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51-623: The RA was the brainchild of Rexford G. Tugwell , an economics professor at Columbia University who became an advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt during the latter's successful campaign for the presidency in 1932 and then held positions in the United States Department of Agriculture . Roosevelt established the RA under Executive Order 7027, as one of the New Deal's " alphabet agencies ", and Tugwell became its head. The divisions of

102-735: A governor and an executive council appointed by the President, a House of Representatives with 35 elected members, a judicial system with a Supreme Court, and a non-voting Resident Commissioner in Congress. The first civilian governor of the island under the Foraker Act was Charles Herbert Allen . This system was still used after the approval of the Jones–Shafroth Act , which altered the structure of government in Puerto Rico, and

153-571: A Personal Perspective (1977). Governor of Puerto Rico The governor of Puerto Rico ( Spanish : gobernador de Puerto Rico ) is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , and commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard . Currently, Pedro Pierlusi is serving as the 189th governor of the archipelago and island . The governor has a duty to enforce local laws , to convene

204-675: A crop surplus after the First World War . This method of controlling production, prices, and costs was especially relevant as the Great Depression began. In 1932 Tugwell was invited to join President Franklin Roosevelt 's team of advisers known as the Brain Trust . After Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933, Tugwell was appointed first as Assistant Secretary and then in 1934 as Undersecretary of

255-468: A group of Columbia University academics who helped develop policy recommendations leading up to Roosevelt's New Deal . Tugwell served in FDR's administration until he was forced out in 1936. He was a specialist on planning and believed the government should have large-scale plans to move the economy out of the Great Depression because private businesses were too frozen in place to do the job. He helped design

306-409: A lack of public or legal support. His commission sought to establish public housing at moderate densities, yet repeatedly approved FHA requests for greater density. Robert Moses killed Tugwell's proposed fifty-year master plan with a fiery public denouncement of its open-space protections. Tugwell served as the last appointed American Governor of Puerto Rico , from 1941 to 1946. He worked with

357-422: A whole community and entice people into it. Then go back into the cities and tear down whole slums and make parks of them." She believed that he underestimated the strengths of complex urban communities and caused too much social displacement in "tearing down" neighborhoods that might have been renovated. This resulted in greater damage to inner city neighborhoods. The RA completed three "Greenbelt" towns before

408-499: Is available for succession the Legislative Assembly meets to elect by majority vote of all of its members a governor for the rest of the term. Other provisions exist for the transition between an incumbent governor and a governor-elect. Similar to some U.S. states, such as California, if the governor is temporarily away from Puerto Rico, the secretary of state, or in their absence the highest ranking Cabinet member in

459-593: Is elected by a direct vote of the people. Candidates typically represent a political party , with every elected governor to date (as of 2019 ) having been a member of the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico or the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico . Only a plurality vote (more than any other candidate) is required to win election, rather than a majority (more than half the votes). The Puerto Rico Elections Code states that if

510-591: Is the State of the Commonwealth speech and another in which the governor presents the "Recommended Budget" for the next fiscal year, in which the governor proposes to the legislature a budget. They are also the commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard and the chief diplomat. On July 25, 1952, the Constitution of Puerto Rico was enacted by Governor Muñoz Marín after the approval by Congress and

561-410: The Constitution of Puerto Rico vests the executive power on the governor and empowers them with the faculty to appoint officers. These two faculties in allow the governor to delegate most of their functions while continuing to be the chief executive and head of government. The first known and recorded heads of government in the history of Puerto Rico were the caciques , the tribal chiefs of

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612-559: The Legislative Assembly , the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Legislative Assembly, to appoint government officers, to appoint justices , and to grant pardons . Since 1948, the governor has been elected by the people of Puerto Rico . Prior to that, the governor was appointed either by the king of Spain (1510–1898) or the president of the United States (1898–1948). Article IV of

663-524: The New York City Planning Commission . New York's reformist mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia , created the commission as part of a city charter reform aimed at reducing corruption and inefficiency. The Planning Commission had relatively limited powers: all actions needed approval from the legislative Board of Estimate . Tugwell tried to assert the commission's power. He tried to retroactively enforce nonconforming land uses, despite

714-629: The Philippines and Guam , to the United States under the 1898 Treaty of Paris . Puerto Rico began the twentieth century under the military rule of the United States with officials, including the governor, who were appointed by the President of the United States . In 1900, William McKinley signed the Foraker Act as a United States federal law , which established civilian (limited popular) government on Puerto Rico. The new government had

765-842: The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found the program unconstitutional in Franklin Township v. Tugwell. It ruled that housing construction was a state power, and the RA was an illegal delegation of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration's power. Tugwell had previously been denounced as "Rex the Red". The RA's suburban resettlement program earned him condemnation as Communist and un-American because of its social planning aspects. Historians agree he

816-528: The United States Department of Agriculture . He helped create the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) and served as its director. The AAA included a domestic allotment program, which paid farmers to voluntarily reduce their production by roughly 30% so that reduced supply would increase the price they received. It was funded with a tax on processing companies that used farm commodities. Tugwell's department managed

867-595: The University of Puerto Rico . After his stint as governor, Tugwell returned to teaching at a variety of institutions. He had years of service at the University of Chicago , where he helped develop their planning program. He moved to Greenbelt, Maryland , one of the new suburbs designed and built by the Resettlement Administration under his direction. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , Tugwell believed that global planning

918-455: The University of Washington , American University in Paris , and Columbia University . At Columbia University he taught economics from 1920 to 1932. Tugwell's approach to economics was experimentalist, and he viewed the industrial planning of World War I as a successful experiment. He advocated agricultural planning (led by industry) to stop the rural poverty that had become prevalent due to

969-637: The government of Puerto Rico . They have the power to veto legislation that the Puerto Rican legislature passes. The governor also has the power to appoint the members of their cabinet, who in turn must be ratified by the Legislature. The governor also has the power to appoint Justices to the Supreme Court and all the lower courts of the island. The governor must address the legislature at the beginning of each year to present two speeches, one

1020-577: The governor of Puerto Rico during World War II (1941–1945). He became a professor at various universities, with lengthy service at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Santa Barbara . He wrote twenty books, covering the politics of the New Deal, biographies of major politicians, issues in planning, and memoirs of his experiences. Rexford Tugwell was born in 1891 in Sinclairville, New York . In his youth, he gained an appreciation for workers' rights and liberal politics from

1071-441: The line of succession , becomes acting governor until the governor's return. In decades past, when off-island gubernatorial travel was infrequent, the powers of the governorship rarely devolved upon the secretary of state or other Cabinet officers. More accessible travel has made the acting governorship a much more common occurrence. During recent times, not only has the secretary of state frequently served as acting governor, but

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1122-477: The 75,000 people who had the benefit of the camps were a small share of those in need and even they could stay only temporarily. Tugwell resigned in 1936, wanting to prevent a red-baiting campaign against him from affecting the agency. On January 1, 1937, with hopes of making the RA more effective, the Resettlement Administration was transferred to the Department of Agriculture through executive order 7530. In

1173-555: The Democratic Party but might also create a "Progressive Party", adding in his own words that Roosevelt "would have led a movement like that which we now join." Tugwell pled for party unity under a platform that The New York Times summed up as "endorsing Red foreign policy". Late in life, Tugwell drafted a constitution for the Newstates of America. In it, planning would become a new branch of federal government, alongside

1224-567: The New Deal farm program and the Resettlement Administration that moved subsistence farmers into small rented farms under close supervision. His ideas on suburban planning resulted in the construction of Greenbelt, Maryland , with low-cost rents for relief families. He was denounced by conservatives for advocating state-directed economic planning to overcome the Great Depression. Roosevelt appointed Tugwell as

1275-466: The President of the United States. Pursuant to section Three, Article IV of the Constitution of Puerto Rico, the governor must be a citizen of the United States , a resident of Puerto Rico for five consecutive years prior and at least 35 years old at the time of the election. The governor serves a four-year term which begins on the second day of January after the year of their election and ends on

1326-709: The Puerto Rico Legislature, and supported by 59 of 77 municipalities, establishing a state medical school in the city of Ponce, calling it "regionalism." He publicly supported Luis Muñoz Marín 's Popular Democratic Party , which wanted a Commonwealth status. As he prepared to retire from the Governorship, Tugwell was instrumental in getting the first Puerto Rican appointed to the job, Jesús T. Piñero , then serving as Resident Commissioner in Washington, D.C. Tugwell also served as Chancellor of

1377-521: The RA was to build relief camps in California for migratory workers , especially refugees from the drought-struck Dust Bowl of the Southwest. This move was resisted by a large share of Californians, who did not want destitute migrants to settle in their midst. The RA managed to construct 95 camps that gave migrants (unaccustomed to clean quarters) housing with running water and other amenities, but

1428-686: The Spaniards arrived in 1493 although many others existed during his period, as well as before and after him . When the Spanish Empire colonized Puerto Rico during the 16th century, the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León established himself as the island's first governor. Vicente Yáñez Pinzón had been appointed to take the position of Captain General of the City of Puerto Rico prior to

1479-623: The conquistador, who served as interim governor in 1579. After 1580 Puerto Rico's government was established as the Captaincy General of Puerto Rico , and subsequent governors held the office of Captain General as well. On July 25, 1898, at the outbreak of the Spanish–American War , Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States . Following the conclusion of the war, Spain was forced to cede Puerto Rico, along with Cuba ,

1530-564: The date their successor takes office. Consecutive service is unlimited, according to the Constitution of the Island. Luis Muñoz Marín , its first elected governor, served for four consecutive terms from 1949 to 1965, but almost all subsequent governors served either one or two terms; the Constitution of the Commonwealth was ratified by the people of Puerto Rico in 1952. Rafael Hernández Colón, however, served three non-consecutive terms: first from 1973 to 1977, and then from 1985 to 1993. The governor

1581-772: The face of Congressional criticism, in September 1937 the Resettlement Administration was folded into a new body, the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which operated until 1946. The RA worked with nearly 200 communities on its projects, notably including: The Weedpatch Camp (also known as the Arvin Federal Government Camp and the Sunset Labor Camp), now on the National Register of Historic Places ,

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1632-600: The island's colonization, but he never performed this function. As part of the Spanish Empire, the Spanish monarchy was in charge of appointing the governor of Puerto Rico. The person selected was in charge of the island's development and wealth and was responsible for reporting the colony's status to the government in Spain. The first native Puerto Rican to perform the function was Juan Ponce de León II , grandson of

1683-560: The legislature to create the Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanization, and Zoning Board in 1942. Tugwell supported Puerto Rican self-government through amendment to the Organic Act in 1948 but fiercely opposed decentralizing government agencies and services away from the city of San Juan "despite most Puerto Ricans in need of such services not residing in the capital." In one case, he vetoed a bill approved by both chambers of

1734-411: The margin of victory of a candidate is less than 0.5% of the votes, a full recount must take place. So far, only in the gubernatorial elections of 1980 and 2004 has a recount occurred. Upon the death, resignation, or removal from office (by impeachment and conviction) of a sitting governor, the secretary of state would then take the office of governor until the end of the four-year term. In case

1785-475: The natives known as Taínos that inhabited the island before the arrival of Spaniards. It is believed that the cacique rank was apparently established through democratic means. His importance in the tribe was determined by the size of his tribe rather than his warlord skills, since the Taínos were mostly a pacifist culture. Agüeybaná I is the most-well known cacique as he was the one governing all others when

1836-506: The new organization included Rural Rehabilitation, Rural Resettlement, Land Utilization, and Suburban Resettlement. Roosevelt transferred the Federal Emergency Relief Administration land program to the Resettlement Administration under Executive Order 7028 on May 1, 1935. However, Tugwell's goal of moving 650,000 people from 100,000,000 acres (400,000 km) of agriculturally exhausted, worn-out land

1887-610: The production of key crops by adjusting the subsidies for non-production. The act was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1936 in United States v. Butler , and had to be replaced in 1938. Tugwell was also instrumental in creating the Soil Conservation Service in 1933, to restrict cultivation, restore poor-quality land, and introduce better agricultural practices to farmers to conserve

1938-510: The regulatory and electoral branches. During this time, he wrote several books, including a biography of Grover Cleveland , subtitled: A Biography of the President Whose Uncompromising Honesty and Integrity Failed America in a Time of Crisis (1968). His biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt was entitled FDR: An Architect of an Era. A Stricken Land was his memoir about his years in Puerto Rico. This book

1989-453: The rural unemployed by relocating them to new communities for access to urban opportunities. Some of the RA's activities dealt with land conservation and rural aid, but the construction of new suburban satellite cities was the most prominent. In her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities , the author Jane Jacobs critically quotes Tugwell on the program: "My idea is to go just outside centers of population, pick up cheap land, build

2040-453: The secretary of justice, and secretary of treasury have as well. On July 24, 2019, Governor Ricardo Rosselló announced his resignation after two weeks of protests and demonstrations in Puerto Rico . He became the first elected governor to resign. His resignation took effect on August 2, 2019, at 5 pm. Before leaving office, Rosselló nominated Pedro Pierluisi as secretary of state, intending to make Pierluisi his successor, but his nomination

2091-418: The secretary of state is unwilling or unable to assume it, the secretary of justice would assume the governorship, followed by the secretary of treasury , the secretary of education , the secretary of labor and human resources , the secretary of transportation and public works , the secretary of economic development and commerce , the secretary of health and the secretary of agriculture . If none of them

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2142-404: The soil. This was especially necessary given the widespread damage of the 1930s' Dust Bowls . He additionally played a key role in crafting the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act . In April 1935 Tugwell and Roosevelt created the Resettlement Administration (RA), a unit of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration . Directed by Tugwell, the RA sought to create healthy communities for

2193-613: The works of Upton Sinclair , James Bryce , Edward Bellamy , Frederick Winslow Taylor , and Charles Richard van Hise . Tugwell began studying economics in graduate work at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania , and completed his doctorate at Columbia University . At university, he was influenced by the teaching of Scott Nearing and Simon Patten , as well as the writings of John Dewey in philosophy. After graduation, Tugwell served as junior faculty at

2244-613: Was at all times a loyal American and was never affiliated in any way with the Communist Party. Given the opposition to his policies, Tugwell resigned from the Roosevelt administration at the end of 1936. He was appointed as a vice president at the American Molasses Co. At this time, he divorced his first wife and married Grace Falke, his former assistant. In 1938 Tugwell was appointed as the first director of

2295-616: Was built in 1936 south of Bakersfield, California — not by the Resettlement Administration but by the Works Progress Administration . The camp inspired John Steinbeck 's 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath . The RA also funded projects recording aspects of its work and context, including: Rexford Tugwell Rexford Guy Tugwell (July 10, 1891 – July 21, 1979) was an American economist who became part of Franklin D. Roosevelt 's first " Brain Trust ",

2346-463: Was in use until 1948. Following the approval of the federal Elective Governor Act by President Harry S. Truman in 1947, the governor has been elected through a democratic process every four years since 1948. At that time, Luis Muñoz Marín became the first democratically elected governor. The current governmental structure was established under the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , ratified in 1952. Sitting governor Luis Muñoz Marín

2397-480: Was not approved by the full legislature before Rosselló's resignation took effect. Despite not having been confirmed by the Senate of Puerto Rico , Pierluisi was sworn in as governor, which prompted a legal challenge. Less than a week later, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico declared that Pierluisi had taken office on unconstitutional grounds and removed him from office, effective 5 p.m. AST on August 7. At that time,

2448-402: Was re-elected as the first governor under the Constitution. Under Article IV of the Constitution, the governor continues to be popularly elected every four years and is the head of the Commonwealth's executive branch. The governor-elect takes office on January 2 of the following year in a public inaugural ceremony which may be preceded by a private oath-taking ceremony. The governor is head of

2499-658: Was reprinted in 2007 by the Muñoz Marín Foundation . Tugwell also wrote the foreword to Edward C. Banfield 's first published work, Government Project (Free Press, 1951), a history of one of Tugwell's collective farm programs in California. Tugwell's autobiographies include The Light of Other Days (1962), To the Lesser Heights of Morningside (1982), The Stricken Land (1947), A Chronicle of Jeopardy (1955), The Brains Trust (1968), Off Course (1971), and Roosevelt's Revolution: The First Year,

2550-650: Was the only sure way to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. He participated in the Committee to Frame a World Constitution from 1945 to 1948. He also thought the national constitution needed to be amended to enable economic planning . In 1948, Tugwell served as chair of the platform committee for the Progressive Party . During its convention (July 23–25, 1948), he recounted a conversation with presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 during which Roosevelt warned him of internal clashes that might destroy

2601-419: Was unpopular among the majority in Congress. This goal seemed socialistic to some and threatened to deprive influential farm owners of their tenant workforce . The RA was thus left with enough resources to relocate only a few thousand people from 9,000,000 acres (36,000 km) and build several greenbelt cities, which planners admired as models for a cooperative future that never arrived. The main focus of

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