The Quarter-a-Day Skim: County Surveyor Accused of Shorting Road Crews
In 1891 Olympia, affidavits alleged the surveyor billed taxpayers $2.50 a day for chainmen but paid the crews $2.25—so Thurston County commissioners sent the matter to the county attorney.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 1891, 9 a.m. The board met pursuant to adjournment. It appearing to the satisfaction of the board, from affidavits of R. S. Selders and G. R. Bever, that the county surveyor collected from the county as compensation for services as chainmen the sum of $2.50 per day and paid said chainmen $2.25 per day, on motion the matter was referred to the county attorney for investigation.
“The county surveyor collected from the county as compensation for services as chainmen, the sum of $2.50 per day and paid said chainmen $2.25 per day.”
The amount is almost laughably small, but the allegation is familiar: a public official pocketing the difference between what taxpayers are billed and what workers are paid. In an era before civil-service rules and open-records law, a referral to the county attorney was one of the few accountability tools available. It reads like a very 1890s version of a modern payroll audit.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.