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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1996)
VIEWPOINTS . ' " ' 1 Big bucks won’t solve law enforcement crisis ■ OUR OPINION f txing management problems may correct sheriff s budget woes Th® moon is made of chons®. she earth is flat, and lane County voter* will |>«»s th® $64 million proper ty la* levy to boost th® sher iff* s patrol feme, increase the number of detectives, put mor® laid* in th® pul and reo|>®n a forest work camp to house mm® inmates, Novnr mind that this stealth ballot was apparent ly drafted with th® help of th® same Atr For* ® mission coordinators who planned th® atr war against Iraq Measure 20 56. th® "Shor iir» Levy*- appear™! sud denly — almost out of nowhere, and it has all th® appearance of a sneak attack In th® words of on® opponent, th® measure “is far too nxpertsiv®, and is the prod in t of a flawed plan ning pro* ess that included no meaningful public input." The issue isn't whether w® need badge* patrolling our streets and highways, because unfortunately, w® do. It's just dial tan® County .Sheriff Hob McManus and the county are knocking on the wrong door This is es|*m:ially baffling because voters just got through slam ming that same door right in the stale's face with the property tax-limitation law of 1990 — the law that stu dents love to hat®. Measure S. With Measure 20-56. Ian® County residents are laced with to® unfortunate dilem ma of needing mm® police on the streets, but not wanti ng to go bankrupt to put them there, Recent revelations of bud get mismanagement and program failures within the county's justice services • ould very well point to other ways to keep law enforcement costs down while keeping criminals locked up. In 19W), voters passed a law enforcement levy to fund the operation of the Purest Work Camp, the Community Corn*lion* Onter (a work-release pro gram) and electronic sur veillance (or house arrest programs These viable programs were supposed to provide rebel lor «nrwciuwded jails and avoid the kind of pris oner release* that are "now being cited as a primary’ jus tification for passage of this tax increase." said harry Salmony. a former Coordi nator of lustice Sorvica* for lame County. Salmony went on to say that during the past three years, none of these correc tions programs has been properly managed or fully utilised. Salmony cited other example* of program mis management and broken promises from a levy passed by vigors in 1993 Voter* approv ed a 120-bed work camp that was populated fry lower than 50 inmates dur ing the next two years At the same time, nearly half of the county's electronic sur veillance units sat unused cm a shelf while more than 10 pen ent of the beds in the Community Corrections Center sat unoccupied. As this "underutdilation*" occurred. more than 5.(KM) inmate* were released because of the overcrowded tail. Hut don't worry None of them was guilty in the first plac «. 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U‘s entirety possible that there is no solution Experts concluded 30 years ago that a nuclear arm* rat# had “no technical solution " Because both side* far ed tin (easing military power and decreasing national set untv. there could be no winner. Similarly, all “sides" in the forest con flict face increasing demand* on decreasing resource*, and no one group is likely to give up it* dwindling share to benefit the others The “tragedy «»f the commons. * a concept first outlined in 1833. holds that users of a public resource will demand an tor mating share ol Ihe common good to the detriment and eventual Ins* of the resource The timber Industry is motivated not by jpwwd, but by profit Fat «*d with a dwindling supply of public urn l»es the industry l* not likely to cut production by forgoing any supply it * able to "win* in court It's even more unlikely that environmen tal groups wilt cede any of what they tee as their share On* of the u .enlist* who helped draft Clin ton's forest plan was astounded when leading environmentalists criticized it "If I could have whispered to Andy Kerr Sol the Oregon Natural Resource* Count ill throe years ago what would lie in thi» plan ~ be «aid. “Andy would have thought he'd dietl and gone to heaven “ Any plan that make* environmentalists that happy won't ever be designed, because their motivation includes not only profit hut a zeal ous commitment to preserving the forest* for future generations What? you say. Environmentalists motivated by profit? Well, of course they are. Group* from Earth First! to the Audubon Society require funding tor publication*, staff, legal costs and office expense* just like any other group Beyond that, environmental group* will not cense their protest or lawsuits, because they are a conflict industry If ihere were no conflict, they'd have no mason to exist. Conflict and crises generate membership funding and continued existence. The forest issue is a “no-technical -solution problem' partly because neither group will vol untarily cede any of its share to the other side Beyond that, consideration of the management functions of the Forest Service and Congress reveals that no solution can be forthcoming from either source. The Foro*! Service receive# its budget from (aingrwts. and members of Cxingress decide how II will be spent The agency's historic focus on limber is best explained by Jack Ward Thomas "When Congress funds my wildlife budget at half of what I ask for. and research at one quar ter what I ask for. but the timber sale program al two and a half times what I ask for. what do you think is going to happen?” Member* of (Vingrass are motivated by their financial resource*. After all, if you can't afford a successful re election campaign, you're no longer in Washington Major contributors to those who fund the Forest Service are the LJ resource-dependent members of the timber industry, Forest management plans are repeatedly sabotaged by both the timber industry* and the environmental groups that manipulate the administrative and |udit ial systems for their own gain Each “victory* is really a loss, not only for the • tUfe but lot every share holder and ultimately, the And what of the Aitwru an public? Both side* claim to s|M*ak for ail the citizen* who "own" the national limits, and the A morn an public is increasingly cone anted about forest issues But tin* public's motivation toward a solution is -nulled by the t umph-yity of tho*<- issue* The public ha* no affective means of input into the industry /Congress/agency system, and public understanding tv limited by the media’s simpli fication and misrepresentation of the issue* Tlie solution if there is one — will not come of conscience, responsibility, compromise or management plan Tlie solution can only come of mutual coer cion bom of leadership And that leadership, should it appear on the horizon, must come from outside the current loop. The motivations of the affected groups dictate that no solution will lie proposed by one side nor ac cepted by die other Philosopher A N Whitehead wrote that the "essence of dramatic tragedy is not unhappi ness It resides in the solemnity of the remorse less working of things .* The tragedy of the forests in the Pacific North west, similarly, lies not in the loss of jobs, eco nomic base. owls, family tradition, community cohesion, salmon or oven biological diversity; the tragedy is the remorseless working of thing* and the absence of a leader who might avert a tragic destiny. Baity Andaman, a /umor mu/onng in /oumalism is a columnist for tha Emerald B mail boanvdktfpgan uoraffon adu
