The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-23

Any COutTONcISJ DCtWCCu Hl0tu- bers of tho city commission is dis tasteful to me and must be to the public" MT. Cloe says in his state ment to The Age-Herald last night, but in justice to myself I feel that some explanation of tho proposed reduction in salaries of policemen and firemen should be made.
 Impeachment Echo
 several weeks ago the president of the commission addressed. letters to me and associate commissioners in which he declared he would not be responsible for expenditures in our respective departments in excess of budget appropriations. He also warned us that such expenditures constituted grounds for impeach- ment Desiring to cooperate with the president of the commission. l have practiced strictest economy in my department, but found 1t impos sible to come within my appropria- tion. In order to do this l conceived the idea of a 10 per cent reduction in salaries of all men in my depart ment for the last two months of the fiscal year.
 Says McLendon Approved
 Commissioner Cloe states further that he discussed the plan with Pres ident McLendon to which he gave hls approval, but MT. McLendon late last night authorized the statement that when the plan was outlined to him by the safety head, he sought to dis courage the idea of salary reduc- ton which brought forth the open break between the two.
 3T am opposed uneQuivocaily in reducing the salary of any mAm in either departments because
 the head of that department al- lows himself and his department to exceed his budget appropria-
 tfon," said Mir. McLendon- "It is unfortunate that this breach has occurred, bat 1t h my conscjen- tious belief that Mir. Cloe has
 made . bad move and I do not
 approve of his plan nor didn't consent to 1t when the matter
 was first mentioned, although frankly I did not believe at the time he would actually make any such reductions. I left the matter of getting within his
 budget squqrely up to him and
 expected him to carry out this fdea as the other commissioners have.
 Continuing in hIs public statement
 
 T discussed the plan informally with all of the commissioners. On the day before the letter notifying the men of the reduction was sent ort I submitted it to Mir. McLendon and he approved the plan No suggestion of an additional appropriation to take care of the deficit was msdc by the president of the commis- sion.
 At . conference called by one of the commissioners the day after the letter was sent out.
 the suggestion of one of the as- sociate commissioners that an additional appropriation to take
 care of the deficit was made and agreed to-" continued MT. CIoe,
 hut, says Mfr. McLendon, this "action followed by instructions
 to MT. Taylor. the city comp troIIer that all funds available
 be tabulated and presented to
 the commission which resulted in the motion by Commissioner
 Dickson that the special fund
 retained as a sinking fund on remaining school bonds unsold
 be appropriated for relief of the
 public safety department which
 is or was at that time more
 than s1e.OOO over the budget af-
 1owance despite the fact that .
 first e1O.0OO had just few
 weeks ago been transferred to
 MT. Cloe's department"
 Concluding his statement, Mir. Cloe says:
 Every one knows that in confer ence and in open meetings, l have advocated better pay for my men and no one Is more delighted than that the commission made the additional appropriation to my department. The president of the commission could have saved me the embarrassment had he suggested an additional ap- propriation when he read my letter to the men before it was sent out, but I am willing to stand the embarrass- ment if this method was necessary to get the appropriation and avoid. cutting the salaries of our men. I did not want my men or any one else to misunderstood my attitude in the matter"