Research

Scope and Content Note

This series served as the central research and report files for agency management and reorganization studies completed by the Organization and Management Unit and its predecessors. The records provide significant information on the efficiency, organization, and administration of state government agencies and programs. Several staff members filed into this series, accounting for some duplication of subject matter. The records are organized into two subseries, as follows:

Subseries I, Final Reports and Final Drafts, 1952-1983: Consists of agency management and reorganization studies completed by the Organization and Management Unit and its predecessors. The reports cover individual agencies, units within agencies, or statewide or interagency operations and functions. The reports provide analyses of and recommendations regarding the following: functional responsibilities; clarity of legal mandate; operational procedures; reorganization/consolidation of offices; data processing applications; workload and work assignments; quality of work; staff deployment; skill levels of staff and availability of skilled staff; staff turnover; staff, space, and equipment needs; training programs; and budget and other implications of requests or recommendations for staff, space, or purchases.

Subseries II, Background and Research Files, 1948-1986: Consists of the main set of files maintained by Unit staff in conducting management studies. Final reports for many of the studies documented here are contained in Subseries I. These files document numerous agencies and issues, some of which include: criminal justice information systems statewide, especially the New York State Identification and Intelligence System (NYSIIS) criminal information database for agencies with criminal justice administration responsibilities; investigation of fraud and mismanagement in the Division of the Lottery, reorganization of the Division, and resumption of Lottery games in 1976; reorganizatiion and operations of the Department of Mental Hygiene and its three autonomous offices, especially the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; health care regulation; Department of Tax and Finance management and organization; centralization of agency services and functions, such as the building construction function; the New York City fiscal crisis; productivity and cost control initiatives; welfare administration reforms and computerization, including Department of Social Services involvement in the National Demonstration Project, a federally sponsored project to develop a model computerized social welfare information system; and reorganization of the Department of Social Services Office of Management Planning and Data Processing to accommodate computerization projects.

Record types found within the subseries include: organization charts; management survey reports and drafts; consultants' reports; reports of legislative commissions; correspondence with state agencies; Division of the Budget reports and memoranda on legislative bills, including arguments for and against the legislation and budget implications; printed laws and bills; summaries of legislative hearings; technical and summary information on automated systems; agency budget requests, budget summaries, and budget hearing statements; minutes of meetings; and press releases, articles, and clippings.