Restructuring Phase: 1967 – 1968

Some local elected officials especially in the big cities became concerned over the control of the CAA boards. Unhappy with the new power blocks outside their own political organizations, a few big-city mayors communicated their concerns to Vice President Hubert Humphrey (former Mayor and President of the US Conference of Mayors) and to President Johnson and to Congress. As a result, Congress began to earmark new funds into Congressionally defined National Emphasis Programs that reduced the ability of the CAAs to use the funds for other purposes. Congress also began to place restrictions on use of Federal funds for voter registration. President Johnson's initial enthusiasm for OEO began to decline, and his attention turned to the Vietnam War.

In late 1967, Congress passed the Green Amendment (Edith Green, D-OR) which required that a CAA must be designated by local elected officials as the official CAA for that area. After designation, OEO then recognized the CAA and provided funds. After months of negotiations, over 95 percent of the existing CAAs were designated and recognized. Interestingly enough, most of the existing CAAs in the Deep South were continued by the local officials. Most of the designation of an agency other than the existing CAA took place in big cities where Mayors felt a shift in political power taking place. In several large cities, the CAA was taken over by the mayor and turned into a public agency. In California, Governor Reagan urged counties to take over the CAAs and about 1/2 of the CAAs in that state were designated as public agencies. Today, they are referred to as "Green" CAPs.

Congress also passed the Quie Amendment, which required that CAA boards of directors be composed of one-third elected officials, at least once-third low-income representatives selected by a democratic process, and the balance from the private sector.

By 1967, there were almost 1,800 CAAs covering about 2,200 of the nation's 3,300 counties. Most big cities had several CAAs. The OEO initiated a policy that required most single-county CAAs to join together into multi-county units, and that required that there be only one CAA in a large City.

By late 1968, about 1,000 CAAs had been designated un der the Green Amendment and recognized by OEO, reorganized to meet the Quie Amendment criteria, and consolidated according to OEO policy. Almost all of these CAAs are still in existence today. This process of local designation and Federal recognition created a unique set of local entities with a broadly defined mission and a Federal mandate to eliminate the causes of poverty and ameliorate the conditions of poverty. The commitment to these unique entities and this broad Federal mandate manifests itself in an effort to preserve these structures and that mandate. For example, when one of these entities has administrative problems a large number of people will rally to help it solve the problems rather than to have it go out of existence and have its mandate disappear and its programs dispersed among other agencies.

Although the increase in the influence of local elected officials was a controversial issue for the lea ders of poverty groups that had been operating independently or at a more grass-roots level, the Green and Quie amendments ultimately have had a positive effect on most CAAs.

The formal connection of the political, economic, and community power structures proved to be a tremendous strength. In many, many places, the CAA board became the arena for local officials, the business sector, and low-income people to have a dialogue and to reach agreement on the policies, self-help activities, and programs to help their community.
This paper was originally written by Jim Masters of the Center for Community Futures and published by NACAA for the 25th Anniversary of Community Action in 1989. He updates it here for the 40th Anniversary
Questions or comments? Contact him at jmasters@cencomfut.com

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