in a particular sector of the State. Maryland's rapidly emerging metro-
politan clusters provide still another example of the need for more
deftly weaving together many different governmental efforts. Closely
intertwined in those thickets are such problems as traffic congestion,
mass transportation needs, crime, health hazards, education, recrea-
tional requirements, the limitations of existing governmental juris-
dictions, inadequate financial resources and many other questions.
Better means must be found to relate the various State efforts not
only at the level of the major State offices in Annapolis and Baltimore,
but also in the actual localities where our funds and programs are
brought to bear. The most creative and challenging front for admin-
istrative reform, in fact, is at the point of program impact in the
individual counties and communities.

In connection with that, I want the proposed Commission to con-
sider the possible merit of a State Office for Local and Metropolitan
Affairs. Such a unit should not take over the actual administration
of substantive programs from their functional departments. But it
could coordinate the activities of the dozens of state offices now in-
dependently working on local and metropolitan problems, and assist
the Governor and Legislature in formulating State policy concerning
local-state relations in particular program areas. Such an office could
also, on request, provide local governments with a broad range of
expert services and research assistance concerning developing aspects
of urbanization beyond the immediate specialization of other state
agencies. When asked, it could even undertake studies of specific
local problems with broader potential relevance in the State. The
office could be a clearing house for information on local govern-
mental activities and encourage community planning, the expansion
and improvement of in-service training facilities, and other basic
activities among local governments. The usefulness of such state ser-
vices for local governments has been proven in a number of other
states; and an office similar to that which I am suggesting is already
in operation in several of the states. I would hope that the agency,
once established, might eventually pull together special program
centers in areas of the State with unusual economic or other prob-
lems. Such centers could provide a single intake for all State services
in the community — employment, welfare, retraining, parole, re-
habiltiation, mental health, and other responsibilities. It might even
undertake to bring together State services on a case basis and fuse
efforts with the same family by agents from correction, welfare, em-
ployment and other agencies. This is just one of the possibilities that
a State Office for Local and Metropolitan Affairs could open up.

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