Monday, Jan. 7, 1918

George W. Ainsworth takes over as Saratoga Springs’s new commissioner of public works with a determination to rewrite the city’s insurance contracts, The Saratogian reports.

Ainsworth has a beef with a decision by his predecessor, N. R. Thompson, to award three-year insurance contracts for public buildings during his last week in office. The contracts will cover Ainsworth’s entire term as commissioner.

“I ought to have something to say about who gets the insurance in my department,” Ainsworth tells the city council tonight.

The new commissioner’s objection to Thompson’s move is twofold. It’s not just that Thompson infringed on Ainsworth’s prerogative; it’s also his favoritism toward one particular insurance company. Out of $290,000 of insurance carried by the public works department, nearly half -- $121,000 – is held with the firm of Van Voast & Leonard.

“I don’t think Van Voast & Leonard ought to get all the insurance,” Ainsworth says, “I think it ought to be divided. I’m going to fight so Van Voast & Leonard don’t get it all.”

It’s unclear whether Ainsworth can overturn the insurance contracts Thompson signed on December 24. Mayor Harry E. Pettee has instructed his city attorney to investigate whether policies taken out by one city council are binding on the next. In the meantime, Ainsworth has taken some money from Van Voast & Leonard, cancelling $27,500 in policies taken out before December 24 and taking out new policies with other agencies.

Ainsworth is just starting to learn the ropes in his new job. He asks the council “how he was to pay an electric lighting bill for $2,143.64 with only $11.09 balance in the fund, and $510 in park bills with only ninety-nine cents in the fund.”

Those sound like good questions. The answer to both is that “the charter provides for the transfer of balances from one fud to another, so that there would be no trouble about meeting the bills.”