The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-01-13
DID NOT CUT FIREMEN.
CORPORATION CoUNSELfS OPIE- ION DELIVERED YESTERDAY.

Cannot Raise City Employees While
 They Continue in Omce-Thinks Bath
 House Officials and BacteriOIogist
 Would Not be Affected by Vote of
 Board of Aldermen Anyway-AuthOr-
 ity to Borrow s15,00O to Pay old Town
 Note Next Week.
 At the regular meeting of the board
 of finance held in city hall last evening
 the most interesting item of business
 was the reading of the opinion of Cor
 poration Counsel Daggett in regard to the vote of the board of aldermen strik-
 ing out all increases in salaries provid- ed by the board of finance. On account
 of the number of different points which had to be reviewed the opinion was a
 lengthy one.
 The main question dealt with by MT. I Daggett was the effect of the vote of
 the board of aldermen. He holds that
 the vote was clearly sufficient to re- duce the Beaver Ponds park appropria- tion, but that it did not reduce the ap- prcpriation for the payroll of the fire department. This has been a much ! mooted question, many people being of
 the opinion that the aldermen had nul- lified their previous vote in regard to that department. -4s >,@. s#. The aldermen' have the right to fix the compensation for all members of fba G,-n u5a St,o Fl, saf
 and the board of finance is excluded
 and has no control in this department. But this power of the aldermen is bound by the proviso that there can be 1 no increase of the salary of any person l during his continuance in office. There fore, says MT. Daggett, the vote of No yember p could not increase the pay
 of men holding positions before it was | passed. .str'.
 The opinion then goes on to deal with 1 the persons in each department affected by the proposed changes of salary. In
 the town clerks office there are three clerks, The number and their salaries l are determined by the board of finance, ! and the aldermen, are excluded The action of the board of finance, says MT.
 Daggett, is not sufficient to effect an increase in salary when such an in- crease is disapproved by the board of aldermen. The action of the aldermen, I however does not affect the righ of the board of finance to determine sala- | ries hereafter.
 Tn the tax collectors department three clerks are affected, and the corr poration counsel. thinks that the, irl- creases granted there are affected by the vote of the aldermen.
 In the public works department in creases were granted to the clerk of the bureau of streets the assistant engi- neer, one transit man and leveler, four transit men and Jewellers, janitor of public bath and engineer or public bath. MT. Daggett holds that the vote of the aldermen was effective in relation to T all these officials except the janitor and engineer at the bath-house.
 In the public health department the 1 increases for the five medical inspectors are affected by the vote, but that for
 meteorological work is not, inasmuch as l the latter item reads for baeteriological work and has no reference to any sal ! ary. The money might be paid to any | number of bacteriologists for services, so far as the appropriation reads. l MT. Daggett states in his opinion that 1 when the board of finance or any other 1 proper authority has, by charter, the | power to determine the rate of compen- sation for a position, the action of the board of aldermen in reducing the ap- 1 propriation for such payment cannot operate unless the rate was so fixed by the board of finance as to be conditional upon there being appropriated sum I sufficient for it's payment. In other words, the board of aldermen cannot indirectly exercise a power expressly ] given by the charter to the board of ] finance or some other department, and yet there is no way to compel the al- dermen to appropriate money sufficient l for the payment of salaries fixed by X other departments. except when such 1 salaries are determined by charter | In conclusion, Mir Daggett deals with l the question of the application of the constitutional provision concerning in- l crease of salary. He holds that no
 clerk, officer or employe of the city can
 be givenEan increased salary or rate of | .------------