The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-05-20
Existence of Powerful Political Machine Charged

stantial portion of that time it ap- pears BorgnaeS was engaged in se- curing information and preparing material for the use of the Mayor and the Comptroller in their various political campaigns. He spent the balance of his time in preparing the misleading and deceptive audit re- ports heretofore mentioned. AL though the services which Borgnaes was rendering were primarily per- sonal to the Mayor and to the Comptroller and of 8 strictly politi- cal nature, the City of Waterbury paid the Kingsley firm approximate ly $6,000. in 1895, $7,800. in 1886, and $8700. in 1887 for them, 8 portion of these fees going to Borgnaes and the balance to the Kingsley firm.
 Not only did these auditS not &C., curately state the city's financial condition, nor the manner in which the city's financial affairs were be- ing administered, but they indicated 8 specific design to conceal the ap- parent mismanagement and corrup- ton of the Hayes-Leary admins tration. Annually, the Mayor took occasion to point out reductions in the tax rate during his administra- ton. It is reasonable to believe that had the audits of the city's books honestly stated the city's financial condition, the tax rate would have increased with increasing expendi- lures. Only by using the proceeds from the sale of bonds to pay oper- ating expenses, did the administra- ton succeed in spending more money from less income for such a length of time. The Grand Jury concludes that these audits for which the city paid substantial sums annually were made not for the en- lightenment and protection of the taxpayers in the City of Waterbury, but largely for the protection and perpetuation of the Hayes-Leary re- gime.
 Alderman Paid
 In addition to the expenditures made by the city for so-called au- diting services of the Kingsley Com pany and for the personal services of Enoch Borgnaes above mentioned, substantial sums were paid from time to time to Simon J. Alderman, New Haven accountant. The exact purpose for which he was employed has not been made clear to the Grand Jury other than that his services were at the personal solicitation of the Comptroller and were not of such 8 nature as to have benefited the people of the city in any respect. He was secured by Comptroller Leary for certain special purposes during the last two weeks of his occupancy of the office of Comptroller and was paid ap- proximately $975. by the city and approximately $500. personally by the Comptroller for this work. Dur ing this time he examined certain warrants payable registers and cer- tain cancelled checks which bore the name of the Comptroller and, so far as the Grand Jury has been able to determine, was the last person in whose possession the now missing warrants payable register sheets for 1897 were seen. Employed for years as an accountant by Comptroller Leary in his various private enter prises, Alderman was also familiar with certain phases of the city's bookkeeping system. He was in a position to have assisted in abstract ing and removing the records which are now missing by virtue of the fact that he worked in the Comp troller's office late at night during the last two weeks of 1887, had a master key to the City Hall and all of its offices, and knew the combin- ation of the vault in the Comptrol- ler's office. |
 Banker Needed
 In the operation of these corrupt schemes it became essential that there be in active cooperation an influential person in a banking insti- tuition to handle the large sums of money in such a manner as to leave as few records of the financial tram sections as possible. In Carl D. Olsen the administration found such a