564 PARKS 



sidered at the budget-making time annually and so-called "adjustments" 

 of salary are made annually. Although in some places this may work out 

 reasonably well, unless the idea of uniform pay for uniform grades is kept 

 in mind by the financial authorities this process can be made very unequal 

 in its application. 



A better method is to determine impartially a maximum and a mini- 

 mum compensation for each grade, giving the head of the department dis- 

 cretion in setting the rates of pay between these limits, or still better, to 

 allow for an automatic increase from year to year between these limits for 

 those employees who continue efficient, it being assumed that all others 

 will be eliminated from the payroll entirely. Such a plan answers the usual 

 requirements of the city department. Those to whom the head of the 

 department reports can, by limiting the number of employees in the various 

 grades to a definite number and by appropriating a fixed amount in the 

 annual budget for personal service in the office, restrict the office manager 

 entirely to expenditure of funds and yet at the same time give him enough 

 leeway to organize his office in the most efficient way possible and place 

 the responsibility for its operation directly upon his own shoulders. It 

 might be added that promotion from one grade to another can be obtained 

 only through a vacancy occurring in the next higher grade and that the 

 employee, going from, say a junior grade to a senior grade, must qualify 

 to the next higher grade either by examination or by methods satisfactory 

 to the department head. 



It will be noted by referring to Figure 2 that the organization chart 

 provides for certain grades and compensation of employees a certain number 

 of years to go from the minimum compensation of that grade to the maxi- 

 mum compensation of that grade. The following is quoted from the minutes 

 of the board establishing such a plan of compensation: 



January 7, 1925. 

 To the Honorable Board of Park Commissioners. 



Gentlemen: Your Standing Committee on Finance respectfully reports and recommends that the following 

 policy concerning the salary of employees in the administrative office of the board be hereafter followed, effective 

 January i, 1925: 



1. That the employees in the administrative offices of the engineering department, recreation department 

 and general office be classified as provided for by civil service rules. 



2. That a maximum and minimum salary for each rank be fixed as indicated below. 



3. That the number of persons employed in each rank be limited to the number indicated below. 



4. That all new employees entering the service commence at the minimum salary for that grade and their 

 salary be automatically advanced on each anniversary of their entrance by one-fourth or one-fifth the difference 

 between minimum and maximum salaries, depending on the number of years it takes to go from the minimum 

 to maximum as indicated below. Persons being transferred from other departments and present employees are 

 to be given credit for the number of years already employed in their grade. Advance from one grade to the next 

 can only be effected by proper vacancies occurring in the higher rank and by the usual civil service examinations. 



