Las Vegas optic. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1908-1921, 1913-11-29

80 S'NNheSN WNg oAOa1AJ -CAcNS5CA GlCO
erroneous in many particulars anC
contained many misstatements Of facts
that could easily have been ascertain
ed by The auditors department. VIZ
conceive that the thoroueh investiga
tion made Of the charles "a the audi
tors report is Of great Importance tC
I the county of San Miguel since not
only would the charges made, if true,
reflect much discredit upon the coun.
", and iniuriously affect the financial
a,anding of the county, but the coun-
i ty would be entitled 10 recover large
sums Of money. We beg y,ur honor's
consideration d detailea .tatement
Of our findings, showing tue grounds
upon which we make the above gen
eral statements:
/ The claim againsts Eugenio Rome
tro Treasurer Cash account reported
short by the auditor July 81, 1912,
amount $8O4.62 We find that the ac-
Cual difference between the books cf
the treasurer and the cash account
on the said date was SIC and thar
the remaining amount Of $SO4.O5 was
covered by three checks which had
been placed in the cash drawer, the
said checks being from responsible
parties, which we're worth their face
value and which should have been
counted as cash by the auditor
Commissions on liquor and gambling
S1,151.77. we find that Mr..
Romero as treasurer had claimed and
retained the said amount as commits
sions on licenses received but after
a decision of the supreme court of
New Mexico to the effect that such
a commission was improperly with
held, Mr. Romero accounted for and
paid over all of such commission so
taken by him. Penalties on delin-
Quent taxes $12,105.9S. We find that
the treasurer for three years past has
been adding penalties from the date
when they are made due by law, that
the treasurer has never failed to add
the penalties at the time Of making
out the delinquent list for publication,
and that such penalties were always
charged in said mentioned list, but
that in many cases prior to 1910, the
treasurer after taxes became. deln.
quent but before the delinquent list
was published was able to make
collection of the full amount of taxes
due without penalties, that the publi-
cation of the delinquent tax list and
judgments taken in the general suit
rarely ever resulted in the collection of
any taxes whatsoever and the treas
urer made the practical choice be
tween taking all Of the taxes due
minus penalties and taking nothing
and also mourning the further cost OF
publication
Warrants paid to payee owing tax
es, $3,407O4 In investigating the list
OF parties mentioned in the travelling
auditors report who were said to
have received warrants from the
county while owing taxes, we find that
in all such cases no such party re-
ceived his payment from the county
in full until all his taxes had been
paid We find that the treasurer of
San Miguel county after Ii years of
work is 81 cents short and this
amount should be paid to the county,
but at the same time we wish to CON
gTatulate the treasurer upon the re-
markably accurate and painstaking
manner in which the books of his Of /
fee have been kept
Claims against sheriffs, Cleofes Ro-
nero, Secundino Romero, and Roman
Gallegos, for overcharge for board Of
prisoners and for overcharge for at
tendance on probate court. The state
ments made with regard to such over
charges are absolutely false. We made
careful examination of the books
kept at the jail, which the travelling
auditor failed to do or he would not I
nave fallen in such depIorable error
These books show for the full time
covered by the auditors report the
name Of every prisoner kept in the
county jail, the date Of entrance and
release. These books were always
produced before the board of county
commissioners and carefully examin-
ed when auditing and allowing the
slheriff's accounts. The sheriffs ac-
counts for feeding prisoners were cor
rect to the dollar and not one cent
is owing by any sheriff for overcharge.
The auditors assumption was admit
tedly based solely upon the fact that
Lii IN fhNI