The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1923-02-15
CITY COUNCIL MET


The council held a meeting o.
Tuesday evening and received the re
port of Auditor C. B. Moon, who ha
been reviewing the books from Ma.
to February to bring them down tt
date. cn 10.
Mr.. Moon >says in his report, tina
he finds the books and accounts IL
good condition, and expresses salts
faction at the manner in which the
city's debts and credicts are re-
fected in the present system of &C
counting. He has been auditing the
books for several years, and in each
of his other reports he has advised
making considerable change In the
accounting system. He has shown
leaks that the books did not disclose
even if the same man were in charge
OF them all the time, and to new
clerk and new council coming in,
there would be many matters in
which the city would lose by over
.6l6AL d5 Ill LILO Ol0 by6tCAnp VI 1dCh Va
system. For example, he found that
we had few hundred dollars on de-
post in a bank in New York, and
some interest coupons out and prob
ably lost by the owners. His audit
brought the money to light for the
city, and the modern system now in
use here would reveal the credit in
New York or wherever 1t might be,
instead of merely assuming that 1t
had been used to redeem the
coupons. In some cities, thousands
Of dollars have been found and re-
turned to the city In such matters.
The present system here makes the
clerks books check against errors in
the treasurer's office and the treas
urer's books check against errors in
the clerks office. Under the system
In use few years ago our city funds
were protected by the honesty Of the
officials rather than by the things
revealed at sight when the books
were examined. Clerk and treasurer
kept track of things that changing
administrations might easily lose.
In an audit made two or three years
ago, Mr.. Moon said that If the treas
uICT udu ulCQ anu bO"ODOuy OlSO
had had to open up the books and
administer the city accounts from
the system then used, it would have
been almost impossible to straighten
out everything and know that 1t was
all attended to. Mr.. Chapman's
personal knowledge and his skill in
keeping track of things by the sys-
TEN allowed him, enabled the audi
tors to account for everything, but
the present system is based on the
that the clerk and
treasurer may die today and that the
city corporation will still function
and will want the books to show
everything, and to show it at the
close of each days business. Clerk |
Quillin and Treasurer Chapman and |
Auditor Moon, acting under the adj
vice and authority of the council, |
have instituted the new and better
things, have done great amount of |
work to establish something better, |
and are justly proud of it.
Paying for Street
The oldest Indebtedness the city
now has to take care of is a bond |
Of $4,000 issued in the year 1906, to
pay part of the cost of opening one
block of Pacific street from Main to
The whole cost was
5000, and $4,000 was raised by
to buy out firms that
we're doing business in the street
and had good title to the property.
The bond was made payable in ten or
twenty years at " per cent and for
seventeen years we have been paying
$500 a year interest, making a total
If $500 already paid, and the prin-
,ipal is still unpaid. There is now
n the treasury $4416.48 ready to
apply on it.
The rules of the finance committee
ire that current bills against the
,ity shall be filed with the clerk not
ater than Saturday preceding the
late of the meeting of the council.
they act on bills on the first Tuesday
n each month, and the finance COM
nittee has to meet and audit the
,ilIs before the meeting of the
council itself, so that bills filed with
he clerk on Monday or Tuesday be
ore a meeting, do not get audited
md paid until a month later, unless
t is done as an accommodation by
alling the finance committee to-
,ether at an extra sitting, and that
S not considered good business as
he rule is an old one and most peo-
lie have been informed about it.
Tor those that have forgotten, we
epeat the message-file bills Satur-
ay before the Tuesday meeting and
emember that bills are considered
My at the first Tuesday in the
Month.