Oregon daily emerald., November 28, 1973, Page 3, Image 3

State land board charged with incompetence
By SUSAN HERMANN
Of the Emerald
OSPIRG is releasing a report
today which charges the State
Land Board with “incompetence
bordering on scandal.”
The report also charges that “a
record of weakness” amounting
to “administrative negligence”
by the State Land Board and
division of state lands is costing
Oregon taxpayers handreds of
thousands of dollars in lost
royalty revenue and that the
board failed to adopt statewide
policies to meet increasing
threats to Oregon’s valuable
waterways.
In a 94-page report, Robert
Stach, Jr., a second year law
student at the University and
OSPIRG intern, focused on the
board’s waterways management
responsibilities.
The State Land Board mem
bers are Governor Tom McCall,
Secretary of State Clay Myers,
state treasurer James Redden
and William Cox. Cox is a
member of the division, the
operating arm of the land board.
The report brought up four
examples where the board is
failing to meet these respon
sibilities.
These examples the report
stated were:
— The board’s files show that
sand and gravel operators are
authorized by the division to
remove from 23 river bed
locations 3 million cubic yards of
material worth $475,000, without
any payment to the state. The
board failed to assert ownership
of these 23 areas, thus the
royalties were foregone. Many
sources show that these areas are
state owned.
— Oregon owns “navigable”
rivers and can and should obtain
royalties for sand and gravel
removals from state waterways.
— The division has failed to
determine ownership of these
areas even though the advisory
committee to the board strongly
recommended it do so three
years ago.
— The advisory committee
urged the board and division to
resolve conflicting ownership
claims (due to natural changes in
the river channel) to the bed of
the Willamette. To date the
division has issued no report on
the matter which again could
provide substantial revenue to
the state.
— Requiring leases could bring
$100,000 to the state annually, but
Ritchey asks McCall
for state AD funding
By SCOTT SPITTAL
Of the Emerald
University President Robert Clark, Athletic Director Norv Rit
chey and representatives from Oregon State University and Portland
State University met yesterday with Governor Tom McCall to propose
that the state take over the salary funding of athletic coaches.
The Governor’s administrative assistant, Ron Schmidt, said no
decision had been made on the proposal.
Currently, the athletic departments at each university pay the
freight for coaching. Oregon, with 31 coaches, has a faculty budget of
more than $394,000. OSU spends more than $345,000 for 31 coaches.
PSU spends $80,000 for 11.
Athletic directors from all three universities met with Chancellor
Roy Lieuallen late last month to try to find a solution. They came up
with the suggestion that the legislature be asked to fund money for
coaches.
University Athletic Director Norv Ritchey has a simple ex
planation for why the request was made. “ ’Cause we’re going broke.”
“Under the pressures the ADs find themselves to produce a
winning and competitive program, they don’t see any financial light at
the end of the tunnel,” Ritchey said.
“We want to find out if the state of Oregon wants ma”jor college
athletics, and if so, is it willing to support it,” OSU Athletic Director
Jim Barratt said. ^
Both Ritchey and Barratt feel the coaches provide educational
value. “You have to ask philosophically why the University dif
ferentiates between the educational value of a coach versus, say, an
English professor,” Ritchey said.
“I can justify asking for state support on the same basis acting,
music and other activities of an academic nature justify their support.
I think coaching is teaching at its highest,” Barratt said.
Ritchey stated tliat his coaches hold academic rank and, except
for head coaches in major sports, his coaches are paid either equal to
or less than comparative salaries of regular faculty.
“We are in a real bind, where the costs have doubled in ten years
and we just don’t have the income to offset the rising costs,” Barratt
said.
Although Oregon stands to reap a potential profit of up to $250,000
this year, OSU is in financial trouble.
OSU’s business manager estimated that losses could be as high as
$125,000 this year.
Both Ritchey and Barratt look to public financing as a way of
insuring they will be able to maintain their present programs.
Ritchey said the pressures of competing in major college sport has
led to the proposal. “If you don’t compete this way in the world we live
in, you can’t compete.”
There is a precedent for state support of faculty salaries. Only the
three larger state schools pay coaches salaries. Smaller schools are
supported by the state.
Chancellor Roy Lieullan says he is “neutral” on the proposal. “I
haven’t decided whether it’s a good idea or not. ”
A certain amount of money could be used to stabilize AD income,
though the amount of coaches salary funding would have to be preset,
he said.
Ritchey said he didn’t feel the money, if approved by the
legislature, should come out of current University allocations. He
suggested that salary funding should be “over and above” any other
University funding.
it has taken the board one year to
adopt leasing policies after the
attorney general’s October 1972
opinion authorizing such leases
and still not one dollar has been
collected from operators of
marinas, moorages and other
waterway structures on state
owned rivers. Estimates of an
nual revenues go from $100,000 up
$2 million.
— Over one year ago the ad
visory committee informed the
Board of 31 acres of unauthorized
land fills made since 1963 in
Oregon’s estuaries. In August,
Cox told OSPIRG that he has
taken no action against such fills.
OSPIRG recommended that
the division move rapidly to
determine the extent of water
way ownership in order to in
crease public revenues and ex
tend public control. “The land
board has more power over
Oregon’s rivers and estuaries
than any other agency,” states
Stacy, “but it has done next to
nothing to establish effective
management programs.”
OSPIRG said that Oregon’s
“waterways and adjacent
shorelines” are a single resource
and must be managed ac
cordingly.
However, the report found that
public control of resource is
severly fractured: the state
controls the river bed and the
river bank while a host of un
coordinated cities, counties and
port authorities control shore
areas beyond the river bank,
thereby making unified
(Continued on Page 11)
■ I
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