Here’s something I ran across in the May 6, 1920, State Journal city council reports. A report by the Chief of Police and City Attorney was presented to the Council, giving the results of an investigation into – with apologies to Dave Barry, I am not making this up – the theft of a large amount of gravel from the surface of Ormond Street, resulting in a giant hole in the street. The report very fairly notes that “The removing of this gravel and making this large hole in the street constitutes a nuisance, and the city is under obligation to remove the same.”
Based on the police report and the depositions also printed with the article, the basic facts seem to be this: Louis Neller hired a teamster named William Riley to haul gravel from a spot near Ormond Street to be used in the construction of sidewalk in the Franklin Park Subdivision. (I am not sure where that subdivision is.) It turned out the gravel was unsuitable for sidewalk construction. According to Riley, Neller then directed him to take the gravel from Ormond Street, which Riley believed Neller was authorized to do. Riley’s brother Warren, who worked with him, backed up Riley’s version of the story in his own deposition. Ed Schneeberger (who has made previous appearances in this blog, including the one that led me to uncover the Saga of the Bum Walks) was involved with the sidewalk construction and stated that Neller visited the construction site frequently, and told Schneeberger that Riley was in his employ and hauling the gravel at his direction.
And now for the spicy part. This scandal involves more than just making a giant hole in a public street, because Louis Neller was in fact Alderman Neller at the time all this took place. The city charter forbids a council member from being interested in a contract with the city. Neller claimed that he did not have a contract with the city, but instead sold gravel to Riley who sold gravel to the city. Schneeberger’s and Riley’s depositions both contradict this. Riley states that he was merely paid hourly to acquire and haul gravel, and Neller had him turn over the city’s payment for the gravel. Neller, then, was ripping off gravel from the city and then selling it back to the city, according to this account. The investigation report indicates that this would make Neller criminally liable for violating the city charter.
Neller told the Chief of Police that “he had better proceed with some care” because the investigation might find that “a member of the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners” was also involved with inappropriate gravel procurement. By this he meant Frank L. Young of Young Brothers & Daley (who had previously been an alderman, and as such made an appearance in the Saga of the Bum Walks). The investigation found this accusation to be without merit.
