[Reports] vol. IV. Report of Samuel Whinery, consulting civil engineer, upon the Street department. Boston, 1909. 333 p. tables. (part. fold.). Appointments, organization and communications. [Reports] vol. V. Boston, 1910. 143 P. [This is the first volume of the new Finance commission, appointed June 23, 1909. "It has been numbered five, so as to present all the reports of both commissions in a single continuous series."] Contents. Report to the General court, p. 5-42. Official communications to the city government, p. 43-94. (Contains sections on political activity of city employees and on penal institutions department.) Summary of specific recommendations made by the former Reports and communications. vol. VI. Boston, 1911. 252 p. Increase in city's pay roll and decrease in efficiency of day Soldier's relief department. Elementary school accommodations. Contract for gas lighting. Street lighting situation. Influence of politics in appointments. Department of public works. Taxing unearned increment of land. Cost of water bridges. Proposed consolidation of the bath, music, public grounds and park departments. Abolition of the Registry department. Rejection of the civil pension act. Reports and communications. vol. VII. Boston, 1912. 320, 256 p. Partial Contents. Children's institutions department. Consumptive's hospital department. Indebtedness of the city of Boston. Protection against fire. Lighting the streets with gas. Bids for supplying coal to the city of Boston. Licenses for private uses of the public streets. High pressure water service. Pensions in the Fire department. Cost of minor's licenses. General pension act for city employees and laborers. Central power and heating plant. Contract for disposal of city refuse. Land court. Report of the Boston school system. Boston, 1911. 256 p. Reports and communications. vol. VIII. Boston, 1913. 205 p. Appointments to the Collecting department. Collection of money on bail bonds, etc. Street lighting situation. Automobile apparatus for the fire department. A municipal garage. Building department. Payments for overtime. Reports and communications. vol. IX. Boston, 1914. 240 p. Licenses for stands for sight-seeing automobiles. Pensioning of veterans who had ceased to be employees of the city. Participation by members of the City council in the executive and administrative business of the city. Reforms in the Ferry division by the Public works department. Reports and communications. vol. X. Boston, 1915. 294 p. Contents. Vacations for city laborers. Concession privileges. Standardization of salaries of city and county employees. Payments for overtime. System of purchasing supplies in Boston. Automatic lighting devices for street lamps. Reports and communications. vol. XI. Boston, 1916. 394 p. Reorganization of the Health department. Increase in the tax limit of Boston. Condition of streets in Boston. High pressure water service installation. Street construction in Boston. Cost of city passenger automobiles. Adoption of check paying system for city employees. Reports and communications. vol. XII. Boston, 1917. 486 p. Segregated budget. Payment of city employees by check. The Boston school department, p. 159-222. Letter to the Boston Finance commission from James H. Van Sickle, chairman of the Survey committee [presenting a report of a study of certain phases of the public school system of Boston, made under the auspices of the Boston Finance commission], p. 223-443. [Published also as Document 87-1916, in a volume of 219 The reorganization of the administration of schools. The High School situation. Special departments. Vocational education. Vocational needs of Boston children. Expenditures for school purposes in Boston compared with expenditures in other large American cities. Construction of school buildings. Annual reports, 1910-date (Public Doc. No. 88). [First annual report is for the period ending Jan. 31, 1910.] Chicago, Ill.: Commission on City Expenditures. In 1909 provision was made by the city government of Chicago for a special commission to make a thorough study of city expenditures with a view to making recommendations looking to the more economic and efficient expenditure of the city's money. This commission was duly appointed August 19, 1909, and was popularly known as the "Merriam Commission" after its chairman, Professor C. E. Merriam, of the University of Chicago. This commission proved to be a very energetic body. During the balance of the year 1909 and 1910 it made an investigation of the expenditures of nearly all the city departments, the results of which were embodied in twenty-one reports. Seventeen of these reports were at once published in pamphlet form. The remaining four reports were subsequently published by the Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency. In April, 1911, the commission was deemed to have been abolished as a result of the change which then took place in the city administration. The work of the commission, however, was continued by the Efficiency Division of the Chicago Civil Service Commission and the Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency, both of which organizations owed their creation directly to the impetus given to the work of governmental research by that commission. PUBLICATIONS Preliminary report . . . on the purchase of castings from the Cummings foundry company by the business agent on requisitions from the Department of public works, 1907-1909. Chicago, 1910. 19 p. Preliminary report on Southwest land and lake tunnel system. 1910. 43 P. Preliminary report on street paving. 1910. 34 P. Preliminary report on the building department. 1910. 23 p. Preliminary report on the Business agent's office of the city of Chicago. 1910. 16 p. Preliminary report on the Department of electricity. 1910. 40 p. Preliminary report on the Division of bridges and harbors. Dept. of public works. 1910. 32 p. Preliminary report on the House of correction. 1910. 40 p. Preliminary report on the McGovern street repair contract of 1908. 1910. 31 p. Preliminary report on the Police department. 1910. 18 p. Preliminary reports on purchase of lumber, budget making, Lawrence avenue sewer, Bureau of sewers, City clerk's office, purchase of coal. 1910. 90 p. Preliminary report on the Fire department. 1910. 53 p. The water works systems of the city of Chicago. Report of Dabney H. Maury to the Chicago Commission on city expenditures. Pub. by the Chicago bureau of public efficiency. Dec., 1911. 52 p. fold. tables. Bureau of streets of the city of Chicago. Report of Richard T. Fox to the Chicago Commission on city expenditures. Pub. by Chicago bureau of public efficiency. Dec., 1911. p. 7-36. The Civil service commission of the city of Chicago. Report of Russell Whitman [and others] to the Chicago Commission on city expenditures. (In its Bureau of streets, etc. Pub. by Chicago bureau of public efficiency, Dec., 1911. p. 37-78.) Special assessment accounting system of the city of Chicago. Report of T. W. Betak to the Chicago Commission on city expenditures. (In its Bureau of streets, etc. Pub. by Chicago bureau of public efficiency, Dec., 1911. p. 79-112.) Chicago, Ill.: Efficiency Division of the Civil Service Commission. The Civil Service Commission of Chicago at the time of the creation of the Commission on City Expenditures, an account of which has just been given, had established an enviable record for public-spirited and energetic action for municipal reform. In 1909, as the result of the disclosure of conditions in the city government by that commission, provision was made by the city council for the creation of a permanent efficiency division that should be a part of the organization of the Civil Service Commission. This division was organized under the direction of Mr. J. L. Jacobs. In the neighborhood of $30,000 a year was appropriated for a number of years for the support of this division. Under the energetic and capable direction of Mr. Jacobs a large amount of research work of the highest order was done. Regarding this work a writer in the National Municipal Review had the following to say:1 'National Municipal Review, Vol. IV, No. 14. Oct., 1915, p. 662. The permanent staff of experts and investigators which were recruited from the civil service eligible registers has, at the request of the council, the finance and other committees thereof, and of department heads, investigated and reported on the organization activities and methods of practically every department of the city government. During this period, in coöperation with the council and the department heads, civil service administration has been raised to a high business standard, conditions of employment improved, both as to service rendered and opportunities of employees, and various measures adopted look toward effective and responsible government administration. In such inquiries it was found that the information thus obtained, beyond the specific result in view, has been vital, first, to the finance committee and the council in determining judicious apportionment of the $40,000,000 appropriated each year; second, to the departments and bureaus in securing and maintaining efficient administration; and third, to the civil service commission in the proper selection and control of the service and the promotion and separation of employees. The efficiency division had become an integral part of the municipal government, acting as a coördinating force as between departments and council committees. With a broad and general view of the entire activities of the city administration, it was in a position to aid the different branches of the service in the preparation of estimates and the annual budget, to solving problems of employment, management and methods. Notwithstanding the general recognition of the value of this work, and of the work of the Civil Service Commission generally, the new administration which came into office in 1915, adopted the policy of destroying the work of the commission as far as possible. New members were appointed to the commission who were willing to carry out this policy. One of its first acts was the abolition of the Efficiency Division. The reason assigned was "lack of work and funds." This, despite the fact that appropriations in the 1915 budget were available, that five investigations were under way, and a request for the beginning of six other surveys had been made by the city council finance committee. The real reasons were undoubtedly of a purely political character. |