OFFICE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 553 



records in the handling of the affairs of a small department as it is in the 

 large department. While it is true that in some cities records pertaining 

 to park and recreation matters are kept by employees in charge of other 

 municipal departments, nevertheless the records should be complete and 

 correct in all details. 



Organization above Office Manager. 



I. Authority responsible for keeping records. The majority of the ordi- 

 nances, charter provisions and state laws that form the basic legal authority 

 for the establishment of park and recreation systems in both municipalities 

 and counties require of the general governing authority of such systems 

 that certain reports, chiefly fiscal, be made annually (sometimes more 

 often) to some other superior authority such as the mayor, city council, 

 county board of commissioners or supervisors or county court, or, as in the 

 case of certain independent park districts, to the state. Thus the definite 

 responsibility for keeping records is laid upon the authority immediately 

 in charge of the park and recreation system, whether that authority is a 

 city manager, a commissioner of public welfare, or a commissioner of public 

 works, a commissioner of parks and public properties, or a park and recrea- 

 tion board or commission. This duty of keeping records and making reports 

 is generally delegated to an employee under the governing authority. In 

 most of the small systems the superintendent is responsible, sometimes with 

 and sometimes without the aid of an employee variously called stenographer, 

 stenographer-clerk, clerk, or secretary, and in a few of the large systems 

 this same plan prevails. In a considerable number of the laws establishing 

 park and recreation systems the general governing authority is specifically 

 empowered to employ a secretary. This secretary may or may not be a 

 member of the board or commission under this form of general adminis- 

 trative control. 



2. Questions of policy. The requirement in some laws setting up the 

 park and recreation board or commission plan of general administrative 

 control, whereby a member of the board is directed to act as secretary, is 

 deemed unwise in principle for the reason that a non-salaried board member 

 is not likely to have the time necessary to keep the records thoroughly and 

 always up-to-date, and possibly he would not be qualified even if he had 

 the time. Moreover, a board member should not be required to engage in 

 such executive details as record keeping. 



Some legislation setting up the park and recreation board or commis- 

 sion type of general administrative control specifically authorizes the board 

 to appoint a secretary who shall not be a member of the board but who 

 shall be wholly responsible to the board and independent of the chief execu- 



