cxx                                    Introductory.

supervisory duty, in aid and in reminder of public officers, has
proven of great benefit in foreign cities, where the system is carried
to a much farther extreme than we have adopted in the draft. It is
not difficult for the influential to make their grievances heard and
appreciated, but in a city of many millions, the obscure citizen who
might never be heard either in the Municipal Assembly or by the
Administrative Department can at least make known his wants or
his wrongs to the neighborhood members of his Local, Board, and
the duty and ambition of that member will be pledged to help the
lowly and to advance the good government of his constituents.
Should the members of any Local Board prove derelict in these
agencies, the duty and the dominion of the general government v.-iU
remain, all the same, and hence the general system cannot in any
event be impaired; but the action and the dominion of the general
government will be greatly aided and enlarged where the members
of the Local Boards are alert in the interests of the people.

Board   of   Public   Improvements.

One important and radical departure is made in the organization
of the city for the conduct of public work. It has seemed to the
Committee clear that no one man was competent to have the decid¬
ing voice on every question relating to the water works, the sewer
system, the highways, and the like, through such a vast territory as
The Greater New York. The Committee have therefore decided to
recommend the adoption of what is, in effect, the St. Louis system.
\ The draft provides for a Board of Public Improvements to consist.
of the following departments:

1.   The Department of Water Supply.

2.   The Department of Highways.

3.   The Department of Street Cleaning.

4.   The Department of Sewers.

5.   The Department of Public Buildings, Lighting and Supplies.

6.   The Department of Bridges.

Each department is presided over by a single Commissioner, who
is made responsible for his department precisely as the Commis¬
sioner of Public Works is now responsible for his department; and
in order that it may be clear that these are separate and independent
departments, and not simply bureaus of a single department, the
draft provides that the Mayor shall be, ex officio, the President of
the Board of Public Improvements. On the other hand, the draft
permits the Mayor to designate any one of the Commissioners to
serve as vice-president of the B(?ard; or, with the consent of the
Municipal Assembly, to appoint a president of the Board of Public
Improvements who shall devote his whole time to the duties of the
office. This provision is made, in one aspect of it, to relieve the
Mayor from the burden of constant attendance upon the meetings of
the Board of Public Improvements; and, in the other aspect, to pro¬
vide for the situation that may easily arise if the work of the presi¬
dent proves to be so great as to demand a special officer to attend
to it. While each of the Commissioners in these departments is
responsible for the administration of his department, the Board of
Public Improvements, as a body, are charged with important func¬
tions in helping to determine what work should be done, and when,