Arizona republican., 1909-02-16
THE PUBLIC EXAMINER VETO.
Executive Department of Arizona. Department of the Governor.

Department or the OONernOr.
 Phoenix, February Is, 1909. To the Council of the Twenty fifth
 Legislative Assembly of the Ter
 ritory of Arizona:
 Being unable to approve the bill numbered IT, originating in your house. and entitled An Act to Abol- ish the Office of Public Examiner ,' which has been passed by the legis- lature, 1 return it herewith to your house without my approval, and here state my objections to it as follows:
 l know of no law ever enacted by the legislature of this or any other commonwealth better adapted to se cure the regular, safe, economical and prompt administration of various local offices charged with the fiscal affairs of the several counties or oth- CT like subdivisions of any state or territory.
 This law, enacted four years ago, has won the commendation not only of our best citizens at home, but the admiration of many abroad. :,-
 It would be almost impossible to enumerate the evils that its admin istration has corrected, the good that 1t has accomplished and the losses that it has recovered or prevented. To do this would require a review in detail of the work done by that office
 In dozens of instances that officer has found worthless official bonds, approved by local authorities, negli- gently or ignorantly; bonds deficient in form, inadequate in amount or worthless because of the insolvency of the sureties; and in some in stances he has found no bond at all where one was required by law. These Irregularities have been cor rected sad
 In instances without number he has found the practice to have grown out of the allowance of claims that are not legal county charges, and has corrected that evil, saving to the counties many thousands of dollars.
 There have been many instances of improper charges for fees by various officers, most if not all of which have been corrected.
 He has found loose, inaccurate, confusing and negligent forms and methods of keeping accounts in varf- ous county offices throughout the territory, which have been changed to uniform, accurate and clear sys- tems of bookkeeping.
 The losses alone from misappropri- ation and improper disbursement of public funds, which he has recovered into the treasury, have amounted to nearly forty thousand dollars.
 He has found property omitted fa rnIIc aunnr1ntfn0 thousands of dollars, which commits sion he has required to be supplied, thereby recovering to the public large sums of money.
 He found assessment rolls, lists, duplicates and back tax books so negligently, imperfectly and inaccu- rately made up, that the enforcement of the payment of taxes would have been impossible. Under his direction carefully prepared tax rolls are now furnished.
 He has found the public moneys de- posted in banks without the security required by law having been given, and upon which Interest has not been paid, as the law provides, and has in many instances compelled the rec tification of these conditions, and his services are required to further correct this evil.
 He has detected defalcations and misappropriation of public moneys and has compelled their restitution to the extent of many times the whole expense incident to the admin istration of his office. He has dis closed and corrected many instances of neglect of official duty
 Notwithstanding this, the very off cers who are themselves honest, whose duties are within his super vision, are those who most earnestly commend the office and the incum- bent who has discharged it's func- tiOns for the past four years.