The Detroit times., 1909-12-11
CLAIMS FRAUD IN
CLOCK CONTRACT
Inspector Burton Says Board Was
stung Hard in Installation of Cass
School Timepieces.

Inspector G. NJ. Burton. az the Sec
ond ward, caused his colleagues In the
board OF education to sit up and take
notice Thursday night when he de
clared that Jacob Zerga, a plumbing
contractor. had charged the board So
56S for clocks for the new Cass high
school that could be duplicated tor
$500. Mr.. Burton asserted further
that the Clocks furnished by Zerga
were not clocks manufactured by the
Self-Winding Clock Co. as called for
in the contract. And instead OF hav-
ing marble faces. as specified. the
faces of the clocks supplied are of zinc
covered with paper.
Mr. Burton cited this as warning
10 The board To be more wary in the
future IN letting such contracts, argu-
ing that better results could be OBJ
tanned fy letting the jobs out to small
contractors This led TO long argu-
ment. which prolonged the session I'M
I'll after II o'clock. Burton finally
moved that the engineer OF the board
be instructed 10 bring In "a report on
the clocks. but Inspector George Of.
fered an amendment that the matter
be referred 10 the judiciary committee
and the corporation counsel with a
view 10 starting an action against Mr..
Zerga II il were found that the board
had been cheated Mr.. Burton accept
ed the amendment and II went through
unanimously.
The "antis' succeeded In again hold
ing up the officers and employees pay
rolls for the FIRST half uf December in
retaliation for the machine crowds ac-
ton in again turning down Accountant
William r. McGreevey's bill of 800 for
assisting in the audit of the secretarys
books. There is another meeting be-
fore Christmas, however. and IL Is not
likely that the pav rolls will be held
up beyond the next meeting.
President Kuhn. elected 10 the chair
as a machine candidate. dared 10 vote
with the ants in favor OF allowing
the McCreevey bill. and while the ma
chine succeeded by vote of 9 10 9 in
knocking the bill out. the members or
the Old crowd evidently thought that
President Kuhn was due for a gentle
chastisement. So. when the finance
committee came forward with recon-
mendation for the adoption OF school
savings bank system. which President
Kuhn had strongly Endorsed in COM
munication to the board earlier in the
session, Inspector George promptly en-
tered an objection. which laid the mat
ter over for two weeks. In the mean
time the teachers committee will look
into the merits OF the system TO deter
mine whether. in its opinion. its adop-
ton would mean extra work for the
teachers. Supt Martindale also got
his little hammer out.
President Kuhn told the board he
had thoroughly investigated the plan
which had proven very satisfactory in
other states and in other Michigan
cities. Several local banks sent letters
promising their hearty cooperation.
The session was series of tits and
wordv scraps from the very outset In
spector Goldberg fred the opening gun.
when he discovered an error in the
minutes. and challenged tie compe-
tency OF Secretary Lee The secretary
suggested that Goldberg try the job
himself.
There was another rumpus over the
free text book proposition. Supt. Mar
tindale insinuatins thar the antis" had
so many different resolu-
tons on the matter that IL was "all
bllled NJ.
The only muddle is in the superin-
tendent's brain" retorted Inspector
Nlumford In the end the whole mat
ter was referred heck 10 a committee.