Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1911 — FIELD EXAMINERS FINISH THE WORK [ARTICLE]

FIELD EXAMINERS FINISH THE WORK

Of Examining the Various County Offices of Jasper (My TOOK THEM THIRTY-TWO DAYS Report of Their Findings Will Not Be Made Public for Sixty or Ninety Days.—No Hint Given Out of What Report Will Show.—Examination Cost $504. Field examiners John Collett and Wm. F. Handy, who have been making the examination of the various countv offices in Jasper county, finished up their work Thursday and their report is now filed in the office of the State Accounting'Board, where it will be checked up and a copy sent to the county auditor here, which mav be two months hence. Under the present law if any shortages are found the officer or ex-officers against whom the shortage is charged is first notified, and he then has thirty days in which to check over the accounts with the examiners or make explanation of any apparent shortage, and if an agreement is reached as to the amount of the shortage, then same shall be paid to the examiners and bvj them turned into the municipality to which it belongs, etc., etc. The present salary of field examiners is $8 per day, and, as the new act governing such examinations carried an emergency clause, it applies to all work done since March 3, 1911. While the examination here started some months ago, the examiners have not been here all of the time, and Mr. Collett has put in but 36 days and Mr. Handy 27 days, which at S 8 per day each would mean that the total cost of the examination to Jasper county —and it has been a thorough examination we believe—is $504. In view of _£he fact that the county commissioners paid Joe Workman $1,900 a couple of years ago to look through the books in the '‘Doc” Nichols shortage matter, the taxpayers of Jasper county will, we believe, feel that the expense of the examination by the State examiners, which goes back six years and is absolutely unbiased, is very reasonable , indeed. The public will have confidence in the report on .this investigation, something it does not always have in the report of private examiners.