Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-04-28
EXPENDITURES
OF MAYOR Lane
INVESTIGATED

4 2
Not waiting for the close of the
primary campaign and the opening OF
the partisan campaign for the election
Of city and county officers Attorney
| Joseph Lightfoot. candidate for the
nomination Of city and county attorney
ca the Democratic ticket, has made
/, public figures which he has secured
/ on expenditures by Mayor Lane, large
~ made for entertainment purposes.
i II appears that Attorney Lightfoot
has employed two stenographers to In
! yestigate the mayors expenditures
and those stenographers have gone
carefully through the books and war;
rants In the auditors office They
have found that the mayor expended
for entertainments in 1916, $2835. 06,
and In 1916, $1313.2S. The "distin.
guished visitors" entertainment fund
was. 1t appears, drawn on only once
and then in connection with the enter
ta!nment Of the visiting congressional
party. This item is said to amount
! TO $1S59.34.
Lfghtfoot is said to have gone in
detail into all of the mayors expendi-
lures and not confined his inyestiga..
tons to items relating to entertain.
ment. Automobile expenses are said
to be also included both as to original
cost Of car and upkeep and running
costs.
Il do not believe that any office
holder, whether Republican or Demo
cratic, should waste the public money
as Mayor John C. Lane and the pres
ent administration has DONE"
This statement was made this morn
ing by Joseph Lightfoot In comment
ing on his attack on the automobile
and entertainment expenses incurred
by Mayor Lane.
AS Democrat, continued Light
foot, Il naturally want to see the Re.
publicans defeated but / made this in.
vestigation as private citizen and as
one / went to the mayor before made
It public to ask him IL he had any,
thing to say. He informed me that he
considered 1t legitimate to entertain.
whomsoever he wished. Z,
Lightfoot this morning filed his
nomination paper as the Democrat
candidate for city and county attor-
ney. When asked If his attack had
any political significance he admit.
ted that he hoped its would defeat
Mayor Lane saIss 5;
Mayor Answers WITH Figures "a
In reply to the attack of Joseph
ightfoot that the amount expended
by him for entertainments was en-
tirely out of proportion, Mayor John.
G. Lane declared this morning that
the total of his entertainment fund,
taking into consideration the higher
cost of living, Is not bit more than
that incurred by Mayor J j. Fern, the
office. in fact, gfa11ce at the books
in the auditors officesshows. he says,
that dinners and cigars and antonio
bile hire whfchi were charged against
the city by Fern followed each other
In rapid succession during the six
years he was in office
Mayor Lane also points out that the
entertainment fund was established by
the Democratic administration in 1909
when the. board appropriated $500 TO-
be expended by the mayor in his own
discretion. In 1915 the legislature
passed a law appropriating $1,000 q
year for the entertainment of distin-
guished visitors This FUND was ap.
propriated and expended when the
city entertained the Congressional
party through the mayor in 1915.
Department Expenditures Lower
To show that the executive depart
ment Of the city and county admins.
tration has not cost the taxpayers q
cent more during the past two years
than 1t did In Mayor Ferns six years,
the mayor gives the following figures
furnished by the auditor:
]. J, Ferns tenure of office, total ex-
penditures 1909 s6S9S.27, 1910 $685.. 06,
1911 $904567, 1912 $7307 AZ, 1918
S62S2.02, 1914 $7f92.26.
J. G. Lanes tenure OF office, total
expenditure: 1915 $8322.88> Cwhen
Congressional party was here), 1916
$685.. A.
AS the salary Of the mayor, $4,000, i
and the secretary. $1,000. or a total of
$4,000, has remained the same since
1910. the amounts spent by the two
mayors show very little difference AMI
IL fair percentage is subtracted from
Mayor Lanes account because Of the
recent increase In cost of ali articles
Of food and automobile equipment the
total will be lower.
Since the Democrats have begun
to sling mud against the Republican
mayor. which the Republicans in the
past have not been disposed to do, it
IL only i,ist that the public should