The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-06
new MEMBERS PUT
SPICE into BOARD
MEETING
County Commissioners seng,
Nash and Pottgieser Insist
Upon All Members of Com
mittee on Claims Auditing
Bills - Public Examiner
Cuts In.

The first meeting of the board of
county commissioners in which the
new members had an opportunity to
participate, was held yesterday fore
noon, and was a very lively affair The
new members, Robert H. Seng, Nicholas
Pottg1eser and George A. Nash, COM
menced making trouble before the
board had been doing business ten
minutes.
When the clerk read the bills which
had been allowed by the committee Oh
claims of the old board, Commissioner
Seng OBJECTED to accepting the bills
because they had been signed by but
two members of the committee Of
three. The new commissioner insisted
that all three members of the commit
tee should have signed the bills and
he was upheld by Pottgeiser and Nash.
When it was explained that two in
dorsementS were necessary, Commits
sloner PottgeiSer was not satisfied,
and introduced a resolution providing
that hereafter all bills shall be signed
by all Of the members of the committee
before they are accepted by the board.
The motion was withdrawn. but not
until after a very spirited argument
in which the new members showed that
they were determined to know just
what they were about before trans
acting any business.
The public examiner was at the meet
ing for the purpose of telling the COM
missiOners a few things regarding the
manner in which they should conduct
the county'S business. He wanted to
know if all of the bills paid by the
county were first properly itemiZed,
and to assure the gentlemen that this
was the custom followed by the COM
missioners. Clerk Drummond handed
him a bill recently paid. 1t was a bill
w al 40 4 Gn n u of A
Donaldson, the county's expert printer.
who is this man DOnaldSOn?" ask
ed the public examiner.
Donaldson is the expert printer en-
ployed by the county," explained May
or Smith.
Examiner Lays Down the Law.
ct want to tell this board right here"
said the public examiner, that you
have no authority under the law for
paying the salary of such man. NOu
have no more right to employ an ex-
pert printer than you have to employ
an expert bridge builder or road max
er. All your acts in this behalf have
been Illegal.
THAT might be-" remarked Mayor
Smith, but this county has saved thou
sands of dollars during the past few
years by employing an expert printer
and an expert binder. Every year
their salary many times over"
Mayor Smith and several members
of the board could not see where there
was any great harm, so long as they
were enabled to save the county sew
eral thousand dollars each year. All
Of the members were agreed that the
employment of these men did save the
county money, the saving being so no
ticeable that not long ago u committee
of Minneapolis people came to st. Paul
for the purpose of investigating how
this county and city got it's printing
done for so much less than Minneapo-
lis and Hennepin county. For many
items which were Identical it was
found that Hennepin county was pay
ing much more than Ramsey county.
Regardless of the talk by the public
examiner, the county printer and the
county binder are still on the pay rolls.
Drops More Suggestions.
The public examiner was surprised
to find that every bill presented to
Ramsey county and allowed by the
board of commissioners was not first
examined by the county attorneys Of
fee. and reported upon as to it's le--
gality Such system as this, he adj
mitted, would require the entire time
Of one assistant in the county attor-
ney's office, but the board should, he
said, authorize the employment of an
assistant for this purpose. The claims
are now passed upon by a claim COM
mittee of three members, and when
the legality of any of the claims is
questioned, those claims are referred
to the county attorney.
Another suggestion made by the eX-
aminer, and approved by the commits
sioners, was that a bill be framed, to
be passed by the legislature, providing
for the funding of the county's floating
indebtedness by issuing certificates of
indebtedness. In this way, the exam
liner explained, the county could wipe
out it's present Indebtedness and start
with a clean sheet, enabling it to do
business on a cash basis. An indebt-
edness of $4,000 is now drawing in
terest at the rate of per cent, and
all of this amount could easily be re-
funded at 4 per cent. After the can
collation. of the debt in this manner,
he would favor that no warrants be
paid unless there were funds with
which to pay them. These views We're
so well received by the members of
the board that a vote of thanks was
extended the examiner.
County Treasurer Commended.
County Treasurer Metzdorf made a
brief statement to the board of the
condition of certain funds. The out
standing warrants against the county
on Jan 1, 1908, amounted to $105,0O0,
of which $4,000 was for revenue and
$4,000 for roads and bridges. Sixty
thousand dollars had been placed in.
the tax levy to make up the deficiency
in the revenue fund and the road and
bridge fund had been increased by
$4,000. 1t will be necessary to issue
bonds for $4,000 or $4,000 on account
of the completion of the Jail building.
Mr. Metzdorf explained that under the
ruling of the bank examiner he could
not pay money out where there was a
deficiency and he had been compelled
to borrow money from banks to meet
warrants against such funds.
The county treasurer was highly
commended by the public examiner for
the efficient manner in which he has
kept the accounts of his office.
The county commissioners will meet
again today, this being the date of the
annual meeting of the board, and a
lively time is anticipated over the man
ner in which contracts may be let by
the board Commissioner Nash and
the other new members will insist that
any bid calling for an expenditure of
more than $25 shall be submitted to
competitive bidders, a rule which has
not been followed in the past.
At todays meeting the committees
for the ensuing year will be announced
by Mayor Smith, president of the
board.
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