The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-08
AUDIT COMMITTEE
 CRITICISES MELTzER'S
 REVISION OF CHARTER
Mayor Wilson Gives Out Committees Report and Refers Draft to City
 Attorney
Attorney Meltzer Held from the First that $500 Was Inadequate to Com
 plete the Work

plete the Work
 In a communication sent to Mayor Wilson today by the Audit committee the work of Attorney Joshua Meltzer in compiling, indexing and preparing the city charter and ordinances to be put into printed form. is declared as not conforming to the specifications Of his contract. The communication recommends that the manuscript as turned over to the Board of Contract and Supply by MT. Meltzer, be re- vised. Mayor Wilson stated today that he had carried out the recommen- dation and had sent the manuscript to City Attorney Pullman for revision and correction in accordance with the sugEestions made in the report of the Audit committee.
 For the work of compiling the char ter the city appropriated $500 and an additional $1.000 was appropriated TOT printing the same. MT. Meltzer was selected by the Common Council to do the work He soon discovered however that $500 was little enouga | indeed to properly pay for the job ana concluded that the city got the pest end of the bargain. He consequently decided to use the former index With < only the necessary changes ana revl- sion He recently stated that rne make 1t possible to furnish a better index and also better work of the charter as a whole.
 When he finished his task he turned | the manuscript over to the board or SContract and Supply to be let out to lthe printers. Then 1t fell in the hands of the Audit committee. A study was made of the work and as result the Audit committee recom- mends further revision: MT. MeItzer hasn't received his s5eo Tor the "ork as yet se
 Here is. the communication sent to the Mayor today, in part- ' = Fl \ Dear Sfr:@s-
 We wish to call your attention 70 the compilation of charter and ordt- \ snances which has been prepared pur- isuant to the resolution of October 5, 1911. and is now in the custody of the board of Contract and Supply for sub mission to the printer pursuant to las modified by the ordinance of January IS, 1912. establishing the board of Contract and Supply.
 ''The specifications prescribed TOT the work of compilation are brier They provide merely that the .'amend- led city charter and also the ordi- nances of the city of Bridgeport s1el be prepared in such form, that | the same can be printed in book form the same to be indexed and compiled lfhat the manuscript which has been delivered does not conform to the sforegoing specifications; as 1t is oe- fectfve in the particulars set forth The communication then goes on to kgive specific defects in the manuscript. Many Implications are shown. Imper- lfections as to the charter as amended land as to ordinances as amended, were pointed out and the padding of manu- iscript was indicated. Relative to the index the report says:
 we have made a detailed compar1- son between the index of the compiled charter and ordinances of 1906 and the index of the manuscript under consld~ Ieration. We find that. with the excep- ton of eight new items, the two in idexes are Identical"
 4 The report further says:
 Tt will be noticed that there is no reference in the index to the law es- t<ahfishfug the commission on perma- tn@nf having and sewer construction, the ordinance relative to identif1ca- ltiun cards. the ordinance relative to health. the ordinance relative to the protection against fire: or the ordi- nance relative to sealer of weights tand measures. Of four new ordi< inances passed during the present year, but one. that establishing the board Of Contract and Supply, is referred to in the index
 ssThe index is further defective in that it retains references to various statutes passed between 1897 and 1905. and included in the compiled charter and ordinances of 1906, pages 1l6-37, but omitted. (and properly so) from the manuscript under cons1deration. For example: it retains the item, Porter John H.. to be retired from actual service which refers to the first of these omitted. acts. an act authorizing the City of Bridgeport to retire a policeman from active ser vice, approved May 13, 1S97," which irelates solely to the pension of John III Porter. It is pertinent to quote here the following from the report or the superintendent of police, 1S99:-
 ''Sfnce my last report, deaths mus ,1ering officer has visited and. has re- ierulted from among us our veteran, retired patrolmah, John H. Porter. His death took place March 8, of the present year"
 Further comment or additional i1- Illustrations would be superfluous It is apparent that the index is defec- tive both because of what it omits and because of what it includes. In oth- CT words. it is not new index as contemplated by the resolution Of the Common Council.
 Undoubtedly. the manuscript would be acceptable under the resolution had it been prepared in proper man. ner and after the model or the com pilation of 1906, although that com pfIation itself was but poor revi- sion of the still earlier volume of 1898. We have found that this has not been done and we have done so by compar- ing the manuscript with the legal ab- stracts which we have prepared as a foundation for our regular work. 2 AS our detailed study of the char ter and ordinances is not yet complete, we do not assume that we have dis covered all the defects. Moreover, we have withheld comment upon sew eral particulars subject to query be- cause of a desire that our criticism might be wholly free from anything petty or captiOus.
 we submit this, therefore, as a memorandum report, with the sug- gestion that it be referred, together with the manuscript, to the city att torney We do this because of the amount of money involved ($500 for compilation and s1,O00 for printing), and also because of a desire that proper action may be taken which will provide the municipal official and the citizen with an authoritative and accurate guide to the legal pro- visions governing the conduct of the