The City Has Paid Bonds Which Are Not Due

THE CITY HAS PAID BONDS WHICH ARE NOT DUE

City Treasurer Refuses to Allow His Books to be Seen

He Paid All the Bonds He Could Scrape Together in February to Make a Showing in His Statement

It came to the Argus Tuesday from what is undoubtedly a reliable source that the city paid on Saturday last $4,500 in bonds which were not due in one and two years from now. It was not published Tuesday as the Argus was unable to see the city treasurer, finding his office locked on the two occasions it visited it. Later the Argus saw the treasurer, who flatly refused to let the Argus representative see his books or to inform the Argus what bonds were paid. The treasurer had failed to file his monthly report Monday night as required by the charter. He had also failed to file his annual report as required by the charter, both owing, as he said, to press of time in closing his books. He now flatly refuses a taxpayer any information from his office, information to which the public is entitled as a matter of right.

The conversation which followed was somewhat heated in terms, the treasurer being hot because the Argus had stated Tuesday that in his informal report to the council Monday night, which the charter did not require him to make. he had juggled with the figures. What he claimed that the Argus should have stated was that he had made a mistake in his figures. He admitted that he had made a mistake.

In the conversation, however, it developed that all the bonds which the administration has been talking about as due in March were paid in February. What is this if not juggling with the city's books for the purpose of upholding the administration in refusing to pay what it owes its employees? Why should the treasurer pay bond holders before bonds are due and decline to pay labor long past due?

The fact also developed that this payment of bonds from the city treasury without a warrant signed by the clerk and mayor as the charter requires and in advance of the time they were due, was done because the city attorney told the city treasurer to do so. At least that is what the city treasurer claimed.

Owing to the fact that accurate knowledge is denied the public which is entitled to it, it is impossible to state the exact amount of bonds paid. It is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $12,000.