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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11th Annual Congressional-City Conference - Carter, Congress �• CITY of HUNT1NG` ON BLA" CA 7 7-a 1 COUNCIL ADMINISTRATOR COMMUNICATION HUNTINGTON BEACH To Honorable Mayor and From Floyd G Belsito, fA City Council Members City Administrator b Subject CITY ADMINISTRATOR' S REPORT Date March 17, 1977 ON CONGRESSIONAL CONFERENCE-- '� WASHINGTON, D C , I was fortunate to attend, on behalf of the City of Huntington Beach in addition to Mayor Harriett Wieder and Mayor Pro Tem Ron Pattinson, the llth Annual Congressional-City Conference in Washington, D C on March 6-8 , 1977 The topic for the conference was "Carter, Congress, and the Cities °' Over 2,S00 representatives of local, county and state governments were in attendance at this conference The purpose of the conference is to bring municipal officials together with rep- resentatives of the Federal Government during the policy-making process There were a number of significant programs that were being discussed that are of interest to the City of Huntington Beach Reenactment of the Community Development Block Grant Program with in- creased funding, continued funding for public works projects, reenact- ment of the CETA Program, as well as housing, mass transit, energy and crime control were the main topics for discussion Je The first session I attended on Sunday was entitled "Community Develop- ment Block Grant What is the Outlook?" The main speaker was Mr Richard Nathan, Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution Mr Nathan indicated that the Brookings Institute had conducted a monitoring report on the effectiveness of HCD Programs in selected cities The purpose of the report was to evaluate how the money was being distributed, how it was being used and to determine the political or decentralization effects from the receipt of HCD funds There were a number of major findings included within the report as stated by Mr Nathan 1 Distributional effects - It was determined that the allocation favored small and suburban communities and disadvantaged the older urban cities A suggestion was to develop a dual formula approach which would shift this balance This dual formula would retain the existing formula but would also include a new formula based upon the age of housing (best indicator of physical needs of a city) , poverty and population change This formula would give more money to the older declining hardship cities 2 The idea of HCD appears to be working with emphasis on purchasing of capital equipment l CA 77 41 -2- March 17, 1977 3 There appears to be an emphasis on neighborhood conservation/re- habilitation neighborhoods with growth potential 4 More than 50% of the funds are used for low and moderate income programs S The HCD funds are used to leverage private capital 6 A more prominent role in decision making is being assumed by City Councils and City Administrators 7 Citizen participation is very strong 8 There is a deficiency in adequate housing assistance programs Mr Nathan indicated that a second report prepared by the Brookings Institute would be forthcoming within a year to monitor the success of the refunded program The luncheon speaker on Sunday was Secretary of Commerce Juanita M Kreps who spoke on how do we make our cities econ- omically viable again Secretary Kreps pledged that a greater share of the Commerce Department' s EDA funds will be channeled to the nation' s needy cities She indicated that recent amendments to EDA legislation has strengthened urban programs making flexible EDA assistance available to most major urban centers Cities of populations in excess of 25,000 would be eligible for funding under the EDA program Secretary Kreps stated that fostering new businesses is good for America as well as the needy cities Contrary to what an official of the previous administration had indicated, Secretary Kreps emphasized that the urban crisis was not over The Sunday afternoon session was entitled "Effective Government" and was presided over by the Honorable Richard Carver, Mayor of Peoria, Illinois The major issues discussed were counter-cyclical assistance, capital financing programs and Federal Government reorganization Mr Dennis Green, Associate Director for Economics and Government for the Office of Management and Budget, spoke on the proposed reorganization of the Federal Government and its impact on state and local government His presentation got off on a humorous note when he stated that in order to reorganize, you must first presume that government was organized to begin with He stated that President Carter ' s goals are to identify duplication, fragmentation and inefficiency and to develop a program to eliminate or reduce this redundancy The emphasis of President Carter' s reorganization is dedicated to making zero base budgeting work with more efficient programs and to bring intergovernmental concerns into the bud- get process Mr John Duncan, Minority Staff of the House Committee on Government Oper- ations , spoke on counter-cyclical legislation The purpose of this leg- islation is to help shield local government when there are cyclical flux- uations in the economy The purpose is to stimulate the economy by pumping CA 77-41 -3- March 17, 1977 $1 billion into the marketplace from April through September of this year and then $2 4 billion each year thereafter Mr Duncan did indi- cate that the program has not been performing very well and has been critically reviewed The next speaker under Effective Government was Mr Ralph Schlosstein, of the Economic Development Administration He discussed the capital needs of the cities and the ability of the bond market to meet these needs He indicated that the municipal bond market is becoming clut- tered with quasi-public agencies (private hospitals, house finance agencies) He stated that the commercial banks are the biggest buyers and are moving in and out of the market on an irregular basis As a result , tax exempt rates may have to rise in order to attract investors In order to broaden the bond market, he suggested that direct loans be made available and the possibility of taxable bonds be investigated Also, he stated that it may be necessary to limit the uses of the tax exempt bond market The opening general session began on Monday with Phyllis Lamphere, Pres- ident of the National League of Cities, and a Seattle, Washington City Council member addressing the conference' s attendees She was followed by Congressman Jim Wright, Majority Leader of the U S House of Repre- sentatives , Senator Howard Baker, Jr , Minority Leader of the U S Senate and Dr F Ray Marshall, Secretary of Labor, who spoke on the critical issues confronting the cities in light of the new administration This was followed by the luncheon session where Ms Patricia Roberts Harris , Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, addressed the gen- eral membership She discussed what HUD is doing to improve the relation- ships between the Federal Government and the cities She indicated that HUD had been an adversary rather than an advocate of cities She stated that HUD would be cooperative and accessible to the cities She stated that an Office of Intergovernmental Relations would be established in HUD headed up by an Assistant Secretary She is striving for an open channel of communication between her and state and local officials re- garding broad policies HUD intends to conduct a major overhaul of its operating procedures in an effort to eliminate excessive red tape Ms Harris stated that this administration is interested in listening to its colleagues in local and state government One of the most important programs is a three year reauthorization of HCD funds with $4 billion being allocated for FY 1978 She concluded by saying if America abandons its cities , America will abandon its future During the afternoon session, I attended the workshop entitled "Public Works and Counter-Cyclical Legislation Outlook for 1977 " During this session, the guidelines were discussed for the second year funding of the Public Works Bill under the Economic Development Administration Mr George Kerris , Director of Public Works for EDA, explained the review process under the first year applications A total of 23 ,000 applications were received totaling $25 billion in requests for the $2 billion which was allocated A total of 1 , 988 investment decisions were granted tot- aling $2 billion As you are aware, the City of Huntington Beach was CA 77-41 -4- March 17 , 1977 the recipient of a $577 , 000 grant for the Warner Avenue Fire Station under this program Mr Kerris indicated that more than likely EDA will not be asking for any additional applications for the second year funding, but rather will request the cities to reaffirm and recertify any prior applications submitted to EDA for the purpose of updating the data He indicated that opening up requests for more applications would result in probably another 20, 000 applications being received We do have two other ap- plications submitted including the Cold Town Drainage District Mr Kerris stated that the funds for the second year applications will go to places in direct relationship to the distress of those areas Attention will be paid to investments in the first round when considering the second round funding In other words , those cities that received grants in the first year funding more than likely will be given lower consideration for the second year funding The schedule for Tuesday was rather flexible in order to give the city representatives an opportunity to confer with members of their Congres- sional delegations I had an opportunity to meet with Congressman Hannaford and be given a tour of the House of Representatives including sitting in during the House debate regarding the acceptance of the res- ignation of Congressman Gonzales from the committee investigating the assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King I would like to thank the City Council for giving me an opportunity to participate in this Legislative experience so that I have a better un- derstanding of the mechanics involved in initiating, lobbying and, hope- fully, obtaining Federal funds to assist local government It would be my suggestion that more time be devoted to meeting with our Congressional Legislators and less time devoted to workshops which may or may not be applicable to our local situation FGB p