The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-02-15

TAe regular meeting Of the City
Council was held last night at tho
City Hall. 1t was Rot without inter
est. In fact, several matters OF more
than passing interest 10 the public
came before the body and received
consideration. There were present al
EOH call Mayor Bliss and Aldermen
Calm, D'Alemberte, McHugh, Watson,
Reilly, Wright. and YOnge.
The minutes of the previous meet
ing were read ana approved and then
the unexpected occurred at least TO
those unacquainted with what was 70
tEansplre.
City Attorney Reports.
The city attorney, who had been
asked for his opinion upon the remOv.
al OF Chas. Fl. Turner as chairman OF
the Board of Works, and Chas. II.
GiRgIes as street superintendent, sub
mibted his written opinion. The sub,
stance Of this was that the removal
OF Mr.. Turner and election Of Mr..
Zelius as chairman of the board was
perfectly legal AS to the removal of
MIR. Gingles he said that it was illegal,
and that the board could not remove
an officer of the city, vino had been
elected for a specified term. without
first giving him notification Of charges
preferred against him. and an ODpor-
tunity to be heard at a trial Mr. Gin
giles mad been given leave Of absence
during the time that yellow fever ex-
listed here, and consequently it was
illegal for the board TO discharge him
for not returning to the city.
instructions to Board.
Alderman Reilly, when this opinion
was read, introduced a resolution, di-
recting the Board of Public Works 70
remove J. Z. Long the present street
superintendent and TO reinstate Mr.
GingIes. This resolution was not dis
.cussed but the vote was by roll call,
and showed that every alderman of
the seven present were in favor Of the
change.
Communication From Mayor.
The following communication from
the mayor was read and submitted to
the finance committee for further &C
ton:
To The Honorable Board of Aldermen,
City Of Pensacola.
GentlemCn-In a report mace by the
Finance Committee some time ago. IL
was noted that the former Tax Col
lectOr Mr.. Oerting. had paid into the
city between $1.7OO and 81 800 more
than had been charged to him by the
Tax Assessor. Believing that Mr.,
Certing could scarcely have paid that
much money 70 the city out Of his own
account without knowing It and be-
liCving the discrepancy IN the books
could scarcely aggregate any such
amount, ] gave the matter some little
Investigation.
Ii will be remembered that Mr.
Oerting collected tho licenses and l
have had the clerk make out a list OF
the licenses for the past fiscal year,
from Oct. 1st 1904. until July 31st
1905. and / have had the cOmptrOllsr
10 give me a list of the credits on the
license account paid into the treasury
for the same oate. Tho license stubs
show that there had been collected
for licenses S3O,5SS.O2. there had bean
paid into the treasury SOS, 1896
leaving $2,O49.26 unaccoUnted for.
Surprising that the Tax Collector
had paid license money in as taxes
this would leave still. in round num-
bers. about 10000 due the city.
I herewith submit The detailed
statement Of the licenses as made By
the clerk. giving the number and
amount of each license and also the
/ letter OF the comptroller. giving the
credits by months for the past fiscal
/ year
I submit this matter without recon-
mendation. leaving the council TO ap-
point a special committee 70 report
! the matter. but. II the council 50 adj