A Double-Billing Scandal at the Prosser Bridge
The Yakima County commissioners discover that two contractors billed the county for the exact same materials, leading to an immediate demand for repayment.
In the matter of the payment of the bills of L. A. Reinersting and Nelson Rich at the May term of the commissioners’ court of 1888—Whereas, it appears from records now before this court that at the May term of the court of 1888 that the above mentioned Reinersting and Rich both passed a bill for the sum of $66.25 for material furnished Yakima county for the Prosser bridge, and that both bills covered the same materials furnished, and that warrants were drawn in favor of each for the above mentioned sum. Now, therefore, the clerk is hereby ordered to notify both Nelson Rich and L. A. Reinersting that they will be required to make immediate settlement of the same with Yakima county.
“Both bills covered the same materials furnished, and that warrants were drawn in favor of each for the above mentioned sum.”
Contract disputes and accountability for public funds are perennial issues for county governments, reminding us that fiscal oversight was as critical in the 1880s as it is in current municipal auditing.
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