New York State Assembly Speaker's Office Subject Files

Alphabetic by subject.

Stanley Fink was elected to the Assembly in 1968. He was chairman of the Codes Committee after 1975, Majority Leader after 1977, and Speaker after 1979. He retired from the Assembly in 1986.

This series contains correspondence and background files compiled by the staff of Speaker Stanley Fink. These files contain background information on legislative subject areas and correspondence between the Speaker and other legislators, interest groups, state agency officers, local officials, and private citizens concerning proposed legislation. There are memoranda prepared by staff members providing historical background and legislative options on important issues. Other types of documents in the files include: reports (published and unpublished, many by New York state agencies); copies of bills; press releases; press clippings; newsletters from legislators; petitions; and excerpts from the Assembly Journal.

There are virtually no memoranda between the speaker and his top advisors, and virtually no notes from the frequent meetings at which policy decisions were made. Therefore, these files are not fully representative of the operations of the Speaker's Office.

The subjects of these files include: broad topics such as labor, veteran's affairs, or infrastructure; controversial topics such as abortion, Love Canal, and nuclear freeze; individual legislation (e.g. Bottle Bill); state agencies and commissioners and public and private institutions and organizations; geographic locations (e.g. New York City, Yonkers); and political or administrative topics such as delegate selection, Democratic National Committee, and interns.

At the end of the series are correspondence surveys for the years 1977-1986. These provide a statistical breakdown of correspondence received by Speaker Fink by subject or issue, pro or con orientations of the writer, and whether the writer resided in Fink's home district.

L0017-86, 23 cubic feet: records filed in Fink's Albany office.

L0017-87, 3 cubic feet: records filed in Fink's New York City office.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.