Box 8, Folder 17, Document 21

Box 8, Folder 17, Document 21

* i DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URSAN DEVELOPMENT
%, [ HEHE oe ; WASHINGTON, B.C. 20410

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OFFICE GF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR MODEL CITIES AND GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS IN REPLY RLFER TO:

ORIGINAL MEMOPANDIUM
October 21, 1969



TO: J. D. Braman, Assistant Secretary, DOT
Mr. Richard Nathan, Assistant Director, BOB
Arnold R. Weber, Assistant: Secretary, DOL
Frank Carlucci, Acting Director, CAP, OEO
Robert A. Podesta, Assistant. Secretary, Commerce
Lewis Butler, Assistant Secretary, LEW
Christopher DeMuth, Staff Assistant to the President
Charles H,. Rogovin, Administrator, LBAA, Justice

FROM: Floyd H. Hyde, Assistant Secretary, MCGR

SUBJ: Improving the Management of the Model Cities
Program: A Proposal

I am enclosing for your review a HUD-endorsed "Proposal

for Improved Management of the Model Cities Program,"

It is based upon the assumption that reasonable precess

and perforiance criteria can be established .and communi-
cated to the cities so that the level of supplemental fund
obligations can be determined by measuring a city's progress
and effort in relation to these criteria. It is also based
on the proposition that the Model Cities process is a means
of increasing the capacity of local qovernment to deal with
its urban problems, and that the effective application of
limited resources by the Federal Government can be helpful
in demonstrating that fact.

In this connection, the HUD proposal should be beneficial
to the Model Cities-connected efforts of other departments
and agencies. The Model Cities approach has the potential
of increasing the effectiveness of any individual cate-
gorical grant project by tying it into a coordinated,
rational local effort to solve related problems. The
determination of the more promising local Model’ Cities
programs should be helpful in applying other available
Federal resources as well.

The judgment process contemplated by HUD would maintain a
role fer the regional and Washington interagency review
conmmiktteacs. ft is also sugqested that the Assistant
Zia

Secretaries Working Group take on the major responsibility
for determining those cities in which to concentrate
supplemental funds over and above what a city would normally
receive, as well as other priority assistance,

I would like to schedule a meeting of the Assistant Secre-
taries Working Group to discuss this proposal on Friday,
October 31, 1969 at 4:00 p.m., Room 8202. It is Secretary
Romney's intention to take the proposal, together with the
comments by the ASWG, to the Under Secretaries Group and
then to the Urban Affairs Council. If the approach appears
to be appropriate, HUD would like to put it into operation
as quickly as possible.

I look forward to your comments on the proposal at the
October 3] meeting. If your own Department has had any
experience you could share with HUD with respect to this
type of approach to funding, this information would be
_greatly appreciated,

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cere ad. Oe
Assistant Secretary