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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1978)
Amazon board asks to shed debt fund By MARY BETH ALLEN Of the Emerald Initial efforts to abolish the Amazon debt service were among the items passed by the Amazon Family Housing Policy Board at its Friday meeting. The board agreed to send a let ter to the State Board of Higher Education asking them for assis tance in abolishing the deficit that saddles the Amazon budget. Walt Sheasby, chairer of the board, said Amazon residents feel it is unfair for them to pay into a debt service that is also applied to the Westmoreland Housing Pro ject. “Amazon and Westmoreland offer unequal services and qual ity," Sheasby said. He said he feels Amazon tenants should not be required t pay into the debt ser vice. Sheasby stressed that in in stances where housing facilities are of similar quality, such as dorms, the debt fund is logical and fair. “We feel our situation is dissimi lar because of the quality of ac comodations and services,” Sheasby said. In the wake of recent support for a housing office audit, including that of University Pres. William Boyd and Rep. Jim Weaver, D-Eugene, Dick Romm, assis tant housing director, said the housing office also desires the audit. Amazon policy board members are requesting a historical, per formance and fiscal audit of the housing office. The board also voted to com mission the Office of Student Ad vocacy to research the legal role of the board in housing office de cisions involving Amazon. Judith Baker, president of the Amazon Community Tenants, said the housing office has “not played by the rules of the game” by arbitrating alone on matters that are supposed to be joint hous ing office-policy board decisions. Barker said she feels the board’s power has been unsurped by the housing office on occa sions, saying the board is involved in a “crisis,” and must re-establish its policy-making power. In other business, the board de cided to send a letter to the Ama zon Family Housing Appeals Board asking for direction on mat ters such as the debt service. A standing budgetary commit tee was also chosen to work with and review the controller’s office and determine the actual state of the Amazon budget. The budget committee would consist of a representative from the Oregon Accountants for the Public Interest, an ASUO rep resentative, two Amazon resi dents, a housing office accountant and a policy board member. Gorham (Continued from Page 1) When a discrimination com plaint is filed against an employer or landlord, the city encourages mediation at every level of the complaint process. If a conflict is not settled, however and discrimi nation can be proved in hearings (by overwhelming evidence), the discrimination laws use thoir teeth. At first offense, a dis criminator can be stuck with a fine of up to $1,000. At second or third offense (or if the first one is “inten tional or willful”) the discriminator may be fined up to the same amount and face a jail sentence of up to 100 days. But just because few official complaints are filed, it does not mean Gorham has little to do. He spends another third of his time checking the compliance of city agencies and private contractors to affirmative action rules. The city requires its agencies and contractors who do more than $2,500 of business with the city per year or employ more than 15 workers to develop affirmative ac tion programs for employment, promotions and transfers. Gorham spends the remain ing third of his time answering people’s questions about laws and referring them to appropriate commissions. Of the issues he researches for his two commissions, housing for the handicapped is one. A Eugene builder has so far con structed two apartment com plexes for handicapped persons, and is planning another. Gorham would like to see more, along with more extensive public transportation, so the peo ple won’t be trapped in their apartments. As for accessibility of public buildings and of private ones used publicly, the city requires buildings of over 20 feet in height and over 4,000 square feet to be made ac cessible to the blind or wheel chair-bound. This means removing all ar chitectural barriers, and with older buildings, it can cost, he says. “If in a particular building the vital services can’t be transferred to the first floor, the law says you have to put in an elevator, if there’s no other way to get access to higher floors,” Gorham says. Since the law requires all new buildings to be constructed with out barriers he says, they can be made accessible more cheaply. Street curbs are another bar rier that Gorham would like to see removed. Every new street comer in Eugene is built with a cut, and an additional 1,200 existing ones have been cut. Curb cuts, Gorham says, aid the elderly as well as the hand Oregon Daily Emerald icapped. People who are young enough to step over street curbs ought to think of cuts as an in vestment in their “future mobility,” Gorham says. In addition to thinking about curb cuts and ramps for wheel chairs, Gorham is also concerned about how Eugene fits into inter national issues of human rights. He supported the city council’s recent resolution uring Eugenians not to buy or sell the Krugerrand, a South African gold coin, because he believes its sales aid that country’s govern ment and its policy of racial seg regation. ‘‘My view of the world,” Gorham says, “is that we re all here on thg spaceship ‘Enter prise,’ and none of us can get off.” After working both in the jung les of Brazil for the Peace Corps and the jungle of New York City as a lawyer and a schoolteacher, Gorham feels social and political motives behind discrimination are about the same everywhere. “You’re going to find an “S.O.B.” in every color and hand icap,” he says. “Eugene is no Shangri-la, either,” Gorham says. Perhaps that’s why Eugene hires human rights specialists. Photo by Pat Sullivan Kent Gorham: ‘Discrimination is more subtle now’ ■HAIR IODAA Save 500 on your choice of any professional Jhirmack products in stock. 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