Show editorials THE and THE COUNTY clere CLERK THE dispute betwee ii tho the house louse of representatives and the clerk clerfe of bait sat lake county court count has occasioned some gome public and in order that the subject may be clearly understood a little ex explanation piana plana ia necessary A letter ietter from the clerk which appears in this morn ings is herala herald being calculated to mislead we present the fauts facts that thai the people may have the opportunity of arriving at correct conclusions conclusion relative to tinb tins subject athas it has been customary cu y ton fot the clerks of the tho th earious various county courts to furnish a statement of tho the financial condition of their respective counties to the legislative assembly at eacil session these theae reports appear regularly in the journals of the tile legislature and enable the peo pie to arrive at sonae understanding of the manner in which the public moneys have been expended there are three enactments anthe on the i statute books relating to the financial statements of the counties coun ties the ts which is compiled laws requires the county courts to keep an account of the receipts and ex tures keep a copy posted up in three public places or have it jt published in some newspaper having a general circulation in the county lavo havo the original filed in the office of the county court and cause a copy thereof to be annually furnished to the legislative assembly of the territory during the first two weeks of its I 1 ts session the next la Is section of the compiled laws which devolves the duty of keeping an au accurate financial account upon t the county oders ole rs but this not be ing considered sufficiently specifics specific another law was passed in irk 1880 amending the last named section so as to read as follows fol tol loWa the clerks of the county courts are hereby required to keep an rate account of all recel necel receipts apts and expenditures tures of their respective counties also of all au debts payable to and by said counties at the opening of the session of the county court on the first monday in june annually the said eaid court shall call fur and receive the county treasurer s report as provided in bec bee of the compiled laws of utah bf the condition of the treasury on the day of may next preceding and shall settle with said treasurer the county clerk shall thereupon submit to the sald said Court a statement in ing the receipts during the fiscal year ending on the said alst day of may blay the balance if any in the treasury at the close of the previous fiscal year the expenditures during the fiscal year just closed specifying separately in said expenditures the amount am aunt paid to each officers officer and for every other disbursement and the balance on hand together with a statement of all the debts payable to and by said counties the said courts shall thereupon audit said statement statements and the county clerk shall within ten days from the clos close e of said audi tation publish a true copy of said statement as approved by the county court in some newspaper p al published in tue tae county and having abing general circulation therein if f there be one if there be no buch such paper then tilen by posting up the said copy in their offices and shall keep said copies posted up during the year A neglect of this duty by any elerk of the county courts shall render him liable to a fine in any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars taking the jaw of 1880 as here given and the pro siaion of section compiled laws which has never been repealed it will be seen that a copy of the financial statement sta which the later law requires tile uie clerk to make in out and have havo fuhl pull published ish should be bent cent to the assembly during the first two weeks of ot its session by whom two tto law says the county courts shall cause a copy thereof to be furnished who is the officer that performs the work the county clerk ot of course he keeps the account he makes out the report he posts up the copy or dt publishes it in a newspaper and he is the person representing the court who the go copy py to the legislature now row let us see eee where the difficulty has arisen reference Ee ference ferenee to fond ford mer reports from salt bait lake county will show that the amounts amoun ts paid to county officers have been reported in a lump thus the journals of the assembly for 1880 show shiow in the salt bait lake county report for 1878 compensation to county officers and em aloyes and for 1879 1878 compensation to county officers and em aloyes by this report no one can tell what amount was paid for the services of each officer and the question is have the public the right to know anything about these expenditures and the tho remuneration received by publio public servants if not the controversy tro bro versy ia Is ended but the legislative assembly of 1880 considered that a full account ike ite count should be intelligibly 0 rendered and amended the law for that very purpose but the clerk of bait Salt lake county has gone td the other extreme having formerly made a lump of the amount amounts ff paid in t the he aggregate to all the county officers he next proceeded to spread out the accounts till thoy they were so thin that no one without great labor could tell any more from tile new state ments than the old what each boffl had received or what had been paid out for each disbursement dur durl ing the fiscal year with tile tho object of this cour course sei sef we have nothing at present to do the public can draw their own inferences we are only stating facts and making explanations iana lana I 1 I 1 the clerk of bait salt lake county sent to the legislative assembly a copy of his financial statements tate ments and that with all the statements from other counties was waa referred to the committee on claims and public accounts on examination the committee found that every other county clerk but bat the olli official cial clai of salt lake county had made out a report complying with the plain tion of the law which requires firs first 4 arh ach a statement in detail showing the receipts during the f fiscal year second fethe the balance in the treasury at the close cloae of the previous fiscal year v third the expenditures during the fiscal year just closed specifying separately in said expenditures the amount paid to each officer and for goery every other dis p fourth and the balance on hand to together jether with a statement of all the debts payable to and by said counties but the halt lake county report of expenditures was not tool in the nature of an annual statement m ent but an itemized copy from the books it did not show the 94 amount paid to each officers officer but the thia several small email items disbursed so thoroughly mixed and mingled with other expenditures that the committee could not unless they employed a clerk pick ick iek out and total the amounts so as to to make the report conform to all the others submitted they therefore rendered a re report r t t to 0 the house asking whether clerical r lc a i labor should be employed or the ire jre e port be returned to the clerk to make out in the form desired the house instructed the committee to take the latter course they wrote to the clerk under date of jan tan requesting him to make his report con conform forni to the others all he was desired to do was to pick out the items and then total them in such a way that the law as by the committee and by every other county clerk cleak in the territory should be complied with no Ko answer coming for three weeks the house pressed ther the committee to action and a member of the committee waited upon the clerk who under date of feb 18 sent a reply in which he claimed that owing to press of business he had not matured in his mind satisfactory conclusions as to how to meet the request ss the committee wrote again showing the clerk how to td comply with their request and simply desiring himwich out discussing legal questions to sunup bum sum up the total amounts paid to each Ol licer ileen and for every other purpose pose i or answer at once that he could not or would not riot comply no reply coming the clerk was again visited by a member of the committee anden and on march ad a do delay of 10 days addressed the following hol hor to i the i committee appointed to communicate with him but to the house clu clr city cin mir march sh 2 1682 1982 1 to tho nom kom tsa tse assembly of the territory of utah utan on mature reflection I 1 nind find myself under the necessity of returning to you the accompanying financial statements owing first to the fact that I 1 cannot harmonize the suggestions suggest loiis made by your committee on claims and public accounts with either the laws of or ISSO 1880 second that no law exists requiring the county clerk to td make mako any re port whatever to 0 o the legislative AB As and thira third through the thel accumulation of business before me I 1 am unable to fl furnish you such a xelva report t as would be in keeping withlaw with law and the suggestions gest ions lons of the committee and do J justlee justice ustine to the records of my office I 1 remain res respectfully D bookholt BoO KnoLT elerk clerk of the county court courts salt county utah alm nym now how othero if there is no law requiring the county u nty cler cier clerks loa los ica to report why did this who claims to be such a stickler nor for law send in any report at all As we javo have shown the clerk cleric does the clerical work of the court courts he is the officer who in every instance has i ent the reports to the assembly and 19 is is 19 su supposed to th be acting for and in behalf of the C court at rt in doing a so but seeing that ho bb sent in a report after all why did he not furnish it in the form ze required he a answers accumulation lation of business makes him unable to comply with the law and the bug aug suggestions of the committee and do justice ce to tae tao reco reeo records in his office what V at is the matter then with the records ln ina his office are they not 11 in accordance with law and how can call a i record be affected by the simple edition addition 0 of dahe the items m n a state 0 the items m n a ment supposed to be made up from the records no one asked the clerk to alter a figure in hla hia books nor to materially change the substance of hib hia report he ae was simply asked to bum eum up in totals for each year the amounts paid to each county officer and for every other disbursement this he has refused to do giving any substantial reason and the attempt at excuse conveyed in the last paragraph of his jetter to the house houses places him in I 1 no enviable light bi before thinking people there is no need to make any remarks upon its flimsy riess ness and inconsistency as any anyone one who reads and reflects will discover that at a glance on the ad lust just a vote of df censure was wa passed on the clerk of sait bait lake county by the house of representatives presenta tives he ile makes tue statement in this mornings herald that it was on resolution introduced by the committee on claims and public lic accounts this i is entirely untrue twit thai committee had nothing whatever to do with the resolution it wab was offered by a gentleman who had no connection with the committee but the clerk seems to have become angry with the committee because they performed a duty imposed upon them and not content with treating them with the discourtesy of addressing to the house his delayed reply to their communication he now seeks to misrepresent them through the columns of a popular journal one more item in relation to this report and we have done the clerk seems to think that the law jaw requires a detailed or itemized account of the expenditures to be given careful reading of the law will show that the word Ide detailed tailed relates to the receipts during the fiscal year but these he has haa given as follows from taxes as per assessment roli roll 53 prom from reimbursements by bythe bytho the south jordan I 1 company pd US 2100 00 from licenses 03 from I 1 ines 42 to 50 poll roll tax 35 tom total 6 1 1 32 9 4 1 this is well enough it is intelligible and so far satisfactory but if he interprets detailed to td mean itemized why did he not give the amounts received in severalty severally on thedac the day and date of reception when he comes to the disbursements wh which ich ith are only re required alred to show the amount fon for each ench officer an devery and veny very other disbursement during the fiscal year he itemizes them BO so that every separate tb payment appe appears aray aras in many different amount amounts ss thus thud evading n t the e laws a s requirement an and confusing t the 0 taxpayer er who wishes to kno know what hat has been done with the public funds again if the word detail detailer el ap plies any further than to the ahe ro re it applies to the statement of all the debts payable to and by said count counties countley ies leb 11 but the debts due by salt lake county counts he has lumped llone total thus i 1 1 abts debbs debts by SL S L county t y as per treasurers treasur ers report 15 the same amount appears in the report ot isso luo IKO and that of 1881 why did he not give a detailed or itemized report i of thebe ing to whom wh orn oin they are payable if the law requires an itemized report of disbursements BO so it does of receipts and BO so it does of c ali ail all call the debts payable to and by gald eald county s A stickler for the letter of the law should comply with tho the letteron lette the law it will be perceived from the foregoing that he ibe clerk of bait salt lake county has bas placed himself in an anomalous position he has refused to do that which all other county clerks have considered it their lawful duty to perform even when he was courteously requested to attend to it by the legislative department of the territory if he is to ti great legal luminary and interprets the law differently from the assembly and from every other county clerk in the territory it would have done hilno him no injury and would have had no effect whatever on his records i to perform the simple sum in arithmetic m ed which was desire desired by the As in refusing this courteous request he has ju justified stifled the very unfavorable comments ladeby made by the pul pui public blid bild anid arid gly giyen given ef trise hriso rise to suspicion sJ which however unfound unfounded edi reflect no credit upon the office with which ho he is connect connected ged lEd s |