The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-16
REPORT A SURPRISE
INyEsTIGATIoN or MOBILE BOARD
 or PUBLIC WORKS.
Report of Special Select Committee to the City Council ls Full of Gin-
 ger-IThs Charges of

Mobile, June 1S.--(speciaL)--A regu- lar monthly meeting of the General Council was held tonight. lasting until g o'clock A large amount of routine business was dispatched. including the appropriation of s2.000 for the extermi- nation of mosquitoes and fumtgating and cleaning the city. The features of the meeting. however. and one which came as bombshell to same was the report of the special select committee on investigation of charges of Joseph
 H. Hobson against the Board of Pub lie Works filed some months since.
 The special committee is composed of Alderman Craft. chairman, Councilman Halen, Aldermen F. J. Inge. W. c. Car rell and Joseph H. Norville. The charges are embraced in five counts. as follows: That the Cont street paving at the time it was accepted and paid for was short: that the board knew there was something wrong with this work but made no effort to inves- tigate before making final settlement: that the board entered into a contract to pave Cont street with certain speci- | fled materials and the contractors were not required to carry out their obli- gations; that no effort was made to I find out whether the city was entitled to deduction from the contract price by tVlftue or nOL ndvIuS IcCciVcu tuc nld' | terials and labor required and that not
 wfthstanding the contractors guaran- | tee for maintenance of pavements. thirty abutting property owners were | required to pay for work and materials they did not receive
 | The report of the committee em-
 bodies six and half typewritten pages
 and is an excoriation of the former
 board of public works
 The findings of the committee. It's
 work having extended over a period of
 two or three months. assisted by En- | gineer Byron L. Smith, and Expert
 a large amount of brick and asphalt
 pavement was paid for not shown in | the actual measurement of concrete l foundations: that considerable valuable materials removed to give place | to the new paving valued at $16,000, had been given away by the board,
 contrary to the charter provisions; that
 the board had It's attention called by
 J. Howard Wilson, president of the
 Mobile Light and Railroad Company,
 to inferior work. and an investigation
 so revealed. but that no attention was paid thereto: that great delays
 had been countenanced at the expense,
 through interest on bonds, to the city and tax payers: that the secretary of | the Board and not the city clerk. as
 provided in the charter, had counter | signed checks of the board; that the
 then chief engineer, J. N Hazlehurst,
 and his assistant. Wright Smith. now
 chief engineer. had accepted work of inferior quality and that Stewart Brooks, a member Of the then and
 present board, has performed services
 for persons carrying on a contract
 with the board of public works, which
 In our opinion. Is a violation of sec I tion eighty-one of the charter"
 The report was ordered to go over thirty days in order that the members
 of the council might thoroughly pass
 on It. The report stipulates, in con-
 clusion, that the city attorney take | steps to recover the amounts expended | by the board and not accounted for.
 The resolution of Alderman Tacon looking to municipal ownership of an
 electric lighting plant, presented at the last regular session, was favorably reported on by the committee on il- lumination and by an unanimous vote
 was adopted. It was shown by the
 committee that the city could save an
 enormous sum of money each year in having it's own plant and the council
 was in hearty accordance with the res olution. The city now pays under con- tract large sum for city illuminations,
 and by owning Its own plant can save a considerable sum. This being pre- sented to the council, the recommen- dation of the committee was unani-
 mously adopted.