Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-10-10

Abolition of private offices for city
officials and substitution therefore of
large, modern Office room in which the
mayor and all his department heads
would be situated constitutes a much
needed forward step in municipal gov
eminent, in the opinion Of Dwight S.
Ritter, city purchasing agent. Mr.. Rit
ter has studied the municipal machinery
for almost four years while serving I'M
der Mayor Charles w. Jewett and has
been an advocate of the application Of
modern business methods to the admin
istration's work.
Search for quarters for the city plan
commission in he already oyercrowdec
city hall led Mr.. litter to express the
opinion. 1t has been suggested that the
purchasing department be crowded into
one Of the two rooms beside the board
of public works suite 1t now occupies
and the vacated room be given to tho
assessment bureau Of the board Of publlt
works. The assessment bureau would bC
moved from the third floor and the city
plan commission would be assigned to
the space there, next to the park depart
ment. Crowding of his department into
one small room was not to the liking Of
the purchasing agent so he is seeking
some other solution.
II all department heads had their desks
In one room on one floor much less space
than now is used would be required, Mr.
Ritter believes. Many other advantages
would ensue.
There was a time when the movement
was toward private Offices, said the
purchasing agent. "The reason for this
was that there was a chance for people
to concentrate. But 1t has been found
that there was loss in cooperation and
In the speed Of doing business when exec
utives sit In private quarters.
Here in the city hall we go up and
down from one floor to another and the
distances are so great that 1t takes a
long while to get there We can telephone
but we don't get the answer we can by
personal contact with several people.
What l hope to see some day Is an
arrangement for direct action so that the
people coming into the city hall viii ap-
proach an information desk where they
learn the best place to go to get infor-
nation or present any subject.
1.-The department heads at least could
all be on one floor with the mayor in the
same room. We could have an assembly
room for holding various board meet
ings instead Of separate rooms for Every
board. as we now have it. The board OF
public works could use the assembly
room on Monday, Wednesday and Fri
day. mornings, the board Of public safety
on Tuesday morning, the city council
Monday evenings, the city plan commits
sion Tuesday evening, and the board Of
park commissioners Thursday morning"
Housing Of department heads in one
open room would be particularly advan-
tageous, Mr.. Ritter said, because IL is
well that public business be done in
the open. The fewer partitions and
private rooms the better. 1t does In
terfere Nlittle bit with individual Ell
cheney to have as many Interruptions as
would come with such a system, but
think that the people would be glad to
pay little extra help necessary If they
could get direct action from officials,
get to officials quickly and get yes or
no with the same dispatch possible in
a private corporation.
1T would make It harder for those
who had special privileges to ask to hold
whispered conversations, because these
fellows don't like to ask them out in the
open. 1t would show up who is not work
Ing, and 1t would permit Interchange be-
tween departments so that those who
were not busy IN one department might
help out those who were rushed In an
other One Of the big things It would do
would be to promote morale in the or
ganization, because in an open group in
an open form OF organize ION each mem
Der would know more Of the plans Of the
other and cooperate accordingly
There would need to be some smaller
conference rooms and possibly a law
III rary. There is no reason why all
hIes OF all departments could not be kept
In one filing department with compe-