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Finding aid for the Division of Business and Administrative Support Services Records
SEKI 22365
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Table of contents
Title: Division of Business and Administrative Support Services records
Dates: 1904-2005
Bulk Dates: 1969-2002
Collection number: SEKI 22365
Collector:
Sequoia National Park (Calif.). Division of Business and Administrative Support Services
Collection Size:
900 linear feet
Abstract: Records generated within the organizational divisions of Sequoia Kings
Canyon National Park concerning Park management, planning and development.
Repository:
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, Museum and Archives
Three Rivers, CA 93271-9700
Physical location: Sequoia Kings Canyon National Parks. Ash Mountain Headquarters, Archive.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
The collection is open for research by appointment.
Many collections are former federal government records and are in the public domain. Other collections are from private sources;
copyright has been transferred to the NPS on most. Some collections have publication restrictions. Researchers are required
to properly credit all materials used. The researcher assumes responsibility for acquiring copyright permissions when needed.
Division of Business and Administrative Support Services records, SEKI 22365. Courtesy of the National Park Service, Sequoia
& Kings Canyon National Parks.
Biography / Administrative History
The Division of Business and Administrative Support Services was created in 2008 when two functions that previously reported
directly to the parks' superintendent, Safety and Concessions Management, were added to the Division of Administration. Following
the consolidation of these park functions into the expanded (and renamed) Division of Business and Administrative Support
Services, branch records were also consolidated. Records in this collection have been organized into series that reflect the
work functions of the contemporary division.
Since the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916, the office of the Parks' superintendent has been responsible
for the oversight of all park programs and the office remains the principal decision-making, contractual, and budgetary authority.
With the growth of the agency, a number of fundamental work functions have been transferred to various support offices. The
responsibility for tracking budgets and day-to-day bookkeeping has long been one of the primary duties of the Division of
Administration. By the late 1980s, the Division consisted of four branches: budget, information management, personnel, and
procurement. Budgetary records are well represented in this collection. The concessions office, responsible for the management
of the numerous contractual relationships between the parks and the various private businesses operating within its boundaries,
has moved several times over the past decades. At the outset of the Park era, the authority for signing contracts with concessioners
resided with the Parks' superintendent. By the 1960s, when Park superintendents began having management assistants, the work
fell largely to them. By the late 1980s, Sequoia and Kings Canyon's concessions office had grown to five permanent employees
with a branch chief reporting directly to the Parks' superintendent. In 1995, the branch became a division, the Division of
Planning and Concessions Management, under the leadership of William Tweed. By 1997, the office was dissolved as a freestanding
division and was moved back under the Office of the Superintendent. Until 2006, some special use permits, environmental compliance
and land issues were managed through the concessions office. With the expansion of environmental compliance workload and
increasing complexity and political sensitivity regarding land issues, those functions were moved under the newly established
Deputy Superintendent. For much of its history, the Parks' safety office has consisted of one employee reporting directly
to the Parks superintendent; from 1992-2002, Gary Bornholdt was the Parks' Safety Officer. Before its transfer to the current
Division of Business and Administrative Support Services, the Parks' safety office was part of the office of the Deputy Superintendent
or directly for the Superintendent.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of correspondence, permits, reports, legal documents, memoranda and analyses. The collection documents
the Parks' budget, permitted special use activities, the disposal of hazardous material, and workplace and employee safety.
Special use permits document activities which include the following: hydroelectric development and re-licensing, management
of private inholdings, grazing allotments, and proposed recreational development.
The collections is organized into three series: Series I Budget; Series II Concessions; and Series III Safety.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Sequoia National Park (Calif.). Division of Business and Administrative Support Services.
Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park (Calif.).
Conservation of natural resources.
Grazing--Environmental aspects.
Hydroelectric power plants--Kaweah River--History.
Accidents--Sequoia National Park (Calif.).
National parks and reserves--Law and legislation--United States.
Land ownership--California.
Sequoia National Park (Calif.)--Management.
Concessions (Amusements etc.)--Sequoia National Park (Calif.).