This proposal was one of several long-running reform ideas floating around Sacramento since the late 1930s which were consolidated by Governor Pat Brown in 1961 into a plan for a dramatic reorganization of the state government. Brown's massive plan touched off an equally massive uproar, and he was unable to get his plan enacted all at once as a single package.[2] That year, the California State Legislature enacted only part of the first part of Brown's plan, to create four so-called "super-agencies" (of eight then planned) headed by secretaries to reduce the number of Cabinet-level direct reports to the governor.[3][4] (The hyphen was later dropped and they are now called superagencies.) In 1963, after the Little Hoover Commission filed a report recommending the creation of a Department of General Services, Governor Brown formally asked the state legislature to create such a department, and in March, Milton Marks introduced a bill to that effect in the state assembly.[2] By June, the bill had cleared the California State Senate and went back to the assembly for a vote to concur in the senate's minor amendments to the bill, which Marks indicated would follow in due course.[5] By September, Governor Brown had signed the bill into state law and had started to appoint officials to positions in the new department.[6]
^Harris, Robert E.G. (January 9, 1952). "Plenty of Government, but It's Hard to Locate". Los Angeles Times. p. A4. Available through ProQuest.
^ abGillam, Jerry (March 22, 1963). "Bill to Create State Service Dept. Offered". Los Angeles Times. p. A8. Available through ProQuest.
^Blanchard, Robert (February 14, 1961). "Brown Criticized for His Super-Agency Proposal". Los Angeles Times. p. 1. Available through ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
^Gillam, Jerry (October 1, 1961). "Brown Picks 8-Member Cabinet: Four Named to Head New State Super-Agencies". Los Angeles Times. p. 1. Available through ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
^"State Senate Approves General Services Unit". Los Angeles Times. June 20, 1963. p. 12. Available through ProQuest. No author was disclosed in the article as published.
^"Brown Appoints Two to General Services Posts". Los Angeles Times. September 27, 1963. p. B15. Available through ProQuest. No author was disclosed in the article as published.
^"On the move toward "One DGS""(PDF). DGS Newsletter Issue #33. California Department of General Services. May 2001. Archived from the original(PDF) on 1 February 2017. Retrieved 20 November 2016.