Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-09-19
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tton, and all orders properly signed
were ordered to be paid BY him. There
does not appear to be any mandate to
keep any books or records or to report
at end of year his receipts and dis
bursements. Under the new City
Charter he is required to keep COM
plete record of his receipts and dis
bursements, and make quarterly re-
ports to the Council Of the condition
Of each fund. - 80. -
In the time covered by this exami-
nation his official acts are governed by
the Village Charter to the fiscal year
ending March 22nd, 1902, and so far as
keeping books and records he seems to
have adhered strictly to the wording
OF the Charter, as no books or records
are in existence, outside Of his annual
reports, of which period of ten
months March 22nd, 1901, to January
1st, 1902 are missing. AS these re-
ports constitute the only records of
the treasurer's acts, they should be pre-
served by TRANSPORTING them into books
prepared for the purpose. The miss
ing ten months I have made up from
the records in the Deposit Books and
Journals of the Bank of Willmar,
where the Treasurer's accounts were
kept. The Treasurer being the Cash
Zero that Bank, it probably never &C.
Cured to him that there was any use
for record, other than that kept by
the Bank. After the City Charter
went into effect, requiring the funds
to be kept separate, it became neces-
sary either to keep such a record or
open several accounts on the Banks
books. That not being desirable on
banks part, the first set of books in
the Treasurer's department of the
Village and City were then opened.
The Treasurer's receipts and dis
bursements cut no small figure in this
Investigation and had his statements
been rendered in good business like
form, or had there been a permanent
record of the receipts and disburse-
ments, it would have shortened
this examination very materially. It
was absolutely necessary to obtain the
correct amount of the liability at close
of 1898, and the outstanding or unpaid
warrants were a large part of this
floating debt. The book record of the
Recorder was not to be depend
ed upon, and to obtain the cor
rect figures from the Treasurer's
report, was tedious labor. Every
one Of these yearly reports was made
up on pages torn from old books, or on
paper unsuited for such work. The
warrants were listed by interlining
and in double columns and the list
continued on the reverse side of the
sheet. The warrant numbers were
only written in full at commence
ment OF the report, and when the
mineral changed so little care
was exhibited that when change
should have been made it was not
done, and recourse to the warrant it.
self was the only way to determine the
proper number. Some of these war
rants were not paid until 1902 that
were issued several years previous, and
the reports being written up as the
orders were paid, and not numerically
it was a very exacting problem to work
out. Had the warrants been stamped
with the dates of payment, it would
have been great help, or had the
bunch of warrants, for each fiscal year
as they accompanied the reports, beer
left intact, it would have been a com
paratively easy job. But nearly all the
old warrants had been placed in mum
erical order and thus thrown out Of
their reported order.
I speak of these things, that yor
may know how many obstacles there
were to overcome, in getting to &
point where one could start right
Another complication was the fire.
quent cancelling of warrants and issue
of others in their place, and no mem
orandum made, on the order so can
celled, that such was the mode of pay
ment. At one time eighteen of these
orders were renewed into one il
this manner. This renewal was done
by the Treasurer as Cashier of the
bank, and he failed to make any
note of such cancellations, but re
turned the old orders to the Record
er uncancelled. This renewal wa.
made July 8th, 1898, and on January
7th, 1899, one of these same renewed
orders was turned into the treasury az
cash, and in the early part of 1900, two
more Of the same orders were paid by
the Treasurer and later the renewed
order was cashed, making a duplicate
payment OF three of the orders so re-