Housing director calls for
stronger landlord-tenant bill
SALEM (Special) — A
University student Friday urged
the House Local Government and
Urban Affairs Committee to
strengthen SB 159, a bill designed
to overhaul landlord-tenant laws,
while a Portland realtor asked
the committee to remove several
sections of the bill during the
second House hearing on the
measure.
The bill recently passed the
Senate after undergoing sub
By NAN HENDERSON
Of the Emerald
stantial amendment in the Senate
Local Government and Urban
Affairs Committee.
ASUO Housing Director Frank
Wall told the House committee
that a section of the bill deleted in
Senate consideration should be
reinstated. The section would
allow tenants to make minor
repairs in rental units and deduct
the cost from their rent.
Wall, a third-year law student,
said the bill now represents a
“watered-down compromise” of .
the original measure introduced
at the beginning of the legislative
session. He said that in its
weakened form it does not go far
enough in correcting the
problems tenants currently face.
And Wall said that his work in the
University Housing Office has
made him very aware of those
problems since most students are
renters.
“Students represent what must
be the largest low-income group
in the city.” Wall said.
“Typically, they pay the most
rent for the smallest, dirtiest,
noisiest and least desirable
housing. They rent from the most
marginal and speculative land
lords and have the most
egregious landlord and tenant
problems,” he said.
Wall told the committee that
these problems cause students
to develop “deep and bitter”
feelings toward landlords and
that passage of the bill with the
“repair and deduct” section
reinstated would “go a long way
toward removing the dismal air
of bad faith and cynicism” which
now surrounds the rental of ur
ban housing.
Portland Realtor Sidney
Bluestone told the committee
that Wall an'! other tenant
representatives are painting a
picture of landlords as wearing
long black capes, little
mustaches and having small
beady eyes. But, Bluestone said,
few landlords are the stereotype
movie villains that tenants
portray them to be.
Bluestone said that it is evident
that the bill was designed to
“insure that no landlord in the
state of Oregon will ever treat a
tenant with contempt.” But he
said while the bill may destroy
the villain, “it creates a new
monster,” a law that landlords
will not be able to follow “without
undue costs.”
Bluestone said, “I am not
advocating the destruction of SB
159. None of us object to an equal
bill. But this bill removes vir
tually all protection landlords
have against unscrupulous
tenants.”
He observed that most tenants
don’t realize that landlords
“would rather pay $30 to keep a
tenant happy than to have him
move out which is often more
expensive.” Bluestone said that a
provision in the bill requiring
landlords to make needed repairs
within 14 days after notification is
unworkable. “Sometimes we
have to order parts from the east
and that takes months,” he
pointed out.
Bluestone also asked the
committee to remove sections
which allow a landlord’s breach
of contract (failure to provide
“habitable” rentals as outlined in
the bill) to be used as a defense
by tenants in non-payment of rent
court cases and prohibit the
presently legal “landlord’s lien”
(locking tenants out and selling
their property for failure to pay
rent on time).
He said the sections should be
removed from the bill to
discourage tenants who try to
“avoid their obligations.”
Another hearing on the bill is
scheduled for Wednesday.
Bonneville Power Director
predicts power shortages
By JEANIE WAKELAND
Of the Emerald
Bonneville Power Administration Director Don
Hodell predicted Oregonians may face power
shortages until the winter of 1979-80 or longer if
additional power plants aren’t built.
Speaking to the Rubicon Society Friday, Hodell
said that while supplies for next winter may be
enough, “a drop of one degree in the temperatures
expected next winter could cause a power shor
tage.”
He told his audience that Oregonians may also
face a shortage of 1.7 million kilowatts in 1974-75 and
1 million kilowatts in 1975-76.
Hodell believes the wily way to end the
projected shortage is to build more plants. “The
risk of being wrong in over-building is much less of
a problem that the risk of under-building, because
the shortage will come in the dead of winter when
it’s five degrees below zero,” he said.
The BPA director blamed the shortages on
delays in construction and increased demand. He
also placed some of the blame on Eugene voters.
“We had a Eugene plant coming into the system
in 1976,” he said. “That was part of the plan. But it
was put under a moratorium by the people of the
city of Eugene.”
He praised the Eugene Water and Electric
Board (EWEB) for their opposition to the power
plant moratorium, and said the recent court action
against EWEB “has had a negative impact on other
boards.”
EWEB members were recently ordered by an
Oregon Appeals Court to repay $12,000 out of their
own pockets, replacing public funds used to buy
advertising against the moratorium issue on the
ballot last fall.
While he supports energy conservation plans,
he doesn ’t believe turning off a light or turning down
the heat can compensate for the Northwest’s
growth rate of seven per cent per year. “If the
Northwest used half of the power they use now, in
ten years we’d be back to using as much power as
we’re using now,’’ he said.
Hodell also thinks that increasing the costs of
power to the consumer would have little effect in
cutting consumption. “We can make the rates so
high that people will turn off lights, but again, that
won’t make much difference.”
Hodell hinted that he would like to reverse the
order in which power is cut off. Presently industry
is cut off first, followed by commercial buildings,
institutions, and lastly residential consumers.
Calling the residential consumer the “sacred cow of
the power industry,” he noted that power cuts to the
aluminum plants this spring has put 350 to 400
people out of work, and even more from the
railroads.
“Does it make sense to keep a guy’s lights on
when he doesn’t have a job to pay his light bill?” he
asked.
Hodell was questioned by the members of the
Eugene Future Power Committee on the Joint
Operating Agencies bill now before the legislature.
Hodell favors the bill, saying that the bill would
enable co-ops to band together.
“Co-ops obviously have a great reluctance to go
through the agony the Eugene Water and Electric
Board did in trying to responsibly face up to its
power needs,” Hodell said.
get some
RETURNS FROM ODE CLASSIFIEDS
Harmful drug sought
A substance being sold as MDA, a hallucinogenic drug, is
suspected of having harmful and possibly fatal effects, ac
cording to the Drug Information Center (DIC). The drug, called
PM A, has been noted in cities on the East Coast although no
samples have yet come into the hands of drug analysis
laboratories or law enforcement agencies.
The drug, like MDA, is reportedly sold as a white powder,
contained in cellophane or tin foil. Among the symptoms
reported for those having reportedly taken the drugs are
hypertension, agitation, a very high temperature and con
vulsions.
Mark Miller, director of the DIC, said the information was
received through Dr. Bing Hart of the Haight-Ashbury Clinic in
San Francisco. Miller is asking persons with what they think to
be MDA to call the DIC and use its anonymous drug-testing
service, which is made available through Pharm-Chem
laboratories in California.
The DIC’s number is 686-5411.
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