The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-26
THE WEAK SPOTS IN
THE WARRENTTE CONTRACTS


 is wrong. It merely reaches certain crosser wrongs There are two features con- nected with the paving contracts One apper- tains to the status of the contracts in public Doinion.y Is the method of making them of quality which gains public approval, or were they made in violation of those principles which.constitute- fair play? Upon this phase of the~question there can be little doubt Public opinion istemphahc against the expenditure of such s1arge sums of public money, without bid> ding ors competition and with such crcum- stances! feagerness on the part of those repre- senting &the nunici pality-
 IWha&,then,is the status of the contracts as x0fEheirAegalitY2
 The .city,attorney has said that in his opin- tonS the scontracts illegal, and he gives a rnrrmbersof reasons why he believes them to be N7egal.4
 HeSappears to doubt if pavement laid in such aawholesa1e way can be even thought to beumacadam repairs. If it is not macadam re- pairs .thefcouncil has no authority to make the ronfracE
 The reasongfor this is in the charter. Every city oyvesaitss existence to the state. It has no powersexcepti that delegated by the state Pow CT expressly delegated must rule be exer- cised in the precise way defined by the char ter. A
 Now the charter gives the power to make contracts for paving only to the paving com mission, and the supervision of the laying of new pavement is given to the commission
 So, if the city attorney is correct, the War < renitel contracts are illegal because the power of theAcity has not been exercised in the man. ner. required by the charter
 Buts suppose the laying of all this new pavement could be condensed into paving re pairs, andscould thus be brought under the au- thority of the common council, another ques- ton arises.
 It is general principle that common coun- cils cannotsdelegate their legislative power, nor confide their discretion to others. In this case the council ordered the. director of public works to make the contract. and did not de- fine what he to do beyond specifying where the pavement was to be lad and that it was to be some pavement of the type called bi- tumfnoussmacada1n-
 The questions of price, of choice among bi- luminous macada1ns and of the persons with whom the contract was to be made belonged to the discretion of the council, but were delegated to the director. Was this legal?
 Therepis third question The charter pro- vides that no expense shall be incurred except where appropriation exists to meet it.
 Let it be assumed then that the council can legally lay new pavement and call it nacadam repairs, that it delegate its contract mak- ing power to others, can it then disobey the charter with respect to sincurring expense for which sfhere is no appropriation?
 Under this view the contracts might be valid until some S39,OOO devoted to macadam repairs by the board of apportionment is ex= hausted. Then there will be no more funds
 Undoubtedly the purpose of the council was to use the proceeds of the issue authorized for paving bonds. But these bonds were au- thorized in set terms for the construction of new pavement, other than waterbound macad- am
 It would seem that stretch of powers of sophistry bring the proceeds of the bond is- sue within the purview of macadam repairs
 What was appropriated by the people for new pavement could not have been appropriat- ed to repair macadam, and what was specificial- 1y devoted to pay for pavement NOTHER THAN WATERBOIND MACADAM" cannot he ex- pended to repair that very waterbound mac adam which was specifically set outside, when the bonds were authorized.
 Here is the weakest spot in the Warrenite program Here is the point against which the friends of honest government may direct their sturdiest attacks
 NOT ONE DOLLAR OF FUNDS SPECIFI- CAILY DEVOTED BY ORDER OF THE PEOPLE TO NEW PAVEMENT, FROM WHICH WATER BOUND AIACADAAI WAS EXPRESSLY EX- GUIDED, MUST BE DEVOTED TO THE RE- PAIR OF WATER BOUND MACADAM.
 Upon this rock the Warrenite grabbers are certain to be wrecked, and here it may well be that sound morals and sound law will be found not far apart