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<br />. <br />001501 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />- 7 - <br /> <br />exchanje which the State Land Board is now facinj. I believe I got <br />a commitment from him to work with us on that as well as a <br />commitment from Assistant Secretary Carruthers on that subject. <br /> <br />The Secretary then summarized the meeting with another <br />long dialogue about how well-run and efficient the DOl was, and how <br />we could all be so proud of the way our government is now <br />furx::tioning. He claimed that water "is our most hurting issue" but <br />that 'he was pleased with their other policy issues, that in the next <br />year he would focus on personnel issues and get the people on board <br />with his policies, that he did not anticipate any major policy <br />changes in the near future, and that this was consistent with his <br />original goal to get the Department shaped up within 15 months. He <br />claimed that the career people have all accepted it, that 1983 will <br />be "our year of stabilization" and that except for a couple of hot , <br />spots he thought the Department was ,doing a simply wonderful job in <br />all its various missions. <br /> <br />Followinj the meeting there was an interesting session <br />with the press wherein Governor Babbitt and Secretary Watt were <br />asked a number of questions about the rroney available for the <br />Central Arizona Project in the next year. The other topic of the ' <br />press session was that the press seemed to try to focus on the <br />differences between Governor Babbitt and Secretary Watt, and <br />Secretary Watt tried to focus on the wonderful job that he was <br />doing, and how there were absolutely no differences between himself <br />and Governor Babbitt. I thought Governor Babbitt sidestepped those <br />issues fairly well and refused to claim either that there were major <br />issues or that Secretary Watt was the greatest thing since sliced <br />bread. <br /> <br />This is the end of the transcribed notes from the memo, <br />and IT\Y observations and conclusions follow in a separate memo. <br /> <br />HJBIII :car <br />