MAINTENANCE 651 



Population of city approximately 90,000. Area of Maintenance under direct control of superintendent, 



parks approximately 182 acres, practically all im- and assistant, 

 proved. Climatic conditions require constant main- 2 foremen, $2,200 each a year, 

 tenance. 6 to 65 laborers, $0.50 to $0.65 an hour. 



Superintendent has direct charge of maintenance. i gardener, $0.65 an hour. 



I foreman, $1,500 a year. 

 22 laborers year round, $2.50 to $3.00 a day. Population approximately 67,000. Park area 224 



acres, practically all improved. 



Population approximately 76,000. Park area approx- Superintendent has direct charge of maintenance, 



imately 580 acres. Approximately 435 acres improved. i foreman, $1,800 a year. 



18 laborers, $0.50 to $0.60 an hour. 

 2 shop men, $120 a month each. 



As a rule the maintenance organization in all cities under fifty thou- 

 sand comprises a foreman and a few laborers under the direct control of 

 the superintendent, or the superintendent may act as foreman with the 

 laborers directly responsible to him. Occasionally the maintenance personnel 

 may include a gardener and a mechanic. 



Employment. 



It is a principle of good business organization that the official respon- 

 sible for the execution of any particular project or function shall have the 

 authority to select and discharge his subordinates. If this principle were 

 strictly applied to the subordinates in the maintenance personnel, the super- 

 intendent or assistant superintendent or superintendent of maintenance 

 should have this authority, and he should be held strictly accountable by 

 the governing authority for results. 



In actual practice few executives in charge of maintenance work 

 actually exercise freely this power of hiring and firing. The authority for 

 employing a given number of men, of course, rests always with the govern- 

 ing board or commissioner or director, as the case may be. Very often 

 these various governing authorities also exercise the right to employ the 

 individuals. In most of the large cities public employees of all grades are 

 under civil service, and when the executive is authorized to employ a given 

 number of maintenance workers he must make requisition on the civil 

 service board which supplies the request from the available candidates on 

 its lists. Special rules of the civil service board govern the employment 

 of occasional or part-time workers. On the whole, if the work of the civil 

 service board is efficiently conducted, this method of employment is fairly 

 satisfactory. The worst possible evil that can befall a maintenance execu- 

 tive in employment is politics. The maintenance force of park departments 

 is too often made the dumping ground of political appointees who may be 

 unqualified by reason of age, lack of experience and training, or by indif- 

 ference to the work. They owe no allegiance to the maintenance executive 

 and hence may give very little heed to his authority. Inefficient main- 



