The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-09
CITY FINANCES IN
AWFUL MIDDLE
Contractors Have Received No
Money Since the First
of Year.
CAN OBLIGATIONS BE MET?
JUGGLING TACTICS POSTPONE
FINAL RECKONING.

Not one of the contractors doing work
for the city has received any payments
since the first of the year. The total
amount now due is somewhere in the
neighborhood of s250,000 This includes
the share of property owners and the
city.
At present there is SIS, 900 in the spe-
cial fund in which the money derived
from assessments is placed. The city
has about $4,000 in it's street fund to
pay for it's share of the work already
completed. Much of the money in the
special fund has been paid in for ex-
tensions which have never been started
so that it cannot apply to this debt.
On the other hand a considerable sum
Is still due from property owners for
their share Of the work already done.
Can the City Pay?
The reason for the non-payment of
the contractors is either due TO official
incompetency or to the inability of the
city to pay its debts. The last war
rants. on 1906 contracts we're issued last
November. J. 2. Kennedy, sewer con-
tractor, and :. Birch, sidewalk con-
tractor, secured these. Later on, about
Dec. i, Birch accepted about $4,000 in
warrants. He took the scrip because
Il was the only way in which he could
secure payment of any kind. Since
then he has done considerable work,
amounting in all to about $25. 900, but
has received neither scrip nor warrants
for it,
Kennedy was offered the scrip at the
same time that it was given to Birch,
but he refused to accept it. Moran and
a.. q =
they have never taken scrip.
Birch found he could not sell his
scrip to the banks unless at Is to 20
per cent discount. This he would not
do, so he deposited 1T as security and
borrowed money on it at 10 per cent
interest with which to complete his
work. He was also required to be re-
sponsible for the scrip as we'll as to
pay the heavy interest on the money
he borrowed with it as security.
Dininny Makes Mistake.
He has tried again and again to have
this scrip exchanged for warrants, as
provided by the new law, and has gone
so far as to make contract to sell the
warrants which he would thus obtain
10 the board of land commissioners at
a per cent discount. Two weeks ago
the council passed a resolution finally
scrip with warrants. form of war
sistant city attorney, and printed. 1t
has now been discovered that it was in
correctly drawn and the process will
have TO be gone over again.
: In the meantime Birch is paying 10
per cent interest on the money he bor-
rowed TO carry on his work with, and
has refused to complete his 1906 con-
tracts even if the warrants are issued
To him. as they sell below par anyway.
Ever since the first of the year the
auditor has refused to issue any spe-
cial improvement warrants. He asserts
that the city attorney has never
supplied him with a correct form. Es-
Innate after estimate in favor of con-
tractors has been made out by the en-
gineer, approved by the board of public
works and passed by the council, but
not one of them has been paid.
Drop in the Bucket.
1t is true the contractors who have
warrants and scrip. issued last year,
now and then receive some of the
money which property owners pay in to
the treasurer as part of their INSTALL
ments on the assessments But this is
only drop in the bucket.
AS a result of this delay and the gen.
eral miX-up over contracts, the city lost
two good contracts for sewer and side
walk extensions, which were awarded
TO s. Birch and J. P. Kennedy two
months ago by the board of public
works, but never approved by the coun-
ell, because the contractors saw the
uselessneSs in trying to get their money
and threw up the sponge.
Another complaint against the pres
ent system OF doing business has come
from the auditor. He states that when
the estimates are made out by the city,
engineer he has no method of knowing
what is the city's portion and what the
abutter's portion. AS a result, a curl
Gus complication has been discovered
GIaring Incompeteney.
On a certain small sidewalk extern
sion. Birch was paid in scrip last year.
He claims that this payment did not
include anything for the city's portion
The engineer supports this claim and
recently sent in an estimate for 1000,
the city's portion, which was approved
by the council and ordered paid. The
however. refuses to do any,
thing, claiming that Birch has been
paid in full. The records show that for
some reason or other, probably Iiegli-
gence, the abutterS' portion was over
estimated by the amount of the city's
portion, and the abutters were assessed
to pay for both their part and that of
the city. Whether this was an at
tempt on the part of the city to saddle
some of the burden which il is so lib
orally assuming for part of the work
back onto the taxpayers in order to
help out the treasury, or whether it
was due to negligence, is not known.
but it is probably the latter, as any at
tempt TO saddle the city's norton on
the abutters would soon be detected if
done in systematic way. AS result.
the abutters will be rebated $500 and
the city will have to pay Birch in war
rants for this amount of work, when he
turns over his scrip.
The finance committee of the council