Arizona republican., 1904-08-02
THE RECORDERS OFFICE
Report of Special Investigation by
 Geo. A. Hintz.

George A. MintZ who was einploje' by the board of supervisors to make a special investigation Of the office or the county recorder yesterd7y submit ted his report. The board turned the report over to the district attorney office, it will be returned to the board at the next regular meeting with sueh recommendation and observations as may suggest themselves.
 The investigation covers only the ouarter ending with June. MT. Mintz stated that he found only one account hool, in the office of the recor Ter. th2 ooIotter." He found that all docu- nents entered ill the office for re ord had been rrcperiy entered in the bio = ter excep. certified coIies. The fe shown by the b!otier amounted for the quarter 70 S2,S2OS5 while the lepo [ made by the collector curiously showed that he had received fees 10 the amoun- of S2.9S2.5O. Differences between the showing by the blOtter and the report occurred in the months of May ant June. In the former month mist2k .s had been made on the infallible adding machine and they were against the recorder 70 the amount Of about $ll4. In the following months there was a difference of $2.65 but this time it wa against the county SO that the ret less to the recorder was S111.70.
 It was also found that the fees 10 certified copies which Mr, Mintz dis covered by a search of the office of the recorder and that oc the terrtOl ial auditor should amount u $I93.90. Rut
 the recorder had reported having re- ceived only S5S4. 15. This diGe: erce of $2O9.15 was satisfactorily explained by the recorder. It had been his practice
 when persons prepared the,r own copies for certidcation to mahe Ho charge at all and he had not done SO in these cases. The law on this subje {
 is very indefinite. Thc recorder may CT he may r-t charge but if he do s make a charge he must turn the tfeas over 10 the county. If no charge be
 made it is not necessary to include such documents in lis report.
 IL is probable that a rule will be e. tablished requiring a charge in ~au
 cases. The result of this inves .igaticn therefore shows that ;ha county owes MT. MFall the sum of $111.7O.
 In presenting his repot. Mir. M mt 2
 made the oral statement that the inves- tigation had made it plain to him that whatever errors had been committed in the office of the recorder were net intentional He recommended that the county employ an auditor 10 go ov-r the accounts Cf all the officers. His written report, by the way does not criticize the adding macfire bu. he explains that the persons using it were not en rapport with it and there- fore were unable to get the best work cut of it.
 The rc-Ort shows that the office cf the recorder is only about ten days be- hind in the work of recording: that is
 the enterir- up Cf documents fo- rec
 ord but some of the articles Of ircor- roration as early as last February have not yet been written up
 MT. Mintz found four copyists at work in the office. The work is heinz
 done ir as rapid and sk.IlfuI manner as possible and the reco.ds ale well
 kept He recommends that use be made
 or a Fischer book type writing machine
 which the office has and that will r-a- clude the nc, essity of emp.oyfns l l. d-tiOnal help. He also sa-s hat ;lo vault in the office with its dgst ac. cumIlatiOr of years is meiacc to inc
 health of those employed in the offire
 ana ne recommends that it be c'eened out.