MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON
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(Whit went wrons in thm I .:... . i. . j a,, j , .........
(Whit wnt wrona in iht
tlx depirtmtnt?
(How could such I long
ind long OTirdu list
o( dillnquml person prop,
rty tlxit build up?
(Mtmbm oi Iht Jickion
County Homi Rult commit
tee iy. "If, th tyilem."
(Sine vottr, of tht coun
ty will choo Miy IS be
twem continuing tht prt
tn; form of county govern
ment ind idoptlng tht pro
PMed Homo Rult Chirttr.
tht Mail Tribunt asked
Ditmbtr, of tht homt rult
committee to review t h t
weakness of tht present
system 11 thty ipply to tht
problem of delinqutnt per
sonal property taxes and to
explain how such a prob
lem could ba handled undtr
tht charter.
(That articlt follows.)
Elect Homer A.
CONGER
FOR
County Judge
Your EFFICIENT, ECONOM
ICAL and DECISIVE Repub
lican Candidate!
Pd. Pol. Adv., Homer A.
Conger, Rt. I, Central Point
Newspaper publication of 1
an eight-page list of delin
quent personal property taxes j
and the explanation that fol-;
lowed was to many voters of
Jackson county a startling il
lustration of the difficulties
under which honest and able
officials are trying to handle
county problems.
The county has been for- (
tunate indeed in the type of
men who serve it in elective :
positions, and it would be j
grossly unfair to blame pres
ent office holders for the in
efficiency of the system under
which they serve.
The fact that unpaid per
l sonal property taxes in Jack-
son county could reach a total
I of almost one-half million dol
lars before the matter came
to public attention is in itself
a staggering indictment of the
system of county government
j that has allowed this situation
! to develop.
Must Pay More
i When personal property
i taxes go uncollected, those
who do pay must pay more
than their share to make up
for the uncollected portion in
order that cities, school dis
tricts, and other taxing units
! may have funds with which
to operate.
And the longer any unse
cured Mil goes unpaid, Ihe
less chance there is of collect
ing it as any business or
credit bureau can testify. It
has been estimated th. as
much as $100,000 of the long
unpaid personal property tax
es will now be uncollectabie,
due to property owncts dying
or moving away, and to prop
erty declining in value or be
ing sold.
Delay in the collection of
delinquent personal property
taxes is thus a matter of ma
jor concern to the residents
of Jackson county. What, in
the present system, has allow
ed this situation to develop?
Responsibility Not Clear
First and most important j
the conflicting statements
of officials involved demon-!
strate clearly that in the coun
ty government at present
there is no clear delineation
of responsibility and authority.
After days of interviewing
jointly responsible for getting time between tax collection ; have the time or temerity to
job done, and yet no one ana taw enforcement two ; examine the files for informs-
of those officials has any au
thority over the others involv
ed, they cannot be expected
to perform efficiently and
it is the public that suffers.
Far more important than
the question of who is to be
blamed is
voters do
fields or diverse thai no offi- lion on the conduct of public
cial could be expected to be business.
competent in both. Under the charter, voters
As important as the fixing would have a much clearer
of responsibility in local gov- picture of the functioning of
ernment is tne necessity for public officials and of how af-
responsiveness and candor fairs of the county are being
go off in all directions and to
get out of touch with each
other. After the budget com
mittee had, in 1!59, authorized
in the sheriff's budget a car
and a deputy to be used in
serving warrants, the county
iho rant tw,.t i where thp nnhlip i nnnpni-nnH l handled Hills would he rtairi ! lv"
not know and i Under the present system ! and reports made at two slat-' quiring into the progress of
can't seem to find out who matters of interest and impor- :ed monthly meetings open to tax collection. They had no
hould be held responsible, tance to the public may never the public and fully reported further report of unpaid per-
tion, be accountable to the scaiiered among many offi
voters for efficient and eco-1 cials independent one of an
nomical a d m i n i s tration f other.
county business. j And it is but one o( many
Tax collection is but ifne of ; phases of county government
many phases of county gov-! on which the voter has little
ernment ill which procedure ! information, little say - and
is ill-defined and authority is I much at stake.
Authority and responsibility "e brought to public attention
1 are scattered so widely among i Until the delinquent tax list
so many elected officials, each i was published, residents of the
i independent of the other, that ! county and the newsmen
there is no final authority, no ; who try to keep them inform-
final responsibility for admin
istration of county affairs.
It is these weaknesses and
inadequacies of the present
system that gave rise to the
organizational changes embod-
ed were not aware that
anything was amiss in the col
lection of taxes.
Again, this is the fault of
the system, not of the officials.
At present the county court
ied in the Home Rule Charter. ! niccts two days a week. Un-
Under the charter rcsponsi-j less .ncws,apcr' radl' and la
bility for administration o f vision newsmen are notified
county affairs is fixed firmly! in advancc of important
,,'7-. I. "."inH rleariv ! ih hHc fi""S'm r prujeci io oe nis-,
electee. omc.a.s ana oi cnec. 3" " i cussed at the meeting, they in the handline of public af.
by the press, which has long sonal property taxes until
complained of the impossibil- June of l!)h'0
ity of adequately reporting 1 Under the charter the board
county affairs under the pres- of commissioners could re
ent system. quire regular meetings with
It would be easier, too, for department heads and could
private citizens to discover j inquire into (he progress of
policies and procedures of the ; work in various departments,
county. All major decisions, to Department heads would be
have legal effect, would have appointed by and thus ac
to be made in the form of ' accountable to the commis
ordinnnces. which are more i sioners who would, by clec-
easily researched than min
utes. Procedures Unpredictable
Consistency of proce dure
BICYCLES & TRICYCLES
REPAIRED
Large Stock Tires and Parts
Many Foreign Bike Parts
SIMS CYCLE & HOBBY SHOP
23 North Fir
SP 2-2472
A County
Commissioner
Must Know How To
SrE
Mel Lattie
has had 17 years experience
on boards of successful cor
porations. A successful corpor
ation must spend money wise
ly. As a director of county af
fairs this training would be in
valuable to every resident of
Jackson county.
Vote
MEL
IATTIE
COUNTY
COMMISSIONER
May 18th
Pd.
Ad. Lattie for Commissioner Comm.
Dick Gray, Chmn., P.FD-3, Medford
ing Oregon statutes, no one
has yet been able to say clear
ly and concisely where the
responsibility lies for the un
collected taxes. Nor can one
find, without a lengthy and
possibly fruitless search of the
records of several offices, tan
gible evidence of the sequence
of events that resulted in pub
lication of the delinquency list
in lieu of service of warrants
by deputy.
Facts that should be readily
available to any interested cit
izen are virtually unattaina
ble, even to a reporter trained
in the art of ferreting out in
formation.
The fault for the present
tax situation, resulting in loss
of money to the county and :
extra expense to the taxpay-
ers, cannot be assigned to the
sheriff, the county court, the
district attorney, or the audi
tors all of whom have had
some share in responsibility
for tax collection over the
years that the delinquency
list has built up.
Individuals Not to Blame
Rather, the fault must be
assigned to the system, in
which responsibility for col
lection of taxes is not clearly
defined.
When several officials are
seven elected commissioners.
They would have the author
ity, as the county court docs
not, to require of the tax col
lector a monthly report of his
efforts to collect delinquent
taxes. If taxes went uncollect
ed, they would be to blame
and the voters could hold
them accountable.
cannot afford the time involv-1 fairs is a protection for the
ed to adequately report the ! public and for its officials, but
proceedings of the court. the present court (or sheriff)
Reports Made, Accepted
j As a result, reports can be
made and accepted, bills paid,
(and decisions made with no
: one present but the court
i members and the court secre-
Under the charter the func-ltary. Records of the proceed
tion of tax collection would be 1 ings go into the court journal
in the treasurer s office, in
the hands of a man accustom
ed to handling financial mat
ters. Now it lies with the
sheriff, who must divide his
filed with the county clerk
and are, as far as the public
is concerned, lost to view.
While the minutes are open
to Ihe public, few citizens
On the Air
By ELEANOR WIESE
Vo-Ag Activities
At Crater Noted
Central Point Six boys
representing Crater, Phoenix
and Eagle Point FFA chap
ters will clerk at an open
house at Albers Feed and
Farm store in Medford.
The chapters will divide 10
per cent of gross receipts al
lowed them on all items sold
that day except feed and ferti
lizers. The money will be used
to support various chapter
projects.
Tuning in the moon on our I answer questions from the
TV sets seems a remote pos-1 audience of scientists, U. S.
sibility but we will be able j and Soviet officials, and for
to tune in Paris and London ! eign journalists.
soon. This summer Telstar,
a communications satellite, is TOURNAMENT OF CHAM
scheduled for orbit which will PIONS, 12:30 p.m. Sunday
make possible instantaneous j KMED-TV. Winners of the 29
world-wide television trans- major PGA tournaments this
mission. 1 year compete at the Desert
Today's program. "The Sat-1 il n -ouniry club, Las Vegas
ellitc That Talks," on "Twen-I llle lasl "ur holes of play
tieth Century" at 5 p.m. on
KBES-TV studies the complex
ities of the satellite itself and
the problems of international
cooperation necessary to make
global television a reality.
At Goonhilly Down in Corn
wall, England, a transmitter
is being readied for this sum
mer's initial transatlantic Tel
star experiments. Films show
this installation and one near
Folkestone, England, where
TV broadcasts from the con
tinent via the Eurovision Sys-jmont-
are televised live
WALT DISNEY PRE
SENTS, 6:30 p.m. Sunday
KMED - TV. Conclusion of
"Treasure Island."
G.E. THEATRE, 8 p.m. Sun
day KBES-TV. Lee J. Cobb
stars in The Unstoppable
Gray Fox," an original TV
play by William Saroyan. A
charming gentleman rises
above a barrage of difficulties
including his own dismissal
from the U. S. Stale Deparl-
tem are unscrambled for Brit
ain's sets.
Newton N. Minow, chair
man of Ihe Federal Commu
nications Commission, is in-
In other activities in the ! tervicwed by Walter Cronkite,
Crater FFA chapter, two Ag
riculture III shop students,
Tony Shope and Lyle Hous
ton, are asser- -g two new
Wick baled h . loaders for
Hubbard-Wray Farm Machi
nery and Implement com
pany. The assembling is de
signed to teach students the
working principles of each
machine.
The vocational agriculture
students have been seeding
grain in the school property
at Jewett and the city prop
erty by the ball park.
Five vo-ag students. Roger
Kirkham, Garry Nieder
meyer, Joe Hulin, Charles
Young and Mike Lounsbury,
recently attended a two-day
sheep shearing school con
ducted by the Jackson coun
ty extension service.
as well as other men instru
mental in the satellite pro
gram. Potential international co
operation in another field
space research will be dis
cussed by astronaut John H.
Glenn jr. and cosmonaut
Gherman S. Titnv on "The
Nation's Future" at 5:30 p.m. Brinks bandits
on KMED-TV
STARLIGHT CONCERT. 8 ;
p.m. Sunday KBOY-FM radio.
Music of American composers (
is featured tonight: Samuel
Barber's "Souvenicrs Ballet
Suite," Op. 28; Virgil Thomp
son's orchestral suite, "The
Plow That Broke the Plains";
and Aaron Copeland's "Ro
deo." DU PONT SHOW, 9 p.m.
Sunday KMED-TV. Conclu
sion of "The World's Greatest
Robbery" shows the search
and eventual capture of the
cannot prescribe procedures
to be followed by the next
sheriff (or court).
With discretionary author
ity parcelled out among sev
eral independently elected of
ficials, procedure cannot be
predicted. Whether or not to
publish the delinquent per
sonal property tax list in the
future is a decision that must
be made annually by some as-yet-undetermined
combination
of elected officials.
From conflicting interpre
tations of the statutes by offi
cials interviewed. It appears
that the court (or the sheriff)
can decide that publication of
the delinquent personal prop
erty tax list will not be made '
(as has been the case hereto-1
fore), and the sheriff (or the
court) can decide that person
al service of warrants by dep
uty is the preferable method
for collection.
Since the court has no au
thority over other elected of
ficials and no authority to pass
ordinances. It is incapable of
long-range planning.
Under the charter, the
board of commissioners could
pass an ordinance establishing
cither publication or personal
service of warrants as the
method for collecting delin
quent personal property taxes.
The tax collector would have
no choice but to comply - and
the public would know what
to expect.
Little Coordination possible
Another drawback of the
present system pointed out by
the problem in tax collection
is the fact that there is little
communication and coordina
tion between the administra
tive departments of the coun
ty. Except for annual reports
and annual budget confer
ences, (here is no regular
meeting of elected officials to
discuss common problems, to
pool Information, and to check
on progress of various pro
grams. When each official is Inde
pendently elected, no official
has the right to call or to re
quire attendance at such a
meeting.
As a result officials lend to '
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with more satisfaction and better under
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fessional and business people laced with
the problem of keeping abreast with the
latest developments in their tields.
V)
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Dynamic Reading Institute is having
outstanding success in training people
nf all levels from 12 to 80 to read
more rapidly and to remember what they
hae read.
Leslie Balsigcr of Wilsonville will dem
onstrate for you this modern method
of reading. Come and sea this twelve
year old boy read. Demonstration starts
7 p.m. sharp. Come early to be assured
a seat.
Demonstration and Registration for Spring Classes Starts
7 P.M. - THURSDAY - MAY 10
Everyone Welcome MEDFORD HOTEL Downtown Medford
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Bonded to and Licanted by The Oregon State Department of Education
For further Information call SP 3-1471, or write Dynamic Reading Institute, Inc.,
3128 Madrona Lane, Medford, Oregon.
Marine Lieutenant Colonel
Glenn and Major Titov will
express their views on the
challenge of space explora
tion in a live broadcast from
Washington, D. C, where
each man is a member of his
country's delegation at the
Third International Space Sci
ence Symposium.
After the speakers have
! compared their experiences
1 and traded views, they will
h r3 c 01 r
I l rzsi CZJ LB'J i i L :
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PARK AND SHOP IS THE
ANSWER TO CAREFREi
SHOPPING DOWNTOWN!
REMEMBER YOU MWAYS
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o
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FREE parking with $2 mini
mum purchase at any one of
our Park and Shop Member
Stores.
O
NEWS SPECIAL, 9 p.m.
Tuesday KMED-TV. "Viet
Nam Last Chance." An
NBC news team spent two
months filming and interview
ing people in South Viet Nam,
; Laos and Thailand to deter
1 mine the extent and implica
! lions of the United Status in
j volvement in these countries.
Interviewed will be Frcder
' irk Nnlting, United Slates am
bassador to South Viet Nam;
Gen. Paul L. Harkins, com
mander of the U. S. Military
Assistance Command; Gen.
Phoumi Nosavan, defense
minister of the royal govern
ment of Laos; the Rev. Wil
liam Bolin, Redemptorist mis
sionary in Northeast Thailand,
and Col. Pham Ngoc Thao.
province chief of Kein Hoa
province in South Viet Nam.
CIRCLE THEATER, fl p.m.
Wednesday KBES-TV. "Anat
omy of Betrayal: Dateline
Cuba," a documentary com
posite of the experience of
Cuban newspapermen who
fled the Batista regime, re
turning with high hopes to
Cuba only to find the Castro
regime equally intolerable,
DAVID BRINKLEY'S
JOURNAL. fl:30 p m. Wednes
day KMED-TV. Many of our
best national magazines will
be faced with possible finan
cial failure if the proposed
inr rrase in postal rates mate
rializes. Brinkley interviews
editors from "Harpers." "At
lantic." and "Saturday Re
view." YVES ToST AND ON
BROADWAY. 7 30 p.m. Fri
day KMED-TV. T- repeat
of bctter-than-averagc musical
variety show headed by the
talented French entertainer
Yves Montand assisted by Pol
ly Bergen, John Haiti. Helen
Gallagher and Bobby Van.
DINAH SHORE SHOW,
8-30 pm. Friday KMED-TV.
An all-Italian show with Ros
no Brazzi. Domenico "Vo
lare" Moduuno, the Trovajoli
Jazz Group and young con
ductor Joey Alfidi.
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