Efficiency and Accounting in Park Administration 
T 
By Frank S. Staley, Minnesota 
HAT far sighted policy on the part of a park board 
which combines beauty in landscape with recrea- 
tion features attractive enough to produce revenue 
to pav the major portion of operating expenses, is effi- 
ciency in park administration. 
"Twenty thousand people attended the municipal band 
concert at Lake Harriet last night." A news item such as 
that which appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune last sum- 
mer is a sure index of a successful park. You who know 
Lake Harriet know that that means that every seat on the 
roof garden was taken, that the lake was covered with 
canoes and rowboats, that the plaza was packed with auto- 
mobiles and that hundreds of people strolled back and 
forth on the walks or sat on the grass along the lake 
shore. What brought the people out and how could the 
Board of Park Commissioners afford to provide free 
music so fine in quality as to draw the critical music lovers 
and so popular in its appeal that it attracts the large 
crowds who are merely seeking diversion? Lake Har- 
riet is a fine example of the type of park which provides 
entertainment for all classes and at the same time affords 
a revenue that more than covers the cost of the special 
recreation features. The purpose of municipal parks is 
to create playgrounds and furnish entertainment for the 
whole citizenship. No matter how beautiful parks may 
be from the standpoint of landscape architecture and no 
matter how economically they may be maintained, they 
are a failure unless the people can be induced to make use 
of them. 
An analysis of Lake Harriet as a successful park shows 
that the board has acquired and improved a naturally 
beautiful lake shore. The improvements include boule- 
vards and walks encircling the lakes, picnic and play- 
grounds attractive to family groups, a pavilion with re- 
fectory and cafeteria on the first floor and above a spa- 
cious roof garden where the municipal band plays nightly. 
An extensive plaza adjoins the pavilion from which the 
occupants of hundreds of automobiles can hear the con- 
certs. From the boat docks on the shore, a fleet of canoes 
and rowboats is sent out to surround the pavilion during 
the musical numbers and to explore the lake during the 
intermissions. The music attracts the crowds which pat- 
ronize the refectory, cafeteria and canoes, all operated by 
the park board and the refectory, cafeteria and canoes 
provide the revenue which supports a band organized 
under the direction of the board. The large crowds are 
due to two causes, first, the attractions offered and second, 
the constant publicity through newspaper and street car 
advertising prepared by the board's publicity agent. 
Parks as successful as Lake Harriet can undoubtedly 
be found in many other cities. 
Underlying all park success is the question of admin- 
istration. Intakes a big man to administer a modern park 
system. He must be a dreamer and a practical executive. 
He must anticipate the recreation needs of the future and 
provide the facilities to meet those needs. When the fa- 
cilities are ready he must induce the public to take pos- 
session and make the fullest possible use of its property. 
There is not a city in the country where the majority 
of citizens want inefficiency and waste. There is not a 
city in the country where the majority of officials are not 
working for efficiency and economy. There is no reason 
why a Commissioner of Parks cannot attain as high a 
percentage of efficiency in handling park business as a 
general manager can in the handling of a corporation. 
Each has similar problems. A Board of Park Commis- 
sioners is analogous to the board of directors of a cor- 
poration. The commissioner or general manager, to be 
successful, must be strong enough to insist upon admin- 
istering his department. His personality must count. 
The duty of the board of park commissioners is to de- 
termine the policy to Lie followed, to apportion the funds 
to each activity, to delegate to the commissioner or su- 
perintendent sufficient authority to carry out the policies 
adopted and to hold the superintendent strictly respons- 
ible for results. The duty of the commissioner is to select 
and direct his corps of assistants, giving them definite in- 
structions and authority, as needed, for the work to be 
done and holding them, in turn, strictly responsible for 
results in their separate fields. Responsibility and au- 
thority should be so definitely assigned that there will be 
no opportunity for one employee to hide his own laxness 
under the cover of another's inefficiency. It is possible 
for the executive to prevent this through a system of 
reporting. 
The purpose of modern reporting is to keep the execu- 
tive and his assistants in constant touch with the progress 
of all work under way. It is to locate responsibility for 
waste and infidelity, and to give credit for efficiency and 
faithful service. It is not only to provide data for the 
work at hand but also to provide a basis for future plans 
and policies. A properly devised system of reports daily 
on the administrator's desk is an index to the day's ac- 
tivities, showing the unusual conditions that call for his 
investigation and action, and may be a guide to the solu- 
tion of future problems. For instance, the receipts from 
a certain refectory show a gradual decrease from the 
beginning of the season over the receipts of the last year. 
This would mean investigating conditions at the refectory 
to see to what particular cause the decrease was due and 
what steps were necessary to remedy the defects and 
make the refectory produce more revenue. Practical 
business men are scrapping obsolete machinery, equip- 
ment and inefficient employees daily. In any case daily 
reports should bring the matter to the attention of the 
executive early in the season, and instead of the refectory 
operating at a loss throughout the season, it can be made 
to pay a profit. The story told by the reports in the par- 
ticular case might point the way to a profitable readjust- 
ment of the entire refectory system. 
The keeping of records is more work, but it eliminates 
guessing which is decidedly hazardous in business. The 
business executive would not be overwhelmed by multi- 
tudinous detail. Proper reporting should bring all the 
essential operating details to a focus daily on the execu- 
tive's desk. Pie would then have an opportunity to view 
the whole department in perspective, to plan, to syste- 
matize and organize, and to give his prompt and undivided 
attention to abnormal conditions. The value of modern 
reporting will not be underestimated when its purpose 
and its results are known. 
Such reports must be based on the accounts. Accounts 
here is used in the broad sense to include not only finan- 
cial transactions, but also the energy expended in accom- 
plishing the project. 
The board of park commissioners should have an ac- 
countant, who, under the superintendent, should have 
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