The Constitution of 1970
Article V. The Executive
Section 11. Governor —Agency Reorganization
The Governor, by Executive Order, may reassign functions among or reorganize executive agencies which are directly responsible to him. If such a reassignment or reorganization would contravene a statute. the Executive Order shall be delivered to the General Assembly. If the General Assembly is in annual session and if the Executive Order is delivered on or before April 1. the General Assembly shall consider the Executive Order at that annual session. If the General Assembly is not in annual session or if the Executive Order is delivered after April ], the General Assembly shall consider the Executive Order at its next annual session, in which case the Executive Order shall be deemed to have been delivered on the first day of that annual session. Such an Executive Order shall not become effective if within 60 calendar days after its delivery to the General Assembly, either house disapproves the Executive Order by the record vote of a majority of the members elected. An Executive Order not so disapproved shall become effective by its terms but not less than 60 calendar days after its delivery to the General Assembly.
POWER TO initiate reorganization of agencies under the governor is granted to the chief executive in the new Constitution (see text at left). Will Gov. Dan Walker initiate such a move? The fact that the opposition (Republican) party is no longer in control of the legislature — either house of which can block a reorganization proposal — opens the way for Walker to take the initiative with a chance of success. But he must act soon (on or before April 1) if action is to be taken this year.
Three comprehensive reorganization efforts have been made in Illinois, all of them based on the initiative of a legislative commission. The first, identified with Gov. Frank 0. Lowden, took place in 1917 and owed much to the recommendations in the Efficiency and Economy Committee's 1915 report. Lowden was beginning his term and is said to have used patronage to get support for his program. Also helpful was the fact that his party (Republican) controlled both houses of the legislature. His predecessor, Gov. Edward F. Dunne, a Democrat, was frustrated in his reorganization plans by Republican control of both houses; the committee report came out in 1915, in his midterm, and he later noted that he had already distributed his patronage, thus weakening his influence.
The Schaefer commission
The second reorganization effort took place in 1951 in the middle of Gov. Adiai E. Stevenson's term. Although the Commission To Study State Government, created by the legislature in 1949, was headed by Walter V. Schaefer (now an Illinois Supreme Court justice), a close associate of the governor, Stevenson decided not to back the recommendations and they met with limited success. In 1951, the Republicans had control of both houses of the legislature, and Stevenson expected strong opposition if he supported reorganization. The Schaefer commission made 153 separate recommendations requiring statutory changes, and its staff reported after the 1951 session on the degree of implementation. Although 98 recommendations had been implemented and progress had been made toward implementation on another 23, the 32 remaining un-implemented recommendations included most of the proposed major reshuffling of a.sencies.
COSGI created in 1965 A third reorganization effort took place in 1967 during the administration of Gov. Otto Kerner, a Democrat, who was faced with Republican majorities in both houses. The "Commission on State Government in Illinois (COSGI) was created in 1965; Jack F. Isakoff, one of the governor's appointees who had served as staff director for the Schaefer commission some 15 years previously, chaired the new commission. The governor also created a Business Management Study Committee which concerned itself with administrative procedures, white COSGI emphasized organizational structure.
COSGI's major recommendations fared poorly at the time although a Department of General Services (as recommended) was created in 1967. Other important changes proposed by COSGI did not come until the administration of Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie, a Republican whose party controlled the legislature. These changes included the establishment of the Bureau of the Budget and the Departments of Corrections and Law Enforcement ( a splitting of the Department of Public Safety), and the Departments of Local Government Affairs and Transportation
March 1975/'lliinois Issues/85
The new
Constitution hands the
governor the initiative on
reorganization by executive
order subject to
legislative veto if statutory
changes are involved
Ogilvie, with his eye on the
reorganization initiative afforded him
in the 1970 Constitution, asserted in
1971 that "state government has grown
so cumbersome in Illinois — as it has in
other states — that a complete restructuring is necessary," and he appointed a
coordinator to prepare a plan, but the
report was not issued until December
1972 at the end of Ogilvie's term (he
had been defeated for re-election by
Walker). The recommendations in the
report, Beyond Bureaucracy, would
have set up a cabinet system with only
10 departments.
Some of COSGP's recommendations
had called for constitutional change.
Dr. Isakoff, the COSGI chairman who
was a lawyer and professor of government at Southern Illinois University,
served as staff counsel to the Committee on the Executive of the
Constitutional Convention (1969-70)
and was influential in securing adoption
of at least four COSGI proposals: the
altered timing of the election of state officers (shifting to the midyear between
Presidential elections, beginning in
1978); the joint election of governor and
lieutenant governor; procedures concerning the governor's disability; and
the governor's power to reorganize by
executive order.
Initiative to replace inertia
"The effect of the section here
proposed is to emphasize that the
Governor has responsibility for fomulating reorganization plans, comprehensive or selective, for the agencies
under his direction," the committee
said. "His initiative should replace the
common inertia, so that carefully
thought out changes will, periodically,
be placed before the General
Assembly."
The Lowden reorganization combined more than 100 largely independent boards and commissions into nine
departments under the Civil Administrative Code (still the backbone of
the executive branch) and 21 boards and
commissions, leaving undisturbed the
separate constitutional officers. By
Stevenson's time, the number of agencies had grown to 79, including 13 code
departments, and by Kerner's time
when COSGI was created there were
100 agencies.
At the start of the Walker administration, there were more than 80
agencies under the governor, including
21 code departments. Besides the governor, there were six constitutional officers and almost 30 state, local, and interstate agencies with gubernatorial appointees.
Dan Walker is by no means a novice
when it comes to executive reorganization. As a young lawyer, he served as a
staff assistant to the Schaefer commission where he received his first exposure
to legislative politics. While it may be
tempting for him to try his hand at
reorganization, other factors suggest he
may not go for any wholesale plan. For
one thing, he did not make reorganization an issue in his campaign and he has
not appointed any formal group nor announced that any individual has been
charged with making reorganization
plans.
Finally, past reorganization efforts in
Illinois indicate that governors have had
more success implementing reorganization plans at the beginning of their
terms, and Walker is now in midterm.
Lowden in 1916 and Ogilvie in 1968
made a campaign issue out of the need
for reform in the machinery of state
government, and their proposals, once
they took office, could be viewed as
delivering on their campaign promises.
In contrast, neither Stevenson nor
Kerner had made reorganization an
issue, and for them to strongly back any
reorganization in the middle of their
terms would have been tantamount to
criticism of their own administrations.
How the Code departments have multiplied
The Civil Administrative Code, approved
March 7, 1917, created nine departments
under the governor. Today there are 21.
In the following chronology, they are listed in order of creation and an asterisk
denotes the surviors.
1917/ * Finance 1925/ Purchases and Construction 1937/ * Insurance 86/Illinois Issues/March 1975
The Constitutional Convention Committee on the Executive, in proposing
executive authority to initiate
reorganization, argued that the main
impediment to reorganization had been
inertia, remarking that "if proposals
requiring legislative action are introduced, the higher priority which the
General Assembly gives to policy
matters relegates reorganization to the
background ....
* Agriculture
* Labor
* Mines and Minerals
Public Works and Buildings
Public Welfare
* Public Health
Trade and Commerce
* Registration and Education
* Conservation
( Trade and Commerce and Purchases and Construction abolished)
1941/ Public Safety
1943/ * Revenue
1945/ Aeronautics
1955 / * Personnel
1959/ * Financial Institutions
1961/ * Mental Health (had been termed
Public Welfare; in 1974 the name
was expanded to Mental Health
and Developmental Disabilities)
1963/ * Children and Family Services
* Public Aid
1967/ * Business and Economic Development
* General Services
1969/ * Local Government Affairs
* Corrections
* Law Enforcement
( Corrections and Law Enforcement
succeeded Public Safely)
1971/ * Transportation
( Public Works and Buildings
abolished)
1973/ * Aging
( Aeronautics abolished)