Imperial Valley press., 1915-02-01
Supervisor Shepard Fails
To Account for $292,90O
Of County's Expenditures

In these columns a few days since
we published an article ON the deplor-
able condition of county finances. TIL,
article was based on figures com
piled by County Treasurer i. STANLEY
Brown from his public records at The
request of the Press, and ten day!
preceding its publication each su
pervisor was notified and requested t,
give statement OF his opinion Of tn,
situation, to be published simultane
ously with the figures. No one Of
the supervisors furnished the state
ment requested, but Supervisor Shep
ard published in the Progress yester.
day morning q statement, which tht
Press quotes below in full. The Pro
gress, in consideration of its self
vaunted position as official organ
OF the supervisors, also comes to theil
defense.
Mr.. Shepard's article first assumes
that the Press published its statement
Of the condition of public funds be
cause the supervisors had cut a bill
of this paper against the county.
Soon after Mr.. Shepard's election
the Press, which had not been un-
friendly to him, called attention tc
the fact that he had made his whole
campaign for election on the pledge
to work for lower taxes. This led Mr.
Shepard then to rush into print with
personal abuse, just as he now does
and the Press has as much justifica
ton for saying its bill was cut because
of criticism of the board as Mr.. Shep-
ard has for his questioning the mo-
tives of the Press.
A controversy on this line has
nothing to do with the issue the Press
has raised by publishing the officia
record of county finances, yet it is
well enough to. state that county Of
ficials who saw no possibility o1
drawing their salaries for months
called the attention of the Press tc
the condition that exists and asked
this paper to investigate the finances
To do so, the editor of the Press went
to the county treasurer for the fig
ures. Mr. Brown did not know fol
what purpose they were wanted, but
he agreed with the Press that the
public has a right to know the condi-
tion of public funds, and the figures
were furnished.
Mr.. Shepard says: Figures don't
lie, but liars do figure" That is g
serious charge for the supervisor to
bring against Mr.. Brown, especially
as these figures purport to come from
the county treasurer's books. The fact
must be that Mr.. Shepard knows, as
the Press and the public know, that
when Mr.. Brown gives out figures re-
lating to public funds. those figures
are absolutely dependable.
Supervisor Shepard holds to gen.
eralities. He says all the supervisors
have to deal with is the budget OF
$288,000, but he makes no compari
sons with past years, as the Press has
done. A little further down he causes
confusion by saying the law "allow;
very properly the people to bond anC
rebond themselves for school ant
other purposes, and makes it manda-
tory for the supervisors to raise The
money that the supervisors are in NJ
way responsible for expending."
But the county finances are il
no way related to school revenue, anC
the county has no bonded indebted
ness on which to pay interest. Th'
school fund receipts for this schoo
year amounted to $467, 7,346.53 abov,
the S5SO,0O0 for the county, and from
that school fund all school bond in
terest is payable.
Asdes from school taxes, the count.
revenue has grown in four years from
1898 60S.S5 to estimated revenue thi
year of $5SO,9O0, the first paymen
on which amounted to 1855, ,947.42
This is a gain of about 100 per cen
in four years, and in the same tim
the salary gain has been but about 81
per cent.
According to Mr.. Shepard's state
ment, then, the county will this yea
collect $4,000 to be expended with
out any act of the supervisors, AM
the Press would suggest to him tina
he compile statement showing hoN
that great sum is to be disbursed.
Mr.. Shepard has enumerated tn
items of expense to be met out o
that S28S,0O0 as follows: Salaries 70
all officers and deputies and their ex
penses, feeding prisoners. county hos
pital. pest house, miscellaneous sup
plies, interest on highway bonds, ex
position funds, employers insurance