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Gerald R. Ford Library1000 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2114www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov |
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Gerald R. Ford Library1000 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2114www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov |
Domestic Council
RAYBURN
D. HANZLIK
Coordinator
of Public Forums;
Associate
Director for Intergovernmental Affairs:
Files,
1975-76
SUMMARY DESCRIPTION
Vice
President Nelson Rockefeller conducted a series of meetings around the country
to gauge public domestic policy concerns.
Hanzlik handled the logistics, staff, and
records of proceedings but not policy evaluation or follow‑up. A small portion of this file concerns Hanzlik's work as an assistant to Stephen McConahey handling intergovernmental relations.
QUANTITY
11 linear feet
(ca. 22,000 pages)
DONOR
Gerald R. Ford
(accession numbers 77-26 and 77-107)
ACCESS
Open. Some items are temporarily restricted under
terms of the donor's deed of gift, a copy of which is available on request, or
under National Archives and Records Administration general restrictions (36 CFR
1256).
COPYRIGHT
Gerald Ford has
donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his
unpublished writings in National Archives collections. The copyrights to materials written by other
individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees
as part of their official duties are in the public domain.
Prepared by Paul Conway, May 1982
[s:\bin\findaid\hanzlik, rayburn - files.doc]
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Rayburn D. Hanzlik
June 7, 1938 Born in Los Angeles,
California
1956‑60 Student at
Principia College, Elsah, Illinois
1960‑68 Part time student,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
1968‑70 Student at
University of Virginia
1970‑71 Staff member,
White House Conference on Children and Youth
1971‑73 Consultant;
confidential assistant, Office of Child Development (HEW), White House detail
1973‑74 Employed, E. Del
Smith & Co., a Washington, DC government consulting firm
1974‑1975 Advisor, Robert H.
Finch and Associates
Aug. 1975‑Jan.
1976 Consultant to Domestic
Council as Coordinator of Public Forums on Domestic Policy
Jan. 1976‑Jan.
1977 Associate Director for
Intergovernmental Affairs, Domestic Council
INTRODUCTION
Ray Hanzlik
joined the Domestic Council staff in August 1975 to help coordinate the six
White House forums on domestic policy.
He remained on the staff throughout 1976 as an assistant to Special
Assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs Stephen McConahey. The materials described consist of working files
accumulated by Hanzlik and the forums staff in 1975
and by Hanzlik in 1976, arranged by function and
topic.
Drawing on his
past White House conference experience, Hanzlik was
selected in August 1975 to coordinate the six public policy forums conducted by
the Vice President in the fall of that year.
In 1976 Hanzlik oversaw the dismantling of the
forums staff and then joined the Domestic Council staff as Associate Director
for Intergovernmental Affairs. His work
under Stephen McConahey came at a time when the Ford
administration, according to Hanzlik, was at the
"low‑point of intergovernmental credibility," and was making a
concerted effort to improve relations with state and local governments. Hanzlik did
research, drafted reports and memoranda and monitored various low level issues
as assigned by McConahey. He remained with the Domestic Council through
the end of the Ford administration.
Hanzlik's work on the
forums was his most significant Ford administration service. In July 1975 President Ford charged Vice
President Nelson Rockefeller with conducting a series of forums throughout the
country to gauge public domestic policy concerns. Rockefeller asked his counsellor,
John Veneman, to oversee the effort, recruit a staff,
conduct the sessions and summarize the results.
Veneman hired Hanzlik
to handle to logistics of each forum and supervise the staff. By September Rockefeller and the forums staff
had decided the basic format, chosen the location of each forum, and made
preliminary logistical arrangements. The
locations and dates of the six forums were:
Denver, Colorado
‑‑ October 21
Tampa, Florida ‑‑
October 29
Austin, Texas ‑‑
November 11
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania ‑‑ November 18
Indianapolis,
Indiana ‑‑ November 25
Los Angeles,
California ‑‑ December 9
Each forum
followed a similar basic format. A
plenary morning session, chaired by Vice President Rockefeller, featured
presentations by expert
witnesses before a panel
of federal officials on regional concerns within one of four broad policy areas:
economic recovery
resource development and
the environment
social policy
community building
Following each
witness' statement, Rockefeller or the appropriate Cabinet secretary or
assistant secretary in attendance responded briefly, and then opened the floor
to comments by expert observers and the general public. Four concurrent afternoon sessions continued
the discussion of the four major policy areas.
All of the witnesses and observers were handpicked by the forums staff
based on suggestions of the Federal Regional Councils. In addition the staff relied heavily on the
Councils in each host region to offset costs, arrange hotel and convention hall
accommodations, and handle basic press liaison.
While media
coverage of the forums was relatively heavy, opinion was mixed. Variously described as a Rockefeller
traveling road show, public complaint sessions, and a serious examination of
public policy, Vice President Rockefeller and the staff viewed the forums as an
efficient way of generating initiatives for President Ford's State of the Union
address. The forums also gave
Rockefeller and the Cabinet a highly visible arena for emphasizing the Ford
administration position on current domestic issues. Rockefeller hoped that the forums would
provide a vehicle for inserting some long‑range planning into a Domestic
Council system bound up in the details of issue response. The forums staff summarized many of these
views and objectives in an internal report on media coverage of the six forums.
At the completion
of the forums series, the staff analyzed the nearly 12,000 pages of testimony,
extracted ideas and suggestions from hundreds of written statements submitted
by observers and the general public, and drafted a report form the Vice
President to President Ford. This
report, nearly 800 pages in length, summarized educated public opinion in each
of the regions, generalized the national mood, and made a series of broad
suggestions for further study. In
January 1976, the forums staff gathered their working files and transmitted
them to the White House for inclusion with the President's official papers.
The Hanzlik materials consist of files illustrating his two
distinct functions for the Ford administration Domestic Council. A small file accumulated by Hanzlik during 1976 documents his work with Special
Assistant Stephen McConahey to evaluate the overall
intergovernmental activities and capabilities of the Executive Branch. Included are correspondence, memoranda,
reports and other materials on a variety of low‑level intergovernmental
topics monitored by Hanzlik; information on a
complaint by the State of Texas about possible abuse of federal community
development grants; and two extensive studies done by Hanzlik
and his assistant Margo Boyle on the state of intergovernmental relations and
the extent of Executive Branch participation in major conferences.
The vast
majority of the Hanzlik materials consists
of working files compiled by Hanzlik and many of the
forums staff while organizing and conducting the public forums. Included are an administrative file of
memoranda, correspondence, draft agenda, and background information documenting
Hanzlik's functions,
especially acquiring a staff and organizing the schedule; logistical
details for each forum, including agendas, briefing books, reports and witness
lists; information on media plans for the forums, newspaper clippings, and a
staff report on media perceptions; written statements submitted by invited
observers, participants and the general public; transcripts of proceedings; and
printed summaries of each forum eventually included in the final report to the
President. These Hanzlik
materials contain considerable materials produced or received by several
members of the forums staff, including but not limited to Margo Boyle, Allen
Moore, Powell Moore, and Julie Rowe.
As a working
file, the Hanzlik materials do not consist of items
received by Vice President Rockefeller or Counsellor Veneman. The
extensive cooperation between the forums staff and the Federal Regional
Councils responsible for much of the advance work is only partially
documented. In addition the files
contain no drafts or copies of the report to the President, and no evidence of
any follow‑up or impact of the forums on domestic policy formulation.
Related
Materials (May 1982)
Copies of the final forums report, "White
House Public Forums on Domestic Policy, 1975", are catalogued in the
Library's book collection, as is a Ph.D. dissertation by Michael Turner on Vice
President Rockefeller, containing a chapter on the public forums.
The Library's
audiovisual collection has videotapes of the morning session in Philadelphia
and Rockefeller's press conference immediately following, and audiotapes of
three afternoon sessions. (The natural
resources tape is currently unusable.) Also available are four reels of
audiotape of the morning session in Denver and a two hour edited version of the
same session broadcast on KRMA‑TV; 16 audiotapes of the complete Los
Angeles forum; and a poorly recorded audiotape of the Tampa afternoon session
on economic recovery.
The files of
several Domestic Council staff contain scattered information on the public
forums; including those of James Cannon, Dean Overman,
and Art Quern. More significant are the
files on intergovernmental affairs: James Falk, 1974‑75 and Stephen McConahey, 1976.
Series
Descriptions
1‑2 Intergovernmental Affairs
Subject File, 1976-77. (0.5 linear feet)
Memoranda, correspondence,
notes, clippings and reports compiled by Hanzlik
while assisting Stephen McConahey in surveying
intergovernmental relations. Included is
information on the Ford administration efforts to strengthen the lines of
communication between the executive branch and state and local governments, and
on the reconsideration of a large CSA grant to a Texas county.
Arranged
alphabetically by subject.
2‑4 Public Forums ‑
Administrative File, 1975-76. (0.8
linear feet)
Correspondence and
memoranda to and from advancemen, federal regional
councils, and government officials; mailing lists of potential witnesses,
observers and assistants; and information on planning the forums, acquiring a
staff, budgeting, distributing the final report, and similar administrative
matters accumulated by Hanzlik while coordinating the
public forums.
Arranged
alphabetically by topic.
4‑10 Public Forums ‑ City File,
1975. (2.4
linear feet)
Lists of
observers, participants and witnesses; details on logistics, hotel
accommodations and transportation; invitations, thank‑you letters, a
briefing book for participants; and information on statements submitted at each
of the six public forums.
Arranged
chronologically by city and thereunder alphabetically
by subject.
10‑11 Public Forums ‑ Media File,
1975. (0.4 linear feet)
Copies
of newspaper clippings of forum events in each city; routine correspondence,
memoranda and press releases; and a final report by the forums staff
summarizing the media coverage of each forum, with newspaper clippings and
details of press packets and media logistics.
Arranged
alphabetically by topic.
11‑20 Public Forums ‑ Statements
File, 1975. (3.9 linear feet)
Statements
submitted by observers, participants and the general public in attendance on
domestic policy areas considered by the forum, especially the state of the
national economy, welfare, energy policy and health care. Additional information on individuals who
submitted statements is located in the City File under the appropriate city
heading.
Arranged
chronologically by forum location and thereunder
alphabetically by individual.
20‑27 Public Forums ‑ Summaries and
Transcripts File, 1975. (2.8 linear
feet)
Printed
summaries of statements prepared by the forum staff, including agendas and
lists of participants and witnesses who submitted statements; transcripts of
each session of the six public forums, including the morning plenary session
and the four afternoon sessions on specific topics. The transcript of the Los Angeles morning
session is missing.
Arranged
chronologically by forum location and thereunder by
session.
27‑28 Public Forums ‑ Thank You
Letters File, 1975. (0.8 linear feet)
Copies of
outgoing letters from the Vice President or Veneman
to Cabinet members, agency staff, witnesses, observers and regional federal
officials who planned, assisted with, or participated in the public forums.
Arranged
by forum location and thereunder by groups of
individuals.
Container List
Advisory
Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
Agriculture
Airport Noise
Allied Services
Act
Appalachian
Regional Commission
Block Grants
California ‑
Chowchilla Kidnapping
Colorado ‑
Interstate 470
Council of State
Governments
Federal
Contracts and Grants with Public Interest Groups
Intergovernmental
Affairs, Departmental and Agency Representatives
Intergovernmental
Affairs, Executive Branch
Mississippi,
Tupelo
National Center
for Productivity and Quality of Working Life
Pennsylvania
Public Interest
Groups
Regulations
Review
Regulations
Review ‑ Environmental Protection Agency
Zavala County
Economic Development Corporation (1)-(2)
Zavala County Economic
Development Corporation ‑ Operational Proposal (1)-(2)
Zavala County
Economic Development Corporation ‑ State of Texas A‑95 Review
Public Forums ‑
Administrative File
Advancemen
Audiovisual
Background
Baroody Conferences
Budget and
Expenses
Correspondence
(1)-(3)
Development and
Planning
General
Logistics
Mailing List ‑
Denver
Mailing List ‑
Tampa
Mailing List ‑
Austin
Mailing List ‑
Philadelphia
Mailing List ‑
Indianapolis
Mailing List ‑
Los Angeles
Personnel
Planning Memos
Procedures
Manual
Public Affairs
Plan, Press Releases and Clippings
Report to the
President, Distribution of
Staff
Responsibilities
Standards of
Conduct
White House
Passes
Public Forums ‑
City File
Denver: 10/21/75
(8)-(11)
Tampa: 10/29/75
(10)
Austin: 11/11/75
(1)-(12)
Austin: 11/11/75
(13)-(14)
Philadelphia:
11/18/75 (1)-(8)
Philadelphia:
11/18/75 (9)-(12)
Indianapolis:
11/23/75 (1)-(9)
Indianapolis:
11/25/75 (10)-(11)
Los Angeles:
12/9/75 (1)-(7)
Los Angeles:
12/9/75 (8)-(11)
Public Forums ‑
Media File
Austin
Biographies ‑
Cabinet and Staff
Correspondence
Denver
Guidance ‑
Thank You Notes
Holland, Jim ‑
Correspondence and Memos
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Philadelphia
Tampa
Media Report
(1)-(3)
Planning and
Proposals
Witness Forms
Public Forums ‑
Statements File
Denver: 10/21/75
(1)-(4)
Denver: 10/21/75
(5)
Tampa: 10/29/75
(1)-(5)
Tampa: 10/29/75
(6)-(7)
Austin: 11/11/75
(1)-(4)
Austin: 11/11/75
(5)-(9)
Los Angeles:
12/9/75 (13)
Public Forums ‑
Summaries and Transcripts File
Summary of Findings
Denver: 10/21/75
(1)-(7)
Denver: 10/21/75
(8)-(9)
Tampa: 10/29/75 (1)-(7)
Austin: 11/11/75
(1)-(5)
Austin: 11/11/75
(6)-(10)
Philadelphia:
11/18/75 (1)-(2)
Philadelphia:
11/18/75 (3)-(8)
Philadelphia:
11/18/75 (9)-(11)
Indianapolis:
11/25/75 (1)-(5)
Indianapolis:
11/25/75 (6)-(10)
Los Angeles:
12/9/75 (1)-(4)
Los Angeles:
12/9/75 (5)
Public Forums ‑
Thank You Letters File
Denver: 10/21/75
(1)-(2)
Tampa: 10/29/75
(1)-(2)
Austin: 11/11/75
(1)-(2)
Philadelphia:
11/18/75 (1)
Indianapolis:
11/25/75
