Bob Monagan

The first year that I was an undergraduate I also was the County Youth Chairman for the Goldwater campaign. It was an odd campaign that, at least in my area, had plenty of money but little support. But that year also introduced me a to person I worked with in a number of contexts over the last 40 years. His name was Bob Monagan. Bob had graduated from Pacific and after graduation and military service established an insurance practice in nearby Tracy. In a number of the roles I worked with him on - including things related to Pacific - he showed himself to be a firm and thoughtful leader.

Bob began his state service in 1960. He was one of the four "young turks" (the others being Bill Bagley, Jack Veneman and Hugh Flournoy - who died about a year ago). They first broke up the GOP caucus by changing the rules. Then they built a republican majority which eventually, at the end of the 1960s, elected him Speaker for one term. But his operating style was to work with across the aisle. A year ago at Hugh Flournoy's memorial, Bob and Bill Bagley regaled a small group about the exploits of the Young Turks. They worked together well. They were able to hold together in some pretty tough times, including a period where they defeated the then Speaker Jess Unruh when he tried to bully them on the budget.

When the GOP majority was defeated in 1970 he worked as an Assistant Secretary in the Nixon Administration. In the time that I was in Washington we interacted a lot - first when I was a congressional staffer and later when I went back to the White House. He offered some sound advice about forming a governmental agency - at the time I was working with Bill Simon on forming what would become the Department of Energy. After Nixon he went on to lead the California Manufacturer's Association.

Bob was a consummate pragmatist. That did not mean he was a consummate compromiser but it did mean he was willing to consider alternative ways of looking at the world. His view of the world was both well developed and measured. At some times I thought he was too accepting of government interventions but his view of the world was that governments, like other institutions, first ought to accomplish their intended missions. Goldwater said "to disagree does not mean you have to be disagreeable" - that about summed up Bob's approach to issues.

After he retired from the CMA he wrote a book about the legislature, called The Disappearance of Representative Government. In it he explained Monagan's laws. They were:
1) Campaign expenditures rise to meet campaign contributions; 2) The Republic cannot successfully survive with alienation of those who serve from those who elect; 3) Government by regulatory process does not provide the best result, just the average result; 4) Our democracy is unique; it has survived because it is representative with safeguards. Unfortunately, the safeguards are taking over; 5) Majority decisions are not always right, unless an inordinate amount of time and resources are used to inform the public; 6) There is a direct mathematical relationship between the number of legislative staff and the number of bills introduced; 7) All representatives are bad-except mine; 8) Legislation is accomplished by compromise; that is settling differences by mutual concessions. Unfortunately, many constituents feel that compromise is an act of treason; 8) There is no such thing as under-regulating. By nature of the process, regulators will only over-regulate; 9)In politics, luck is better than skill, anytime; 10) The business of the legislature will consume whatever time there is for it; 11) The tough legislative decisions are delayed until the last possible moment-or forever, if possible; 12) The initiative is a safeguard not a vanguard.

Bob also proposed in the book four initiatives. One would have changed redistricting so that the Senate and Assembly would be reflections of the congressional delegation (the Assembly would be twice the size of the Congressional Delegation and the Senate) and would require the Legislature to adopt by a 2/3 vote a plan for setting the districts that conformed to a set of rules similar to one man,one vote. A second would have re-established a part-time legislature and set legislator salaries at the rate paid to municipal judges and would have set expense payments at the rate other state employees get. A third would have restricted politicians from receiving campaign contributions until they declared for the office and that surplus campaign contributions be transferred to the state's General Fund. The fourth proposal would have required initiatives, once qualified, to be submitted to the legislature for review. The legislature could not make changes in the proposal but could issue recommendations and to disseminate information about the proposal.

For me Bob's most profound contribution came in his role as a Regent of the University of the Pacific. Bob became chair of the Regents at a time when the University was in crisis. It was in the process of moving one president out and selecting another. It faced tremendous financial challenges and the accrediting region was about to issue a significant sanction. The Regents at the time were severely divided. Bob led the process on the board to right all of those ships. A new, and excellent president, was chosen. The Regents began a process of strategic planning that helped clarify the mission of the University, focus its programs and raise a fair amount of money to accomplish its objectives. Pacific is a much better place because of his work there.

Bob had a pretty clear set of priorities in all the tasks that I worked with him on. But that did not deter him from listening to alternative ideas and even adopting them. That skill is in scarce supply in Sacramento and Washington today.