Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1920-10-22
City Hall DoingS

October, last Tuesday AFTERNOON the
10Th. hey found City Clerk Winter
burn still clinging to his post Of duty,
Notwithstanding the passage oil a mo-
ton at last weeks meeting removing
him sfor cause" AS noted in the
JOURNAL on October 18th, the city
clerk refused to abide by this summary
dismissal and applied at once to the
Supreme Court of the state. through
his attorney, e.. l.. Cole, of Atlantic
CITY. for a writ OF certiorari, which was
granted, asking the majority commits.
sioners to show cause for this attempted
removal. At last Tuesdays meeting
the writ was formally served on the
commissioners. In order that the tax
PAYERS and other citizens of Wild wood
NAV become conversant with legal
forms the wording of the writ is here
with produced verbatim:
"We, being willing for certain rea-
sons to be certified of a certain motion
or resolution of the commissioners Of
the city Of Wild wood, passed and
adopted at a meeting held on October
18th, 1920, removing Alfred Winterburn
from the position or Office Of city clerk,
do command that you certify and send
to our Justices of our Supreme Court at
Trenton, on the 4th day of November,
1920, ss well as the said motion or
resolution with all things touching
and concerning the same, as fully and
entirely as they remain before you,
together with this our writ, hat we
NAV cause to be done thereupon what
of right and according to law and JUS
tice ought to be done
"Witness: Hon. William S. Gum
mere, Chief Justice of our said Supreme
Court, on this 18th day of October,
1920. g. l.. Cole, attorney. e. l..
johnson, clerk"
What cause or causes the two COM
missioners may have had for the re-
moval of the city clerk is kept carefully
guarded. When Commissioner Bright
was seen after the October 18th meeting
and pressed to state the cause, or to
give at least some intimation OF the
nature of the objections to the present
clerk, the director of revenue and fin
ance was very reserved-refused to
divulge any information along this
line on the ground, as he was under
stood to say, that he wanted to spare
or protect the feelings of this public
servant-did not want to expose I'M
necessarily his alleged shortcomings or
service to public view, unless COM
PEELED or forced 81 to do. The issuance
of the writ of certiorari will now re-
quire the Joint commissioners to "show
their hand" on November 4th. II
their reasons have have any basis Of
fact, without prejudice, their action
may be upheld by the court, as it
would be manifestly unfair to any de-
Lucrative body to be compelled to re-
tain any appointive officer whose
services were inefficient or not in &C.
cordance with their legitimate aims
and ends. On the other hand, If no
valid reason can be given-lf the OBJ
jections shall be simply chimerical or
the result of a notion Of caprice, then
the clerk may be reinstated by the
court, until such time as a good and
valid reason may be shown. No n
will seriously dispute the statement
that it is far easier to dislodge an APP
pointee of the commissioners than it Is
to dislodge any or all of the commits
sioners themselves. An appolntive
position is never so firmly ~intrenched
from attack or change as an
elective one. Until the reason for Mr..
Winterburn's removal is announced no
opinion can be formed pro or o n
Some persons may argue that he must
feel pretty sure that he is on a safe
foundation, or otherwise the clerk
would step down and out at once. But
on the other side it must be remem-
bered what power and discretion a
~deliberatlve body has IN the selection
and retention or dismissal Of its
appointees.
AS soon as the clerk had finished his
weekly Misunderstanding task last Tues
day afternoon Commissioner Smith
moved that these minutes of the pre-
vious meeting stand apprved as read
All of the commissioners voted yea.
1t had been anticipated that Mayor
Hendee would take an exception to
these minutes and have same noted on
the record, as opposing the removal of
the city clerk, whom he had appointed
at the organization meeting in May
last, and whose confirmation was effect
ed by the votes of the mayor and Com
missioner Bright, the third commits
sioner voting pay.
Affar tho onnr0uo1 Of tho n1innfoS ac