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’
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