The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-05-24
Lili Report Shows
 Deficit of SS4,212.51

(Continued From Page One.) | accounted for but which within a | short period usually works out as ap- 1 plicable to some account. A report made out by -he City Auditor and for ! warded to Mayor Atwater and City Attorney John A. Cornell. Jr., by the ~ May p. 1922. Hon. Fred Atwater, Mayor, City of Bridgeport, Conn. 1 Dear Sir-It becomes my duty to ] report to you that the accounts Of Howard F. Smith, Collector of Taxes. tions from April to November, 1921. disclose a failure to account for l s85,3OO.0S. which sums appear to have been collected.
 Yours respectfully, BERNARD HEATING, City Auditor.
 It will be noted that the apparent discrepancies occurred between the month of April, and November of 1921, when Smiths term of office expired. As the specific instances which brought to light on alleged dis crepancy in the amount of money collected by Smith and deposited by him to the city account, Heating re- fused to make any comment other than he did not think it the oppor- tune time to divulge the statistics which his investigation had brought forth. "There will in all probability be some litigation over the affair and at that time I will give the particu- lars of the findings made by me in going over the books of the Tax Col lector."
 Mayor Atwater had nothing to say concerning the affair other than that it was quite too bad that such an incident occurred, and am most concerned in seeing that the city ob- tains an accounting for the money alleged to have been collected and not desposited and if the allegation is true, that the city will be paid the money due it. said the Mayor. ''As to making any prosecution we first have to be see what action is taken by the bonding company"
 Collector Edward E. Drew said that he had been instructed by Aud itor Keating that he was to make no entries or use the books of Tax Collector Smith other than to refer to them when needed. "All the books of the office used by Smith have been used by me for reference only. have been given an entirely new set of books and have had no occasion to use the books of Smith other than to refer to them."
 Papers in the suit brought by
 the city, read as follows:
 The Writ.
 To the sheriff of the county
 of Fairfield, his deputy or eith-
 CT sheriff of the city of Bridge port. or e1Jner COnSI2Dlo the town of Stratford in the county of Fairfield and state of Con necticut.
 Greeting. STATE OF CoNNEcrIcUT. You are hereby commanded to
 attach to the value of One Hun
 6Ded 6Ged Thousand Tho a Dollars ts1oo, HOWARD E. SMITH formerly of the city of Bridgeport, Coun- ty of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, but now of parts appear before the Superior Court to be held within and for the County of Fairfield on the first Tuesday of June. 1922, the CITY OF BRIDGEPORT, a
 municipal corporation existing under and by virtue of a charter granted by the General Assem- bly Of the state of Connecticut, located in the County of Fair-- field, in said state state, in a civil action wherein the plaintiff com
 plains and says:
 l. On the Tuesday next follow ing the first Monday of Novern- " Der A. D. 1912, the defendant at an election duly held in ac- cordance with the statute laws the provisions of the charter of the city of Bridgeport was duly elected to the office of Tax Col Gectcr and on the 10th day of November. 1919, duly qualified in accordance with the provi- sions of the charter of the city of Bridgeport to assume and dis charge the duties of said office
 2. Immediately thereupon, de- fendant entered upon the duties
 of said office of Tax Collector as prescribed by statute and the provisions of the charter of said city of idgeport, and continued to hold and adm mister said of flee from said 10th day of No verber 1919, until the Sth day of November, 1921
 8. AS Tax Collector, afore- said, it was defendants duty to call all taxes, assessm ents and poll and military taxes from time to time laid by or due the plain tiff. and to deposit with the Treasurer of the city of Bridge port, before 8 o'clock in the af- ternoon of each business day, all monies, collected by him dur ing the twenty-four hours then ended.
 i. During the period com
 nencing an the 10th day of No vember 1919, and ending on the 9th day of November. 1921, in his