Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-07-20
KELLOGG MAKES RULING
Says Three Votes Were Needed
 in Halpin Case

Special Meeting of the Board Held This Morning-The Affair Will Now Be Considered Off the Docket-The Next Move Will Be the Attorneys Bills for Expenses.
 An adjourned meeting of the board of public safety was held in the city clerks office to-day at 12:3O. Con- mfssioners Lahey, Hardie and Beach and Assistant City Clerk Nettleton were present. The purpose of the meeting was to hear the opinion of the city attorney as to whether the con- cu1rence of three members of the board is required to arrive at a verdict on charges preferred against a police officer. As is already known, this question arose at a meeting of the board on Friday night, when two mem bers voted for the conviction of Police Officer Halpim on charges preferred against him by Prosecuting Attorney Durant, while one member voted for his acquittal. In his communication the city attorney states that three votes are necessary The communi- cation is as follows:
 Waterbury, July 20, 1903. Board of Commissioners of Public Safety, City of Waterbury:
 Tn response to the request of your honorable body, contained in the fol- lowing vote, viz:
 'Voted: That the city attorney be requested to submit his opinion as to whether or not it is necessary to have the concurrence of three members of this board to arrive at verdict on charges presented against 8 police of ficer.''
 would respectfully advise you
 That the closing sentence of section 99 of the charter of this city seems to me to be conclusive in this mat ter This sentence reads as follows:
 .At all meetings of said board three commissioners, exclusive of the mayor, shall constitute quorum, and the con- currence of three of them shall be ne- cessary for the transaction of busi- ness"
 Among the definitions given in Web sters dictionary of the word "concur~ renee" are the following:
 "Concurrence-A meeting of minds: agreement in opinion; union in design; implying joint approbation.'
 The language of this section, there fore, would, in my opinion, make it necessary to have an agreement in opinion or a meeting of minds of three members of the board to arrive at q verdict on the charges presented against a police officer. Respectfully,
 JOHN P. KELLOGG,
 City Attorney
 1t was voted to receive the commun- ication and place it oh file.
 Then Commissioner Beach made a motion that Officer Halpin should be found guilty of the charges. Commis- sioner Lahey seconded the motion. On the motion being put before the board by Clerk Nettleton. the above commits sioners voted in the affirmative while Commissioner Hardie voted in the negative. It was yea and nay vote. As it required three votes to convict the officer was therefore not found guilty, neither was he found not gull ty. The question then arose as to what should be done in the matter. It was finally decided to have the clerk place on the record the vote as it re- >sulted. The matter will in all proba- bility, not be considered further by the present board
 The application of Frank Mordo, call engineer of the fire department, to be made a permanent engineer, was con- sidered, but action was deferred until Friday night, to which time the board adjourned.