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Box 15, Folder 3, Document 48
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A PROPOSAL
FROM
THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
STATE OF CONNECTICUT
TO
DEPARTHENT OF HCUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPHENT
TO
DEMONSTRATE AN EXPANDED STATE RCLE
IN THE
MODEL CITIES FROGRAM
A PROPOSAL
TO DEMONSTRATE
AN EXPANDED STATE ROLE IN THE
MODEL CITIES PROGRAM
Introduction
Expanded State Role in Model Cities
Relationship of Model Cities to CDAP
Relationship of Model Cities to Community Relations Team
Relationship of Model Cities Program to CDA, to
Municipal Government to Neighborhood
State Program Implications
a. Communications
b, Origination of Programs
¢, Economic Development Team
ad, Discretionary Funds
Administration
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14
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21
A PROPOSAL
TO DEMONSTPATE
AN EXPANDED STATE ROLE IN THE
MODEL CITIES PROGRAM
Introduction
Early indications seem to point to a new prominence tor the Model Cities concept
in the new administration's approach to federal participation in urban oriented pro-
grams. Since such a change may require extensive administrative and policy restruc-
turing on the federal level, the Nepartment of HOusing and Urban peveVaphent will need
to have before it a maximum of experience in dealing with the administration of the
Model Citxs program at all levels, in order to develop that structure which will most
effectively achieve the objectives of the Model Cities Program, It is becoming in-
creasingly clear that such a structure must include a greater role for state govern-
ments in éffectuating the program; however, outside of Connecticut there is a paucity
of hard information concerning possible constructive roles states can play.
To help provide such information, we propose that the Connecticut Department of
Community Affairs (DCA) be designated to carry out a demonstration program intended
to test the thesis that an integral role for state governments with the full coopera-
—_—_———
tion of the federal government can greatly increase the effectiveness of the Model
Cities Program, and enhance the degree to which its objectives are actually realized
S—— =
in the local municipalities,
_—_
There are several reasons why Connecticut is uniquely prepared to execute such a
demonstration with maximum results, Connecticut now has operative an extensively de-
veloped Department of Community Affairs, an Agency with ability and experience and
charged with the responsibility of dealing with a vide spectrum of urban life. The
Community Develozment Action Plan (CDAP), through which DCA affects the total com-
prehensive planning and execution functions in Connecticut communities, is a Program -
with important relationships to the Model Cities Program, Each of Connecticut's Model
Cities Communities is also engaged in CDAP planning,
Geographically, Connecticut is a compact state and therefore conducive for a
centralized state agency to decentralize when necessary in order to maintain close
contact and coordinate developments in local communities, Since Connecticut's model
cities range from small to medium in size, they constitute a manageable Laboratory
for experiment in urban change, The numbe of these cities, five, is large enough
and the probiems in each varied enough to provide a productive sample for the demon-
stration; yet their size and variety certainly fall within DCA"s demonstrated capacity.
The whole complement of urban ills exists in Connecticut, but in a magnitude which is
not overwhelming and which will yield to creative planning and judicious admirstration
more readily than in larger cities where conditions are more duspercc, Consequently
DHUD should anticipate early reports, preliminary evaluations, and the necessary flexi-
bility of DCA to adjust to possible federal policy changes within a reasonable demon-
stration period.
Connecticut's already advantageous situation should become even better during the
present session of the legislature, since that session is expected to adopt legislation
codifying the state’s role in Model Cities, providing discretionary Program funds,
and offering new possibilities for community development,
Finally, and of most importance, Connecticut has amassed valuable experience in
ways in which state government can promote and enhance the Model Cities Program, through
the activities since Juné of 1968 of its four Model Cities Coordinaters, This Demon-
stration was made possible when Connecticut received the initiat 701 grant to demon-
strate potential state coordination of the Model Cities Program, The coordinators,
working under and through the Governor's Inter-Agency Committee on Model Cities, has
sought ways by which the resources of federal and state, public and private agencies
can be most effectiveiy mobilized to the benefit of the State's model cities
One significant result of the team's work has been to demonstrate that a state
agency can maintain a much closer relationship to a local program (and thus be more
able to appraise it accurately) than can a federal regional office, Most signifi-
cantly, this proximity to the local program can be seen in the fact that the coordinators
have developed a close rapport with Model Neighborhood residents and groups, They are
thus in a position to evaluate and influence programs from a perspective not often
achieved by government agencies, Cur proposal not only calls for the team's present
functions to continue but for them to be expanded and intensified,
In summary, we propose that Connecticut's Department of Community Affairs be
designated HUD's agent in managing the Model Cities programs in the State, and be
granted adequate funding’ to provide additional staff and equipment necessitated by
this expanded role, The proposal which follows will explain in detail how this can
be done, and why Connecticut is in a particularly advantageous position to carry out
such a demonstration, It will also examine some implications for specific programs.
That the Model Cities team has accomplished since its inception nine months ago
is a matter of record, and appears in the two quarterly resorts which have been sub-
mitted to HUD. It is now perfectly clear that those accomplishments could have been
more significant had certain problems been mora clearly foreseen and more adeczuate
provisions been made to deal with them, These shortcomings are corrected in the
present proposal, Some are dealt with later in the section on program implications,
but the mest serious inability which the staff experienced arose from the State's
anomalous position in the Model Cities Program. Lacking both authority and respon-
sibility in the federal Program, the State was nevertheless asked to exert a constructive
influence on that Program's reception in the cities, The inescapable conclusion, after
Mine montns experience, is that productive state participation requires that the state
be given a full share of authority—and_ ressonsibility in the-federal Model Cities
— .
Structure,
3
Connecticut is particularly well prepared to demonstrate such a new role, not
only by its unmatched experience with Model Cities, but also by its own State pro-
grams in the cities, the most important of which is CDAP, The Model Cities Progran
and the CDAD Program are inextricably tied together in the Connecticut model cities,
Both programs have a five year time schedule; both demand citizen participation; both
call for comprehensive planning and execution; both focus on the social aspects of
physical renewal, In fact, the primary differences between the two Programs are that
CDAP encompasses the entire community instead of designated target areas, has a possible
fle
Oo
nste2
Hs
two year planning csricd f one, and evaluates twelve municipal functions
Father than the ten suggested in the Model Cities pregran.
Q
Since ths two Programs ar2 compatible and mutually sussortive, it is desirable
that thay be adminstered with the maximum sossible ccordination, “he local srogra-s
lof these two, CDAD examines aunicinal governmental effectiveness ana
is tharefora xct diractly aselicabia to the Mode! Cities Pregran, The
Other, Interoasser2l Cemsnuaications, nicht well be a part of Hodel Citiss,
since its sconcdra cartainiy is a resuisite ef citizen sertisication.
5.
cost integrate planning and action undertaken in’ the Model Neighborhood into the
design for the total community which the CDAP will acccmplish, allocating priorities,
staff and budgets from a perspective which takes full account of requirements of both
Programs and which seeks to mesh them for the most efficient possibie amelioration
of the city's problems. This is a process which demands care in administration at
the local level, since the inter-relatedness of the urban complex is such that a
decision in either Program inevitably has immediate and far-reaching implications
for the other, necessitating: new adjustments and coordinations,
The review process by which the federal and state concerns in the Programs are
protected, are equally complicated, and must be carefully coordinated if they are to
be of maximum effectiveness in yielding information to state and federal agencies
and guidance to local Model Cities and CDAP agencies, This coordination, difficult
at best, will be best accomplished when DCA, which bears resvoonsibility for leading
a municivality through a successful CDAP, plays a similar role in coordination with
HUD in the Model Cities Program, DCA's Model Cities staff and CDAP evaluation staff
are already in daily contact, and can now formulate the processes and guidelines which
will most efficiently lead to optimal results in both programs,
The experience accumulated by DCA's Model Cities staff provides an excellent
foundation for developing this coordination, Each coordinator has assumed primary
responsibility for a particular model city, and has become extremely familiar with
the realities of urban life in his city, Each has reviewed Model Cities applications,
has served on local task forces, and has initiated substantive programs and followed
them through’ to their realization, Each has attended COiP review meetings, and has
pressured and cajoled municipal officers and citizen groups to werk together to ex-
pedite the two Programs in a coocerative effort, Fach has attended local CDA meetings
on a regular basis and has workad directly with neighborhocd groups - some direct
6.
outgrowths of the Model Cities Program, All have, in short, been directly involved
an both Programs,
In both structure and function, DCA is well equioped to assume added Model
Cities authority. The fiela offices and review starf of the CDAP Program are in
daily contact with the Model Cities team, and the director of the Model Cities team
is in daily contact with the Commissioner of DCA, DCA's team of urban specialists
are available to both the CDAP and Model Cities teams, DCA has effective liaison
with other state departrents and agencies through the State Interagency Model Cities
Committee, created by the Governor and established as the State"s Model Cities
authority, This committee is operational and includes with DCA as coordinator the
respective commissioners and their delegate agents from each of the major State agencies
involved in urban matters; i.e., health, education, housing, mental health, crime and
i enc inance and contro abor and welfare,
delingu y, fina and trol, lab and 1é
In light of the above, DCA proposes the following: by contract, HUD shall dele-
gate to the Commissioner of DCA for a period of no less than twelve months joint
authority over the Connecticut Model Cities Program, This authority will include
joint federal-state review of applications and requests for release of funds; the
negotiation of planning grant contracts; the review of work programs and revised
\ work programs; the authority to recommend terminating a city's Model Cities status;
and other authority incidental to and logically flowing from these functions,?
2this would involve joint HUD-DCA staff meetings on Model Cities
matters, inclusion of DCA in federal policy making meetings,
attendance of DCA staff at regular conferences, etc,
Relationshin of Model Cities to CDAP
It has earlier been stated that in Connecticut's Model Cities there is in-
evitably a close relationship between the Model Cities Program and the CDAP Program,
This was noted as requiring coordination in overseeing the two Programs, which,
it was said, could best be accomplished if DCA were to enjoy a partnership role with
HUD in managing this State's Model Cities Programs,
Now it is important to note certain benefits which can be expected to accrue to
both Programs as a result of their being carried out in concert, Administratively,
this would have the obvious advantage of preventing duplication of effort, sharing
costs of overlapping programs, sharing staff capabilities, preventing conflicting
planing, erficiently probading information developed by each program to the other,
and expediting early action programs, But, more important than this, CDAP is a
comprehensive program in which successful Model Cities innovations can immediately
be implemented in a city's other problem areas, Discretionary administrative control
exercised by the Commissioner will require that joint Model Cities-CDAP guidelines
be prepared, and techniques of joint review developed, at both state and local levels
so that the coordination will be guaranteed,
Relationshiv of Model Cities to Community Relations Team
What happens in a central city affects every community contiguous to the city,
and-manyv which are farther removed from the city itself, In the same way, the sg 30d
or ill health of the city favorably or unfavorably inZluences the fortunes of
every business and commercial or industrial enterprise in the region, It follows,
then, that any concentrated attack on urban problems (such as is envisioned in the
Model Cities Program) and any mobilization of availabie resources to meet such
problems can ill afford to overlook resources éxisting in suburban and exurban- commun-
ities, and also must endeavor most assiduously to enlist all possible help from the
private business and industrial communities, This, the Connecticut Model Cities staff,
will seek to accomplish,
One important reason for the relative failure of such attempts in the past has
been a break-down of communication, Suburban governments, representing residents
wno are in the suburb precisely because they sought to escape being plagued with
urban problems, are not likely to respond to appeals to help the cities until and
unless their constituents are fully convinced that they have an urgent concern with
the well-being of the core-city which is the heart of the region which they inhabit,
In the same way, businesses and industries in the region have in their accounting
procedures no easy indicator of what blighted human existence in the ghetto costs
them each year in lost production, theft, vandalism, restricted market, etc, Someone
must tell them, if they are to have a significant role in bettering the conditions
of life in our cities,
The Connecticut Model Cities team will have at its dissosal important assistance
as it seeks to overcome this communications barrier, DCA has under way a community
relations project, in which a five-man team are seeking to dawalop ways to mak
residents of non-urban regions more aware of their decendence on the city, and to
bring them to accept a more proper share of responsibility for improving urban life,
This demonstration program is being undertaken pursuant to a grant from HUD (Title IX
of the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Act of 1966), Interestingly, this is
the only program of its kind in the country and offers DCA a unique opportunity to
study under laboratory conditions the complex and perhaps undefinable action-reaction
relationship existing between urban and suburbdn communities throughout this country,
The same team could carry out a similar communicating function with the business
and industrial communities,
The increasing centrality of the Model Cities Program on the urban scene will
mean that the Model Cities coordinators will be an indispensable resource for this
Community Relations team, while the Community Relations team will in turn be valuable
to the coordinators' efforts to enlist the widest possible assistance in urban im-
provement,
f
/
/
10,
Relaticonshin of State Model Cities Program to CDA, to
Municipal Governmental Structure and to
Neignborhood Grouvs
The fact that DCA has become HUD's delegate through- the process which has been
suggested will immediately render DCA more effective in dealing with those local agen-
cies which determine the course of events in a Medel Neighborhocd, An agency possess~-
ing neither statutory nor administrative authority must rely only on persuasion to
influence the program, and this alone is too often not enough to alter a city's pre-
‘determined plans, This can.result, and has resulted, in collisions between CDAs and
the federal review team, with consequent delay in the local programs, These confronta~
tions can be clearly foreseen from the State Model Cities staff's perspective, and
could be avoided were. the State staff accorded an appropriate degree of influence on
local planning,
Pi The proposed DCA-HUD partnership will immediately increase DCA's impact on the
/
/
local government, and will provide a new dimension in the review and evaluation pro-
cess, since DCA's Model Cities staff personnel have close contact not only with the
CDAs but also with neighborhood groups in the Model Neighborhoods, Through this double
insight and direct personal contact, a more balanced cbjective and complete evaluation
of the Program can be made than would be possible fran even the best written reports.
The DCA-HUD partnership will also make available to CDAs and/or neighborhood groups
3
a variety of technical assistance availalbe from DCA's own staff~ and from the staffs
of those state departments represented on the State Interagency Model Cities
3phat part of DCA's organization through which services are
delivered consists of two parts: District Fieid Operations and
Supportive Services, Operating under its Director, each
District staff has capability to aid local gcvernments, CAPs
or other groups in oreparing proposals for state assistance,
to review such programs and to recommend action on them to
the Commissioner, Available through the Sussarting Services
staff are specialists in housing, urban renewal, civil design
engineering, code enforcement, social services, human resource da-
velopment, welfare education, day care, city olanning, recreation
and leisire and manpower develooment,
4
+a
Committee
with the 411 Model Cities-related developments, with a view to
technical assistance wherever this may be useful,
arises, the coordinator acts as liaison between the CDA or the
the one hand and the approvriate state agency on the other to insure maximum effective-
ness,
In the case of DCA’s own staff, this means bringing District staff into
ll,
tain close contact
It has been the practice of the coordinators to maintai
engaging state-offered
When a need for such assistance
neighborhood on
contect
with local agencies for program development and application processing in connection
with projects in which DCA can offer support.
Supportive Services staff in many evaluating, planning or training functions,
It means similarly involving the
In the
case of other state agencies, it first means an inquiry directed tn that agency's
contact person on the Interagency Model Cities Committee to establish what personnel
are available for the needed function, followed by negotiation to make that personnel
productive on behalf of the Model Cities group.
(a)
Working with Citv Governments
To insure smooth and prompty delivery of such services, the coordinators
will likewise maintain regular in-depth contact with those officials in
each city responsible for the Model Cities Program, to review the planning
being developed by CDA and,.city staff, to encourage explanation of innovative
and experimental possibilities, to offer those kinds of technical assistance
available from the state, and to make sure that maximal citizen partici-
pation is-included in the planning at every step.
4nepresented on the Committee, or readily accessible to it
and to the Model Cities staff, are the state department of:
Consumer Protection; Corrections; Connecticut Development
Commission; Education (including divisions of vocational
education and rehabilitation); Haalth; Labor (including the
Connecticut State Employment Service); Mental Health; Welfare
(including Social Sarvices and Child welfare); and the Governor's
Committea on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency.
They will also regularly
\
\
12.
attend meetings of the councils and task forces representing resi-
dents of the neighborhood, in order to provide similar stimulation
and assistance in their work,
(b) Working with Neighborhood peoole
One of the disadvantages under which neighborhcod people labor is
a lack of information about the programs of government, federal, state
and local, which can be made to work on their behalf, This can lead
to a reaction of hopelessness which cuts the tap-root of any possible
citizen participation, Disillusionment which results when govern-
Mental promises seem to the residents not to be redeemed (even if-
the failure results from the residents" own ineptness in dealing with
government structure) can have the same effect,
For these reasons, it is important for the coordinators as soon as rossible to
jidentify those individuals and groups in the Model Neighborhood which reflect validly
the ideas and attitudes existing in the neighborhood and/or exercise or have the
potential to exercise leadership. When these key persons and groups are. found, con-
tinuing contact with them must be maintained, in order that the coordinator may have
a.realistic picture of the Model Neighborhood in all its dimensions, in order that
he may inform residents of the new possibilities the Model Cities Program opens to them,
- and in order that he may enlist their participation in the fullest and most ‘produc-
tive way.
Success in establishing, maintaining and using such rapport with neighborhood
people has been a signal achievement of the Connecticut Model Cities staff in their
first year of existence under the 701 grant,
This kind of concern with the existing viable structures in the Model Neighborhoods
has in many cases led to the establishment of mutually beneficial liaison with the
13.
Community Action Agencies, through which the CAAs and Model Cities programs have
achieved an important working relationship,
This emphasis-on neighborhood liaison at the state level gives to the Con-
necticut Mcdel Cities operation a balance which cannot be duplicated, and which
has great promise for the success of the demonstration being proposed, Important
as the achievements in this regard have heen to date, they can he magnified and
enhanced if the items proposed are granted, since each coordinator will have more
time to devote to the city which is his essential responsibility, and because he
and the staff of which he is a part will have the capability to exercise a greatly
intensified impact on the local program and thus to produce positive results on
behalf of neighborhood residents,
14,
Stace Program Implications
In the light ‘of DCA’s experience with Gonneecteukts Model Cities Progrems,
there are certain items of programming which already recomnend chensetees as
desirable for imnediate implementation. Specifically these are: improvement of
the communication flow, added emphasis on innovation in Model Cities planning and
“@ program to foster the development of indigenous economic competence. While we
oxoness that an early start.on these is ndddsaaty, we forsee that there will be others
which will become important during the period’ covered by this proposal, so that it
is necessary that there be maximum flexibility in the State's Model Cities function
to allow for implementing these new high-priority items.
- Communications
There are four aay seis which the communication flow in ote present program
ant be improved for maximum effectivenéss to be achieved; (1) access. by the
Connecticut Model Cities Office to federal and other planning concerning Model
Cities; (2) intra-department communications; (3) communication with other depert-
ments of state government; and (4) communication with local CDAs and neighborhood
groups.
1) DCA's Model Cities office must be represented at all federal conferences
ee "i :
dealing with Model Cities, and at many such sponsored by-private agencies.- This
‘is a must if the coordinators are to be the productive, up-to-date resource which
is needed by the Model Cities programs. DCA, in such conferences can have a
valuable input to federal thitaene pabauvel-or its unicue experience. Also, pro-
vision must be made for frequent field trips to visit promising experimental programs
in other states which may be adaptable to meet Connecticut"s needs. Likewise,
DCA must develop within its Model Cities office a resource Library making as much
.
information as possible immediately available.
= .
15,-
2) As the Model Cicies programs in Connecticut move coward the execution phase
0 pros ’
there will be an increasing need for clese coordination of all DCA programs in Model
Cities communities. This will be partly taken care of by the Director participating
in regular meetings of the District Directors, but will also require the institution
of a reporting system by which the Model Cities office regularly receives status re-
ports of all DCA programs in Model Cities municipalities. Further, to improve
intra-department communications, it will be urged that programs of sensitivity
training be made mandatory for many DCA employees, aimed on the one hand to. sen-
sitizing workers to each other, and, on the other, at sensitizing field workers to
the particular communications problems of residents of Model Neighborhoods and other
‘ghetto communities.
3) Since the development of good communications with other departments of the.
state government will play a major vole in the success of the Model Cities staff's
efforts, the approach will be to make fuller use of the Inter-Agency Model Cities
Committee. Their meetings must now be regularized, and the agenda must include
full reports on the status of each city's program and a calendar of upcoming Model
' .Cities events to which other departments will be expected to make a contribution.
4) Finally, though the individual: efforts of the coordinators have established
‘good relations between DCA and lecal Model Cities groups, there remains a need for
hew avenues through which communication can take plece. For this reason, DCA will
‘sponsor regular state-wide or even regional conferences for local DCAs and/or
neighborhood groups, at which information can be imparted and participants in local
programs can share ideas with each other. Sensitivity training may also beccne e
o
major component of such conferences,
16,
Since it will be a continuing concern of the Model Cities team in DCA to work
with agencies of municipal government and with neighborhood groups to encourage them
to a maximum of innovation and experimentation in developing the components of the
local Model Cities Program, the team will work clrsely with DCA's battery of uwban
experts to originate new and imaginative attacks on urban problems. The team will
also seek to enlist all possible federal, state, and local, public and private, assis-
tance available, to local municipal agencies and neighborhood groups in putting such
plans into .execution.
The coordinators will further seek to acquaint themselves will new problem
solving epproaches being tried in other states, ( e.g., New Jersey's guaranteed
income, New York's Vest Pocket Housing, etc.) to determine wh-ther -...h programs
offer promise for meeting some of Connecticut's needs.
In particular, the team will bring to bear on such problems the technical
assistance available on DCA's own staff and the staffs of Departments represented
on the Inter-Agency Committee, with a view to developing the full range of possi-
bilities open to each Model Cities Agency in meeting its own local situation. The
emphasis will be on developing ideas and programs which establish new directions
or concepts on an experimental basis. The team will then communicate these possi-
bilities to the municipalities and the Model Neighborhoods, and will assist them
in translating such programs into action.
Economic Development Team
It is axiomatic that the standard of living of low-income urban residents
Cannot be raised unless they are allowed and encouraged to share in the total economic
productivity of their community. The history of urban development, however, has
.
shown that these programs adversely affect the economic destinies of the inhabitants.
prog x
FROM
THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
STATE OF CONNECTICUT
TO
DEPARTHENT OF HCUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPHENT
TO
DEMONSTRATE AN EXPANDED STATE RCLE
IN THE
MODEL CITIES FROGRAM
A PROPOSAL
TO DEMONSTRATE
AN EXPANDED STATE ROLE IN THE
MODEL CITIES PROGRAM
Introduction
Expanded State Role in Model Cities
Relationship of Model Cities to CDAP
Relationship of Model Cities to Community Relations Team
Relationship of Model Cities Program to CDA, to
Municipal Government to Neighborhood
State Program Implications
a. Communications
b, Origination of Programs
¢, Economic Development Team
ad, Discretionary Funds
Administration
page
page
page
page
page
page
page
page
pege
page
page
10
14
14
16
16
19
21
A PROPOSAL
TO DEMONSTPATE
AN EXPANDED STATE ROLE IN THE
MODEL CITIES PROGRAM
Introduction
Early indications seem to point to a new prominence tor the Model Cities concept
in the new administration's approach to federal participation in urban oriented pro-
grams. Since such a change may require extensive administrative and policy restruc-
turing on the federal level, the Nepartment of HOusing and Urban peveVaphent will need
to have before it a maximum of experience in dealing with the administration of the
Model Citxs program at all levels, in order to develop that structure which will most
effectively achieve the objectives of the Model Cities Program, It is becoming in-
creasingly clear that such a structure must include a greater role for state govern-
ments in éffectuating the program; however, outside of Connecticut there is a paucity
of hard information concerning possible constructive roles states can play.
To help provide such information, we propose that the Connecticut Department of
Community Affairs (DCA) be designated to carry out a demonstration program intended
to test the thesis that an integral role for state governments with the full coopera-
—_—_———
tion of the federal government can greatly increase the effectiveness of the Model
Cities Program, and enhance the degree to which its objectives are actually realized
S—— =
in the local municipalities,
_—_
There are several reasons why Connecticut is uniquely prepared to execute such a
demonstration with maximum results, Connecticut now has operative an extensively de-
veloped Department of Community Affairs, an Agency with ability and experience and
charged with the responsibility of dealing with a vide spectrum of urban life. The
Community Develozment Action Plan (CDAP), through which DCA affects the total com-
prehensive planning and execution functions in Connecticut communities, is a Program -
with important relationships to the Model Cities Program, Each of Connecticut's Model
Cities Communities is also engaged in CDAP planning,
Geographically, Connecticut is a compact state and therefore conducive for a
centralized state agency to decentralize when necessary in order to maintain close
contact and coordinate developments in local communities, Since Connecticut's model
cities range from small to medium in size, they constitute a manageable Laboratory
for experiment in urban change, The numbe of these cities, five, is large enough
and the probiems in each varied enough to provide a productive sample for the demon-
stration; yet their size and variety certainly fall within DCA"s demonstrated capacity.
The whole complement of urban ills exists in Connecticut, but in a magnitude which is
not overwhelming and which will yield to creative planning and judicious admirstration
more readily than in larger cities where conditions are more duspercc, Consequently
DHUD should anticipate early reports, preliminary evaluations, and the necessary flexi-
bility of DCA to adjust to possible federal policy changes within a reasonable demon-
stration period.
Connecticut's already advantageous situation should become even better during the
present session of the legislature, since that session is expected to adopt legislation
codifying the state’s role in Model Cities, providing discretionary Program funds,
and offering new possibilities for community development,
Finally, and of most importance, Connecticut has amassed valuable experience in
ways in which state government can promote and enhance the Model Cities Program, through
the activities since Juné of 1968 of its four Model Cities Coordinaters, This Demon-
stration was made possible when Connecticut received the initiat 701 grant to demon-
strate potential state coordination of the Model Cities Program, The coordinators,
working under and through the Governor's Inter-Agency Committee on Model Cities, has
sought ways by which the resources of federal and state, public and private agencies
can be most effectiveiy mobilized to the benefit of the State's model cities
One significant result of the team's work has been to demonstrate that a state
agency can maintain a much closer relationship to a local program (and thus be more
able to appraise it accurately) than can a federal regional office, Most signifi-
cantly, this proximity to the local program can be seen in the fact that the coordinators
have developed a close rapport with Model Neighborhood residents and groups, They are
thus in a position to evaluate and influence programs from a perspective not often
achieved by government agencies, Cur proposal not only calls for the team's present
functions to continue but for them to be expanded and intensified,
In summary, we propose that Connecticut's Department of Community Affairs be
designated HUD's agent in managing the Model Cities programs in the State, and be
granted adequate funding’ to provide additional staff and equipment necessitated by
this expanded role, The proposal which follows will explain in detail how this can
be done, and why Connecticut is in a particularly advantageous position to carry out
such a demonstration, It will also examine some implications for specific programs.
That the Model Cities team has accomplished since its inception nine months ago
is a matter of record, and appears in the two quarterly resorts which have been sub-
mitted to HUD. It is now perfectly clear that those accomplishments could have been
more significant had certain problems been mora clearly foreseen and more adeczuate
provisions been made to deal with them, These shortcomings are corrected in the
present proposal, Some are dealt with later in the section on program implications,
but the mest serious inability which the staff experienced arose from the State's
anomalous position in the Model Cities Program. Lacking both authority and respon-
sibility in the federal Program, the State was nevertheless asked to exert a constructive
influence on that Program's reception in the cities, The inescapable conclusion, after
Mine montns experience, is that productive state participation requires that the state
be given a full share of authority—and_ ressonsibility in the-federal Model Cities
— .
Structure,
3
Connecticut is particularly well prepared to demonstrate such a new role, not
only by its unmatched experience with Model Cities, but also by its own State pro-
grams in the cities, the most important of which is CDAP, The Model Cities Progran
and the CDAD Program are inextricably tied together in the Connecticut model cities,
Both programs have a five year time schedule; both demand citizen participation; both
call for comprehensive planning and execution; both focus on the social aspects of
physical renewal, In fact, the primary differences between the two Programs are that
CDAP encompasses the entire community instead of designated target areas, has a possible
fle
Oo
nste2
Hs
two year planning csricd f one, and evaluates twelve municipal functions
Father than the ten suggested in the Model Cities pregran.
Q
Since ths two Programs ar2 compatible and mutually sussortive, it is desirable
that thay be adminstered with the maximum sossible ccordination, “he local srogra-s
lof these two, CDAD examines aunicinal governmental effectiveness ana
is tharefora xct diractly aselicabia to the Mode! Cities Pregran, The
Other, Interoasser2l Cemsnuaications, nicht well be a part of Hodel Citiss,
since its sconcdra cartainiy is a resuisite ef citizen sertisication.
5.
cost integrate planning and action undertaken in’ the Model Neighborhood into the
design for the total community which the CDAP will acccmplish, allocating priorities,
staff and budgets from a perspective which takes full account of requirements of both
Programs and which seeks to mesh them for the most efficient possibie amelioration
of the city's problems. This is a process which demands care in administration at
the local level, since the inter-relatedness of the urban complex is such that a
decision in either Program inevitably has immediate and far-reaching implications
for the other, necessitating: new adjustments and coordinations,
The review process by which the federal and state concerns in the Programs are
protected, are equally complicated, and must be carefully coordinated if they are to
be of maximum effectiveness in yielding information to state and federal agencies
and guidance to local Model Cities and CDAP agencies, This coordination, difficult
at best, will be best accomplished when DCA, which bears resvoonsibility for leading
a municivality through a successful CDAP, plays a similar role in coordination with
HUD in the Model Cities Program, DCA's Model Cities staff and CDAP evaluation staff
are already in daily contact, and can now formulate the processes and guidelines which
will most efficiently lead to optimal results in both programs,
The experience accumulated by DCA's Model Cities staff provides an excellent
foundation for developing this coordination, Each coordinator has assumed primary
responsibility for a particular model city, and has become extremely familiar with
the realities of urban life in his city, Each has reviewed Model Cities applications,
has served on local task forces, and has initiated substantive programs and followed
them through’ to their realization, Each has attended COiP review meetings, and has
pressured and cajoled municipal officers and citizen groups to werk together to ex-
pedite the two Programs in a coocerative effort, Fach has attended local CDA meetings
on a regular basis and has workad directly with neighborhocd groups - some direct
6.
outgrowths of the Model Cities Program, All have, in short, been directly involved
an both Programs,
In both structure and function, DCA is well equioped to assume added Model
Cities authority. The fiela offices and review starf of the CDAP Program are in
daily contact with the Model Cities team, and the director of the Model Cities team
is in daily contact with the Commissioner of DCA, DCA's team of urban specialists
are available to both the CDAP and Model Cities teams, DCA has effective liaison
with other state departrents and agencies through the State Interagency Model Cities
Committee, created by the Governor and established as the State"s Model Cities
authority, This committee is operational and includes with DCA as coordinator the
respective commissioners and their delegate agents from each of the major State agencies
involved in urban matters; i.e., health, education, housing, mental health, crime and
i enc inance and contro abor and welfare,
delingu y, fina and trol, lab and 1é
In light of the above, DCA proposes the following: by contract, HUD shall dele-
gate to the Commissioner of DCA for a period of no less than twelve months joint
authority over the Connecticut Model Cities Program, This authority will include
joint federal-state review of applications and requests for release of funds; the
negotiation of planning grant contracts; the review of work programs and revised
\ work programs; the authority to recommend terminating a city's Model Cities status;
and other authority incidental to and logically flowing from these functions,?
2this would involve joint HUD-DCA staff meetings on Model Cities
matters, inclusion of DCA in federal policy making meetings,
attendance of DCA staff at regular conferences, etc,
Relationshin of Model Cities to CDAP
It has earlier been stated that in Connecticut's Model Cities there is in-
evitably a close relationship between the Model Cities Program and the CDAP Program,
This was noted as requiring coordination in overseeing the two Programs, which,
it was said, could best be accomplished if DCA were to enjoy a partnership role with
HUD in managing this State's Model Cities Programs,
Now it is important to note certain benefits which can be expected to accrue to
both Programs as a result of their being carried out in concert, Administratively,
this would have the obvious advantage of preventing duplication of effort, sharing
costs of overlapping programs, sharing staff capabilities, preventing conflicting
planing, erficiently probading information developed by each program to the other,
and expediting early action programs, But, more important than this, CDAP is a
comprehensive program in which successful Model Cities innovations can immediately
be implemented in a city's other problem areas, Discretionary administrative control
exercised by the Commissioner will require that joint Model Cities-CDAP guidelines
be prepared, and techniques of joint review developed, at both state and local levels
so that the coordination will be guaranteed,
Relationshiv of Model Cities to Community Relations Team
What happens in a central city affects every community contiguous to the city,
and-manyv which are farther removed from the city itself, In the same way, the sg 30d
or ill health of the city favorably or unfavorably inZluences the fortunes of
every business and commercial or industrial enterprise in the region, It follows,
then, that any concentrated attack on urban problems (such as is envisioned in the
Model Cities Program) and any mobilization of availabie resources to meet such
problems can ill afford to overlook resources éxisting in suburban and exurban- commun-
ities, and also must endeavor most assiduously to enlist all possible help from the
private business and industrial communities, This, the Connecticut Model Cities staff,
will seek to accomplish,
One important reason for the relative failure of such attempts in the past has
been a break-down of communication, Suburban governments, representing residents
wno are in the suburb precisely because they sought to escape being plagued with
urban problems, are not likely to respond to appeals to help the cities until and
unless their constituents are fully convinced that they have an urgent concern with
the well-being of the core-city which is the heart of the region which they inhabit,
In the same way, businesses and industries in the region have in their accounting
procedures no easy indicator of what blighted human existence in the ghetto costs
them each year in lost production, theft, vandalism, restricted market, etc, Someone
must tell them, if they are to have a significant role in bettering the conditions
of life in our cities,
The Connecticut Model Cities team will have at its dissosal important assistance
as it seeks to overcome this communications barrier, DCA has under way a community
relations project, in which a five-man team are seeking to dawalop ways to mak
residents of non-urban regions more aware of their decendence on the city, and to
bring them to accept a more proper share of responsibility for improving urban life,
This demonstration program is being undertaken pursuant to a grant from HUD (Title IX
of the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Act of 1966), Interestingly, this is
the only program of its kind in the country and offers DCA a unique opportunity to
study under laboratory conditions the complex and perhaps undefinable action-reaction
relationship existing between urban and suburbdn communities throughout this country,
The same team could carry out a similar communicating function with the business
and industrial communities,
The increasing centrality of the Model Cities Program on the urban scene will
mean that the Model Cities coordinators will be an indispensable resource for this
Community Relations team, while the Community Relations team will in turn be valuable
to the coordinators' efforts to enlist the widest possible assistance in urban im-
provement,
f
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10,
Relaticonshin of State Model Cities Program to CDA, to
Municipal Governmental Structure and to
Neignborhood Grouvs
The fact that DCA has become HUD's delegate through- the process which has been
suggested will immediately render DCA more effective in dealing with those local agen-
cies which determine the course of events in a Medel Neighborhocd, An agency possess~-
ing neither statutory nor administrative authority must rely only on persuasion to
influence the program, and this alone is too often not enough to alter a city's pre-
‘determined plans, This can.result, and has resulted, in collisions between CDAs and
the federal review team, with consequent delay in the local programs, These confronta~
tions can be clearly foreseen from the State Model Cities staff's perspective, and
could be avoided were. the State staff accorded an appropriate degree of influence on
local planning,
Pi The proposed DCA-HUD partnership will immediately increase DCA's impact on the
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local government, and will provide a new dimension in the review and evaluation pro-
cess, since DCA's Model Cities staff personnel have close contact not only with the
CDAs but also with neighborhood groups in the Model Neighborhoods, Through this double
insight and direct personal contact, a more balanced cbjective and complete evaluation
of the Program can be made than would be possible fran even the best written reports.
The DCA-HUD partnership will also make available to CDAs and/or neighborhood groups
3
a variety of technical assistance availalbe from DCA's own staff~ and from the staffs
of those state departments represented on the State Interagency Model Cities
3phat part of DCA's organization through which services are
delivered consists of two parts: District Fieid Operations and
Supportive Services, Operating under its Director, each
District staff has capability to aid local gcvernments, CAPs
or other groups in oreparing proposals for state assistance,
to review such programs and to recommend action on them to
the Commissioner, Available through the Sussarting Services
staff are specialists in housing, urban renewal, civil design
engineering, code enforcement, social services, human resource da-
velopment, welfare education, day care, city olanning, recreation
and leisire and manpower develooment,
4
+a
Committee
with the 411 Model Cities-related developments, with a view to
technical assistance wherever this may be useful,
arises, the coordinator acts as liaison between the CDA or the
the one hand and the approvriate state agency on the other to insure maximum effective-
ness,
In the case of DCA’s own staff, this means bringing District staff into
ll,
tain close contact
It has been the practice of the coordinators to maintai
engaging state-offered
When a need for such assistance
neighborhood on
contect
with local agencies for program development and application processing in connection
with projects in which DCA can offer support.
Supportive Services staff in many evaluating, planning or training functions,
It means similarly involving the
In the
case of other state agencies, it first means an inquiry directed tn that agency's
contact person on the Interagency Model Cities Committee to establish what personnel
are available for the needed function, followed by negotiation to make that personnel
productive on behalf of the Model Cities group.
(a)
Working with Citv Governments
To insure smooth and prompty delivery of such services, the coordinators
will likewise maintain regular in-depth contact with those officials in
each city responsible for the Model Cities Program, to review the planning
being developed by CDA and,.city staff, to encourage explanation of innovative
and experimental possibilities, to offer those kinds of technical assistance
available from the state, and to make sure that maximal citizen partici-
pation is-included in the planning at every step.
4nepresented on the Committee, or readily accessible to it
and to the Model Cities staff, are the state department of:
Consumer Protection; Corrections; Connecticut Development
Commission; Education (including divisions of vocational
education and rehabilitation); Haalth; Labor (including the
Connecticut State Employment Service); Mental Health; Welfare
(including Social Sarvices and Child welfare); and the Governor's
Committea on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency.
They will also regularly
\
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12.
attend meetings of the councils and task forces representing resi-
dents of the neighborhood, in order to provide similar stimulation
and assistance in their work,
(b) Working with Neighborhood peoole
One of the disadvantages under which neighborhcod people labor is
a lack of information about the programs of government, federal, state
and local, which can be made to work on their behalf, This can lead
to a reaction of hopelessness which cuts the tap-root of any possible
citizen participation, Disillusionment which results when govern-
Mental promises seem to the residents not to be redeemed (even if-
the failure results from the residents" own ineptness in dealing with
government structure) can have the same effect,
For these reasons, it is important for the coordinators as soon as rossible to
jidentify those individuals and groups in the Model Neighborhood which reflect validly
the ideas and attitudes existing in the neighborhood and/or exercise or have the
potential to exercise leadership. When these key persons and groups are. found, con-
tinuing contact with them must be maintained, in order that the coordinator may have
a.realistic picture of the Model Neighborhood in all its dimensions, in order that
he may inform residents of the new possibilities the Model Cities Program opens to them,
- and in order that he may enlist their participation in the fullest and most ‘produc-
tive way.
Success in establishing, maintaining and using such rapport with neighborhood
people has been a signal achievement of the Connecticut Model Cities staff in their
first year of existence under the 701 grant,
This kind of concern with the existing viable structures in the Model Neighborhoods
has in many cases led to the establishment of mutually beneficial liaison with the
13.
Community Action Agencies, through which the CAAs and Model Cities programs have
achieved an important working relationship,
This emphasis-on neighborhood liaison at the state level gives to the Con-
necticut Mcdel Cities operation a balance which cannot be duplicated, and which
has great promise for the success of the demonstration being proposed, Important
as the achievements in this regard have heen to date, they can he magnified and
enhanced if the items proposed are granted, since each coordinator will have more
time to devote to the city which is his essential responsibility, and because he
and the staff of which he is a part will have the capability to exercise a greatly
intensified impact on the local program and thus to produce positive results on
behalf of neighborhood residents,
14,
Stace Program Implications
In the light ‘of DCA’s experience with Gonneecteukts Model Cities Progrems,
there are certain items of programming which already recomnend chensetees as
desirable for imnediate implementation. Specifically these are: improvement of
the communication flow, added emphasis on innovation in Model Cities planning and
“@ program to foster the development of indigenous economic competence. While we
oxoness that an early start.on these is ndddsaaty, we forsee that there will be others
which will become important during the period’ covered by this proposal, so that it
is necessary that there be maximum flexibility in the State's Model Cities function
to allow for implementing these new high-priority items.
- Communications
There are four aay seis which the communication flow in ote present program
ant be improved for maximum effectivenéss to be achieved; (1) access. by the
Connecticut Model Cities Office to federal and other planning concerning Model
Cities; (2) intra-department communications; (3) communication with other depert-
ments of state government; and (4) communication with local CDAs and neighborhood
groups.
1) DCA's Model Cities office must be represented at all federal conferences
ee "i :
dealing with Model Cities, and at many such sponsored by-private agencies.- This
‘is a must if the coordinators are to be the productive, up-to-date resource which
is needed by the Model Cities programs. DCA, in such conferences can have a
valuable input to federal thitaene pabauvel-or its unicue experience. Also, pro-
vision must be made for frequent field trips to visit promising experimental programs
in other states which may be adaptable to meet Connecticut"s needs. Likewise,
DCA must develop within its Model Cities office a resource Library making as much
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information as possible immediately available.
= .
15,-
2) As the Model Cicies programs in Connecticut move coward the execution phase
0 pros ’
there will be an increasing need for clese coordination of all DCA programs in Model
Cities communities. This will be partly taken care of by the Director participating
in regular meetings of the District Directors, but will also require the institution
of a reporting system by which the Model Cities office regularly receives status re-
ports of all DCA programs in Model Cities municipalities. Further, to improve
intra-department communications, it will be urged that programs of sensitivity
training be made mandatory for many DCA employees, aimed on the one hand to. sen-
sitizing workers to each other, and, on the other, at sensitizing field workers to
the particular communications problems of residents of Model Neighborhoods and other
‘ghetto communities.
3) Since the development of good communications with other departments of the.
state government will play a major vole in the success of the Model Cities staff's
efforts, the approach will be to make fuller use of the Inter-Agency Model Cities
Committee. Their meetings must now be regularized, and the agenda must include
full reports on the status of each city's program and a calendar of upcoming Model
' .Cities events to which other departments will be expected to make a contribution.
4) Finally, though the individual: efforts of the coordinators have established
‘good relations between DCA and lecal Model Cities groups, there remains a need for
hew avenues through which communication can take plece. For this reason, DCA will
‘sponsor regular state-wide or even regional conferences for local DCAs and/or
neighborhood groups, at which information can be imparted and participants in local
programs can share ideas with each other. Sensitivity training may also beccne e
o
major component of such conferences,
16,
Since it will be a continuing concern of the Model Cities team in DCA to work
with agencies of municipal government and with neighborhood groups to encourage them
to a maximum of innovation and experimentation in developing the components of the
local Model Cities Program, the team will work clrsely with DCA's battery of uwban
experts to originate new and imaginative attacks on urban problems. The team will
also seek to enlist all possible federal, state, and local, public and private, assis-
tance available, to local municipal agencies and neighborhood groups in putting such
plans into .execution.
The coordinators will further seek to acquaint themselves will new problem
solving epproaches being tried in other states, ( e.g., New Jersey's guaranteed
income, New York's Vest Pocket Housing, etc.) to determine wh-ther -...h programs
offer promise for meeting some of Connecticut's needs.
In particular, the team will bring to bear on such problems the technical
assistance available on DCA's own staff and the staffs of Departments represented
on the Inter-Agency Committee, with a view to developing the full range of possi-
bilities open to each Model Cities Agency in meeting its own local situation. The
emphasis will be on developing ideas and programs which establish new directions
or concepts on an experimental basis. The team will then communicate these possi-
bilities to the municipalities and the Model Neighborhoods, and will assist them
in translating such programs into action.
Economic Development Team
It is axiomatic that the standard of living of low-income urban residents
Cannot be raised unless they are allowed and encouraged to share in the total economic
productivity of their community. The history of urban development, however, has
.
shown that these programs adversely affect the economic destinies of the inhabitants.
prog x
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