Los Angeles herald., 1910-12-25
SERIOUS CHARGES MADE

Editor Herald: Regardless of the
high social and political standing of
some Of the members, I charge the civil
service commission with being unjust.
showing partiality, ignoring evidence
except from suitable sources, and
knowingly permitting employees to hold
positions they are not entitled to, re-
gardless of protests against them The
city boiler inspector is holding the DO
sition unlawfully, as he not only failed
to pass in the examination, but not
having the necessary qualifications
under the city ordinance, he is not
eligible and should not have been ex-
amined.
This shows the incompetency of the
secretary, whose duty 1t is to admit
only eligibles to examination, and when
the fraud was discovered he made des-
perate efforts to prevent me from in
specting the papers, tried to discredit
me in every way possible, but failed
miserably.
After repeated demands to see the
examination papers, which under the
rules l am entitled to, I was informed
by the president that "the mayor or
the sheriff could see those papers, but
l could not"
l then appealed to the mayor, who
promptly obtained the city attorneys
opinion, which l presented to the board
and it had a wonderful effect.
The commission was compelled to
yield, and for spite the honorable pres
ident placed restrictions, evidently to
cause delay | was permitted to eX-
anime the papers only in the presence
of two members of the board. This
the president had no authority to do
and had never been done before.
After setting a date to examine the
papers it was simply impossible to get
the two members together, and after
six months persistent effort l was told
to examine the papers with only the
secretary to watch me, and he turned
it over to the examiner who did not
know if a single technical answer was
correct or not.
/ know how to mark those questions,
and a few minutes work on the pa
pers, although they had ben tampered
with, proved that my claims were
good, and made it apparent why the
secretary and two members of the
board made such desperate efforts to
keep those papers from me.
The boiler inspector not only failed
to pass, but was not eligible. He
should not have been admitted to the
examination at all.
After satisfying myself that my
claims were true. 1 filed written
charges with the board, when the sec
retary frantically produced the city
ordinance, but quickly subsidized when
I produced both the old and new or
dinances.
When the commission found It was
cornered, beaten at every point, it
made the silly excuse that it was too
old, that the city council should dis
charge this man. l then asked them
to get the city attorneys opinion and
was again refused. l then filed charges
of malfeasance in office with the city
council. This matter was referred to
the public welfare committee, and is
now awaiting investigation.
make no comment on the civil SER
vice commission, but simply state the
facts and let the public know how
crooked schemes are worked on a
board that should be, of all other
boards absolutely straight and above
the slightest suspicion.
Los Angeles, Cal p. II. GRACE.
p. S.-The city council is liable to
both fine and Imprisonment for each
day this man holds the position OF
boiler Inspector as they have violated
the provisions of the trdinance by ap-
pointing an ineligible, as per section 43,
city ordinance No. 1928, new series,
section No. has been violated.
P. II. GRACE.