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2 Urb. St. & Loc. L. Newsl. 1 (1979)

handle is hein.journals/stlolane17 and id is 1 raw text is: Sectionof UrbanState and Local Government Law American Bar Association lhv Vol. 2, No. 1, Winter 1979 Exciting Section Program Planned for 1979 Annual Meeting The Section's three-day Annual Meeting is scheduled for August 11, 12 and 13 at the Hyatt-Regency Hotel in Dallas. Members are urged to make their reservations as soon as possible. A stimulating educational and social program is be- ing planned. Section's New Name Is Now Official The House of Delegates has just approved the Section's new name: The Section of Urban, State and Local Government Law. This action ended years of dissatisfaction with the name Local Government Law, a name which itself replaced the orin nal Secti in ,nare of MLinirinal Lnw in 1961. It iS honpri that the new name better reflects the extent and diversity of Section activities in accord with the Bylaws' description: ... law pertaining to units of state and local government, whether states, counties, cities, towns, villages, districts, authorities or other public bodies, whether general function or special function in character ... also federal law insofar as it affects state or local government action. House of Delegates Approves Model Procurement Code for State and Local Governments Almost a decade of intensive work was rewarded when the House of Delegates at its Midyear Meeting in Atlanta endorsed a Model Procurement Code or adoption by State and local legislatures. The Code is not intended to be a uniform law, but rather is designed to serve as a model for statutes improving governmental procurement policies and procedures. The concept for such a Code first surfaced publicly at the ABA's Annual Meeting in 1971 and, when the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration provided necessary funds for staff- ing, progress in the drafting of the Code became relatively rapid. Overall direction of the drafting process was exercised by a Coordinating Committee, composed of representatives from our Section and from the Section of Public Contract Law. Heartiest congratulations to all concerned with the Code, especially to our Section members who spent untold hours of time and effort in this important public project-past Section Chairmen Lou Del Duca and Roy Semtner, Section Treasurer Pat Falvey and former Section Councilman Sherwin Birnkrant. Federal Grants Committee Created: Membership Call by Richard B. Cappalli In a recent case the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia described the field of federal grants-in-aid as a sleeping giant. After noting the massive number of grant programs and dollars, the court was amazed at the pauci- ty of case law. It felt, however, that ever-increasing numbers of controversies involving grants could be expected. The court is right. Over the past five years the reporters reveal a dramatic upsurge in disputes between grantors and grantees and between these second and third parties. In many of these cases grantees are forced into court by program beneficiaries claiming violations of federal standards. A sizeable portion involved disputes between the parties to the grant, with the grantee usually claiming some sort of mistreat- ment by the federal government. Good reason underlies the expectation of continuing growth in this sector of the law. First, today's grants are mostly of the formula type-the statute and not the grantor agency deter- mines who will receive grants and how much each recipient will get. As a result, under the major programs grantees need not curry favor with federal officials and can demand fair and lawful treatment. A second factor is that the circle of grantees expanded widely with the passage of programs like revenue- sharing, community development, comprehensive employ- ment and training, crime control, local public works and others. The number of grantees jumped into the tens of thousands, the number of grant agreements executed yearly into the hundreds of thousands and the annual federal outlay for grants has rapidly approached $100 billion. The clubby grant system of the past is gone. Thousands of fresh players mean new perspectives, values, views and, necessarily, con- flicts. This combines with a third factor-the painful complex- ity of federal grants. Despite constant calls for simplification and for the elimination of needless control and accounting, today's grants-in-aid are enmeshed in red tape to an unparal- leled degree. This story has been elaborately told by the Federal Paperwork Commission and the recently completed 14-volume study of the grant system by the Advisory Commis- sion on Intergovernmental Relations. Finally, the crude drafts- manship of grant statutes and regulations invites clashes. At one time the ambiguity of federal grant law was a great vacuum into which grantor officials poured whatever content they wanted. Today, however, grantees are utilizing the same am- biguity to insert the local perspective and need. (continued on next page) Copyright © 1979 American Bar Association Produced by the ABA Press

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