The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-05
CITY LOST
 MONEY ON COAL Committee Says Contract
 Was Violated. REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL Intimation That Officials Were Negligent. For Two Years Inferior Coal Has Been Furnished to waterworks Department, According to Aldermen Who Inves- tigate..

According to the report of special committee to the City Council Monday night, the city has been allowed to lose money throughout the greater part of two years, when such losses could have been avoided. The losses occurred through the large increase of the coal account of the Water Works Department.
 The committee intimated that city of- 1cials had been lax ana negligent in fail ing to make the company which supplies the city with coal meet the specifications of it's contract. The report declared that the City Superintendent of Water Works should have reported officially to the Mayor the departure from its contract by the Montgomery Light and Power Company and that the Mayor should have taken immediate steps towards having the contract specifications met. In the re- port of the committee 1t was stated ener- getic action had not been taken and the citys interest had therefore suffered. The special committee was appolnted of Aldermen John P. Kohn, Roy Rush ton, c. P. AAnderson, J. H. Hartley and N. Lobmen, who was added to the com mittee shortly after his election to the Council. The resolution raising the com mittee had declared that 1t should in- vestigate and report upon that part of the report of the Superintendent of Wa
 
 increased cost of fuel Tor the pumping station. The superintendent report showed that the amount the city had been paying for coal had increased in the past two years. The committee was di- rected to find the cause of the increase. The committee has from meeting to meeting, postponed making its report. The report of the committee submitted Monday night declared fatly that the city's coal bills were larger last year because the Water Works Department had continued to use coal furnished by the Montgomery Light and Power Com- pany which was not up Q specifications. The report was accompanied by a com munication to the committee from McD. Cain. City Superintendent of Water Works, in which he gave the reasons for l the increase of the coal bills of the Water Works Department. first longer pumping hours, second, the use of the Hawley down draft. third, the failure of the Montgomery Light and Power Company to fully comply with Its contract to fur nish run of the mines coal"
 The use of the Hawley down draft, he showed, had been discontinued July 1. He had, he said, mentioned to the Mayor several times the fact that the Mont gomery Light and Power Company was not furnishing the quality of coal re- quired by it's contract, and he had, he said, also made mention of that fact to members of the water works committee. The report of the committee drew at- | tention to the city statutes requiring city | officials to make. complaint of violated contracts to the Mayor and requiring the | Mayor to see that the contracts were not broken. The report of the committee concluded as follows: From the statements be- fore the committee it appears that the city has been allowed to lose money throughout the greater part of two years when losses could have been avoided. We are of the opinion that great improvement | could be made upon the specifications l for coal, and great improvement could be made in the care taken of the citys end of the contract"
 There was no discussion of the report | It was received and filed.