| Show our school trustees rus tees were very Li liberal the report of J W the accountant engaged to audit the books accounts vouchers etc of the defunct carbon county high school district as presented to the members of the carbon county board of education wednesday contains some very interesting information which may also bo used to the benefit of the taxpayers of carbon county if the members of the board which succeeds the cu od high school board believe that coat contracts mets are made to be lived up to and that bonds are given to guarantee fulfillment of or contract they now have hure as an n anvor eunity to ask that the members of the defunct board mako make good to the taxpayers of the county some 42 that should never have been paid out toe tae item of the la Is the amount overpaid to the gener al contractor of the high school building ding J L eckert this ants to the sum of 51 it appears that the law required the board of trustees t of the high school to take a bond from eckelt that would protect the sub contractors aad and laborers in case eckert should prove financially irresponsible the trustees appointed a committee to assist the architect F W moore bloore in drawing up the eckert contract and nod bond this committee consisted of M P braffet G A averion iver nell M madsen and william norton in spite of the fact that there were two attorneys on this committee one of them M P braffett being the regular salaried attorney for the high school board a bond was taken from mert which was not in compliance with ta the c law and which did not protect the subcontractors and other creditors of eckert tho the latter became financially embarrassed embar assed before the building was completed and his creditors demanded payment of their accounts from tho the members of the board of trustees tiu of the high school district owing to their having failed to got a bond tho he N berkof the board were ally I 1 liable to the creditors tor for their claims to escape thia this liability the board ordered a now new issue of bonds for 35 and with some of the proceeds paid the creditors of eckert with the exception of one creditor the settlement was made on a basis of sixty cents on the dolla in making this settlement nent the trustee tiu stee paid ou 01 of the districts funda funds the sum cf of 51 more than the eckert cop tract and extras amoun amounted tod to in addition to this sum tum the taxpayers of the district ast ost probably which could have been collected from bondsmen for fallore to complete the high school building on contract On tract time ud a proper bond been demanded in th tho q first place one e peculiar circumstance pointed out by the auditor Is that mark braf ft who passed upon the bond aven given by beckort wrote an vlaste el opinion in which he told tho the board of truB trustees tees that they should nob not pay tho el creditors editors one cent more tb n the dis tait 1 owed him because to use uso mr own wor it would bo be both morally and legally wrong for a it public c officer to seek to comro inloe be or liquidate a personal liability rough the uso use of a public fund ln t vite of this serious warning of their legal ad adviser the members went ahead and paid the money out the question is did those members think that the tho fact would never leak out an other question is did the above facts hive anything to do with the refusal of the board to allow an audit of the high school book booko not content with overpaying eckert 51 and letting I 1 him binm slip away with he should have forfeited to ta the district the trustees very kindly made tho architect a present of as commission on additional extra payment authorized boiled down this last item means that the trustees decided to overpay the architect 6 5 of what abey baj overpaid eckert why the report shows that while the trustees were willing to give to contractors and architects of the peoples money tb thi y were not averse to taking seme of it themselves under the guise of compensation p the auditor figures that seventeen of the trustees have V ben ven b en overpaid a total sum of 1110 81 L P R evans got the leist 4 00 of this excess pay while nall hr madsen of scofield ws WAS overpaid in the sum of neil had a cute little trick of charging mileage per mile from price to salt lake whenever he made a trip from scofield to salt lake county superintendent Ala marcusen was not so halry as hia his friend madsen for the import charges him with bar bui excess pay 40 of this he charged the district for super I 1 the building part of the remainder was for attending teachers meetha meet hg which the auditor thinks camo came within the scope of mr marcu sens zens duties as county superintend ont a part was for attending board meetings that are not recorded in the minute books the rest was the difference between actual railroad fare paid to salt lake and other places and the per mile charged the district clerk 0 C claim of 90 allowed and paid for trips to salt lake posting election no uses notarial acknowledge acknowledgements ments examination of insurance policies and drawing contract for sewer the auditor says are excessive mr edmunds based this claim of excessive compensation on a resolution pissed by the board oct 7 1011 w which aich defined the amount of pay per diem them and the mileage to be charged arged eb the total disbursements for the term from feb 1 1912 to june 30 1915 are 40 while the receipts from ull ol sources were 11 the dit difference between the receipts and disbursements is a vered by a overdraft of 45 |
