The Pensacola journal., 1907-05-11
Sensations Develop in
Court House Invetigation
tcOntinued from FIrst ease.l


(continued from First Pase.)
was excessive. When asked if ne
mad voted to pay the bills, Mr. Avery
answered that as chairman of The
board he had no vote and that the
motion to pay them was made by w.
| j. Sennott, and three of the commits
sioLers present voted in favor of the
motion, while Commissioner Stewart
voted against il.
Former Commissioner Sennott.
w. J. Sennott, former county COM
missioner was called in next. His
testimony substantiated that of MI
Avery i'll regard to the manner in
which the repairs were authorized.
but could remember but little of what
transpired afterwards. He distinctly
| remembered. however that the woiI,
was, C.derad completed. by. the board
and that Mr.. Kendall was employed
to look after the work at d salary Of
! $500 per day. He did not know of
any arrangements with Fulton, Long
o. Altman: that he did vote for pay
ment of these. bills provided they
were properly o. KID; he did not el
anime the bills; made no inyestiga-
tiOn rs to the correctness or justneSS
of the bills; all he went by was NJ.
RelOal's o. X; he did not remember
Mr.. Avery's protest against them.
When asked if he remembered MAX
ing the motion to pay them and Mr..
Stewards vote against the motion;
he stated that such was not the case.
He was asked by Solicitor Loftin if
he did not know that it was his duty
TO examine these bills before order
ing them paid, to which he replied
that he did it to the best of his ability.
j. a. WigginL
J. N Virgins was the next witness
called. He stated that the rule of the
beard was that all work done was
usually looked after by the commits
siuner in whose district it was being
done. and in this case he had left the
matter in the hands of Messrs. Avery
and Sennott, of this district, and ne
did ot know who authorized the
woi k-Avery or Sennott. He admit
ted that no bids had been asked; Rem
dal was employed at $500 per day to
superirtend the work; he did not
think the repairs made were worth
S4,500 but that these bills were paid
at different times; he did not remem-
ber Mr.. Avery's objections TO them;
Mr.. Stewart voted against the motion
to pay them and the rest of them vot-
ed III favor if it; was not familiar
with wages usually paid mechanics,
but had asked Rendan, Long and
others. and was governed by what
they told him as to the wages of
carpenters. painters and timers He
said he did have a son working IN
that court house job under ]. E. Long
J. D. Kendall
j d. Kendall was then called and
testified that he had been employed
49, ~
after the court house repairs and see
that the work was properly done, for
which he was to receive $500 per day.
Mr.. Avery spoke to him in regard to
the matter. but no special arrange
ment had been made; he had nothing
to do with employing of men. contrac-
tors and others; in fact he knew abso-
lutely nothing about them except that
they were making the repairs; he did
not know who employed Long, AT
man or Fulton, but presumed It was
Mr.. Avery; he knew of no understand
ing as to what Mr.. Long was to do,
but later understood that Long was
working on a percentage basis: that
is he was to receive ten per cent on
the entire outlay including work and
material; did not know whether OF
not Altman was employed by Long;
supposed that Fulton was also WORK
ing on commission basis; it was not
understood that he was to examine
the bills. but he did o. X. some of
them; that the union scale of wages
ranged from $500 TO $3.50 per day;
and foremen were paid from S4.00 to
$500; did not know the scale of
wages for painters or timers; wages
were not exactly the same now as
they were last October when the de-
mand for carpenters was so great; he
did not examine the bills because he
was not expected to keep the time
book he did not observe that men
were put down on these bills at $500
and $500 per day, but took it for
granted that they were correct. ex-
cept the one from Fulton returned un-
paid by the county commissioners.
How could you,'' said Solicitor
Loftin, when employed by the ceuIl-
ty to look after its interests, recon-
mend the payment of bills that called
for higher wages than is usually
paid?"
Mr.. Kendall replied that he had re-
fused to o. X. some of them for that
reason. He then stated that j. E.
Longs bill was o. KID on the state
ment Of Mr.. Long and his foreman, to
which Mr. Loftin replied that the
DOdTu NOulu nave hnOWH DIS nluCH
without his o. X, inasmuch as they
would have depended on Longs and
his foreman's statement. He could
not tell what the total repairs made
were worth. no man living, he said,
could tell that. unless he went over
1t in detail. but the building was in
fearful shape when the work was COM
menced;~ he did not care to say that
the work WAS not worth $4,000. but
was under the impression that be told
the board the repairs would cost
about 81 600 instead of $500 He stat
ed that the work consisted of repair
ing leaks in the main building, and
annex; fixing tower which was en-
tirely. cut to pieces. repairing gallery
corner. and rebuilding portico
J. e. Long. 80
]. E. Long, the contractor and build
er who had charge of the carpenter
work was the next witness, and he al
so gave in some very important testi-
money One of the first questions
asked him was one which up TO this