local Economic Opportunity Commission (Federal War on Poverty). When the EOC was under threat of takeover by the Federal government, Cortese along with two other local officials founded the Economic and Social Opportunities Commission (ESO). He was asked to meet with President Jimmy Carter during the 1979 oil crisis after his proposal to support the President's "Windfall Profits" proposal and/or nationalize the oil companies was adopted by his Board and other cities and counties throughout the state. He was a founding member of the California Association of LAFCOS (CALAFCO) and was its president twice. Santa Clara County became only the second county in the state to adopt an ordinance which gave recognized employee groups the right to meet and confer and to negotiate wages and other terms and conditions of employment. He played a key role in the hiring of an Affirmative Action Officer and witnessed the signing of the Santa Clara Plan to phase in minority hiring within definite time constraints. Cortese headed a committee to bring to an end the long fought federal court battle over equality hiring in the Sheriff's office. This effort resulted in a vast recruiting and training program that culminated in the hiring of 60 Chicano deputies, approximately one half the number of vacancies. It was soon recognized that these officers were among the foremost in the department. He maintained close rapport with the local Opportunities Industrialization Center an affiliate of the national OIC founded by Dr. Leon Sullivan. Later the local program became CET, the Center for Employment Training. It was on his motion, after long debate, that OIC was given the community wide Federal Food Stamp Program. It was through his personal negotiations that the OIC was given a contract to train and place 100 new bus drivers for the newly formed Transportation District. Later in his career, CET, the Center for Employment Training, gave Cortese its top Amistad Award reading: "Thanks for Commitment to Training and Employment of the Poor and Unskilled". That recognition included legislation he carried requiring performance standards as part of job training contract grants. During his first year, Cortese appointed numerous persons of Spanish surname to county wide boards and commissions. From 1969 through 1980, the Board created the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism, the Human Relations Commission and the Mobile Homeowners Task Force. During the mid-1970s a new