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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1973)
Mr» Fronces Schoin-Xewspapor Roca ! v a r s i t y an L ib r a r y n 97403 Grand Jury frees Multi-ServiceCenter of criminal charges The Grand Jury that wm impaneled to in v e stig a te charges of minus«' of fund» and fraud by the Albina Multi Service Center found no evidence of criminal acti vity. The center was also investigated by the state fiscal department, the State Police, and lh«' Multnomah County District Attorney's office. The investigations began as the result of coni plaints by a welfare rase worker unsigned to the ceil ter. The Grand Jury found a lack of clear lines of author ity and a lack of proper financiul procedures, but en dom ed the Multi Service ('enter concept and its philo sophy of service to the people of the community. The Grand Jury found that . the Albina Multi Service Center is a new ronc«'pt lucking any clear precedent to define its operation; and therefore, to some extent, the Center has had to learn from mistakes as it went along. We further recognize good one. By coordinating that any new organization of the services of many state this sort, ex,M-nding sizeable agencies under one roof and amounts of money for social avoiding the problem of services, will always be sub clients with real needs wan ject to controversy. This dering back and forth across report does not claim to be a the city from one agency to definitive study of the entire another, the Multi Service Multi Service Center or even Center serves both the client of the entire Center Ad and the taxpayer more ef ministration. Inevitably new ficiently. It is with the hope questions will be raised and and belief that the Albina new criticisms made by some. Multi Service Center can ful But the Grand Jury unani fill these goals in the future, mously agrees that the idea while avoiding the confusion of a Multi Service Center is a and waste which have oc PORTLAND. Volume 3, No. AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER Portland. Oregon Harper charges police ('larence Harper, Jr. ac cused the Portland Police Bureau and the Multnomah County Sheriffs office of brutality. Harper told his story as follows: On Saturday evening, Sep tember Hth. he had his car washed at the Bub A Dub car wash on Union Avenue. The car window was left down when the car was sent through the wash, so Harper talked to the manager. Dur ing the argument that fol lowed, the manager picked up a wrench and threatened him. He intended to call the police, hut just then a squad car drove up. He went to the Black policeman, Officer Newman, and started to ex plain what happened. This officer said, "You’ve had it." His while partner put hand ruffs on Harper and put him in the police car. As another squad car drove up. he sprayed Harper with mare. Ilar|»>r reacted by swearing and saying. "You don't have to do that." The officers from the second car left their car and got in the car where he was held and drove him to the Multnomah County Court House. ( LARENCE HARPER On the way to the Court House the officers called him names, used racial slurs, told him they were going to sex ualy use Black women, etc. When he arrived at the Court House, he was told to sit down. As he turned to look to find the chair, he was I Please turn to pg. 3, col. 41 Bill Cross sues Edgefield William E. Cross has filed charges against a former employer. Edgefield Iaidge, and its director. Dr. Buell E. Goocher, for libel. He is asking $52,000 damages. Cross was employed by Edgefield Ixslge. a treatment center for disturbed children, as a Child Guidance Coun selor from June of 1968 until March of 1973. He left Edgefield to accept a position in the affirmative action divi sion of the Oregon Stale Employment Service. The program in which he worked for the slate ended on June 30, and nt that time he began looking for employment. Cross applied for a number of positions and felt that for some he was the most quali fied applicant. He was of fered a position, and when nothing transpired, he asked for an explanation. He was told that his recommendation from Edgefield Lodge was unsatisfactory. At about the same time he found that another prospective employer had received an unfavorable reference. He obtained a copy of one of the letters. The letter was from Dr. Goocher and began by prais ing Cross' work with children anil their families. However, he went on to say, "Mr. Cross' relationship with the agency was less desirable. Something I you can count on a t the Benj. Franklin ELECTRONIC CALCULATOR Fits in pocket or purse -fo r home, office, school or shopping. Adds, subtracts, multi plies, divides, Floating decimal, constant key, clear entry. Complete with - batteries and case; AC adaptor $4 extra. Offer limited while supply lasts. BIG DISCOUNTS FOR SAVERS $29.95 with $5,000 deposit $34.95 with $2,500 deposit $44.95 with $1,000 deposit $49.95 with $250 deposit B e i i j . O P r a n k liii H obeil H H aren . Pres . 22 O llicns . Phone 24fl 1234 H om e O llie » F ra n k lin B ldg P o rtla n d . O re g o n 97204 however, and ran be charac terized as a continual tug of war over rules of employee conduct. Mr. Cross was chronically unable to get himself to work on time and was threatened with sus pension on several occasions, although I am not certain whether suspension actually occurred. Mr, Cross re quired three leave of absences for medical reasons, varying from vague, undiagnosed to an injury to the Achilles tendon." "He is highly selfish in manipulating his social en vironment to his own ad vantage and one is never certain what one is letting oneself in for when Mr. Cross asks what appears to be an innocent enough ques tion." "There have been allega lions of the misappropriation of agency equipment, but it must be said that no sys tem atic investigation was ever carried out and cer tainly there is no concrete evidence of misconduct, if any occurred." Goocher went on to say that he could not in good faith recommend Cross. According to Cross, he had two medical leaves: once when he was in the Vet eran's Hospital, and again when he tore his Achilles tendon and had his leg in a cast. During the second leave, in the spring of 1973, he was paid $300 a month special compensation. He was under the impression that this was an unusual oc currence and that most staff members did not know about it. During that period he saw Dr. Goocher several times and was assured that he was eager to have him back on (t’lease turn to pg. 3, col. 8) casionally marred its past, that the Grand Jury makes this report and the recom mendations it contains." The Multi Service (,'enter was established iri 1909 as an experimental program. The center was operated under the Governor s office until it was transferred to the De p a rtm e n t ol Human Re sources in 1971 The first renter of its kind in Oregon, the renter was a pilot pro gram to test the feasability of housing many social ser vice programs under one roof. The Center Administration has the duty to coordinate the activities of the various agencies to see that services are available to the clients, but the center director has no authority over the in ternal operation of the agen cies. The Grand Jury found that ''the Center and its Administration were a new concept without precedent and lacking clearly defined guidelines for their opera OBSERVER I'hursday September 13. 1973 10c per copy PDC rehab fails homeowners Mrs. Josephine Franklin will fare another winter with mud and water at her back door as the result of the Portland Development Com mission's home rehabilitation project. Mrs. Franklin re ceived a grant and a loan to repair her home. The bid was awarded to A 1 Western Builders by PDC. Mrs. Franklin received lin oleum in her bathroom, but she was not consulted as to the color she preferred. She was told that the cheapest grade was used and that they had to use what they had in stock. In the kitchen, the linoleum was not in stalled properly and is coming loose along the seams. White paint was dripped over the red trim. The painters came back and patched up the paint job, but there is still paint where there shouldn’t !><■ After a new back door was installed, it wouldn't close. She asked that this be re [»aired. It was, but now the 3- person might not fit within the established guidelines of Welfare or Employment or whatever, but some way would be found, or inno vated, to help anyone with a problem. The Adminislra tive staff w ere not ac countants, many were not experienced in adminislra tion, and many were new to state government. All these factors combined to create unusual pressures on that Administrative staff to place the im m ediate pleas and needs of community clients above the abstract need to verify the legitimacy of client claims and to establish clear guidelines and rules of ac countability for Center pro jects. From the Center's inception in 1989 until the present year, state govern ment conducted no thorough audit of the Administration or its projects. Under these circumstances the Grand Jury does not find it surprising that a good deal of confusion and controversy acconqi.innd the first four years' operation of the Multi Service Center." The Center Administration has assumed responsibility lor the operation of a variety of projects which function independently of the agen cies. Some of these projects arc. the Supplemental lawn Fund, Photo If) Center. Vol unteer Program, Day Care Center. Portland State Uni versity Learning Center, and the Crisis Unit. The allegations in v e sti gated by the (train) Jury concerned charges of mis handling of funds in the Volunteer Program, the Ix»an Fund, and the ID Project. The Grand Ju ry found that there were numerous examples of mismanagement and insufficient supervision among employees of t h«- Multi Service Center. Ad ministration projects often spent money without prear ranged guidelines and with iPlease turn to pg. 2. col. 5) Toran announces for State Senate door doesn't close properly. Mrs. Franklin was more concerned about a puddle of water by her back steps. The puddle wouldn't drain because one area of the driveway was sloped wrong. Mrs. Franklin explained to the co n tractor w hat was needed, but when she came home one day they had re moved all the concrete in the solid area of the driveway in front of the garage. They put in new concrete and put in a drain. But they had not touched the area where the water stands, so there was still a puddle. Several days later Mrs. Franklin came home and found that all of the grass had been removed from be tween the two tracks of the driveway, not just in the area of the puddle of water, but clear out to the street. For nearly a year she has been trying to get the grass replaced, but A 1 Western tells her that replacing grass is not part of their job. She has planted seeds but nothing will grow. Mrs. Franklin also com plained that the contractors did not clear up their garb age as they are supposed to (Please turn to pg. 5 col. 5) tion." "Due to the pilot program' nature of the Center, and perhaps due to frustration from a lark of coordinative authority, some members of the Multi Service Center Ad ministrative staff has placed primary emphasis on their duty to 'innovate'. The pro jects discussed above have been termed 'innovative' and 'experimental'; and therefore, it has been suggested that such projects could only de velop guidelines and rules of accountability as they went along, often derisions had to be made on an ad hoc basis, and mistakes were inevitable. Almost the entire Adminis trative staff was drawn either from the community which the Center was designed to serve and/or from persons with experience in social service work. Some of these staff members have enun ciated the philosophy of never turning anyone away with 'no' for an answer. A Lillie Florence shows unsatisfactory work just completed rotting post and lattice work: rail til fasten«?d to post with putty and sticks; poorly fitting supports (2). John Toran has announced his intent to run for the Oregon Senate, District #9. District #9 extends from Union Avenue to 122nd Ave nue and from Columbia Boulevard on the north to Burnside Street in the eastern end of the district and to Fremont in the western end. The d istric t encom passes House districts #16 and #17. Senator Tom Mahoney has served this district in the past, but the new law pro viding that legislators reside in their district makes him ineligible for re-election. Toran, who is currently Treasurer of the Multnomah County Central Committee, was an unsuccessful candi date for House District #16 in 1972. his first bid for elec tive office. Toran told the press he chose to run for the Senate because "I want to be in volved in helping make deci sions which will affect the lives of Oregon children; to be involved in preserving the best the state of Oregon has to offer to its people; and to be involved in correcting those things which are not in the best interest of the people of District #9 and the State of Oregon. My love for the people and the State of Oregon, coupled with my experience, demands that I try to have some influence on what happens here. Toran, a practicing attor ney, is a graduate of the University of Oregon and Northwestern Law School. JOHN TORAN He received the Oregon Edu cation Association and B'nai B'rith Human Rights Award in 1971. He served as ad ministrative assistant to the Senate Committee on En- vironment, chaired by Sena tor Ted Hallock, during the 1973 Legislative Session. Toran and his wife. Kay, live at 4510 N.E. 16th Ave- Mrs. Franklin's grass was removed and nothing grows (D; puddle remains (2); panel falls from garage door (3>. Washington Schools hire Black A 45 year old Black woman from Evanston, Illinois has been named superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. by a 7 to 3 vote, with one abstention, by the D.C. Board of Education. The appointment of Bar hara A. Sizemore, an asso riate secretary of the Amen can Association of School Administrators in Rosslyn, Virgina, makes her the first Black woman superintendent of a major school system in the country. The appoint ment is contingent upon an agreem ent betw een Mrs. Sizemore and the School Board on a contract and a letter of understanding list ing goals and a timetable for carrying them out. The former director of the W oodlaw n E x p e rim e n ta l Schools Project, a federally funded community involve ment program involving three schools and 3,200 students on Chicago's impoverished South Side, Mrs. Sizemore said she hopes to decentralize the D.C. school system, eneour age more community involve ment, and make full use of the “teaching learning pro cess" in order to help the students in the predonn nantly Black school system reap maximum benefits. She also said she wants to organize an administrative team of "exciting agents of social change, people with creativ ity and innovation" who can implement change in the classroom so that the "teachers don’t feel oppressed by the administration,” and provide more in service and pre service training for the teachers. Of the three finalists, two of whom were men. for the position, Mrs. Sizemore, the mother of three children, was the dear-cut favorite of the community, as well as a majority of School Board members. Many had been excited by her low keyed articulation of the problems of D.C. schools as she, and many of her listeners, saw them and how she would seek to solve these problems. During an 11-hour public interview , Mrs. Sizem ore often drew on her many ex periences as a 26-year vet eran of the Chicago school system, where she worked as both a teacher and a princi pal in the elementary and high schools. "I learned that if the goals you set for people are not compatible with theirs, then you're wasting your time. And if you think that talking is teaching, then you're a prize nut," Mrs. Sizemore said at one point. (Please turn to p.2 col. 7) Piedmont project hires minorties The site of the old Pied of Glaser-Wall work and C’o., mont car barns is steadily the project will consist of 17 being transformed into a two-story buildings each with modern 1.3 million dollar four townhouse apartments townhouse apartment com plus a recreation building plex. The 68 two and three which will also contain laun bedroom townhouses are lo dry facilities and the man cated at 5802 N. Michigan ager's office. Every effort and the completion date is has been made to preserve a set for November, according neighborhood character in the to J.M. Miller, President of design and construction of Ross B. Hammond Co., the the townhouses which fea general contractor. turc private fenced in patios, Designed by Howard Glazer 5 equipped play areas for the children and extensive land scaping. The housing complex is financed by the FHA 236 loan program designed for m oderate income ten an ts. Hammond Development Cor poration supervises the de sign, construction and man agement of similar projects in Salem, Eugene, Newport, Prineville and P o rtlan d . Othes are under construction (Please turn to pg. 6, col. 4)
