428 PARKS 



is every prospect that the functions of park departments will be continually 

 expanding. In such an evolutionary situation there is no place for the park 

 board member or chief executive who lives entirely in the past and rests 

 on laurels previously won. 



A park board so constituted as to be wholly responsible in a political 

 sense to the appointing authority or to the political organization back of 

 the appointing authority is even more dangerous than an inefficient single 

 elected commissioner, because further removed from the will of the people 

 and because responsibility can be shifted. The park board form of govern- 

 ment, in spite of these dangers, has thus far proved itself on the whole to 

 be a satisfactory method of administration and one under which important 

 progress has been made in the past few decades. 



6. Administrative control of parks by school boards. As has been pointed 

 out, except in very rare instances, the school board has no part in park 

 administration and the relationship to the park department is a purely 

 cooperative one. Schools, however, dealing as they do with children for 

 eight or nine months of the year, the greater part of five days of the week, 

 have an important responsibility toward the recreational life of the child, 

 both in providing facilities and equipment, such as gymnasia, swimming 

 pools, athletic fields, playgrounds and other play areas and in supplying 

 leadership through special teachers in physical education, handcraft, music 

 and drama. Increasingly the school is serving those beyond school age by 

 making its plants available as neighborhood social centers. //* 



SECTION III 



EXAMPLES OF LEGAL PROVISIONS OF PARKS, VARIOUS TYPES 



OF GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL, TOGETHER WITH 



COMMENTS ON THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES 



The city council form of general administration. The majority of the 

 thousands of municipal corporations under five thousand inhabitants 

 administer their parks and other recreation areas directly through the 

 governing authority of the corporation the council (cities) and boards 

 (villages) -- although various names are given in different states to desig- 

 nate the governing authorities. All of these municipal corporations derive 

 their powers directly from the state. These powers as defined in state laws 

 are usually comprehensive and quite ample for the performance of all 

 necessary public duties. 



Portland, Maine. "The members of the city council by the laws of the State of Maine but they shall receive 



shall be and constitute the park commission and shall no compensation as such commissioners." Charter of 



have the power and perform the duties given to and pre- the City of Portland, Article VI, Sections II and 15, 



scribed for the park commission of the City of Portland respectively. 



