Chapter 19: Meetings

My first meeting was with the rent collectors.

I’d spent some time the night before going through the two sets of books I’d retrieved from Enders office. I was appalled by what I had found.

When I compared the amounts, I guessed they had ripped off my grandfather over the years but their bank accounts would not show much of the money, which would have been spent or hidden. Going by the decor of the apartment, I could see where a lot of Higgins’ money went.

Ender was a different story. Ender didn’t have a lot in his account. He had either spent his ill-gotten gains or hidden it. I’d have to have his house searched.

I knew from the bank statements I’d obtained, what each councillor was getting paid. I could see what money had gone into the accounts from various ventures. Their salaries were amazing considering how little they had done for years.

Anna and Nat’s accounts had been very interesting. They had both paid half of their salaries to an organisation call Help. I’d asked Oliva when I arrived at my office if she knew what this organisation did.

She happily explained they ran soup kitchens and helped people find jobs and somewhere to live. They leased several buildings, so people had somewhere to sleep and get clean.

Most of the people who worked there were volunteers. The workers collected unwanted clothes and provided personal items for hygiene, so people could get clean clothes when they need them. A doctor also visited the Help Centres regularly.

I then asked her about Councillor Jean Horn-Bay. This account had been interesting because it hadn’t been touched in eleven years other than the salary going in. it also hadn’t received the pay increase the others had over that eleven years.

Oliva had frowned and pulled the minutes from the previous council meetings. Councillor Jean Horn-Bay was listed and being on assignment and that Higgins’ had her proxy vote. Oliva riffled through several other files. She pulled one page looked at it and then tried the file behind it.

She looked up at me in bewilderment. “I just realised that she hasn’t been at a meeting for over ten years. I’ve only been in this job for a year, so I’d not realised that she hadn’t been here in ages.”

We had arrived early, so we went and looked in the office that was assigned to Councillor Jean Horn-Bay. It was clean but had that unused feeling about it. Oliva opened a filing cabinet and looked at several files.

“Bron, I think she either quit her job or died,” she said frowning.

“What area did she oversee?” I asked as I browsed another cabinet, trying to get a handle on what she did from the information in there. Everything was more than ten years old.

“Water and sewerage,” Oliver supplied. “Hum, this is interesting. I thought the name rang a bell for another reason. The Horn-Bays run the tanneries. I just remembered that I had met a Jean Horn-Bay, but she was a woman in her early thirties.”

“She’d come to complain about the sewerage not working a day or two after I started here. I thought it odd when she said I needed talk to her mother’s replacement. Fred came in and told me not to worry about it as he’d take care of the problem.”

“I’ve not seen the younger Jean since, so I never connected the two women. I just assumed she thought that someone was looking after Sewerage with her mother away on assignment.”

“Well, that makes sense. So who had been looking after Water and Sewerage?” I asked. Oliva shrugged, as she had no idea.

When Dan and Redge arrived for our pre-meeting meeting, I informed them I needed them to organise the rent collectors to itemise and value the items in Ender’s home. I explained about how much money I guess was missing and erred on the lighter side.

I then informed them they were to go to every other councillor’s house, except for three. I asked them to find out what happened to Councillor Jean Horn-Bay. I suggested they found her namesake. I’d also excluded Anna and Nat.

At the next meeting, I informed the rent collectors of the assignment I’d given Dan and Redge. I then informed them that the rents and the collection of them would change. This enlisted a lot of groans.

One of the men said, “If we tell them they are going up again, we will be stoned. We are most hated people in town as it is. Look, mister, I’m going to quit. I just can’t do this job anymore.”

He went to get up and leave when I said, “What if I said you would be delivering good news for a change?” He turned back and looked at me sceptically. “Please, hear me out. If you still wish to quit, I won’t stop you.”

So he stayed to hear what I had to say. I explained that I had reviewed the doctored files and the files that told the true story. It was too big of a job for me to fix by myself. Since I had put the councillor on a ship to anywhere but here, I needed help.

I had found out that Ender had them keep the records and give him copies every month. I then asked them if they were aware that they, in fact, had an office here that they were supposed to use. They all looked at me blankly.

They had done it at home and just brought the receipts for the deposits and the records in once a month, to give to Warner, the clerk. Warner confirmed this was how Ender wanted it done. I had them all get up and follow me.

The three floors below the councillors were in fact office areas for their staff. Dan had located the office area assigned to Ender. It had twenty-four desks set up in it. It hadn’t been used in years. There were six groups of four desks.

The back corner of the desk was pointed, and the front had a concave curve cut out of it. A divider was between the desks. The inner corner was a meter high above the desk. Half way along the length of the desk, it dropped to only 40cm.

At two ends were two back to back cabinets for their files the height of the short divider. The high divider let the person pin up maps of their area of collection and other notes. The short divider lets them talk comfortably with their neighbours.

At the opposite end of their desks, the divider extended by 50cm and a chair was placed with its back to the divider. The other chair was pushed into the centre of the desk. The chair was so they could interview people with problems.

In one corner of the room was a small kitchen. It had a larger cooling box than others I’d seen. It also had a special tap that dispensed very hot water for making tea and two heating boxes. Two separate desks near the doors were for their two clerks.

I explained that since they each had an area, they were to pick a desk. I wanted them to report here each morning to do their books and meet with their counsellor to inform them of any problems. For the time being Warner would take over that role.

The two clerks would share responsibilities. I wanted them to tell the clerks what times they were available to talk to renters who had issues so they could set up meetings. The clerks would also hand on maintenance requests to the two officers I planned to hire.

Each afternoon they were to drop any monies collected that day at the bank and either return the receipts here or bring them in the morning so they could update their files. If the bank was closed, they could put the money in the safe here rather than have it in their homes.

We then discussed the rate of pay and hours of work. I allowed them flexibility if they need to see people after normal work hours. Warner agreed that as long as the time was logged, he was happy. Once we had agreed on this, I then discussed the rents they were to collect.

I explained that since I wasn’t in charge until a few months ago, I couldn’t take responsibility for the actions of my grandfather. However, I was for the time that I took to get here to sort out the problems caused by my grandfather’s lack of attention. I then explained that they would be given the current copy of the rents owed and collected and the pretend copy.

I wished them to file the current copies after they made up new books. The rest of this month’s rents for everyone will be free if they are up to date. If they are in arrears by only a week, they get three weeks free, and so on. I asked if anyone was more than three weeks in arrears.

They all said, no. Happy, I then explained that they were to explain to the people they collected rents from that in future the new rent will be double that in the pretend books and collected twice a month.

I picked a property and read out a value from the page in the pretend book and then its partner from the true book. I explained that the first value hadn’t changed in five years. They all looked at me shocked.

The man who been going to walk out said, “But that value is only ten percent of what we have been charging, and you want us to collect only twenty percent?”

“Correct. I probably can’t recover all of the monies stolen from the rent payers or me, but I will try. I’m not going to pay it back directly. Instead, I’m going to get each department to pick up their games and provide the damn services these people think they have been paying for.”

“I’m hoping by having the street sweepers, and androids active again will go a long way towards helping. I have done something about the parks and the sewerage and water issues, but there is more work to do in these departments.”

“I will need to do a lot of work in the maintenance departments. We are currently organising to get the roads and gutters repaired. I plan to build several new roads to the other towns to help commerce between them and the city.”

“I’m sure there are other problems I will need to address after the council meeting this morning. We aren’t going to fix everything with a wave a magic wand. So, who is quitting and who is staying?” I asked.

“Can I have the desk near the window?” one man asked.

“Mate, this is your office. You people work out who you want to sit near and where. It will take time for me to get you a new councillor. In the meantime, you report to Warner. Warner, it may help if you moved down here for the time being. Dan and Redge will be a big help too, so use them.”

“For you people, it will probably take you a couple of weeks to get your books all sorted and to visit your area to tell your clients of the changes in rent. I also wish you to make a list of all vacant businesses, lands and residences in your zones.”

“I need a list of what needs fixing for our clients and the vacant sites. You’ll need to work out what rent we should be charging. Base the value on what the charges will be for a similar establishment once your books are up-to-date. It would be nice to put people back in homes.”

“For the time being, Dan and Redge are going to act as your inspectors. If you need assistance, go to them and Warner. I’ll try to get a clerk or two to help as soon as Oliva can employ them.”

“Oliva has informed me she hopes to have the stationary cupboard filled shortly. We have managed to scrounge up some rough working paper, and graphites for you so do your preliminary estimates.”

“I suggest you get together and use the maps I found to check that you all have equal areas of responsibilities. One of the androids kindly gave me a rough distribution of the rents, but you may wish to alter it, because you know the areas better.”

“I believe Mabel had stocked your cooler box with milk and the cupboard with tea, honey, cups and spoons. Any questions?”

“Not right now, I’m happy to work with Warner, Dan and Redge,” one man answered.

“Great. I had better go to my other meeting. Warner will fill you in on any changes when he gets back. Good luck people,” I said as Warner and I headed upstairs.

I got to chuckle and grinned at Warner when I heard one man say, “My spouse is going to be happy with the pay rise and reduced rent. I might even get lucky for a change.”

The conference room was on my floor.

When we arrived in the foyer, three people were talking to Oliva and Vaughn.

Oliva beamed at me. “Hi Bron, I have a surprise for you. This is Jean Horn-Bay senior. Anne Smithy and Nat Rih.”

“Hi people, sorry I’m a bit late I was sorting out the rent collectors. So I gather you found out what has happened to our missing councillor, Oliva,” I replied and gave Oliva a big grin.

“Yes sir, we did. Jean had planned to retire at the end of her term. She did go on a trip and had assumed when she got back that her position had been filled. She has been living in Midton. Lucky for us, she decided to come visit her daughter this week.”

“I was upset to find that Higgins hadn’t replaced me. I’m sorry if you feel I deserted Horn City. I’ll have the banker transfer the money in that account back to the city,” Jean told me.

She was a pleasant looking shifter showing signs off heading into the later part of her life, but she was still healthy and fit and around 150cm tall. Her colouring and features had the Horn Family stamp. She reminded me a lot of Edith.

“Thanks, I’ll have to give you the slip with my stamp on it for the bank manager. All of the accounts for the councillors are currently locked. In the meantime, you are welcome to stay.”

“According to the council’s minutes, you are still the counsellor. Your resignation was never accepted. So you will have to either resign again or wait until the elections to hand your department onto your replacement if you decide not to run,” I informed her.

“Vaughn, what news do you have you on the other councillors?” I asked him as we all followed Oliva into the conference room. I had to stop and blink several times, as I looked around. “Bloody hell! No wonder the council coffers are empty,” I expelled.

I looked at the councillors and could see that Jean was as surprised as I was. The other five with me just looked embarrassed. I got the impression the elaborate décor wasn’t their idea. Obviously, it was something they couldn’t vote against.