The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-26


The council is long on oratory The
members can talk more and say less than
any other equal number of men in Salt
Lake.
Above is the record on the contract
question last night. The twenty-six out
bursts took exactly ninety minutes to
deliver
The board OF public works was the
chief victim as usual.
The council, sitting q committee OF
the whole discovered that II has been
talking necessarily for three weeks about
certain phases of the contract tangle
without effect. Not that this is an un-
usual procedure, but knowledge of the
fact that the board of public works
meanwhile had attended to all the mat
tiers considered In due order seemed to
anger the councimen and that body was
numerically scored.
In the first place it appears that the
board has returned to James Kennedy the
check which accompanied his bid on the
1907 sewer contract without consulting
the council which has delayed action on
this matter for three weeks. The matter
of releasing Kennedy was one of the
matters to be GRATED about last night
and when the action or the board was
learned it created storm Of protest:
What are we here for anyway? asked
Nobody deigned or dared to respond.
What are we here for anyway. l re-
peat it7' stormed Mr.. Mulvey, his frame
quivering like mound OF jelly.
No response.
Becoming tired OF asking this question
he continued: 1--WE are talking our heads
off and have no idea what we are talk
ing about. / object to letting the board
of public works keep us in darkness as
to their actions. We should know. we
ought 10 know"
The rotund member was getting more
and more excited and finally he STAN
mered between puffs of wrath.
What do the people elect us here for?"
Intense silence.
Wants to Know Rights.
Il would like to know what rights we
have / have chastised the board of pub
lie words in the past and am going 10
keep on chastising them We have been
talking to no effect. Something has got
10 be done and done right away Either
the council or the board must go out Of
business if this thing is to continue"
After several other palpitating speeches
had been made, F. r. Christensen, clerk
of the board of public works, was called
upon for an explanation of the board 5
conduct in returning the check and re-
leasing Kennedy before the council had
acted the matter
He explained very clearly that the coun-
ell had delayed action so long that &C
cording 10 the terms of the advertise
ment the check had to be returned The
advertisement contained the provision
that unless some definite action was ia
ken within thirty days of the acceptance
the contractor awarded the job could de-
mand his check back and be released
This put a sort of quietus on this line
of argument as the evidence clearly in
dictated that if the council had kept track
of affairs it would have known that 1t
could not delay action so long.
In order to find something more to
roast the board about, Councilman Null
vey suggested that the Kennedy contract
was all right, as 1t had been passed be-
fore the new law went into effect and
that the city could have held Mr.. Ken
needy and THIS saved advertising for new
bids. He asserted that il was passed
March 49, and the new law did not go
into effect until March % 1t was not,
however signed by the mayor. but be-
came effective in five days without his
signature, which he claimed would put
il in ahead of the new law. Councilman
Perry tried to put stop TO 9his line
of argument by showing that il was not
signed by the recorder, and hence could
not become effective.
Councilman HOLIDAY presented a reso-
luton asking the board to supply in
formation to its actions. This was
discussed at length, everybody taking a
fall out of the board. but il was forgotten
In the press of business.
Another matter which angered Mulvey
was the fact that the board released J.
w Percival from his old bond of 1900
upon his filing new bond for 5000 for
the completion of his 1906 work. Mulvey
said that il was the councils intention
to have the old bond stand, although he
acknowledged that il was not needed and
would place an unjust burden on the
contractor.
The real object of the meeting. the Utah
FireDrOOfing cOmpanyS sidewalk con-
tract was lost sight of in the general
scramble to say something about the
board of public works. When il did come
up, the action seemed TO have been all
cut and dried. Councilman Ferry. who
last Monday favored keeping the company
TO it's contract, moved that ii be released.
This was carried after some discussion
and il was also ordered that all assess
ments paid in on sidewalk work uncom-
pleted be returned upon application to the