Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-21
TAX COLLECTOR
CASE CONTINUED
MORE DAMAGING EVIDENCE BY
PATR0LMEN
Officer Varey Reads Reports Showing
That Inspectors Have Been Dere-
lict in Their Duties-Bus-
ness Men Confused

After examining three witnesses for
the mayor's side of the controversy
between the chief executive and Tax
Collector Johnson over the methods in
vogue in the tax office for the collec-
tiOn of licenses, the council found 1t
was going to take so much time to hear
all the evidence that the case was ad-
journed until next Monday morning at
10 o'clock.
While nothing has been heard from
Johnson's side of the case in rebuttal
of the evidence given yesterday, yet
from the nature of that evidence it is
easily apparent the mayor was fully
Justified in bringing the charges of in
competency against the six license in
spectors who are employed by Johnson.
When they give their side Of the case
these license inspectors may show they
acted as they did with reason.
The testimony of Officer Narey was
especially damaging. lie works out Of
the University station and does moth
ing but inspect licenses. He read a
number of reports he had made to
Capt. Bradish showing that in num-
her Of instances the license inspectors
had been derelict in their duties. He
gave names and places Of persons
whose licenses he had called to eX-
anime and found they did not have
ceipts OF the inspector to the effect
that they had paid their license fees.
He told of a number of instances where
license holders had told him they had
gone TO the city hall to pay their license
fee. as required by the city ordinance,
and had been told at Johnsons office
to go back to their places of business
and await the coming of a collector.
They had also told those who would
pay their fees TO disregard the inStruc-
tions of the police.
officer Narey summed the matter up
in terse, if ungrammatical language,
when he said:
"These people don't know where they
are at. The police tell them to obey the
license ordinance and the license col
iector5 tell them to pay no attention To
the police"
one of the features brought out by
the testimony yesterday morning Is
that there is no license collector
under the law. The six men who act as
license collectors from Johnson's office
are DESIGNATED as inspectors" under
the ordinance creating their positions,
and it is not their duty to collect IL
cense fees. They are hired for the sole
purpose of inspecting licenses and de-
termining whether persons subject 10
the license laws have the required Gre
0eOJalS-
officer McAuliff, who has done much
inspecting of licenses. was called TO
the stand and told of number of in
stances similar to the ones reported by
his brother patrOlman. Chief Dishman
told of the general order to all police
men to watch licenses on their beats.
The next witness to be called for the
mayors side of the case will be City
Auditor Mushet, and Mr.. Mushet is
simply aching to get n chance to tell
what he knows about these matters.
He has been saving up data since he
has been in office and is prepared to
show that the positions of the six IL
cense inspectors should be abolished,
which is what the mayor has asked the
council to do. The city auditor at
tempted to bring this question to the
council himself and was successful to
tho extent that he had the position of
police license inspector created. This
nosition was held by James A. Craig
for several months before the place was
abolished.