THE RECORD

MARCH 2,1976

NO. 19

LYNDON B. JOHNSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

EDITOR Hoyt H. Purvis

HILL VIEWS STATE ISSUES

Texas Attorney General John Hill discussed current issues in state government and the role of the Attorney General's office at an LBJ School brown-bag luncheon February 24.

Hill described his office as "the legal arm of the state." He said, "It is our job to defend the state and to sue on behalf of the public as in the Bell Telephone case. "

He said the Attorney General's office functions "as both a plaintiff and defendant's law firm—it's about 50-50." Hill noted that the office has 14 divisions which are responsible for specialized areas.

Hill pointed to the controversy over the sale of water by the Lower Colorado River Authority to the South Texas Nuclear Project as a rare case of the attorney general challenging the action of a state agency. He said he would try to enjoin the Texas Water Rights Commission from granting the LCRA permission to sell the water. Hill contends that the water belongs to the state and that the river authority has no standing in the matter.

He said, "This will be the first time I've tried to stop the action of a state agency—of being on the opposite side."

Hill normally serves as the legal representative for the TWRC. If action is taken against the Commission, it would have the choice of hiring an outside lawyer or using one of the lawyer's from Hill's office.

In response to questions, Hill said the determination of legislative intent is now much easier than in the past. "They now keep tape recordings of committee hearings and better records. It makes it easier to determine the intent of legislation. If you have to go back more than 10 years, you're in trouble."

He said he thought the state open records and open meetings acts were very important. He said the Open Records Act "is a great thing" and noted that more than 100 opinions on open records questions have been issued in three years."

Hill said that the Open Meetings Act "has not worked as well, but it is better than it was" and added that "there is a lot of interest."

"Openness in government will become an ethic in our time in this state—just like the environmental movement. It will become an accepted fact within a few years," Hill said.

Hill said, "I don't see any basic change in the state's political philosophy, which I think is progressively conservative."

He said, "Politics is very personal with me. I support my friends. I do my own thing."

Hill commented that he "would like to take another shot at amending the state constitution—not the whole thing, I've given up on that."

"We need to give the governor more executive power. It is a weak constitutional office."

Hill listed a number of areas which he said represented "exciting challenges" to state government, including: court reform; educational improvements; an effort to encourage economic development in South Texas and to "make people there more a part of Texas"; and a bolder approach to water-shortage problems in the state.

"I don't want to lose the environmental thrust," Hill said. "I've worked hard on this and now we're winning. I believe we can build Texas industrially and still have a healthy environment."

SHALALA SPEAKS HERE WEDNESDAY

Dr. Donna E. Shalala, the only woman serving on the Municipal Assistance Corporation, which is trying to restore New York City's fiscal health, will speak at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the East Campus Lecture Hall on The Anatomy of a Crisis: Saving New York City.

Dr. Shalala, who serves as treasurer of the MAC, is associate professor and chairperson of the Department of Politics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to write a book on the political economy of state government.

A self-styled "political scientist who likes politics," she was the subject of a lengthy New York Times article recently. The article was headed, "Young, Small, Bright and Powerful—and a Key to the City's Future."

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Shalala received her A.B. from Western College for Women (Oxford, Ohio); and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Syracuse University in political economy and government.

She is one of the country's leading authorities on school finance and serves as vice-chairperson of the Governor of New York's Task Force on Education and is special assistant to the Governor of New York for school finance.

Dr. Shalala was the National Academy of Education's first post-doctoral fellow in political science in 1972-73. She has written books and articles on school finance, state politics, and decentralization.

Dr. Shalala serves as a director or committee member of numerous civic and education organizations, including the National Urban Coalition, League of Women Voters Education Fund, National Urban League, and World Education, Inc. From 1971 to 1974 she served as a trustee of Western College.

Since 1973 she has directed a five-year study for the Ford Foundation on state revenue politics and school finance.

She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran from 1962 to 1964.

"On the Record"

. Jack Valenti, who served as special assistant to President Johnson and is now president of the Motion Picture Association of America, is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. Friday in the East Campus Lecture Hall. Valenti is the author of A Very Human President, which was recently published.

. Acting Dean Kenneth W. Tolo is in New York where he is meeting with representatives of the Ford Foundation and making other visits on behalf of the LBJ School. He is also interviewing prospective students in the New York area.

. Kent Talbot, director of policy reference service at the LBJ School, was recently appointed to the new nine-member Austin Urban Transportation Commission. The Commission's task is to advise the Austin City Council on transportation planning and needs. Talbot commented that "the creation of the commission is a progressive step that will insure public input to a process affecting the entire city."

. Professor Lynn Anderson was recently named Chairman of the Committee on Local Nonproperty Taxation of the National Tax Association/Tax Institute of America. This is one of six major standing committees of NTA/TIA concerned with association activities in various fields of public finance. Anderson previously served as vice-chairman of the committee. NTA/TIA is a national organization of persons professionally interested in taxation and public finance and has members from the academic community, tax administrators at all levels of government, and tax specialists from the private sector.

. Energy and The Future: The Cities of Texas will be the subject of a conference organized by the LBJ School's Office of Conferences and Training March 22-23 at the Thompson Conference Center. Conference participants will examine energy-related issues and their influence on the status and future of the city in Texas. Such matters as mass transportation, urban design, and urban environment will be discussed.

. The Office of Conferences and Training is also organizing a professional development seminar for local government administrators, March 8-10. The seminar is a complement to the seminar for local government executives which was offered by the LBJ School in January. It is intended to serve the needs of department heads, technical specialists preparing for managerial or supervisory responsibilities, management trainees, or other persons in local government who may benefit from an introductory overview of its function.

. Among recent speakers at the LBJ School were Dr. Mortimer Dittenhofer, assistant director of the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program of the U.S. General Accounting Office, and Dr. Chester A. Newland, director of the Federal Executive Institute. Dr. Newland spoke on Collective Bargaining in Government.

. Representatives of farm workers organizations will speak at a student-sponsored brown-bag luncheon in the Student Lounge on Tuesday, March 9 at noon. Among subjects to be discussed will be the continuing farm workers strike in the Rio Grande Valley. Speakers will be Paula Waddle, a member of the Austin Friends of the Texas Farm Workers, and a representative of the United Farm Workers.

. Professor Lynn Anderson recently participated in a special seminar on municipal debt management for graduate students in the Urban Affairs Department of Trinity University in San Antonio.

ARNOLD DESCRIBES PLANNING EFFORTS

Dr. Victor L. Arnold, director of developmental planning for the Minnesota State Planning Agency, spoke to LBJ School students and faculty on February 17.

Arnold, who served as executive director of the Commission on Minnesota's Future, described the work of the commission in preparing alternative growth and development strategies to submit to the governor and legislature, as well as his work in the Planning Agency.

Arnold said the planning agency provides coordination of state government programs and staff assistance to the governor and legislature on legislative alternatives and issue analysis.

He noted that "each state government is unique" and said that "Minnesota has a strong governor and legislature, which now meets in annual session, meaning that they are working eight to ten months a year with hearings, sessions, etc."

He said the 66-member Commission on Minnesota's Future, which has a four-year life, reported to a three-day joint session of the legislature last year on its work to that point. The sessions were televised and broadcast statewide and generated large-scale public interest.

Arnold said a key to successful state planning is "developing a good, solid information basis from which you can work on the articulation of your goals."

Among the steps taken to develop the information basis in Minnesota were:

. Creation and publication of the Minnesota Pocket Data Book, with relevant facts and figures.

. Establishment of the Office of State Demography to develop population projections and predictions of future population distribution and to interpret what these will mean for future funding and planning needs.

Work has also been done in such areas as land-use analysis, consideration of alternative housing delivery formats, studies of future public school enrollments and the impact of the decline in the number of students, and health care needs.

Arnold said, "We apply sophisticated analytic techniques, but we use language everyone can understand. This is important in the political decision-making process."

He said, "We have not tried to articulate the state plan, but to analyze and suggest possible alternatives. You need flexibility and discretion.

LALLA NAMED DIRECTOR OF TEXAS REGISTER

William H. Lalla, a 1975 LBJ School graduate, has been named to head the Texas Register Division of the Secretary of State's office.

Lalla had served as acting director since last June when plans for the publication were first announced.

Lalla's appointment was announced by Secretary of State Mark White.

He received his bachelor's degree from Wichita State University before attending the LBJ School.

Publication of the Texas Register began earlier this year. It is published twice weekly, and contains executive orders of the Governor; summaries of Attorney General's opinions and summaries of requests for opinions; emergency rules, proposed rules, and adopted rules of state agencies; notice of open meetings; and miscellaneous notices of general interest to the public.

MESSAGE TO ALUMNI

As I indicated to you in an earlier letter, UT President Rogers ultimately denied the Alumni Association's request for direct participation in the dean selection process for the LBJ School. However, the chairman of the Consultative Search Committee has solicited the recommendations of the alumni concerning the LBJ School deanship. Nominees for the deanship should meet most of the general criteria already established by the Search Committee: "A commitment to further develop the basic educational philosophy of the LBJ School, a willingness to serve for no less than four years, significant experience both in public service and academic settings, hopefully a person with national standing but equally comfortable in dealing with state issues and politics, and a willingness and ability to work with students, faculty, and other groups within and outside the University, whose confidence is essential for effective administration."

If you wish to submit a nominee, please send me his/her name, address, and any other information you deem important in writing—as soon as possible. Unless you request otherwise ' the Alumni Board will make a package of these recommendations for presentation to the Search Committee. If you have previously sent me a written nomination, you need not do so again.

Michael Moeller President,

LBJ School Alumni Association

P.O. Box 31

Manchaca, Texas 78652

DAHL DISCUSSES DILEMNA OF ACHIEVING EQUALITY

One of the nation's most prominent political scientists, Dr. Robert A. Dahl, Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale, spoke at a brown-bag luncheon at the LBJ School on February 26.

Dahl, former president of the American Political Science Association and author of a number of important books on political science, discussed the dilemma of finding an appropriate balance between autonomy and centralization in government while attempting to promote equality in society. He noted the tradeoffs involved in opting for a particular approach.

Dahl pointed out that in order to achieve a high degree of economic and social equality it is often necessary "to crease a system with enormous political resources in the hands of those at the center—including the powers of coercion."

The long-term consequence of this approach is the development of an elite group at the center which will assume for themselves "more income, wealth, and status," undercutting the initial effort at equality.

The other approach is "to allow a high degree of subsystem autonomy—decentralization—with no central regulatory body." This, Dahl said, "will lead to growth in equality and even if that doesn't happen, inequality will result because of the different level of resources available to different units."

The pragmatic solution, Dahl said, "is to allocate to the central organization sufficient authority to set floors and ceilings and reduce the possibilities of variation." However, he noted, that the power of coercion is likely to be needed in order to bring this about "and then you're moving toward the first approach once more."

"There is a strong tendency in all orders toward domination," Dahl said "but there is also a tendency toward subsystem autonomy. If a subsystem can make it costly for the central authority to exercise domination, a kind of detente can develop."

Questioned about Chinese efforts to achieve equality in society, Dahl said, "The Chinese system, in terms of security, health, education, welfare, income, and opportunities, has brought an extraordinary degree of equality to China. In terms of human welfare, when you consider that 800 million people are involved, it is certainly one of the greatest single advances we know of. But there is nothing to suggest that it is the least bit egalitarian in terms of policy. There are strong powers of coercion, as well as of persuasion and inducement, at the disposal of the center. It is highly authoritarian society. There have been remarkable reallocations, to the great benefit of the Chinese people, but a very tight control remains."

He noted that "it will be difficult to retain the dynamics once Mao has gone," and said, "There is likely to be an effort for status and more gross coercion at the center leading to greater inequality. Mao is trying to prevent this through 'permanent revolution', but it is difficult."

Responding to another question, Dahl said the question over whether states (New York and Virginia) had the right to prevent landings by the Concorde aircraft was a good example of the dilemma involved in trying to propound a general theory about centralization versus autonomy.

GRIMOND SPEAKS IN UNIVERSITY SERIES

The University of Texas Bicentennial Lecture Series features Wednesday (March 3) the Right Honorable Jo Grimond of the British House of Commons.

Mr. Grimond, a statesman and a scholar, will lecture on "The Present State of Liberal Democracy in Britain." He was for some years the Leader of the Liberal Party in Great Britain, and has written extensively on liberal doctrines in general, and particularly in Britain.

A member of Parliament, Mr. Grimond represents the Shetland Islands, which is the northernmost of all British constituencies.

His lecture will be at 8 p.m. in Studio 4-C of the UT Communications Complex.

The lecture series is the University's principal commemoration of the Bicentennial. All lectures are open and free to the public, also are videotaped and audiotape for later distribution.

HARGROVE ASSESSES UNITED NATIONS RECORD

"To diminish the United Nations rather than try to make it work would be short-sighted and self-defeating," Dr. John L. Hargrove said at the LBJ School February 20.

Hargrove, director of studies for the American Society of International Law, spoke at a brown-bag luncheon, and assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the UN. He is a former senior adviser for international law to the United States Mission to the UN and has participated in a number of international conferences. Hargrove is co-author and editor of Law, Institutions, and the Global Environment and Who Protects the Ocean?

Hargrove said, "On the whole there is nothing very frustrating and disappointing in the United Nations that is not pretty well explained by the frustrating and disappointing nature of the world."

"To a surprising degree it is consistent with the kind of world it is supposed to promote—a system of national political authority—and that system has developed more than anyone expected," he said.

"Diminishing the UN will not improve the world, but is likely to diminish the world's manageability."

He noted that the UN was supposed to promote international standards for protection of human rights "but arbitrary and authoritarian rule still prevails."

Unfortunately, Hargrove said, this is a tendency that follows the consolidation of political power. "Generally speaking the capacity to exercise political power without these shortcut devices is a fairly rare political commodity."

Hargrove maintained, however, that the UN has made progress in subjecting international affairs to the rule of law. "The fundamental organizing rules....are observed than not. Violence and terrorism attracts the most attention, but these are the exceptional cases," he said.

JUVENILE JUSTICE PROJECT PLANS CONFERENCE MARCH 25-26

A conference on Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders in Texas win be held at the LBJ School of Public Affairs March 25-26.

The day and one-half-conference, which is being sponsored by the Juvenile Justice Policy Research Project of the LBJ School, will include probation and police officers, juvenile judges, officials from some ten state agencies and regional criminal justice planners from across the state. Prominent national figures in the field of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention will speak and participate in panel discussions.

Some of the findings of the Juvenile Justice Project will be presented at the Conference, which will also deal with alternative approaches to the "status offender" problem, deinstitutionalization programs in other states, the facilities and services required for deinstitutionalization, and delinquency prevention.

Members of the Juvenile Justice Project will moderate the panel discussions and will incorporate what they learn from the conference in a final report for the Criminal Justice Division of the Governor's office.