572 PARKS 



No doubt the commission or board will have authority to establish 

 rules and regulations for the conduct of its own affairs and ordinances for 

 the use of the parks and parkways under its jurisdiction not inconsistent 

 with the laws establishing the commission. When this is the case the rules 

 and regulations should be carefully compiled, as should also the ordinances 

 of the department. If possible both should be printed in separate pamphlets, 

 one for the use of the members of the commission and the other for the 

 information of the general public. 



To the experienced secretary, many other things related to the keep- 

 ing of minutes and recording of proceedings will come to mind. For example, 

 in long, intricate and involved condemnation proceedings or bond proceed- 

 ings, a memorandum of the various steps is necessary and the required 

 legal time between the various steps is of great help. 



2. Official orders where the park department is governed by an individual. 

 In the cases of commission or city manager forms of government, usually 

 the park department comes under either a director of parks or a commis- 

 sioner of parks. His actions are limited to the duties and powers prescribed 

 by law much in the same general way as a governing board or commission. 

 His acts, however, are not acts of a commission but are the orders of an 

 individual. The executive head of the park department should carefully 

 compile the orders of his chief, as it goes without saying that such orders 

 should, so far as possible, be entirely routine. They will naturally be of a 

 very general nature and there will be comparatively few of them. These 

 orders are to the executive park head what the minutes of the board or 

 commission meetings are to the head of the park department in the form 

 of government heretofore discussed. Keeping this in mind, the writer will 

 be able to glean sufficient information from the foregoing discussion to 

 enable him to apply them to his particular local situation. For the proper 

 protection against misunderstandings, as well as for the guidance on such 

 situations concerning which there are no particular orders, all official orders 

 should be as carefully kept and as carefully read and thoroughly under- 

 stood as the minutes of a commission meeting and the policies established 

 by such meetings. 



Inventory of possessions. Every park department should carefully make 

 an inventory of its possessions at a set time during each fiscal year. This 

 is necessary for the purpose of making annual financial reports and of estab- 

 lishing liability in the case of land and equipment expenditures, and for 

 insurance collection purposes in the case of fire and theft, etc. There is still 

 another reason, perhaps not so generally taken for granted, and that is that 

 a municipality in a way is a very impersonal thing; the right of ownership 

 must be continually established and its fact recorded in order to prevent 



