The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-07-20
LEGALITY OF CITY
SAV|NGTSMONEY
BECOMES ANISSUE
Municipal Attorney Asked Wheth-
er Honolulu Can Build Schools
With Own Labor
INJUNCTION THREATENED
BY ENGINEERING CONCERN
Now Work On Forty Bungalows
Is Suspended Pending An
important Opinion

Most questions arise from tho inter.
est Of some person who is came tly
DESTROYS to learn, and this time he
inquisitive one Is william @ thals
mers, superintendent Of the Pacific
Engineering Company Ltd, and the
interest is financial.
The city is now putting mp about
forty school bungalOws-httIe wood.
en- structures which cost about son
each. While the building ms ector's
Office was in charge of Frederick ".
Becklev, deputy inspector, he pro a.
ed on his own mitive to ask d,ff.reat
building material firms to quote pricos
for the material, reckoning each lung-
allow % IA unit
The best price he got was 1901 30.
and then city purchasing depa rtment
stepped in and, by asking competitive
bids on the different materials nee Ell
on the job as a whole, got quotations
which effected a saving Of more than
$1,000.
Municipality Doing Work
The city is doing the work itsrf,
as rapidly as possible. Four buuga.
lows are finished for Waikiki, on. is
under way at Kaahumanu and fifteen
are going up at Kauilani. s%ee ...
Saturday, the Pacific Engineering
Company, in the person of Superin.
tendent Chalmers, threatened inihnc.
ton proceedings, on the ground that
Section l4l9 of the Revised Laws of
Hawaii requires that, where an eN.
pcnditnre of $1,000 or more is to be
made, public tenders must be asked
Henry Freitas, the new building H.
spector, takes the position that the
statute refers to the purchase of ma.
terials, and not to expenditures for
labor. All the material was bought
through the city purchasing Office, in
the regular way, the lumber on stend-
ing contract, and some of the other
necessaries on special contracts. New
] ertheless, to be sure he was inside the
| law, Inspector Freitas stopped work
until an opinion could be rendered.
The incident is one OF many shOw-
| ing where the. city lis saving money
by the recent creation OF the city
purchasing agent, st present Il. J..
Bolts. .S4 f"-'t'@ {1ai% AE'a.
Extravagance Minimized t .7S@
Under the old loose system, a DEP: TT.
ment bought where 1t pleased. In
some instances the records show that
three different department all were
buying the same article at differeut
places, and each paying Different
price. "' -
Purchases went by routine, and - n
price was once established, ii was good
for an indefinite period, independent OF
the market. Zeroline cylinder oil, for
instance, which is Standard Oil pro-
duct, was bought not from the Sta I'd
ard Oil Company direct, but from
Iiackfeld Co.., which firm, of conr SO,
itself bought from the Standard. As a
result, the city now pays thirty two
cents a gallon, where formerly 1t aid
forty.six cents, a saving Of more than
twenty-five per cent. "a. h.
Under the new contract for fuel oil,
$4,000 will be saved over the price for.
merly paid during the period core.
spending to the life of the contract,
which runs two years. In addition,
provision is now made for Temperature
and moisture allowances, something
the city never heard Of before.
Steady Increase Of Savings
The oil is bought at q price based
on temperature of sixty degrees
Fahrenheit. Heat expanc1 II, and for
every additional twenty-five degrees
rise above that figure in the tempo ra-
ture at which delivery is made aud
measurement taken, a discount of one
per cent is allowed. Inasmuch as the
temperature of delivery here prof. ally
will average eighty degrees, II is x.
pected that the allowance will result in
a steady saving to the city. More
than $4,000 barrels are used by the
water works alone, every year.
The moisture allowance runs two
per cent for all moisture or non-petro.
leum sediment in fuel Oil. Arfan"e.
ments have been made with the Col.
lege of Hawaii to make tests to deter
mine the percentages of alien sub,
stances. 20 ~
Picks formerly were bought at $la
! the dozen. The city is now paving
! $500 the dozen for identically the
same picks. Ink was sixty cents a
quart. Now the city is paying forty,
seven cents. Pencils were from fifty
to sixty cents u dozen, depending "a
what department was buying them
Now they cost the city thirty two and
a half and thirty seven and hiatt
cents, depending on the grade bought
, Records For Reference -. II. p
: In word, the department is saving
= much more money than the salary ioi
) the purchasing agent aud his clerk.
tt