The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-02-05

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New York City has had experience
with Cancelled mortgages being used
or sold as valid liens on property
for It is to defeat Just such pur-
pose that the law demands the pre-
6ervation of the mortgage for twen-
~ years after settlement and then
the Register must supervise the
burning Of 1t.
The new Connecticut Law which
allows cities and towns to dispose
Of old records probably won't be
taken advantage Of by too many
communities, for there are a great
many officials who believe In the
preservation of them no matter
how seldom they may be consult
ed or used. Municipalities, the
size Of Waterbury or larger,
though, accumulate tremendous
quantities of records that are Of
no practical value once they have
served the purpose for which they
were issued. To keep them year
after year simply adds confusion
to departmental operation.
Some local political observers now
claim that the appointment Of Joe
Bender as Chief Inspector OF the
Police Department was in the bag"
from the very beginning, when, 1t
was H1lmored, he had strong support
from prosecuting authorities. The
later hue and cry about Sergt. Jim"
Magner IS referred to by these same
parties as a smoke screen, with the
idea being that protests about leap
frogging" Wagner from his present
post to head Of the detective bureau
would take attention away from
Bender, McElligott, Pollard. and
other candidates. There are others,
though, who claim that the promo
ton of Chief Inspector Bender came
as O result of a decision of the Po-
lice Board to advance a member
of the bureau and the appointee was
able to muster the necessary support
among the five commissioners.
Waterbury's year-Old pension
retirement commission was off to
q start this week with the MEM
ber& obviously not anxious to grab
something too hot for them to
hold. From the news reports it's
obvious that the commission,
which must report back to Mayor
JOHN S. MOnagan by Jan. Is, 1945,
wants to put any pension plan it
endorses on an actuarial basis, for
employment of such an official is
to be one Of the first things done.
With the city employing about
1850 persons in all its various
departments an actuarial survey
might we'll run between $500 and
$1,000, il it's possible today to get
such assistance from qualified in
dividuals. The commission was
extremely modest in its first re-
quest for financial assistance,
though, with $1,000 to be asked Of
the Board Of Finance.
Three thoughts occur as an after
math of Thursdays organization
session Of the retirement commits
sion. will the commission recon-
mend the adjustment of the pres
ent City Retirement Commission,
composed Of three members, Who
act solely on requests for retirement
from gel raj governmental employees
who qualify for the same? 2-will
the activities of the commission be-
come so all-inclusive that the Board
OF Finance will see fit to discharge
a sub committee 1t named a year
ago to make a similar survey? 8
does the public realize that six OF
the seven members of the commits
sion are members until the work Is
completed, If that should be one,
two or ten years, whereas the sew
enth must always be the Controller
of the City of Waterbury? So II
Senators John F. Tobin, Frank Sum-
ma and Rep. Arthur Tanner should
not seek office again or might be
defeated, they would still retain
membership. Their successors, If
such there were. would not become
commission members.
OF concern to the financial Of
ficers of the city government at
times Is the manner in which pre-
vious years bills turn up for pay
ment. For example In 1943 there
was set up in the budget an item
Of $500 to take care Of those bills
which failed to show up prior to
January 30th. But In June 1t be.
came necessary for the Finance
Board to transfer funds into this
item and the substantial amount
- $500 was made available. Lit
tne u TINS was actually used, but
when the 1914 budget was pre-
pared the item for previous years
bills was set at $4,000. And now
officials say this isn't going to be
any too much this year. What
they can't understand, though, Is
why departments will let large
amounts Of bills run over and at
the same time boast Of large I'M