Municipal Research, to Promote the Application of Scientific Principles to Government Volume 86-90 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 Excerpt: ...danger of antagonizing some constituency. This is the more true in that the work of the board of aldermen is more clearly before the public eye than that of the board of estimate and apportionment. By very reason of the small number of cuts that can be made, those few focus attention, especially as they are published separately in the minutes of the board of aldermen and not scattered throughout the entire budget. Limitation of Period for Aldermanic Investigation Owing to the provision that failure to act within the 20-day period allowed by the charter results in the automatic adoption of the budget as proposed by the board of estimate and apportionment, a careful and independent investigation of the merits of each budgetary item is impossible. More than once the finance committee has complained of this shortness of time allowed. In 1914, the committee says: "This report is not intended to be exhaustive. The charter gives the board of aldermen twenty days within which to consider a budget of nearly two hundred million dollars, every dollar of which supplies a live question of municipal policy or management. Without any staff, bureau, or, in fact, a single individual to aid in the work, it is manifestly impossible to examine minutely into every corner of this budget." And so again in 1915. Lack of Investigatory Staffs The limitation on the period of time for action by the board of aldermen may have been imposed on the assumption that the aldermen would make use of the evidence already accumulated by the board of estimate and apportionment and its staff agencies. However that may be, the aldermen have always tried to make their investigations independently. Nevertheless the board has never organized any investigatory staffs such as have been establi...