Vernon
Well, the thing that was important about it was if they could get the thing going before the
A
Corps got their projects done. We had projects that were in the process of being designed
and built,. If our project didn't have hydropower in it, if this non-Federal interest could
get their facilities put together and designed fast enough so that it could be worked into our
design, then it was much more acceptable, like you say.
But they were often slow in getting it there, and the Corps couldn't wait for them. It made
a big difference in the cost of the project, too. If you could do it initially, you can design
it so it doesn't cost as much if you have to retrofit, you have to go back in and redo
something. So there were a few cases where they were having some trouble--that was
when Gianelli got involved. He was involved in trying to decide when the time was that
they had to have their certain things done before the Corps could accept them as a partner.
It got to be pretty controversial on some of them.
William
Gianelli
Q ..
You've mentioned Gianelli, I imagine Bob Dawson also would probably fit in your
thinking. Prior to Gianelli, do you recall the Assistant Secretary for Civil Works having
much impact on any of your work or any of the policies?
Well, they've always had some impact, of course. But, I think that
was
A
probably the strongest we ever had there as far as really telling the Corps what they were
going to do and what they weren't going to do. He was dictating right and left how the
Corps was going to function. He took a real personal interest in a lot of the details, which
some of the ones previously didn't.
I remember working with the Assistant Secretary's office on some of our policy for urban
development, urban studies, what constitutes Federal interest in an urban study.
To tell -you the truth, it was kind of a strange thing to
but OMB [Office of
Management and Budget] wanted a technical procedure for turning down cities on a flood
control project. They said, "If certain conditions prevail, then you're going to be
responsible for taking care of it. We'll consider that as the normal storm drainage for the
community. If other situations prevail, then we'll call it a flood control interest and the
Corps can get involved in it's normal flood control activities. But if you don't meet this
criteria, why you're going to have to do it yourself. You may use Federal money from
some other source but not from the Corps. You might use money from HUD or
redevelopment or that sort of thing, but it wouldn't be a Corps project.
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