60 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
against either the South Park sys- 
tem or the West Park system. 
The Smaller Park Districts. 
Concerning the seven smaller park 
districts within the City of Chicago, 
there is little to be said, except that 
their Boards are sequestered bodies 
of which the taxpayers know "little. 
It was with difficulty that the Bu- 
reau was able to gather the main 
facts about these bodies and their 
business affairs. These districts were 
called into existence to satisfy in a 
crude way the needs of communities 
not within any other park district. 
Obviously the best way to satisfy 
these needs is to make the city one 
park district, and to wipe out these 
smaller bodies that are destined if 
they continue to exist to escape pub- 
lic scrutiny and to prove wasteful 
and inefficient agencies for their pur- 
poses. 
Publicity for Park Board Affairs. 
The administration of park affairs 
has not had in the past the degree 
of publicity that is desirable. A 
strong argument for consolidation of 
the Park Boards, with concentration 
of administrative functions at the 
City Hall, is that it would tend to 
bring park matters more into the 
public eye. Neither newspaper re- 
porters nor representatives of citizen 
organizations find it so easy to fol- 
low matters affecting the parks un- 
der separate Boards, meeting in scat- 
tered places, as they would if there 
were centralization. 
It has been a frequent practice in 
the past for the Lincoln Park Com- 
missioners and the South Park Com- 
missioners to hold board meetings in 
private offices downtown, without 
public notice as to time or place of 
meeting. All meetings should be 
held at the Board offices and should 
be open to the public, unless there 
should be a special reason for going 
into executive session upon a par- 
ticular matter. The same rule should 
apply to committee meetings, where 
important matters may be considered 
by committees. The West Park 
Board holds open meetings, but the 
important business is transacted first 
in secret sessions of the joint com- 
mittees on finance and maintenance, 
comprising all the members of the 
Board. The proceedings in the open 
Board constitute merely the formal 
ratification of what has been agreed 
upon in secret session. On one oc- 
casion, when this joint committee 
was considering a franchise grant to 
the Chicago Railways Company, a 
representative of the company was 
admitted, but others were excluded. 
The West Park Commissioners are 
the only park body in Chicago that 
publish the minutes of proceedings. 
The cost of such publication is not 
large in comparison with the benefit 
to the public. The South Park 
Board and the Lincoln Park Board 
ought to publish their proceedings in 
printed form. 
The procedure of all the Boards 
in passing ordinances is open to crit- 
icism. Often ordinances are passed 
the day of their introduction. The 
practice should be to print and post- 
pone final consideration until the 
succeeding meeting. 
Financial Matters. 
In 1909 the General Assembly of 
Illinois, as a means of increasing the 
borrowing power of cities, changed 
the revenue law so as to make the as- 
sessed value of property one-third of 
the full value, instead of one-fifth. 
The tax rates of all local taxing au- 
thorities were supposed to be 
changed to correspond, so that the 
maximum tax levy of each munici- 
pality would be the same under the 
new law as under the old. The only 
effect of the modifications of the 
statute, the community was assured, 
was to give larger borrowing pow- 
ers. 
The inquiries conducted by the 
Bureau disclose that while the tax 
rates of the city, county and other 
local governing authorities were 
modified so as to yield no more rev- 
enue under the new assessed value 
than under the old, the Park 
Boards were heavy gainers 
by the legislation. The tax 
rates of the South Park 
Board were not changed at 
all, so that that body has 
the right to levy the old 
rates against the higher 
assessed value of prop- 
erty. 
Linder authority of this 
new legislation, not intend- 
ed for its benefit at all, 
the South Park Board in- 
creased its tax levy for 1910 
by approximately $400,000. 
The South Park Board, more- 
over, is the only -one of 
the local taxing bodies that suffers 
no actual scaling under the Juul law, 
but gets the full amount which it 
levies. 
Some of the tax rates of the West 
Park Board were modified in con- 
nection with the legislation chang- 
ing the assessed value of property 
from one-fifth to one-third. Other 
rates of this body were left un- 
touched. Under these conditions the 
West Park Board was enabled to 
increase its revenue from taxation for 
the year 1909 by $407,581, or 33 1/3 
per cent over what it secured in 
1908. The Lincoln Park Board, like- 
wise, secured 36 per cent more rev- 
enue in 1909 than it had in 1908 — 
an increase of $281,015. The rates 
of the small park districts were not 
changed to correspond with the bond 
legislation, so that these bodies, of 
which there are now seven, may levy 
upon the one-third value the rates 
intended to be applied to the one- 
fifth value. 
It was sharp practice on the part 
of all concerned to bring about the 
heavy increase of taxation for park 
purposes as the result of legislation 
designed to have no other purpose 
than to give larger borrowing pow- 
er. The Park Boards ought to make 
their action conform in the future 
to the spirit of that legislation. The 
levies should be such as to produce 
only the revenue that would be ob- 
tained if the valuation for taxing 
purposes had not been changed. 
In 1909, for some unexplained rea- 
son, the County Clerk, in spreading 
the tax levy, gave the South Park 
CITY COUNCIL 
CHART SHOWING ORGANIZATION UNDER PROPOSED CONSOLIDATION 
OF CHICAGO PARK SYSTEMS. 
