Show ITHE I CONTINGENT FUND Brought Up at the Council Committee tee Meeting TALK OF CRIMINAL ACTION THREAT MADE BY MTJLVBY AT THE CLOSE His Honors Veto of the Warm Spring Lease Believed t Have Some thing to Do With the Mtel Statement That the Fund I Safe and Thai Glendinning Will Account Ac-count For Every Dollar of It Councilman Mulvey will compel Councilman Coun-cilman Romney to cause the arrest and prosecution of Mayor Glendinnlng for neglecting failing and refusing to account ac-count for the disbursements from the contingent fund At least that is the essence of what the doughty council man emphatically announced to the chairman of the finance committee last evening as a parting shot after an animated ani-mated exchange of words on the subject of councilmanic duty Several of the city dads assembled in the council chamber last evening to hold the regular weekly committee meetings The deliberations of the committees were unusually commonplace common-place until Mulvey came in and asked Councilman Romnev what the finance committee intended doing in the mattel mat-tel of compelling the mayor to render a satsfactor accounting of the contingent con-tingent fund In an instant all interest was centered upon the dialogue THE WORDY COMBAT Romney as chairman of the finance committee which has under consideration consider-ation the councils resolution calling for a showdown by the mayor in the matter of the contingent fund replied that he was not prepared to say what recommendation the committee would decide to make toward compelling an accounting Mulvey waxed warm and declared that it was about time the committee brought in a report recommending some decisive action and if something were not done soon to stir the mayor up a few of Romneys colleagues would be nursing a large amount of regret Romney retained his selfcomposure and informed his adversary that he did not conceive i to be his duty to commence com-mence criminal proceedings against the mayor and further that if it is a councilmans duty then it was as incumbent in-cumbent on the dissatisfied member to present the facts to the public prosecutor prose-cutor Councilman Romney also stated that he believed the council as a body would yet take proper action in the premises Then Councilman Mulvey made the declaration that he would compel the chairman of the finance committee to cause the mayor to be made the defendant defend-ant in a proceeding brought under the criminal cole THE MOVING CAUSE Around the council chamber it is no secret that since last Monday when the mayor vetoed the new lease of the Warm Springs Councilman Mulvey and some of his colleagues have been sharpening a poniard for his honors entertainment at an early date Even the rotund councilman does not deny that he has promised a fulfillment of his readymade dream as related at Tuesday nights council session and which depicted two of his follow cons oilmen making a deal with the mayor to veto the lease in consideration 01 < i backdown from the demand for a accounting ac-counting of the contingent fund Last evenings incident was but an impromptu im-promptu rehearsal of the first ar of Councilman Mulveys programme but to auote the aggressive official the most sensational and exciting parts of the entertainment will come later positively pos-itively Speaking of the contingent fund a member of the finance committee asserts as-serts that about 4000 is in question that warrants to this amount approximately approx-imately have been drawn to the mayors order for purposes that were not strictly municIpal in nature The fund was long since exhausted WHAT TH ORDINANCE REQUIRES RE-QUIRES It was related by a certain councilman man early this week to a Herald man that he had made the discovery that under the ordinance there is no such thing as the mayors contingent fund The ordinance provides for a contingent contin-gent expense fund By custom it has been dubbed and officially recognized as the mayors contingent fund When Auditor Swans attention was called to the ordinance which requires that both he and the mayor shall faithfully account for the disbursements disburse-ments from this fund the auditor it is related was so overcome with surprise sur-prise that he swooned away When he came back to things material he said Show me the ordinance After reading read-ing it he continued My worthy and respected friend how should I know The mayor tendered his vouchers and I drew the warrants He spent the money I did not Its too bad The fund in question was never appropriated ap-propriated to Mayor Glendinnings credit I was exMayor Baskins unexpended un-expended balance which should have been covered back into the general fund but Auditor Swans predecessor carried I to the credit of the succeeding succeed-ing mayor This was not Auditor Swans act at all SAID TO BE SAFE Undoubtedly Mayor Glendinning will yet satisfactorily account for his disbursements dis-bursements from the fund or show a Goodsized balance returned to his credit However as a legal proposition it is freely stated by not a few councilmen coun-cilmen that the mayor cannot be required re-quired to render an account until the eve of his retirement from office and even then his failure or refusal to show down would not be a basis for either a criminal or a civil charge that could be successfully maintained One of the mayors close official friends is authority for the statement that his honor will not take advantage of any technicalities that would operate to his pecuniary benefit benft and that he will cease his stubbornness when the council by the expiration of the tenure of office quits its contentions Meanwhile the friction between the mayor and council will likely throw off some hot sparks to either the de light pc regret of those who will observe ob-serve the contest in the municipal arena |