| Show Ii v t DEBT OWING OFFICIALS i lJ p Attorney rioyer Writes to the County Commissioners i A PECULIAR LETTER GIVING A GENERAL DISSERTATON he Petition of the Deseret Savings Bank For a Rebate on Its Tax Assessment As-sessment North Point Irrigation Company There were several matters of importance Im-portance and some unique communications communica-tions before yesterdays meeting of the commissioners An entirely new point was raised bv the receipt of the following fol-lowing letter from Attorney George W Moyer who mixes up honesty and public officials in a singular manner His disquisition addressed to the board reads Gentlemen Permit me to call your attention to a matter that has frequently fre-quently Deen a subject of public discussion dis-cussion and In which every citizen ought to be interested namely that a public officials should pay their debts I am aware that the law exempts from garnishment the salaries of public officials and I think thulaw is wrong ofcials in this respect I am aware that the answer is that no person should Rive credit but this is simply an apology for the officials dishonesty for i cannot can-not be considered anything else In many departments the United States government has refused to retain re-tain in it employ officials who refuse to meet their just obligations I is based upon the assumption that a man who will not pay his honest debts will not deal honestly with the public and T believe the assumption is well founded Furthermore the law recognizes recog-nizes the credit system and people dealing with public officials ought not I to be censured because they at onetime one-time indulged in the presumption that public officials were honest The people of this city are paying t annually more than 3 per cent of what their property could be sold for as I taxes and if in addition to this any person should extend credit to a public official and be compelled to lose i there is indeed a reason to complain Not long ago a county official drawing draw-ing nearly J5000 per year besides being provided with a comfortable home by the county refused to meet a financial obligation of less than 200 to a widow in this town whose financial distress caused one member of her family to seek refuse in a suicidal grave and during the time when thls widow was I tme paying nearly 4 per cent of her prop I ertys valuation to support the county official I wish now to direct your attention 4 to a claim held against a person in the employ of the county at a salary I am Informed of 50 a month besides his board which makes the office worth In the neighborhood of 0 per month I refer to Mr Price employed at the county infirmary He is owing a debt of about 250 contracted while he was in the employ of the county Hehas been sued on this obligation allowed judgment to go by default having absolutely ab-solutely no defense for he offered none now shields himself by the protection pro-tection afforded him by the law that the saary of a public official cannot be garnisned I spoke to one of your members in regard to this matter I believe the practice is wrong I believe be-lieve it is SM injustice You will pardon me fo having thus addressed you at length us I believe the matter is one of mnortance and should receive your attention I Mr 4 Price will make arrangements to pay u small monthly payment of 25 or 20T he could soon liquidate this amount and do justice to himself and his creditors cred-itors I am most respectfully yours GEORGE W MOVER What will you do with the communication com-munication said Chairman Armstrong Arm-strong Well I dont know said Hall I believe we should encourage all officials cials to pay their debts 1 know if a person was working for me and would not pay his honest debtsI should discharge dis-charge him I do not think a public official should be treated in any ofcher way After some little discussion the letter was referred to County Attorney Van 4 Cott for an opinion as to whether the board can take any action to remedy such a matter ANOTHER ONE VIn the above had been disposed of the clerk proceeded to read another Granite Feb 18 To the Honorable Board of Salt Lake County Commissioners Gentlemen see you have appointed Mr Frederick Cowley road supervisor for Granite district 20 We wanted to know Whare you git your information informa-tion from that Mr Cowley is a Democrat Demo-crat he is not he Scraths the Democrat Demo-crat tick I know to be so a man that scraths his tick Is not a Democrat Party he is one of these that stands on corners looking for a office Gentlemen Gentle-men When the Democrat gits in Power we wanted Democrats to git the officers We have got good Democrats in Granite Gran-ite to take the Rod supervisor We Wanted a man to be Road supervisor that takes a Interes an vots the Democrat Dem-ocrat tick straeet Your truly GEO DRYBURGH Chairman Armstrong declared he never asked a man his politics and so long as a man performed his work it mattered not what party he belonged to However How-ever he believed Cowley was a Democrat Dem-ocrat > and a good man Rawlins thought so too and Dryburghs letter was placed on file for future reference A BANK ASSESSMENT Relative to the petition of the Deseret Savings bank for a rebate of the whole assessment of J4SS4770 on the capital I stock of the bank on the grounds that the stock was represented in real estate I es-tate which had been assessed and upon which taxes had len paid the county attorney sent in an opinion T commending c-ommending the petition be granted The board however saw fit to lay the matter over until the next regular meeting N NORTH POINT CANAL The following selfexplanatory resolution res-olution adopted at a recent directors meeting of the North Point Consoli dated Irrigation company was received and referred to the county attorney Whereas The Hon Judge A G Nor rell has this day made an order in the Third judicial district court of thee the-e state of Utah that the temporary injunction in-junction lately put in force by said court in favor of this company and f against the city and county of Salt r Lake and others be and the same is I hereby suspended and Whereas The dams recently placed p in the drain ditch from Deckers to White lake are expected to be torn out and large bodies of water allowed to flow down the surplus canal to the detriment of the Interests of this cm pany and Whereas This company Is informed by counsel and therefore believes said order to be inoperative and ineffectual in law now therefore be I Resolved That the secretary of this company be and he is hereby authorized au-thorized and directed to notify the city and county of Salt Lake and the secretaries sec-retaries of the several defendant canal companies that this company will hold them responsible for any and all damages f dam-ages that may accrue to this companys i prpperty If the said order is enforced W at this time The matter was referred to the county attorney I |
