The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1952-01-10

~ Gil CfhCLhblNE oE55lOIl VI IIlG
Mayor and Council, held last Thurs
day night, Councilman Luther
Broom made a motion that the Po-
lice Commissioner be instructed to
dispense with the services of the
special officer Frank r. Diggins, who
has been doing special investigation
for the Police Department.
Mr. Broom's motion was not sec
onded and he then withdrew his
motion and requested that special
meeting be called for 500 o'clock on
Monday afternoon, at which time
Mr.. Ellinger would be present in
order to answer any questions put
to him.
As soon as the Monday afternoon
meeting was convened by Mayor II.
L. Mills, Mr.. Broom explained that
he had endeaVored, at the executive
meeting last week, to find out how
long the Commissioner intended to
retain the services of Mr.. Diggins,
but that the Mayor was unable to
answer his question at that time,
since that was a matter, of course,
solely in the hands of the Police
/ Commissioner. Mr.. Broom then
posed the same question to Mr. Ell
Iinger at Mondays open meeting,
who replied that "the services Of
special officer Diggins will be re-
tanned as long as States Attorney
John Hollyday and myself feel that
/ he is needed" Mr.. Broom then
thanked the Commissioner and said
that he was perfectly satisfied with
his answer and had nothing more
to say.
The next speaker for the Council
was Councilman Roy Knight, who
severely criticized the Commission
er and the Board Of Public Works
for the manner in which special Of
ficer Diggins had been paid for his
services and he also criticized the
Commissioner for allowing Diggins
to reside at the Hotel Alexander,
stating that this question Vi resi-
dence had caused a great deal of
dissatisfaction in the Police Depart
ment Mr.. Ellinger's simple reply to
that was, that he believed that he
had the full confidence of the entire
Police Department and that not a
man on the force had complained to
him.
Mr. Knight then further stated
that there was a great deal Of dis
satisfaction in the Police Depart
ment because Of a runnor that police
officers Doarnberger and Wigfeld
were to be made serge ants-this OBJ
vious attempt to draw the Commits
sioner out, properly went unanswer-
ed.
In the matter of the payment to
special officer Diggins, Mayor Mills
made it perfectly plain that the
Board of Public Works was acting
strictly within its legal rights in pay
ing his salary and expenses, since
there were ample funds in the Police
Department budget with which to
pay them, and he also pointed out
that if the Council wanted to take
action regarding the payment Of the
officers salary and expenses, they
should have taken that action at a
Council meeting before the pay
ments were made, instead of criti-
Ching them afterwards.
At this point, Joseph S. Ward,
Public Works Commissioner in
charge of the Light Plant, without
being called upon by anyone, asked
to be heard. When recognized by
the Mayor, Mr. Ward stated that
both he and Chairman of the Board
Aaron Reecher were fully aware of
Mr.. Ellinger's intention to use the
/ services of an outside investigator;
that his action had their full ap-
proval, and that both he and Mr..
Reecher had the utmost confidence
in their fellow Commissioner.
Councilman Broom then stated
that he was sure the Council would
have, if necessary, appropriated ten
times the money paid Mr.. Diggins.
but their complaint was that the
Council had not been taken into Mr..
Ellinger's confidence and so were
completely in the dark as to what
was going on, until they read about
it in the newspapers.
Mr.. Ellinger, in reply to this
statement. said that the success of
undercover work depended largely
on the secrecy surrounding it and
while he was sure that no member
of the Council would deliberately
betray confidence, it sometimes
happens that during conversation.
even between officials themselves.
- L,