New Britain herald., 1918-02-23
7own Topics

'~o'''N'N-NNi
 | McDonough said a mouthfuI at the
 meeting of the council Wednesday
 when he expressed the opinion that
 IL is disgusting the way the council l acts at times, especially Tn reference ! to voting on some item at one meet Ing and at the next meetlhS ,reScihd- i ing this vote and voting differently
 This has been the custom of late and had not Mayor Quigley forcibly i brought the mem berS to their senses | on Wednesday night this same prac- | tce might have continued beyond
 that of the police department. Why
 any supposedly governing body like the common council does not take l enough interest in it's work to inVeS- ! tisate matters thoroughly and care i fully before voting, so that recon
 sideration is unnecessary, is one Of 1 the great questions in the city today 1 This fact, too, is one of the big req
 sons why so many people are agitat- 1 ing the ultimate discharge of the 1 council and the creation of a differ 1 ent governing board, say a board of a, ! nczen aldermen. To the mind of many, i the common council regardless of the ! calibre of the members, is too big ! and unwieldy body to be efficient 1 in a city as large as New Britain. Tn
 
 ! the governing body and Hartford, 1 which is certainly a progressive city 1 regard ess of irter-city jcalousies, has l likewise recently disp eused with the ] council and adopted the board of all dermen plan. But should it be de- l cided that this is the proper scheme, the suggestion will have to come from the big men in the republican party for that party Is supreme in New Britain and unless the really big men l in that party come out in favor of some party come out in favor of some
 such change the public, bound down
 by ancient traditions and customs, would be skeptical about a, change. One thing is certain. New Britain
 is pretty good city to live in. It has pretty good class of citizens
 and it is therefore, entitled to more dignified and certainly 8 effi- cient method of general administra- ton than has recently been exhibited by the common council.
 Here is little problem in acrostics: Cant
 Own
 Any
 Lately
 AM an investi gator Alderman O. F. Curtis runs second only to A. Conan i Doyle's in mortal Sherlock Holmes. His former Investigations are known to all. The willy third warden now appears with a new investigation of the town farm dairy barn and two separate Investigations of the water
 board. AS a result he claims that the model barn is Tn violation Of the ; state Ia w, that the water departm ent | sold wood to private parties at $6 and SS a cord when the public had to pay sig from other sources and that the water department does not compel William Bailey to live up to the terms of his municipal ice house contract. l Next! The suggested plan to pay city en- ployes weekly is causing considerable commotion among, the parties inter- ested. Some seem eager for the [ change, others say they prefer to be paid twice month, and others seem to fear that it will make moro work for the city com ptroller and may ulti- mately neceSSitate added expense for the city Those most interested in this proposed change claim that a majority of the city workers would , the flremen, possibly the policemen. Others are just as positive that the bi-weekly system Is better. Looking ! at the matter impa rtiatly, however, there seems to be no reason why city 1 ena ployes should not be paid weekly. Tn fact there is a state law providing that all corporations pay their em- ployes each week, and the city might be classcd as corporation. While the arSumen is put forth that an ' excessive amount of additional work would be heaped upon the comptrol- Ter, it seems that this could be avoid cd and his work made less, if any, 1 thing. Some scheme might be evolved where, by changes of ordi- 1 narces, each department make up its payroll each week and submit 1t to 1 the comptroller In many depart ! ments like the board of public works
 or the water department this is done
 now and in such cases 1t would only
 be necessary to add few names Then the comptroller could draw one ! check for the entire amount and the 1 head of the department properly ; bonded, could act as paymaster, the employees could get their pay weekly 1 and in cash; and without any hard ! l ship on the comptroller. In the case 1 of the police and fire departments ! it would even be less work for where
 now the com ptroller has to draw pos 1 siblv 100 or so individual checks 1 1 twice each month, he would only ] l have to draw single check for the 1 1 total weeks payroll at the end of 1 each week. As matter of fact however there l does not seem to be much discomfort | over the system of paying the help, 1 1 but as the city Is growing, it will
 eventually become necessary to pay