Page 6 Portland Observer, January 14,1962
City/County consolidation
by County Commissioner Gladys McCoy
Why is consolidation an issue to
day having been defeated in 1974?
I would say that it is more appro
priate o f an issue today because o f
the d iffic u lt economic times being
experienced by all levels o f govern
ment.
While I believe the consolidation
o f governments may be more d iffi
cult to achieve, 1 am equally con
vinced that, when the facts are
known about the amount o f money
required to maintain duplication o f
services in the unincorporated juris
diction, there w ill be a demand for
consolidation o f these services. A d
ditionally, almost all o f the citizens
in my D istrict live w ith in the city
limits o f Portland. Some o f the tax
dollars that the C ounty collects
from them are used to pay fo r
County services which are used ex
clusively by unincorporated areas.
Urban subsidy to unincorporated
Multnomah County is a well-docu
mented fact. This situation must be
corrected, and, i f re-elected, I in
tend to promote and encourage that
change.
Historically, consolidation o f gov
ernments has occurred only after
some major scandal or financial cri
sis. I submit the people o f M ultno
mah County will respond to the con
cepts before a crisis because it is the
“ Oregon way.”
These arc some o f the duplicated
services provided by both County
and C ity governments in d o lla r
amounts allocated for 1981-82 bud
gets:
Service*
County
City
Parks
Planning
Permits
Police
S I.198.403
6 8 I.IS 0
1.072.023
11,734.719
SI3.S38.I72
2.137,130
3.871.724
30,945.643
M ultnom ah C ounty at a p p ro xi
mately 196,640. These residents use
exclusively the above services at the
expense o f urban residents.
I submit this is not the most use
ful use o f tax dollars. Granted, there
is a citizen effort underway to form
a new C ity in east M ultnom ah
County. I support that e ffo rt and
feel that it should be given an op
portunity. However, that is not to
say that a new City w ill be formed.
Our efforts to consolidate services
should move forward. Further, we
should also develop a relationship
with other incorporated cities be
sides Portland. These e ffo rts and
the exploration o f other e ffo rts
must be started now if we are going
to have credible in fo rm a tio n to
share with the Charter Review Com
mittee in 1983.
This is only a fraction o f the ser
vices provided by both govern
ments. The population o f M ultno
mah County is $62,640 o f which ap
proximately 366,000 live in the City
Again, I welcome your comments
o f Portland. This leaves a popula on this issue. Please write or call my
tion in the unincorporated area o f office at 284-5219, or stop by.
1981 : The first year
by Rep. Ron H yden
1981 was a special year for me:
my first year serving Oregon’ s Third
District in Congress. The year
brought with it a few surprises—and
a lew disappointments. But all-in-
all, it was a good beginning.
One o f the fir s t things I learned
upon arriving in Congress is that the
Federal government is indeed obese,
muscle-bound and mavbe even
senile.
Bui it was refreshing—and in
structive—to see that the Federal
government, if pushed, still has the
ability to perform.
Let me illustrate. As I was head
ing into a meeting last year, a dis
tressed man stopped me and began
relating an all-too-typical tale o f
woe about how his Social Security
payments had been botched and,
now, he was deeply in debt.
This was a man who had worked
all his life and was spent physically
at age 62. He had raised six chil
dren. umpired Little League games,
lost his wife. He was alone. His only
company: his pride Now that was
threatened, too, as he had begged
for extra time to pay his rent, to pay
his utilities, to pay his food bill.
He was desperate not so much be
cause he was without money, but
because the Federal government had
stolen his dignity.
A fter I finished my day’ s acti
vities, I returned to my office and
began making calls.
Before long, the puzzle was un
raveled. The short-cut thinking, the
unresponsiveness, the who-cares at
titude had fallen away.
The man’s check was in his hands
within a week.
Afterward, the man—his dignity
restored—told a member o f my
staff that he was so desperate that
day he came to see me, he was pre
pared to return home and end his
life.
It’s a lesson I ’ ll never forget.
/ also learned in H'ashiington that
there is a feeling nothing is new.
Everything has been tried. Most
everything has failed.
I just don’ t buy that. The people
o f Oregon didn’ t send me to Wash
ington to sigh a lot, and occasion
ally break out into tears o f despair.
No, I learned there are lots o f
ideas left untried—good ideas.
For example, everyone told me
that now—in this budget-cutting era
—was not the time to push for badly
needed senior citizen centers in the
inner east side o f Portland.
I disagreed, and began organizing
efforts. While it is just a tad too
early to report complete success, I
am proud to say that the response
has been tremendous. And, I am
hopeful the first o f those centers will
be under construction before the
year is out.
There were also those who said
there was no way to control runa
way health care costs.
I disagreed with that, too. With
the help o f everyone I could find, in
cluding the medical community, I
was able before the end o f 198I to
introduce legislation aimed at deal
ing with escalating health care costs
—not by strong-arming anyone, but
the tried-and-tru method o f sensible
incentives.
Finally, I learned that there is
rampant cynicism in the Federal
government that i f something can
go wrong, it will go wrong.
Promises made are prescriptions
for promises broken. What govern
ment delivers is what no one wants
—shattered hopes.
This was the hardest lesson to
deal with.
Then it dawned on me that the
trouble was that the premium in
government has been on creating
something new— not on making
what already exists work better.
No place is that more true than
the Congress.
Let’ s face it, the Congress is a
place where politicians rale their
success by the number o f headlines
they collect. And you get precious
few headlines when engaged in the
methodical exercise o f legislative
oversight.
One o f my most frustrating mo
ments last year was when the Energy
and Commerce Committee, largely
at my insistence, held a thorough
oversight hearing on the implemen
tation o f the Northwest Regional
Energy A ct—an act that in a very
real way will determine what each o f
us will pay in electric bills the rest of
this century and beyond.
The hearing drew only modest
coverage. Then, afterward, there
was a column that labeled the hear
ing boring.
Maybe it was. But it also was
worthwhile because it caused
changes, changes for the better.
Election set amidst violence
While the eye» o f the world are on
Poland, the k illin g in El Salvador
continues with U.S. aid. An estimat
ed 32,000 persons have been m ur
dered in El Salvador during the past
two years by the m ilitary junta that
governes the country and by the
paramilitary units supported by the
junta.
In the face o f increasing strength
o f guerilla forces, the government
has called for elections in March.
The Organization o f American
States (OAS) recently approved a
resolution sponsored by the United
Slates that advocates holding elec
tions in El Salvador without pre
vious negotiations to guarantee the
participation o f all political forces
in (hat nation.
The proposal was adopted after
three days o f intensive lobbying by
Secretary o f State Alexander Haig.
Mexico, Nicaragua and Grenada
voted against the proposal and Pan
ama, Suriname, Trinidad and Taba-
go, and St. Lucia abstained.
The OAS disregarded the pro
posal made by the revolutionary
forces o f El Salvador, the FM LN -
FDR, which were represented by
Nicaragua. The FM LN -FD R ex
pressed its willingness to start peace
talks with political and military rep
resentatives designated by the junta.
The FMLN-FDR considers elections
to be a valid and necessary channel
for the expression o f the people’ s
Demonstration at Portland's Army Recruiting Station protests
w ill, provided the conditions and
training
of El Salvador officers and soldiers in the U.S.
climate exist for the people to fully
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
exercise their vote.
At present these conditions do not
country. The General Assembly ap
tive and an entity (hat has to be in
exist. A state o f siege, martial law
pealed lo all governments to refrain
cluded.
and press censorship exist. Assassin
from intervening in FI Salvador and
ation o f union leaders, political ac in what is viewed as a tacit reference
Mexico branded the OAS resolu
tion
as "a bad precedent” that w ill
tivists and church leaders continues.
to the U.S.’ thc resolution urged that
worsen
the tension in Central A m
I f elections are held without prior
arms supplies and military aid to El
erica. The Mexican representative to
negotiations, only those parties ap
Salvador be stopped.
the conference said the resolution
proved by the present government
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister
will be allowed to participate.
“
can only embolden those govern
Miguel D’ Escoto said o f the OAS
ments
which would like to get rid o f
The OAS also ignored a resolu
resolution, “ It tends only to
their
enemies,
at once, by all-too-
tion adopted by the United Nations
strengthen the position taken by
familiar
methods.”
General Assembly on December
those who refuse to cooperate in
3rd urging a political solution
creating conditions that w ill guar
The Mexican newspaper Uno Mas
“ without intimidation or terror” be antee free and truly democratic elec
Uno branded the resolution as “ a
found to the Salvadoran conflict in
tions.”
disaster for the Salvadoran popular
order to establish “ a democratically
I his view is held by France and
sectors” since it means that the war
elected government." It condemned
Mexico who in a document issued
will be prolonged, “ thereby increas
the violation o f human rights and
last August recognized the Salva
ing the risks o f a general conflagra
fundamental freedoms in that
doran revolutionaries as representa-
tion in Central America. ”
Perhaps the most striking lesson I
learned in 1981 is that we can be bet
ter—and we can do better.
In next week’s column, I will dis
cuss how I think we can achieve that
end.
Fair Share asks shut-off moratorium
by John Blank
Plans are afoot to make utilities
wait until A p ril 25 before shutting
o ff your gas or e le ctricity, i f you
don’t pay your bill.
Oregon Fair Share is planning to
ask Public U tility Commissioner
John Lobdell to institute a shut-off
m oratorium on home u tilitie s. I f
Lobdell turns down this request.
Rep. Gretchen Kafoury w ill push
for a hearing on a sh u t-o ff mora
torium bill before the House Energy
and Environment Committee in the
current special session o f the legisla
ture.
I t ’ s even d iffic u lt to assess the
magnitude of the problem, since the
Public U tility Commission (PUC)
rescinded the requirement that u tili
ties report all shut-offs to it.
However, the Community Action
Program (CAP) Directors Associa
tion claims that in 1980 1700 house
holds per month were shut o ff state
wide by PGE alone.
Activists view the moratorium as
necessary to save lives. The situation
this year is even worse than it has
been in the past. At the same time as
the depression has made more
people unable to pay, Reagan ad
m inistration relaxation o f federal
regulations has made it easier for
utilities to shut o ff services, even if
customers are entitled to energy as
sistance money.
Under current law, customers do
have minimal defenses against shut
offs. Utilities are supposed to give
you three notices before they shut
o ff your gas or electricity: 15 days
prior, 72 hours prior, and immedi
ately p rio r to sh u t-o ff. F u rthe r
more, the last two notices are re
quired to be verbal (not just a piece
o f paper hung on your door); and at
the time o f notification the u tility
must explain both the possible op
tions to shut-off, and the possible
available assistance.
Possible options to sh ut-o ff in
clude the “ medical” option and the
“ ten per cent plan.”
Under the medical o ptio n , no
shut-off is supposed to take place if
a doctor, registered nurse, licensed
nurse practitioner, clinic or agency
providing health care notifies the
u tility by phone, and in w riting
w ithin 14 days o f the phone call,
that a shut-off will significantly en
danger the health o f the customer or
someone in the household. Unless
the condition is chronic the health
certification must be renewed every
30 days.
Under the “ ten per cent plan,” no
shut o ff will take place if before rtie
shut-off date the customer pays 10
per cent o f the overdue bill or $10
(whichever is greater) and signs an
agreement with the utility company
lo pay the remainder with 10
months.
According to energy activist
Kathy Weaver, d ire ctor o f CAP
energy programs Tor Colum bia
County, utilities are prone to dis
obey these rules. In one case, ac
cording to Ms. Weaver, PP&L
turned o ff a dia be tic’ s electricity
(needed to refrigerate his insulin).
Had the u tility obeyed the require
ment to give verbal n o tific a tio n ,
they would have been aware o f this
life-threatening situ atio n . In an
other case described by Ms. Weaver,
a 72-year-old man, who had suf
fered brain damage, had his heat
turned o f f by Northwest Natural
(»as while he was in the hospital.
When Ms. Weaver spoke to the
utility about this, their representta-
tive said that if the man had really
cared about his gas bill, “ he would
have called us from his hospital
bed.”
II a u tility is threatening to shut
you o ff, you have the legal right to
an appeal. You should immediately
call the Public U tility Commission
er’ s Consumer Assistance Section.
1-800-452-7813 ext. 6600 toll free
(or write them at Room 300, Labor
and Industries Building, Salem, OR
97 310). When you appeal before a
shut-off the u tility cannot shut o fl
your service without approval from
the ( ommissioner; when you appeal
alter a shut-oil, the Commissioner
can order service restored u ntil a
final decision is made.
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