V o lu m « 3 , N o . 7 P o r tla n d ,O r a g o r THE ON1Y NEWSPAPER IN OBSERVER AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD THAT REALLY CARES ABOUT . ----------- “ X N ° V e m b e r 2 3 ,1 9 7 2 10< p e r co p y K Q .it Consumer League fires top man J . Alton Page, D irecto r of Consumer Protection Agency, has been fired, it was learned Monday night. Page told Observer re­ porters that he did not have a thing to say to the press. ‘ ‘I ’m sorry, I don’t have any comments,” Page said. ” | respect members of the press and have always cooperated; however, any information you want w ill have to come from the board of d irecto rs.’’ Page stated. Page refused to say whether he was terminated or whether he was going to re­ sign. Several board mem­ bers including Charles R. Wiilamson, Rosadelle Sum­ mers were contacted and all stated that they did not have any comment. Jack Taylor and Molly Weinstein could not be reached. State Senator Don W ill me r. founder and Past-President of the Oregon Consumer League, and Past-President of the National Consumer League, said he was not aware of the action that had been taken. He said the Oregon Consumer League is a private organiza­ tion, but that since it is re­ ceiving Model Cities money it should not withhold infor­ mation from the public. On the national level, the National Consumer League has about 30,000 members and is a vol­ untary association that feels it should make its own deci­ sions regarding personnel practices. In the case of dismissing personnel, it is not publically discussed, but he reported again that since public money is involved, the OCL should not withhold this information from the press. Parent-Child Services charged with racism Senior citizens enjoy Thanksgiving dinner Th* nk” ThB Pr° g r* n’ > Wh,ch prt,vk1<-’ ........ ...................... - b° ' h «’ the center .nd in the M I- , f>e office of Economic Op­ portunity is i n v e s t i g a t i n g charges of racial discrim ina­ tion in tfie Parent-Child Ser­ vices Program. Parent-Child Services is a counsel ling pro­ gram for families with child­ ren under three years of age. Parent-Child has been rid­ den with problems since its inception. The program was closed last summer, then re ­ opened with an entirely new staff. T ie program located in the Central l-.astside, s e rv e s families from the OEO South­ east Target area and from Albina. Of the 21 staff mem­ bers, 6 are black. The c h a r g e of d iscrim i­ nation was made by M argaret Iron, an employee who was terminated by the director. Gretchen Astorino. She was later reinstated later by th e board of directors. Members of the staff feel a racial division is occurring because of a series of Inci­ dents have occured. In order to clarify the relationship be­ tween Parent-Child Services and the Portland Metropolitan Steering Committee and PMSC's concerns for the pro­ gram, Erma Hepburn of PMSC spoke with the staff, D u n i^ this meeting and in following discussions, racial Inferences were made and racial 'ques­ tions discussed. Also dis­ cusseci was the future of PMSC and of Parent-Child Services shcxild the Green Amendment be invoked by the C ity of Port­ land , taking the OEO pro­ grams from PMSC. M s. Astorino then wrote to Congresswoman Edith Green, saying, that PMSC was fost­ ering racial dissention and division among the Parent- C h i l d Service staff. M rs . Green is an opponent of OEO and has long advocated the take over of OEO programs by city and local government. Black staff members felt this letter was directed against them and that it promoted the distrust along racial lines that had be­ gun to develop. An Equal Opportunities Of­ fic e r from PMSC is inves­ tigating the racial climate at Parent-Child Services this week. Salvation Army center McCall to request child care funds Governor Tom MaCall sate today he w ill ask the 1973 I eg Islam re to commit up to $2 million in state funds for the support of the Coordinated Community Child Care (4-C ) program in the 1973-75 bi­ ennium. McCall said the money would he ueed to supplement contributions by fe.ieral and local governments and private donations to provide more than >12 million for 4-C day care programs In the bi­ ennium. M cCall wrote to officials of all cities and counties where 4-C programs exist to ask that they join the state In helping to pay for day care services for children of welfare and potential welfare clients. He asked that local governments commit >4 m il­ lion for tlie program. The 4-C program for tie current biennium Is financed by the federal gswernment, along with local matching money p rim arily in tie form of in-kind services. Recently receives approval Congress voted to lim it spending on social services programs, cutting Oregon’ s receipts by >5 m illion. McCall said that since the state has many mandatory responsibilities in providing services to children and nubile welfare recipients, federal support for 4-C day care programs w ill be limited to >3 million In the next bi­ ennium. He said the overall reduc­ tion in financial support to the state for social services is ’ ’undesirable and has re­ quired the state to provide significant amounts of General Fund support to existing pro­ grams that otherwise would cease to exist.” He said committing General Fund money to other pro- IP lease turn to p. 8 col. 5) Woodlawn residents voted at the N'ovemher 14th meeting of the Woodlawn Improvement Association overwhelmingly in favor of a proposed Sal­ vation Army Community Center being built in their neighborhood. Land acquistion, site clear­ ance, and relocation for the proposed center would be ac­ complished with Federal as­ s i s t a n c e under the Neigh­ b o rh o o d D e v e lo p m e n t Program a d m in is te r e d locally by the Portland Development Commission. Five sites are under con­ sideration for the aeaaer. They are triangular altes bounded 1) by Dekum, Bel­ levue, and Leonore Streets; 2) Dekum, Winona, and Dur­ ham S t r e e t s ; 3) Dekum, Oneonta, and Bellevue, and Oneonta Streets. State ordered to collect taxes The U.S. D is tric t Court In Portland ruled that the State of (i regun may no longer grant tax exemption status to the Elks Lodge hecause It d is c ri­ minates on the basis of race. The court ruled in a case filed a year ago by Clifford M cGlotttn, a B la c k , and Michael Falkenataln, who is W hite. The complaint charged that taxexemptlons for organ­ izations that practice racial discrimination violate the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. The action was filed by The A m eri­ can C ivil Libertties Union. Last January the D istrict Court In Washington, D j C. Instant Earnings from Day o f Daposit P9r annum compounded daily and paid Quarterly B e n j.(@ F ra n k lin Robert H H a ie n Pres • 20 O bice» • Phone 24 8 1234 H om e O ffice Franklin Bldg Portland, Oregon B72O4 A r withdrew federal Income tax exemptions from these lo600,000 and >800,000 annually In pro­ perty tax from the Elks Lodge alone. The suit was not brought a- gainst the Elks for d iscrim i­ nation, but against the State of Oregon for in effect subsi­ dizing racism with taxexemp­ tlons. The défendent in the case was theStateliepartment of Revenue and Its director, Charles Mack. A t t o r n e y General Lee Johnson argued the case for the state, saying the state's policy did not have any relation to the club’s membership policy. Judge Gus Solomon ruled thaï “ Tax exemptions fo rfra tem a l organizations benefit both the state and fraternal organiza­ tion. Oregon relieves fra ter­ nal organizations from the burden of property and corpo­ rate excise taxes and In re­ turn, the public benefits from the charitable and benevolent activités of these organiza­ tions. Solomon said, "These mu­ tual benefits constitute »de­ gree of atate Involvement in discrim inatory activity that the 14th Amendment prohi­ bits.” O t h e r ju d g e s on th e Judge panel wereSenlorCourt Judges Fred Homley of San Francisco and Fred Taylor of (Please turn to p. 8 col. 3) The Salvation Arm y had wanted assurance of neighbor­ hood support for the > 1 million d o llar centerwhich would con­ tain a gymnasium, large swimming pool, kitchen, and meeting rooms and would offer such services as recreation, crafts, music, day care, and senior citizen activities. (Please turn to p. 8 col. 6) J . ALTON PAGE The Oregon Consumer League is the sponsoring agency fo r the Model Cities Consumer Protection Agency. Page was the firs t director of the program and was re­ sponsible for establishing and staffing the office. Many citizens of the Model Cities area feel that the board of directors for the program took over most of the re­ sponsibility from the direc­ tor, leaving him without authority. A management committee was formed, which hired personnel and made all of the m ajor decisions. Page often was not able to move ahead on projects until the committee could meet and approve every move he was (Please turn to p. 8 col. 3) Government guilty race discrimination The Winema National F o r­ est, Klamath Falls, Oregon, was ordered on November 8 to reinstate with back pay Ben­ nie L . Moore, a black Engin­ eering Equipment Operator who was fired in November. 1970. The order was based upon a finding by the D irecto r of the Office of Equal Oppor­ tunity of the U . S. Depart­ ment of Agriculture, Jerome Sfuman, that " M r . Moore was discriminated against because of his race.” M r . Moore was represented by the American C iv il L ib e r­ ties Union of Oregon ata hear­ ing D e c e m b e r7 -8 ,1971, before Equal Employment Opportuni­ ties Appeals Exam iner George A . Hoyem, on whose recom­ mendation Shuman acted. Moore had filed »complaint alleging that he was terminat­ ed from his employment be­ cause of his race, citing Gid­ eon Parker, his immediate su­ pervisor as the discrim inat­ ing official. He had been giv­ en a temporary appointment on M arch 5, 1970. He was ter­ minated fo r "unsatisfactory performance” on November 20. 1970. Richard Smith, a Klamath Falls attorney, handled the case for the ACLU. EDMOND W. GREEN Green coordinates school transportation Edmond W. Green is Transportation coordinator for the P o r t l a n d Public Schools. He coordinates the busing program which trans­ fers children to public schools throughout the school d istrict. He supervises approximately 65 employees, including bus drivers, mechanics, clerical persons ard transportation teacher aids. Approximately 7500 pupils are transported every day. These Include those who live over a m ile from their neighborhood school, and those who are en­ rolled in special programs Mich as administrative trans­ fers, and those who are phy­ sically handicapped, the deaf, those with language dis- o r d e r s , the blind and tie mentally retarded. Approximately 1400 ch ll- dren participate in the ” ad­ ministratlve transfer’ or voluntary fusing program de­ signed to relieve racial iso­ lation. Green is a graduate o f University of Maryland and has done graduate work at if» University of Washington. He is currently enrolled in a Masters program in Busi­ ness Administration at P o rt­ land State University. Green and his wife, Brenda, enjoy outdoor activities, such as skiing, camping and deep sea fishing. He also enjoys oil painting. Bureau appoints first blacks P . c7v on 1 " I r v t T ^ Z ’. T . T ’ Hst l . « ssued T T * . . r ’ AU v k S X T o X " Mi“! V* “ U n l v e t l t y o f O re g o n L ib r a r y E a g e ^ a , Or 9 7 4 , 3 POR TLA ND ° f F1IW F * h* h“ h r ’ ° - n AH successfully the f0Ur flre f,«hteni e l* S com- 'M ‘ty three are m a rr ie d * " L *' F ‘re r’ CnHt ,ratnln« «ation. Engine 23. in the ins te^lesa im i ^ , ' “ an' ‘c,Pated ,h* ‘ “»V complete them recruit traln- Hre a J — *- Onn* r t ™ “ “ ’ t"«* these men have completed a trainee program in the fire department s tretetegstetksi No. 2 at N. Kdltagteeorth »nd Interstate. I hey w ill serve a prebeUonury period of one year.