Arizona republican., 1922-02-17

Vited their opinions and advice, with
the hope in my heart that when my
service ended. and my actions had
been weighed. they would entitle me
to the respect of at least large
majority of the, taxpayers OF the
county Whether or not will real
ize this hope. it remains for the fu-
ture to determine But the fact that
have failed to please some Is more
than apparent right now.
My conception was. and is, that
the first and paramount duty Of a
public official is loyalty to the pub
lie, the safeguarding of its every in
terest. the conservation of It's means,
and a compliance with it's wishes as
far as 1t is humanity possible; and
these things | determined to do as
well as could.
With this end in view, I proceeded
to get information regarding the
matters pertaining to the duties OF
the office--the business in which the
county was engaged--and I found
prominently among them the. large
project of highway, construction. for
which at that time four million dol
lars of the peoples money had been
appropriated.
became interested in the latter
enterprise, and in order to learn in
detail all matters in connection with
Ii, as I felt II my duty to do. / in
vestigated the conditions under which
the work was being prosecuted, the
methods in use, ETC., and after care
ful thought, came to the conclusion
that there was one feature of II that
was positively unfair to the public.
This feature had to do with the
n -
that to my mind tended to the elm
ination OF competitive bidding, which
in turn had the effect OF a greater
| cost OF construction. resulting in
placing upon the taxpayers an addi-
tional and needless burden.
| concluded that for the protection
OF the people, this tiifferential should
either be abolished or made public to
all, so that every bidder would have
an equal chance. while the public
looked on and saw Justice was being
done: ana this, to my mind. would
result in a much decreased construc-
ton cost. and being convinced in this.
I talked IT., feeling at the time that
It could only be applicable to work
to be done, and moneys available in
the future. as the contracts let were
as water already gone over the
discovered were beyond recall, and
not worth recalling except as a guild
ance in future action. In other
words, what,I aimed at was the mat
ter OF getting proportional value out
OF the four and one-haif million dol
lars than the four million.
Investigation taught me that the
views OF the commissioners were at
variance with mine in this matter
In fact. / understood that they were
satisfied with both the methods and
results. which /, as a result OF the
auditors report, felt the more 1usti-
fled in my objection to the method.
Up TO this time / had no particular
interest in the personnel of the COM
mission, and as a matter. OF fact, I
have none today. With me IL was
and is results. not men. l had. how
ever, the impression that the com
mission was appointed to expend the
four million dollars, and that its
further incumbency depended en-
tirely upon its REGARD OF stewardship
during that time, and that II was
the privilege of the board Of super
visors, as the peoples, representa-
tives, to judge it according to its
deeds.
Even at that, It had not occurred
to me to make changes of men. but
methods. But when 1t became ap-
parent to me that past methods
which I fully believed to be almost
disastrously expensive, had still the
unanimous approval of the commits
sion, came to the parting of the
ways with it, and accepted the only
alternative. / advocated to my coll
leagues its removal and the appoint-
nent of a new commission. My mo-
tive in so doing was to get more
miles for the money by reducing the
cost per mile construction through
the medium of competitive bids, and
to accomplish this l still think IL
necessary to do with the differential,
as | have already stated
For my actions in this matter /
have been charged with PARTISAN
ship: l have been charged a0 want
ing to create a partisan commission,
with wishing to inject politics into
what 1 have always considered a
business proposition, positively out
Of the pale OF politics. Nothing
could have been farther from the
truth: 1 have no politics when 1t
comes to service.
IL the commission had agreed with
me in regard to the differential, /
would have been for its retention;
If as it now stands, the commission
will either abolish this differential
or make II public property, l am
with it, and in perfect accord. II it
does not, I am still against IL, and
/ want to be placed on record as such,
for | believe their action will cost
Maricopa county one million dollars
Pending the decision of the court,
7 'refrsined from expressing myself.
and as far as the courts decision is
concerned, / still have nothing TO
say. / am not lawyer. l know
nothing of the aspects Of the matter.