NACo in the ‘60s: A new vision and a new name

Key Takeaways

In 1957, what was then the National Association of County Officers recruited Bernie Hillenbrand, assistant director of the American Municipal Association, a precursor to the National League of Cities. He was the only full-time lobbyist in the nation’s capital for cities, counties and state governments and was busy covering a variety of issues ranging from highway funding to water pollution. Hillenbrand accepted the job of executive director after noticing the emerging national influence of counties. He became NACo’s first full-time staffer.

Hillenbrand worked out of an unused Mayflower Hotel laundry room and took meetings across the street in the hotel’s opulent lobby. Hillenbrand’s desk that once occupied that laundry room now rests in NACo’s current office.

The Wilmington News Journal described Hillenbrand’s secret to NACo’s success over his 25 years as executive director, a time in which he outlasted the leaders of virtually every other public interest group:

“His lobbying method was to research an issue of concern to counties, decide upon a strategy, give county officials a crash course and send them over to Capitol Hill to corner legislators they knew. It worked.”

In 1957, NACo compiled all of its previous policy resolutions into a single guiding document: The “American County Platform.”

That platform included a basic policy that was included in the first report of President Eisenhower’s Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, known colloquially as the Kestnbaum Commission:

“Leave to private initiative all the functions that citizens can perform privately; Use the level of government closest to the community for all the public functions it can handle; Use comparative intergovernmental arrangements where appropriate to obtain economical performance and popular approval; Reserve national action for residual participation where state and local governments are not fully adequate and for the continuing responsibilities that only national government can undertake.”

NACo also fought for representation on the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR), a successor to the Kestnbaum Commission, after the body was announced to include just state and city leaders. Sen. Karl Mundt (R-S.D.) responded with a successful amendment which provided that three county officials nominated by NACo be added to the four city officials nominated by NACo’s sibling associations, the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

NACo nominated three representatives: Westchester County, N.Y. Executive Edwin G. Michaelian, Wayne County, Mich. Supervisor Edward Connor and Plumas County, Calif. Supervisor Clair Donnenwirth. They played leading roles in the work of the commission and were critical to the appointment of William G. Colman as ACIR’s first executive director. The commission would last until Sept. 30, 1996.

Hillenbrand and NACo’s growing staff moved out of the laundry room and into other office space in the same building, though they still entertained in the Mayflower Hotel’s lobby.

Maturity

NACo President Mark Johnson, a Salt Lake County, Utah commissioner, empaneled the “Committee on the Future” to figure out a funding fix that would allow counties, rather than individuals, to become NACo members. Fulton County, Ga. Commissioner Jim Aldredge noted that counties could legally purchase services that included printing, painting and plumbing. Why not market NACo as an information service? That solution was the County Information Service, which offered publications, information, analysis and other materials with fees based on population. The service also required that counties be in good stead with their state associations.

The plan made NACo fiscally viable in 1959 but also met a longstanding desire of a generation of leaders: for counties to have a single home and to match the drive for equitable apportionment of representation in state legislatures and Congress. The new membership structure allowed NACo to demonstrate that its actions reflected the needs of citizens.

In 1962, the association found its home in a name, when the National Association of County Officers became the National Association of Counties, reflecting the change that the counties, rather than officers, were the members.

“NACo was a place where county leaders can get together, talk about the problems they are facing and find solutions,” Hillenbrand said in June 2018. “There was a comradeship you can’t get anywhere else, and bonding, seeing the same people every year at our meetings. People would look forward to ‘next year.’”

As the role of the federal government expanded during the Great Depression and World War II, the federal government needed an effective way to partner with counties to administer the growing number of social service and economic development programs. NACo tried several methods for reaching out. A series of state-by-state syndicated articles examined federal aid programs, then a newsletter tailored to the needs of state associations and affiliates. A grant from the Ford Foundation in 1958 funded a full-time position to expand information services offered in The County Officer.

The Monday Letter followed in the wake of NACo’s increased influence in Washington, D.C. Every Friday, the entire NACo staff summarized the week’s developments in terms of possible local implementation or action opportunities. It was mailed to several hundred leaders, arriving on Monday mornings. In the 1960s, it was replaced by NACo News and Views, which offered broader content for a wider circulation. It would later be supplanted by County News, which continues to this day, regardless of challenges to its deadline.

Quick work

Hillenbrand applied in 1958 for a five-year matching grant of $160,000 from the Ford Foundation, which foundation staffer Paul Ylvisaker approved. When Ylvisaker called Hillenbrand to tell him the grant would be approved, he set off a minor panic. Ylvisaker asked for NACo’s tax exemption number under Section 501(c)(3) but NACo was a civic organization organized under 501(c)(4). Without a tax exemption number, NACo would not be awarded the grant.

Hillenbrand immediately retained a Wilmington, Del. law firm to draft new bylaws and incorporation papers for “The Local Government Education And Research, Inc.,” later changed to The NACo Research Foundation.

The papers were delivered to the NACo office, and a party of staffers carried the completed package by hand to the IRS regional office in Baltimore. The new documents got the group a temporary exemption and a number that satisfied Ylvisaker and the Ford Foundation.

That was a Friday afternoon, and Hillenbrand sent the documents via special delivery to Ylvisaker’s home in Sussex County, N.J., and NACo’s staff celebrated. Prematurely, it turned out.

The following Sunday brought a blizzard that paralyzed the New York area, and Ylvisaker spent the next day trying to navigate to the Ford Foundation offices, arriving with only five minutes before the Board was set to adjourn.

That grant fueled expansion that would have otherwise taken five years to finance. NACo was able to move to a more traditional office space at 1001 Connecticut Ave., NW, an ironic address because in 1960, Connecticut abolished county governments.

The funding helped establish a central clearinghouse on administrative reorganization, charters, state enabling legislation, modern budgeting and finance and other aspects of streamlining county government. Staff analyzed administrative problems and published results. Training programs and educational sessions were added to regular NACo meetings.

Urban expansion

The demographic shifts and migration to cities and suburbs placed 60 percent of the nation’s population in the largest 300 counties by 1959. In response, NACo conducted its first Urban County Congress that March. The three-day meeting drew more than 900 attendees and represented a quick pivot away from the reputation of county governments that one attendee noted was “a unit of government that was outmoded, archaic, a product of horse and buggy days and probably doomed to extinction.”

NACo’s President C. Beverly Briley, Davidson County, Tenn. judge, served as keynote speaker and told the attendees: “The way to focus the babble of voices (on urban problems) into a single strong voice is to make county government again the dominant local government. I say this is the only way.”

The meeting drew two national luminaries — Vice President Richard Nixon and Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.) — who would compete for the presidency the next year.

Nixon: “You are faced with a thousand challenges. Further, your responsibilities for the welfare of your fellow citizens will be greatly increased, as an estimated one million acres become urban and suburban each year. Men, it seems, have always been faced with a form of the problems you must now solve. As our ancestors met the challenges of their times, so I have faith that you will help us meet this generation’s.” 

Kennedy: “It is clear that our city governments cannot always assume the sole responsibility for the solution of these pressing urban problems. I repeat they cannot — our state governments will not — the federal government should not —and therefore you on the county level must. It is up to counties and similar area governments to play a more important role in the solution of urban problems.”

In 1962, NACo shifted its attention from primarily rural issues to a balanced program that assisted every county, regardless of population. A county urban advisor joined the staff and represented a contact point between urban counties and key federal agencies that provided technical and financial aid on problems such as urban renewal, civil defense, mass transit and sewage treatment.

Hillenbrand staked out NACo’s position that year.

“We recognize the need for federal and state government, but we strongly believe that federal and state participation should supplement and not replace local decision making,” he said.

Counties’ place in this intergovernmental partnership became evident that October, when NACo was among the organizations summoned to the Pentagon for an emergency consultation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Counties would need accurate and timely information to keep their citizens as safe as possible, and NACo staff would be placed on alert to pass on new information as quickly as possible to local officials. That meant constantly staying in touch with Pentagon leaders for the next two weeks.

“It was clear to us that if the Communists did not back down, there would be war,” Hillenbrand said.

The spotlight shines on NACo

The presidential campaign of 1964 provided NACo with several opportunities to build its rapport with national leaders.

NACo was meeting in Washington during the week the Democrats held their national convention in Atlantic City, and Sen. Hubert Humphrey was to be NACo’s banquet speaker. Humphrey was a likely vice-presidential nominee on Lyndon Johnson’s ticket, and that raised expectations for press coverage. Staff went to the Sheraton Park Hotel to make arrangements with those responsible for the banquet.

“Do you want a spotlight?” 

“Sure.”

“The spotlight people charge $100.”

“That is unreasonable!”

“Those are the union rates.”

“Well, OK. It’s an important occasion.”

“Is there any chance that Sen. Humphrey will speak longer than 25 minutes?”

Even by the standards of the U.S. Senate, Humphrey had a reputation for loquacity, so this question prompted a laugh.

“In that case you will have two spotlight people because they only work for 25 minutes at a time.”

“This is highway robbery,” the NACo staffer countered, “but I guess we’ll have to have two.”

“But union rules are that if you have two spotlight operators, there must also be a supervisor present.”

“And how much do supervisors get paid?”

“They get $150.”

Eventually the expensive personnel agreement was handed out and the great night came. There were 82 NACo officers and directors at the head table. Senator Humphrey walked the entire length in a blazing spotlight, shaking every outstretched hand. There were lights from dozens of TV cameras. Then he came to the lectern, still in the spotlight. He held his arm up to shield his eyes and said, “I’m not an entertainer, I’m a politician and I’m working tonight. Please turn off the lights!”

Humphrey got the second spot on LBJ’s ticket, and the Republican Party nominated Arizona Sen. Barry M. Goldwater and New York Rep. William Miller. A year in advance of its 1964 conference, NACo invited Sen. Goldwater to speak and he readily accepted. But in the late summer of 1964, things were different. Goldwater was the Republican nominee for president, and he had announced that he would be spending the next few weeks planning his campaign and not speaking in public.

“Senator,” a New York leader told the Arizonan on the telephone, “we congratulate you on winning the presidential nomination, but we’re disappointed that you were not going to address the NACo meeting.”

“Who says?’ Goldwater replied. “I told you a year ago that I would attend, and I don’t go back on my word.”

Goldwater’s appearance before the Annual Conference turned out to be the opening speech of his campaign.