Arizona republican., 1911-12-24
Probably in Order to Save Money to the Taxpayers the Supervisors Award Contracts to the Highest Bidders
PUT IT ON A
 BUSINESS BASIS
At Least That is Explana- tion Though the Average Citizen Will Proba bly Wonder Where the Busi- ness Comes In

The awarding of bids yesterday bv
 the board of county supervisors. at least by two members of the board Messrs. HOghe and Bowen. was put i on what, in some quarters, has been called business basis" This seems to mean that it is the policy of q majority of the board to award con tracts to the highest bidders, and that without regard to quality.
 One of the matters passed upon bv. thls board was the awarding of the contract for the burial of the citv's : lndlgent dead. There were a number or bids at merely nominal amounts. just as there have been before. but this time the contract was awarded to Easteriing X Whitney at their bid of S4.50. This is one place where the business basis" comes in.
 There is TO claim that Easterling & Whitney are not competent to do the work in a satisfactory manner. Nor is there any claim that it is not worth much more than $450 to do this work. But just why this bid should be accepted when there were others by persons equally responsible at a much lower figure, that would have saved the taxpayers of the cOun- ty several hundred dollars. is some thing the board probably will never be able to explain. The only expla- nation seems to be that it is not business" to save money for the tax payers.
 That was one example Another is furnished by the awarding of the contract for the county printing This is matter in which The Republican has no personal interest. any more than in the undertaking bids. IL was not a bidder, so here is the unbiased story:
 There were three bidders for this work-the StOckman. the Gazette and the Democrat. The Stockman's bid was 19 cents an inch, the Gazette's 2S cents and the Democrats 9 cents. The Democrat got it.
 Now, it may be urged that the Stockman is weekly paper and could not publish the county advertising within the time required by law But the proprietor of the Stockman says it is to be made a twice-a-w week paper ana mat IL COuIu therefore toulpiN with every legal requirement.
 But in any event, that argument does not apply to the Gazette. which is published every weekday, the same as the Democrat. Moreover. adver- tising value is based on circulation, and the circulation Of the Gazette is probably at least double that of the Democrat. which would indicate that it's advertising is worth twice as much. Yet, despite that fact and de- | spite the further fact that its bid was two cents an inch cheaper than | the bid of the Democrat. the contract | goes to the latter paper
 Wonder why?
 The supervisors board is supposed | to be the business board of the coun- | ty: but if performances of the kind | pulled off yesterday constitute 'busi- | ness" some other kind Of procedure | ought to be tried
 Incidentally, it is a much easier | thing to play fast and loose with oth- CT peoples money than with ones | own. And if this isn't playing fast ] and loose with the taxpayers money, ] it would be quite interesting to ob- | serve a case answering that defini- | tion.
 IL is only fair to say that generally | MT. Orme has not been a party to | the weird performances of this board | Most of the funny stunts have been engineered by Leo M Hoghe, presi- dent of the board. aided and abetted | bv his protege. Bowen. Hoghe. it will | he recalled. was a candidate for re-
 laf urinary and l received fewer than 800 votes. He | was one of the worst beaten men that a,-er aspired to an office in Maricopa | county. That is probably the best commentary that could be made on the public's view of his perform ances.
 It has been no uncommon thlhs TOT the board of supervisors to reJect tne lowest bids for various sort of work ! and services. But this time 1t seems | to have gone the limit.
 Again. the query becomes pertinent: Wonder why?
 The supervisors yesterday also o,yarded the contract for printing. | other than the regular advertising This work goes to the Phoenix Print ing company and to the Arizona State | Press.
 The Pioneer Meat Market was awarded the contract for feeding the l county prisoners at 11h cents.
 Dr. Tafel was again given the con tract as county physician at SS6O
 F. NJ. Josslyn will take care of the courthouse clocks for the coming year and will get $96 for the work.
 And that seems to be about all