City Engineer Axes Staff Amidst Financial Crisis
A local corruption scandal involving a 'defalcation' leaves the city unable to pay for essential infrastructure, forcing layoffs in the engineer's office.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The decapitation ax fell yesterday in the office of City Engineer Thomson, and three of the officials are numbered with the past. H. W. Scott, the assistant city engineer, was among the number. The other employes let out are Al V. Bouillon, the draftsman, and Frank Olson, computer and bookkeeper. Street grade work has fallen off considerably, and the failure to sell street improvement bonds will delay operations on many streets. The shutting down of the South sewer tunnel and suspension of work on the Lake Union tunnel still further reduces the number of men usually employed. The shutting down of the South sewer tunnel is one of the consequences of the Krug defalcation, as the money which should be in the treasury to complete the work, amounting to about $150,000, has been squandered, and the city is without means to prosecute the work.
“The shutting down of the South sewer tunnel is one of the consequences of the Krug defalcation, as the money which should be in the treasury to complete the work has been squandered.”
Public infrastructure projects in Seattle have long been tied to the volatility of city bonds and administrative corruption. The 'Krug defalcation' mentioned here refers to a massive scandal where the city treasurer embezzled funds, a recurring nightmare of fiscal mismanagement that echoes in modern civic debates over project budget overruns.
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