The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-06-28

making personal account, for Leary as stockholder, he testified.
 Alderman, whose voice became more audible and stronger as he continued his testimony, said that his first work for the city of Wa terbury was in 1s3O on hire of Daniel J. Leary, who assumed the office of controller that year.
 Leary first spoke to him about employment for the city of Decem- Der, 1929, he said, in a large room adjacent to the mayors office In city hall.
 He was called, he said, to the city hall from the Diamond Ginger Ale, where he had been working. Uncertain About Purcell Leary, he continued, told him that he was contemplating appointing James P. Purcell as city accountant though he felt that Purcell had the ability" Alderman continued. "he was uncertain as to his exper- fence in general accounting" "He. requested that I work with Purcell, ,n~he said land do what I could to get him started on the work of the city of Waterbury" Alderman said that he started to work with Purcell in 1930.
 | After looking at the records of previous administration of the con- troller's office, Alderman said that he and Purcell found them to be very cumbersome" and all in long, hand.
 At that time, he continued, Con- troller Leary told him and Purcell that he had talked with William J. Robinson of the Griffenhagen & Associates, who had been working on the charter commission during that year. The same company had installed systems of bookkeeping in the state capitol, Alderman said he was told.
 According to Alderman, Leary told him that it would be good plan for him and Purcell to go to the capitol and see the workings of the system as installed by Griffenhagen. As a result Purcell drove to the capitol with Alderman, and they were shown the systems in opera ton. After that investigation and further investigation, Alderman said, he and Purcell recommended that a bookkeeping machine be pur- chased, and the recommendation was adopted.
 First Statement He said that with Purcell he worked on the first financial state ment for the first six months of the incumbency of Leary, as requested by Leary. Since that time, he con- tinued, he has seen several reports published, which have been on the same plan as the one he prepared. Under the direction of Crawford the witness defendant then started on a detailed explanation of the work he had accomplished for the city since 1930. He started off by saying that for the first few months of 1880 his work was confined to the main office of the controller on the first floor of the city Hall. Later he said, he did his work in l the aldermanic chambers on the sec- ond floor, or the aldermanic com imttee rooms adjacent.
 In 1881, he said he did much work on the reconciliation bank sheets which have been introduced by the state as evidence against various of the accused.
 Insofar as the bank reconcilia. ton sheets for December of 1880, and January and February of 1881 are concerned, he said, "They are almost entirely my work"
 Strangely, these same bank recon- ciliation sheets were considered by the state as major point in its case against the accused. Alcorn con- tended during his arguments for the admission of the sheets in evidence, that he was able to show payments $ by the city to a number of persons and firms, for which other records had been destroyed.
 Purcell was in the courtroom as Alderman gave that testimony. Water Debts Alderman said that in 1885 he prepared 8 schedule of back water debts due the city. AS a result of his work, he said, it was determined that the city was owed consider able amount. The work required the checking of individual consumers, he said, and an analysis of all pay- ments and charges made to consum- CTS for consumption of water" Also in 1883, Alderman continued, he compiled a schedule of the amount due on a special two mill tax which was levied in 1880, as of 1928, to meet the deficit of the pre- vious administration.
 An important moment in his testi- mony occurred when he described an incident in November, 1883. when he said he was called to the control ler,s office where Mayor Hayes and Controller Leary were in conference.
 Mayor Hayes told me to come in in November, 1883 and go to work in the welfare department.-to reorga- nize the department from start to finish-on the existence of records. The mayor said he had received complaints from the mayors and sel- ectmen of cities and towns and from the State of Connecticut" Alderman continued, "citing the delinquency of Waterbury in the cooperation in as- sumption of duties in fees for insti- tutional care.
 Mayor Hayes said that he did not believe the personnel of the welfare department was large or capable enough to cope with the situation" !" Alderman said.
 "ae said that the records were completely disorganized and would require an accountant to stralghten things out. He told me to do all the work to install what was necessary to straighten it out" Alderman con- tinued.
 The accountant said that he worked five days week on the job from the first Monday of November, 1883 to February, 1D36.
 Worked Nights
 Alderman said that. during that