Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

Presentation by Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York on "Good Art is Good Politics and Good Business;" strengthening the states; state and local government labor relations; constitutional revision and governmental reorganization; regional and interstate cooperation; state and local revenue; state planning; and state-urban relations

Points of Interest:

The meeting was held aboard the SS Independence as well as in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Governors discussed labor unrest in the public sector. Governor Hulett Smith of West Virginia pointed out that states had often been more willing to extend bargaining rights to local government employees than to state employees. He favored a single law applying to all governmental agencies within a jurisdiction, with uniform principles attaching to all occupational categories and employees. Questions were raised about whether certain public employees—firemen and policemen, for example—should be prohibited from striking, and whether collective bargaining in the public sector would conflict with the merit system or do away with patronage.

Governor Kerner of Illinois talked about civil unrest and the use of the National Guard to quash it. He argued that a serious problem existed with respect to the reluctance of the military establishment to recognize and consider state needs in the structuring, training, and staffing of the Guard. And he recommended that the association call on the Department of the Army to display a less rigid attitude by negotiating with states to attain mutually acceptable troop allotments.

Drs. Hugh Bone and George Condon presented the results of a two-month study during which Governors' offices had been asked a series of questions, including how many propositions had appeared on election ballots in their states during the previous five years, and whether they employed someone to serve as a coordinator on federal programs. At the close of the presentation, Governor Daniel Evans of Washington laid out changes that each Governor should consider for the purpose of streamlining his/her state's constitution. With respect to executive reorganization, Governor Evans also recommended that: (1)only the positions of Governor and Lieutenant Governor should be elected, for four-year terms and without term limits; (2)a maximum of 20 executive departments should suffice to provide state services; (3)each state should have a state-federal programs coordinator; and (4)Governors should be empowered to submit reorganization plans to legislatures.

It was noted that two-thirds of the states had adopted an Interstate Compact on Mental Health to provide for care and treatment of the mentally ill and to pool mental health resources, and ten states had adopted an Interstate Compact on Placement of Children.

The association's State and Local Revenue Committee report recommended endorsing the principles of tax sharing and consolidating more than 200 existing demonstration and innovational federal grants into a single demonstration grant authority under each applicable federal department or agency. Also recommended was that the U.S. Bureau of the Budget develop guidelines for grant-in-aid formulas and matching ratios, and that a detailed study be made of existing federal grant programs to eliminate outmoded or unduly restrictive requirements. Governor George Romney of Michigan opposed revenue sharing, arguing that states disagreed on what a fair formula would be for state-by-state distribution, particularly as needs shifted from state to state and region to region. He recommended instead that federal spending be reduced, thus giving states greater opportunity to raise their own revenues.

Governor John Love of Colorado told of the association's effort—assisted by the Institute on State Programming for the 70s and funded by the Carnegie Corporation—to study decision making and use of technology with a view toward increasing the potential for modernization and reform. Governor Love went on to say that 48 states now had state planning agencies, up from only 19 states in 1960. However, only 17 states had begun to use computerized information systems.

A motion was offered for suspension of the rules to consider a resolution indicating the Governors' commitment to the successful conclusion of the Vietnam War, by peaceful negotiation if possible but by battle if necessary. Then-Governor Ronald Reagan of California said that he would vote "no" on the suspension motion because he considered it a step toward the introduction of partisan politics into the association. Governor John Connally of Texas asked to be recognized on a point of personal privilege, expressing the view that he was personally offended by the notion that supporters of the suspension had political motives. A roll call vote was called to place Governors' votes on record, and the suspension motion failed to receive the three-fourths vote required for adoption.

Memorable Quotes:

Governor Hulett Smith of West Virginia said this about collective bargaining on the part of public employees: "...public employees now want to have a share in decision-making in the matters that affect their work, their pay, hours and conditions of employment. There is a growing feeling that they wish to do away with traditional paternalism, which is so often found in government employment, characterized by unilateral decisions handed down from above...They are seeking economic benefits comparable to those that exist in the private sector...A question that all of us must think about with the coming...of collective bargaining in public service, is this: what effect will it have on the merit system of employment in state government? What effect will it have on the various procedures that have been established by Civil Service arrangements in many States? What effect will it have in regard to personnel management? Conflicts will arise between merit system supporters and those who base their theories on union representation...The unions generally attempt to put Civil Service agencies on the sidelines...some authorities feel that employee groups can act as an effective means of destroying patronage...the issue of greatest moment, and the one that is going to be the most difficult for Governors to resolve, is that of strikes against the government—strikes of public employees."

Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois said this about the National Guard and civil disturbances: "The National Guard has experienced one of the most difficult and trying periods in its long history this past year, chiefly as the outgrowth of the United States' steadily-expanding military involvement in Southeast Asia and the tragic eruptions of violence and social turmoil in many American cities.  These unhappy events have troubled all Americans but they have imposed an especial burden on the National Guard, for it is the Nation's primary backup force in both national defense and internal security."

Governor John Love of Colorado said the following about the history of state planning: "The National Resources Board gave birth to state planning in 1933, but in the early 1940s World War II buried it. It was during this period, however, that States created legislative research councils and began to use formal executive budgets. After the war, national attention was given to the problems of housing and urban renewal. Since the States did not demand to be involved in these challenges, the federal government started on its long road of by-passing the States...the new technologies of management science were not learned by the States...In 1953, the first alarm was sounded. The American Institute of Planners pointed out the need to adopt the new technologies of management science...In 1956, the Council of State Governments became concerned...The States were encouraged to fund planning services from their own resources...Most States chose not to do so. In the 1959 Housing Act, the federal government made financial resources available for state planning under what is called the '701' program. In 1962, the National Governors' Conference created a committee for state planning...Today, fourteen years after the first alarm was sounded by the American Institute of Planners, this committee [the Committee on State Planning] again appears before you and challenges you to action."

Governor Love also said the following about state planning: "One of the new methods becoming prominent is the computerized information system, linked to a complete communication system. Before we can employ any of the new problem-solving concepts, we must have access to information—on a consolidated basis. The information-handling process is the first step toward overcoming organizational fragmentation and improving coordination. An information system is said to be the automation of the manual functions of data recording, and communicating, filing, manipulation, and retrieving data through the marriage of electronic computers and communication media...Electronic data processing and communication is a new technology that provides for the central exchange of information."

Governor Lester Maddox of Georgia had this to say about the resolution on civil disorder: "In my opinion, law and order must come first before we can ever make our social conditions and economic conditions what we would seek. Further, the resolution contains no suggestions or indications that Communism is a basic factor in this and every civil rights movement in America and any civil disobedience that has struck our nation...This resolution fails to acknowledge, or even suggest calling for action against the use of public funds to teach Communism, spread hate, rioting, looting, burning and murder that are designed to overthrow the United States of America. And it suggests that we support and create human relations groups, when we find in these human relations groups some of the same Communists and some of the same rioters and burners who have been striking at the cities of America."

Governor John Connally of Texas addressed the suggestion that partisanship might be at work in what ultimately became a failed effort by Governor Calvin Rampton of Utah to secure a suspension of the rules to consider a resolution supporting the Vietnam War: "...we have met here to consider matters of very great importance to us, and we have discussed many of these matters...And yet, with remarkable callousness and unconcern, up to this point we blissfully have sidestepped the paramount issue in the minds of the people in this country today. And that's the issue of the war in Vietnam...Let me...remind you that what we are experiencing in America today is a repeat of history...in the days of the American Revolution...less than half of the people of the United States supported that endeavor...every war, and every conflict in which the United States has participated, has begun with a great deal of support and high popularity. But as the war progressed, as inflation occurred, as losses mounted, the people began more and more to be critical of it...there are men and women marching in protest all over this country...they are being encouraged to burn their draft cards... the commitments of this nation are not partisan commitments...I know of no time in the history of this country when it more behooves the Governors, who purportedly speak for the people they represent, to stand up and say that we are for peace if it can be obtained; that we want to continue the struggle until it can be honorably concluded; that we do support those who are being asked to give their lives in order that this nation might provide the leadership for the free world; and that this nation must live up to its commitments. And if there is anything partisan in this approach, then, gentlemen, I don't understand the definition of the word."

Selected Resolutions Adopted:
(1) Supporting the program undertaken by the Public Land Law Review Commission toward the goal that public lands of the U.S. should be retained and managed or disposed of in a manner of maximum benefit to the general public; (2) reaffirming the right of the states to conserve, manage, and regulate the use and harvest of resident species of fish and game on all lands, including those owned by the federal government on which jurisdiction was not been relinquished to the federal government; (3) urging Congress to enact legislation needed to provide guidelines for future highway planning, construction, and maintenance; (4) committing to host a World Governors' Conference under the auspices of the National Governors' Conference; (5) requesting that any new federal-local assistance programs adopted by Congress be drafted so that the interest and participation of the states be included, and that remedial legislation be adopted giving the states a participating interest in existing federal-local assistance programs that currently bypassed the states; (6) resolving that federal authorizations for planning support be increased; that demonstration and innovation grants be consolidated by federal department/agency; that the U.S. Bureau of the Budget develop guidelines for the specifications of grant-in-aid formulas and their matching ratios; that a detailed study be made of major federal grant programs to achieve simplification and elimination of outmoded or unduly restrictive program standards; that the federal government cooperate with the National Governors' Conference to study present public welfare programs; that a joint study of educational needs and finances be conducted by the Education Commission of the States and the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; that overlaps and conflicts between existing programs for water supplies and liquid waste disposal be corrected; that categorization and earmarking be eliminated from vocational education programs; and that a study of categorical aid programs be conducted to determine their efficacy and the possibility of replacing them with block grants or general support grants; (7) urging the President to exhaust alternative remedies to attack the problems of inflation, high interest rates, and unbalanced federal budgeting before any reduction of Highway Trust Funds was considered; (8) urging Congress to enact legislation to make the services and resources of the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service available to states when fires went beyond the control, abilities, and resources of the states to handle; (9) urging that severed National Guard units and combat brigades be restored to the National Guard of the respective states and that Congress consult the states before any future changes in size and organization of the National Guard were made; (10) affirming that the enforcement of law and the preservation of order were primarily the responsibility of state and local governments, and urging Governors to reexamine state laws and police and National Guard forces to ascertain if they were adequate to deal with civil disorder; and (11) instructing the association's Study Committee on Constitutional Revision and Governmental Reorganization to study a model state constitutional executive article and model state executive department organization for both large and small states.