Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-03
SUBJECT OF COMMENT
u.sds of Bureaus In District Govern
ment critacise Recommendations
for Bettsrmenx Of Service.

There was c0nSlOSt8VAS COHaAs>'eS
officials and employees at the Dssficl 49,
ing today with references to the sosusa.s.s
repert Of the special committee, submit
tod "a the Com mlssioners yesterday. reia-
tive 10 the business methods employed IN
the municipal service. II was quite gen
erarv conceded that the detailed descrip-
tion in the appendices of the report as TO
the workings of the District government
machinery Is OF great value. tnasmuch Nd
the Commissioners may ascertain ITO" "
perusal of the appendices the exact man
ner I'm which the business OF the Dlstrlct
is transacted. But with. reference TO the
recommends tons to the proposeu III
movements in the business metnous IA
partfcular offices comments tFoM .empioSes
and officials or the DlStfict FoiieO ~
what in tone. 49,
The three Commissioners refrained from
commenting upon the recomnenoatv,lls
made by the committee, Dut certaHl o.ne.
officials of the District government WERE nos
ca retfcent in the expression or tnelr views
on the subject. Some of the heads ol tne
departments even went so far as 10 oecIai i
the recommendations for improvements over nnintad
ont that with reference to the TRANSACTION
of the business of their respective depart
ments the heads of the departments were III
a position to judge far more accul ,a,d +he
to what should be done than could the
members of the examining commttee WIZ
were practically unfamiliar with the de-
tailed workings Of the Offices
In Resentful Mood.
few of the heads of departments APP
reared to resent the intimation that they.
with many years experience IN the "oih VI
their offices, do not know as much aoou.
the needs of the offices, as DO the nheih
hers of the committee who devoted oniy
brief period to study of the methods anu
conditions Some of the officials expresseu
themselves with respect to the recolilnen
dations in vigorous and picturesque ia on,
ena ee and were apparently hot undef the
collar over the committee report.
From the remarks heard about the lis
trict building today 1t seems tnat the ieeoi.
mendationS for improvements maze by .he
committee are not popular with the MAJOR
ity of the officials Of the Dlstrict govern
ment. There were many comments amons
the officials relative to the fact that theIe
was but one recommendation relating TO the
health department, and that was that the
department should keep manual showing
the duties of each official and employe IN
the department. -
board of assistant assessors keep the memo
randa of their field work in ink instead OF
pencil District Assessor DarnelHe stateo
today that the pencil memoranda mace py
the assistant assessors are FOR their own
personal use. He also stated that the healtn
department sends out official notices that
residents are violating certain regulations
of the department, written in pencil.
Mr.. Macfarland Talks.
In speaking of the report of the commit
| tee today, Commissioner mcfarland said:
1.-THE Commissioners have already made
! some of the changes recommended by the
committee while some of the changes sug-
gested have already been recommended by
the Commissioners. Each Commissioners
will take up the matters under his super
vision and act upon the Recommendations
separately. instead OF putting into effect
| at one time all the changes to be made.
while perhaps the details of the report
| will not be interesting to the general pub
! lie, yet for the Commissioners the apPen-
dices, containing Information as to the
| workings of the District government, will
be OF great value. The present, and every
preceding board OF Commissioners, nave
| made improvements in the service during
| the past twenty-five years, but during tina,
| time there has been no general survey OF
| the whole District service. such as is con-
| animation of the working details of the
| various offices will doubtless suggest to the
| Commissioners other changes in tbs
| service.
Comment by Commissioner West.
Commissioner West said:
| Quite a number of the features of the
| report commend themselves to me. Thai
| part of the report which shows the work.
rings Of the District government machinery
| is a valuable mass of information.
| Il propose to refer to the head Of each
| department under my supervision the sug
| gestions made by the committee fol
| changes in the various departments. and as
soon as the heads of the departments make
| their reply to the recommendations of the
committee will carefully go over the Who'll,
matter and decide upon what changes shall
| be adopted"
Col. John Biddle, Engineer Commissioner
| expressed his appreciation of the valuable
| information contained in the appendices OF
the report. He stated today that he viii
! also ask the head of each Office under the
engineer department to report as to the
| advisability of the changes recommended