their Reports.
Want Them to Be as Favorable
as Possible.

In the scramble to make good snow
ing for economic administration, the
heads of the various departments are
playing ping-pong with disputed bills.
and accusing each other OF trying 10
help their own expense account BY
charging up everything possible to some
other department.
II didn't use that material in my
department. You ought to include 1t
In your estimate says one official to
another.
You put your O. K. on the bill and it
belongs as much to your department as
to mine. I won't include it in my estt-
mate"
The result is that the reports and
estimates which are being made out
for Mayor Parker and the ways ana
means committee are likely to be dis
torted and an ended for the purpose OF
making as good showing as possible for
the department represented.
City Attorney Spencer says: 'The
only way for the mayor and the COM
mittee to find out the exact situation
is to put one man to work to figure
out the whole thing The various de-
partments are certain to overlap more
or less. and it requires that somebody
shall be included. Unless somebody
does decide that point, the report won't
be good for much. Now here In our
departne nt it hardly looks right that
we should be charged up with all the
costs in police court and other prosecu-
lions under the criminal statutes, when
at the same time the receipts for fines
are credited to the police department
But the costs in the criminal and civil
cases are still sent to me for o. K
and therefore might be considered part
of my report I confess 1 don't know
how far to- go with this report, nor
Street Commissioner Griggs is now
working On his report and expects to
have it completed within a few days.
Meantime he is devising scheme to
8 atrar. Srr-k l~x1<
| ments the bills which he O. K-ed. but
which he thinks rightfully belong to
some other branch of the city admins
tration. He will include in his report all
the bills upon which he placed his o. K,
but will supplement this with report
on those bills which he claims rightfully
belong to some other department.
Mr.. GriggS' report shows that the cost
of running the street department for the
fiscal year ending April l. 1903 will be
| within a few dollars of what it was last
year.
| "I have not been able, of course said
! Mr. Griggs today, ito give any esti-
| mates on possible work which the coun-
| ell will order me to do They may or
der me to build new bridges, or put in
| new intersections, or change street
| grades, and If they do, it will of course
add just that much to the cost of run
| ming the department. estimate that at
| the outside, about $29, 600 will be requir-
| ed to carry the department through the
| year."
| Mr.. Griggs' detailed estimate shows
| the probable expense to be $27,922 for
| the year. The last fiscal year showed a
| total expenditure of $27, 837. So.
| The monthly expenditures of Mr..
Griggs' department will be approx
mately as follows: Labor, $4,000; hard
| ware, SIS; lumber, $40; whitening I'm
| plements and repairs, Sc; brick, $50:
stone, SIS; blacksmithing, $25; cement,
IS; thing, ST. material for bridge in
| Auburndale, ordered, $125
The back charges which Mr.. Griggs
| will make against other departments
| are as follows: Against the fire de-
/ partment, for labor and teams, $275; en-
| cheering department, labor and mater
ial in building catch basins, changing
! grades and assisting in driving stakes,
$500; sanitary department, laborers fur
nished, $50; men to take care Of auditor
ium $50.
There are some receipts in this de-
partment, which aggregate about 1926 a
year. They are from the special tax
for repairing sidewalk and the charge
made for flushing private sewers. Mr..
| Griggs thinks that his department can
| be more economically administered by
| the purchase by the city of a street
| sprinkler to do the city's work. This
will not change the present plan of
| sprinkling Kansas avenue by the private
| subscriptions of merchants, but will
simply sprinkle the Melan bridge and
! sprinkler ahead of the street sweepers.
| The meeting of the ways and means
be held on July 80. Up to the present
| time only one report has been filed with
| Mayor Parker. That is the report of the
| city engineering department which was
| printed in full in the State Journal last
| Friday.