Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1913-03-25
BELIEVES THAT UNDER PRESENT
CONDITIONS COMMISSIONERS
SERVE THE COUNTY AT PER
SONAL LOSS.

The letter which follows was intended
by the writer for publication i'll The
Sunday Herald, but did not reach this
Office till this morning. 1t is in response
Householder is entitled to the views of
the people on the subject Of his bill
lately introduced in the house at Aus
tin, designed to obtain better roads for
Cameron county.
San Benito, Tex, March -, 1913.
Hon. S. B. Householder,
III. of r. Austin, Texas.
Dear Sir:
| notice an article in the Brownsville
Herald of the Goth in which you ask for
opinions regarding the proposed special
road law for Cameron county; also let
ter from a party at Brownsville written
to you, who thinks such a law should not
be passed at the present time on ac-
count of the road and bridge fund being
ovcrdrawn.
Now / have carefully investigated the
facts and not only myself. but all of our
people. here whom / have spoken to.
think that now is the time when we
need this law and that it is Of the ut
most Importance that it be passed at
once, especially for two reasons:
First-It gives our county commits
sioners full power and authority over
our roads which they do not have under
our present law, and it also makes each
county commissioner responsible for the
working of roads in his district. Here
tofore our roads have been worked with
no one having special supervision over
them; men and teams have been put to
work, being told to do 50 and so, and no
one in authority to look after them to
see if they lOafed or worked and no one
to keep an account Of their time. /
know of men and teams working on our
roads for weeks at the time with no one
going out to see if the work was done
properly or whether they were lOafing,
or how many teams they had at work.
The result has been that the county has
paid twice and three times as much or
more for the work that was done than
they should have. One man should be
Htlu ICNIOIlSIDlt IOE INC NOTk anu lnlI
man should be the county commissioner
in his district. He should be held ac-
cOuntable for all moneys expended in
that district and when he is paid for it
he will certainly have the work done
better and at less expense and save the
county a great Teal Of money.
Now regarding the second reason. our
county commissioners. under the present
law, receive s. only when the court is in
session which is less than $40 or $50 per
year. This does not even pay the per
sonal expenses Of the commissioners
from Nos. 1. > and 1 districts for their
attendance at court, much less pay
them any compensation for their time.
The commissioners court Of the county
is the executive head Of county affairs
and if there is any official i'll the county
who should be paid for their work, they
should be, for they are the most import
ant officials of the county and should
supervise the work of the other county
officials, yet in this county they receive
practically nothing for their work.
Our county has an assessed valuation
Of about $16,0O0.00O and is one of the
most important in Texas. We need bet
ter roads in our county and a iudiciouS
expenditure Of county funds and | be
lieve it can best be had by giving our
county commissioners a small salary as
proposed.
If ever there was a time for close su-
pcrvisiOn and attention to county af-
fairs, it is now and we can not expect
good business men to accept an Office
without some compensation.
VI. A. McGHEE.