452 PARKS 



system and facilities as aforesaid shall have exclusive playground and recreation commissions, boards or sys- 



control of all moneys collected or donated to the credit terns which are now created or which may hereafter be 



of the playground and recreation fund. created by special acts of the Legislature. 



Section 12. All laws and parts of laws in conflict Section 13. This Act shall take effect upon its becom- 



herewith are hereby repealed, except as they apply to ing a law. 



SECTION IV 



COMMENTS ON CONSTITUTION AND VARIOUS POWERS, DUTIES AND 

 RESPONSIBILITIES OF GENERAL PARK GOVERNING AUTHORITIES 



Constitution of the Park Commission or Board. 



1. Number of members. There is no commission about which facts have 

 been secured numbering fewer than three members. Five, seven or nine 

 form workable groups, although some cities are functioning efficiently with 

 even larger numbers. The Minneapolis Park Commission has fifteen mem- 

 bers; the Fairmount Park Commission, Philadelphia, fifteen; the Spokane 

 Commission, eleven; the Audubon Park Commission and City Park Com- 

 mission of New Orleans, twenty-four and twenty-one members respectively. 

 In all cities of the United States of fifty thousand inhabitants or more 

 having commissions of this type, the preferred number of commissioners is 

 three or five, the majority having five members. 



2. Methods of selecting members. The following are the methods in 

 use for selecting members of park commissions or boards appointment, 

 election by popular vote, constitution of commission by ex officio members, 

 life membership and service by commissioners elected for other offices. 



(a) Appointment by Some Superior Authority. 



Appointment by the mayor is the most common method of selecting 

 the members. This is usually done with the advice and approval of the 

 city council, although in some instances the mayor has sole authority. 



Appointment by the judge of some court is practiced in a few instances. 

 The commissioners of South Park, Chicago, are appointed by the judges 

 of the Circuit Court of Cook County; ten of the fourteen commissioners in 

 Wilmington, Delaware, by the resident judge of the State Court; five of 

 the fifteen members of the Fairmount Park Commission, Philadelphia, are 

 appointed by the judges in the District Court and five by the judges of 

 the Common Pleas Court. In Essex and Union Counties, New Jersey, the 

 commissioners are appointed by the justice of the Supreme Court presiding 

 in the County Court; in Hudson County the judge of the Court of Common 

 Pleas makes the appointment. 



Appointment by the governor of a state is the practice in a limited 

 number of cities. The commissioners of West Park District and Lincoln 

 Park District, Chicago, five of the twenty-two commissioners of the Metro- 



