Smoke Signah September 1990 Page 14
Frohnmayer(cont)
small enterprise will have to go to 10 or 15 different state
agencies and get mislead on the way and the state can do
a lot more and a lot better job in terms of being user
friendly. That is something that has been identified by the
small business task force. It has never really been imple
mented. There is a lot the government can do by way of
identifying barriers to access to financing. I'm not saying
to get the government in the business of giving loans and
grants because then you always run out of money and your
accused of playing favorites.
Again, the experts have studied small business in this state
and they have concluded that simple training programs in
terms of how to read a balance sheet, how to do marketing,
how to secure loans, how to manage your cash and inven
tory, those basic kinds of things that are the difference
between success or failure for some small businesses."
Smoke Signals: "How do you get those people to be
educated on what their options are? Your talking about
having people understand terms such as being 'user
friendly, how do you do that?"
Frohnmayer. "It's almost like a check list, what you have
to do is make that available probably through the economic
development department, to smaller enterprises that are
just starting out.
Actually, in Oregon we have a pretty good record, nation
wide better than 80 of the business fail in the 1st, 2nd or
3rd year, in Oregon wc have a smaller rate of failure and we
ought to do everything we can to reduce that failure rate
even more by giving people the key information on what
they need to watch for. We need to be able to warn them
of what the danger signals are. And we also need to inform
the people of those communities of what the opportunity
signals are when they are first starting out so they have an
opportunity to keep going."
Smoke Signals: "So the process basically consists of just
giving signals and providing information and opportuni
ties." Frohnmayer: "Right, and also telling the agencies that
your job is not just to say, no, that's not our department but
to say, here's where the department is. We need to give
them the telephone number and the name of a contact.
And that's one thing that was discovered, recently when
some of these agenciesgot together, is that they didn't know
what each other did and part of the job is education within
government, not just from the outsider."
Smoke Signals: "So when you talk about economic de
velopment for smaller communities you want to develop
your strengths. And, you want to look to see what your
strengths are, basically doing inventory of where your
strengths are and then focus on those and go from there?"
Frohnmayer. "Right."
Smoke Signals: "Let's go next to the timber issues that
arc currently facing the state of Oregon and in particular,
Western Oregon. We've got some people out in our com
munity that are totally dependent on the timber industry
and they are worried about what's going to happen with
their future?"
Frohnmayer. "People have a right to be anxious! My job
as governor will be to do everything I can to minimize a
disruption in the timber industry. That means trying to
guarantee some stability in timber supply and do that over
the long run because only when we know what we've got are
we going to be able to plan for it. But just lurching from
government injunction to court injunction, that is no way to
manage our nation's forests and that's the way we are
seening things occur in Oregon right now.
What I want to see is a longer term basis to plan so we know
in the long term where the supply is going to be. That would
give us the basis to not end up with the timber companies
bidding each other out of sight.
The ripple effects of this government's recession are
being felt all through Oregon, not just in Western Oregon.
Wc need to be able to work with the administration on a
one-to-one basis. We need to be able to stand up and fight
for Oregon jobs. One of the things I have said from the
beginning, is that I'm not just going to play the hand I've
been dealt. I'm going to try for a better hand for Oregon.
Everybody wants to see the kind of balance that deals with
the human and the social and the economic consequences
of this problem and doesn't just throw in the towel on
timber families and timber dependent communities. And,
I think it's obviously important for the Grand Ronde
community, where a major asset that you have is timber and
you have to recognize that after so many years of depriva
tion, finally having an asset that's really worth while(the
Rscrvation Lands) and then not knowing if you will be able
to use that asset, it's got to be terribly frustrating."
Smoke Signals: "Yes, that's kind of where we're coming
from right now and I think we look to our future leaders for
ways to go and paths to follow. And that's why we are
interested to find out where you're coming from because if
you are elected governor we want to know how it is that you
are going to go and get that better hand for the State of
Oregon. We want to know what kind of things are you going
to do that is going to bring that better hand back to our
people?"
Frohnmayer. "Well, one of the things obviously is to
develop contacts within the highest reaches of the executive
branch from the White House Staff to the President's
personal knowledge right ori down to the Secretary of
Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture. Just last week I
met with the head of the forest service, Dale Robinson, and
I think it's important that we develop that kind of relation
ship from the very beginning. The second is, that this
problem is bigger than Oregon. It is Washington, British
Columbia, Idaho, Montana, and California too. And I think
the chief executive of this state needs to develop good
working relationships across party lines, that aggressively
work with the governors of each of the affected states.
Because together we have far more impact than just speak
ing in a solo voice."
Smoke Signals: "That kind of gets back to your network
ing with economic development. The more you network
with people, the better you can develop.
It seems like what your talking about is the fact that there
arc 5 or 6 States that are going to be heavily involved in the
decisions that will be made in the future and you want to
network with those states and be in communication with
them."
Frohnmayer. "Yes, and I believe that I am a consensus
builder. I am a person who has built alliances across party
lines when I was attorney general, so I think I have that
ability to bring things together and speak with a regional
voice."
Smoke Signals: "You have said that you talked with
President Bush about this situation and you had made him
aware of what we are facing and how come the people of
Western Oregon and the Western States are so anxious
about what's going to happen to their future, could you
maybe talk a little about that and what you told him?"
Frohnmayer. "Yes, I would be happy to do that. I talked
with the President first of all about the need to make,
decision on the basis of the fullest, possible evidence and I
don't think it was. I deeply regret that the Fish and Wildlife
Service didn't hold an open hearing where people who are
affected by this could see what the experts had to say. They
could have come in and posed questions to the experts
about whether they really had considered every possible al
ternative. I also talked about the need to ban log exports from
federal and state lands, so that we could process timber
here. The administration has agreed to go along with that 1
and I'm very positively impressed with that development.
I also talked about the need to form an advisory commit
tee that would take a hard look at how we implement the
Spotted Owl decision that has been made. So that to mini
mize the human, the social and the economic conse
quences. I also talked to the president about the heed to have con
tinuing communication with the West and on job impact
and the fact that sooner or later we have to balance so we
can bring the human factor back into the equation."
Smoke Signals: "How do you think the President re
sponded to that?"
Frohnmayer: "Well, when I met with him, the first thing
that he said to mc when I walked into the door was, 'How
are the Timber workers feeling?' And I said, They are very
anxious, Mr. President.' Which I think is a faithful reflec
tion of anyone who's livelihood comes from timber or
logging or mills or even industries or businesses that serve
those timber communities. They are anxious and I think wc
need to respond to the real human concern about what an
abrupt shock this decision is if we don't have time for
transition into it."
Smoke Signals: "Let's move on and talk about the Pcyote
issue, because know it's important.; I think it's important .
for you to let people know, especially in Native America,
what it is you feel about the Peyote issue and where you
were coming from when you were participating in the
Smith&Black vs. Oregon case?"
Frohnmayer. The first thing is that this case was in no
way a vendetta against the Native American people.
I had a case in which two people who were drug counsel
ors at a drug an alcohol abuse center had essentially
promised their employer that they would remain drug and
alcohol free because they were supposed to be pure models
for the people who were being treated at the Center. One
of the individuals involved in this case was a Native Ameri
can and one was not.
They both took part in the rights of the Native American
Church, which is only one Church that uses Peyote. They
werefiredbytheiremployerbecausetheyviolatedthework
; rules, and they then sought employment compensation
benefits for engaging in conduct that would be illegal for
anyone else in this country to engage in because Peyote is
a schedule 1 substance under Oregon law. The law makes
no exceptions for it's religious use or it's non-religious use.
It is a hallucinogen and that's how it is recognized even by
those who use it for religious purposes.
The State denied these men. The State said no tax benefits
for the use of something that would be illegal for everybody
else. And as you know the case went to the United States
Supreme Court twice. We took it a second time to the
UnitesStates Supreme Court because of the significance of
that issue in two respects. One is, that this wasn't merely a
criminal prosecution, that wasn't the Issue, the question
was whether or not these individuals would get special tax
benefits or preferences where no one else in their shoes
would be able to do that. It seemed to us to be dangerously
close to being religious favoritism, if that were the case.
The second reason that we took it up is that we have other
religions claiming that the use of other drugs is equally
protected for them. And that's not a theoretical issue in our
, . (Continued on page 15)