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Inventory of the Business and Transportation Agency Records, 1967-1972
F3842
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Table of contents
Title: Business and Transportation Agency Records,
Date (inclusive): 1967-1972
Inventory: F3842
Creator:
Business and Transportation Agency
Extent:
See Arrangement and Description
Repository:
California State Archives
Sacramento, California
Language:
English.
For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the California State Archives. Permission for reproduction or publication
is given on behalf of the California State Archives as the owner of the physical items. The researcher assumes all responsibility
for possible infringement which may arise from reproduction or publication of materials from the California State Archives
collections.
[Identification of item], Business and Transportation Agency Records, F3842, California State Archives.
Departments, Units Within Agency
- A.B.C. Dept. of Alcoholic Beverage Control
- C.H.P. Dept. of California Highway Patrol
- H. & C.D. Dept. of Housing & Community Development
- D.M.V. Dept. of Motor Vehicles
- D.P.W. Dept. of Public Works
- C.T.B.A. Dept. of California Toll Bridge Authority
- R.E. Dept. of Real Estate
- S. & L. Dept. of Savings & Loan
- OTP & R Office of Transportation, Planning and Research
- D.O.T. Dept. of Transportation
State and Regional Agencies, Programs
- ABAG Association of Bay Area Governments
- BARTD Bay Area Rapid Transit District
- CIR Council on Intergovernmental Relations
- EQSC Environmental Quality Study Council
- ICOR Interagency Council on Ocean Resources
- LARTS Los Angeles Regional Transportation Study
- MTC Metropolitan Transportation Commission (San Francisco Bay Area)
- SCAG Southern California Association of Governments
- SCRTD Southern California Rapid Transit District
- TASC Transportation Association of Southern California
- TEP Transportation Employment Project (L.A.-Watts)
- TSEP Transportation Systems Evaluation Project
The Business and Transportation Agency, a super-agency grouping together certain business-regulating and transportation-oriented
departments, was established in stages between 1967 and 1969. The agency's origins, however, go back to 1961. That year the
Legislature established the Transportation Agency headed by an Administrator (
Stats. 1961, ch. 2073), and included the Departments of Public Works, Motor Vehicles and California Highway Patrol. The Agency was briefly
known as the Highways and Transportation Agency (
Stats. 1963, ch. 1364). The original agency name was restored in 1965 (
Stats. 1965, ch. 493). In 1967, the Legislature (
Stats. 1967, ch. 1540) authorized Governor Ronald Reagan to reorganize state agencies by executive order. Governor Reagan acted to reorganize
the Transportation Agency by an executive order of February 20, 1967. This order sanctioned the expansion and reorganization
of the agency by adding four transportation departments - Aeronautics, C.H.P., Motor Vehicles, and Public Works - certain
business regulatory and other departments: Alcoholic Beverage Control, Banking, Corporations, Housing and Community Development,
Insurance, Real Estate, and Savings and Loan. Additionally, six service-oriented departments - General Services, Professional
& Vocational Standards, Franchise Tax Board, State Employees Retirement System, State Fire Marshal, and State Personnel Board
- were transferred from the expired Business and Commerce Agency and grouped within the Agency's structure. In February, 1968,
the Governor presented to the Legislature his Reorganization Plan No. 1. The effect of this plan was to transfer the service
oriented departments to a new Agriculture and Services Agency and keep the remaining departments under Business and Transportation.
Legislation in 1969 (
Stats. 1969, ch. 138) solidified and spelled out the essential powers and duties of the Agency and its head, now called the Secretary.
The Secretary was authorized, among other responsibilities, to assist the Governor in major policy and program matters affecting
the Agency's units and serve as the principle communication link for transmitting policy problems and decisions between the
Governor and the Agency's departments and units. The Secretary also served as chairman and/or a member of various important
State bodies, such as the California Toll Bridge Authority and the State Highway Commission, as well as on numerous
ad hoc cabinet-level committees.
In 1969, a transportation planning and research unit was created within the Business and Transportation Agency's central office
by executive action. The unit chief was called the Transportation Planning Coordinator. The Legislature formalized and confirmed
this office called the Office of Transportation Planning and Research, now headed by the Office Chief, the following year
(
Stats. 1970, ch. 1551).
In 1972, two departments with the Agency, Public Works and Aeronautics, were merged into a new Department of Transportation
(
Stats. 1972, ch. 1253), now added to the Agency. The Office of Transportation Planning and Research, by the same law, was merged into the
Department of Transportation, effective July 1, 1973.
The records of the Business and Transportation Agency (ca. 1967-72) are considered as a record group consisting of two large
subgroups of records: the records of the Secretary, arranged first, and the records of the Office of Transportation Planning
and Research (O.T.P. & R.) located last. The Records of the Secretary consist of five categories: Administrative Files, Subject
Files, Intra-Agency Departmental Files, Other Agencies and Departments Files, and a Commissions Committee, Conferences, Councils,
and Tasks Forces File. The subgroup, Records of the O.T.P. & R., consist of series' alphabetically arranged by subject, but
with general correspondence at the head of all other series'.
Prominent personalities within the Agency included Secretaries Gordon C. Luce (1967-70), James Hall (1970-71), and Frank J.
Walton (1971-73). These records are most voluminous for the Luce era. Likewise, they are extremely sparse for Hall's years,
1970-71. O.T.P. & R. heads Charles G. Beer (1969-71) and William S. Weber (1971-73) also are prominent, particularly Beer,
in these records.