GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 423 



city manager appointed by and responsible to the city council has direct 

 charge of all departments in the municipal government. In smaller cities 

 the city manager may assume direct charge of parks, acting in the capacity 

 of a superintendent; but in larger cities he acts under the general control 

 of city council as the general governing authority, with an executive officer 

 immediately in charge, appointed by him and responsible to him. Thus, 

 in Sacramento, California, the city manager appoints a superintendent of 

 parks and a superintendent of recreation. In a few city manager cities in 

 this country the control of parks and recreation is not directly under the 

 city manager, but under a park commission or a park and recreation com- 

 mission. Thus in Fort Worth, Texas, and in Cincinnati, Ohio, there is a 

 park commission and, in addition, a recreation commission. 



5. Government of parks by boards or commissions. With the exception of 

 a government by council or a committee of council, the park board or com- 

 mission is the oldest and most generally approved of all the different methods 

 of governing parks. Until the advent of the commission, city manager and 

 federal plans of municipal government, control by board or commission was 

 the prevailing form of park government and, as has been suggested, park 

 commissions are still found in many cities under the councilmanic, the 

 commission, the federal and the city manager forms of administration. 



6. Private park association performing functions of a public park com- 

 mission. There are several examples throughout the country in which park 

 plans have been initiated and properties acquired, developed and admin- 

 istered by a private corporation duly organized under the laws of the state. 

 A few examples of this type of general administrative control are Madison, 

 Wisconsin, Quincy, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana (in the case of City 

 Park and Audubon Parks respectively). As a general rule the executive com- 

 mittee of a corporation performs all the functions of a legally constituted 

 park commission. They receive and spend public money appropriated by 

 the city government and in addition raise money privately through member- 

 ships and donations. 



From the point of view of freedom from political control unwisely used, 

 this form of general administrative control has much to commend it. The 

 method has worked well, on the whole, in the instances where it has been 

 tried, and especially so when applied to the general administration of such 

 institutions as zoological gardens, botanical gardens, museums, art galleries 

 and arboretums. However, because the principle involved is so contrary 

 to the spirit of popular government in America it is not likely that this 

 form of general administration of parks will be widely adopted except as a 

 temporary expedient in individual communities. 



