WW Reader Contest: Hai2k The label jolts me. What's happened to my Henry's? "Brewed in Tumwater." As the new century races toward us like an anarchist heading for The Gap, we think it's important to take time and reflect on what defines Portland at this chronological crossroads. Then again, we don't think it should take more than 17 syllables. Send your thoughts (in lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables) by Dec. 22 to: WW Hai-2K Contest, 822 SW 10th Ave., Portland OR, 97205; fax: 243-1115; email: jschrag@wweek.com. We'll print the best entries in our Dec. 29 issue and bestow lavish gifts on the winners. Striking It Rich Last year, KINK-FM's news director, Mike Rich, went Hollywood. Now he's going to Disneyland. Rich recently finished final revisions to a script for Columbia Pictures Studio. The film, tentatively called Finding Forrester, will star Sean Connery and probably will be directed by Gus Van Sant. After a year of grueling rewrites, you might think Rich would be ready for a rest. But last month, he signed on to write a new script for Disney Studios. The film will center around the true story of Jim Morris, a Texas chemistry teacher. In his early 20s, Morris quit a floundering pro-baseball career and took up high-school teaching and coaching in Reagan County, Texas. At 36, he accepted his high-school baseball team's challenge and auditioned for the bigs again. Morris was drafted, and this fall he suited up for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, with a 96 mph fastball. When Rich heard that Disney had purchased the rights to Morris' story, he asked his agent to contact the studio. Disney asked Rich to write a treatment and liked what it saw; after flying down to Los Angeles to meet studio execs, he was hired on as screenwriter. (Rich would not comment on rumors that he unsuccessfully tried to make his contract contingent on the studio signing KINK sidekick Les Sarnoff to the leading role.) Rich insists that screenwriting is still a part-time gig and won't prompt him to leave the station any time soon. "I enjoy working at KINK so much," he says, "and am blessed to find two occupations that I love." --Olivia Barker Straining Relations Much to the dismay of the Portland Association of Teachers, Portland Public Schools has hired Steve Goldschmidt to be a human-relations consultant. Goldschmidt's hiring, which had been rumored for several weeks, has been strongly opposed by the PAT, which views him as anti-union (see "Good as Goldschmidt?" WW, Oct. 13, 1999). An associate professor of educational policy and management at the University of Oregon, Goldschmidt is best known in labor circles for his role in 1987 as a negotiator for the Eugene school district. An impasse in those negotiations led to a 22-day teachers strike, which, according to the Oregon School Boards Association, remains the longest in the state's history. He is also the younger brother of former mayor and governor Neil Goldschmidt and the brother-in-law of former interim superintendent Diana Snowden. Goldschmidt applied for the vacant Director of Human Relations position in Portland last spring but was not among four finalists. When none of the four took the job, Goldschmidt's name resurfaced. District General Counsel Bruce Samson says Goldschmidt will not have managerial responsibility but instead will work about half-time advising the district on labor relations and human-relations strategies for the next three months. "He'll be consulting with management as opposed to managing," Samson says. Goldschmidt will earn $150 per hour, placing him among the district's most highly paid employees. His pay cannot exceed $35,000 for the term of his contract. Oversight of the human resources department remains unsettled. The department was placed under Samson's authority at the end of November, but he plans to retire in July. Acting director Gary Tuck will reduce his workday to half-time starting Jan. 1. Word of Goldschmidt's hiring angered PAT president Richard Garrett, who has repeatedly asked Canada not to hire him. "I can't imagine what motivates the district to do something like that with money so short and labor relations so important," Garrett says. "I think it's the wrong course to follow." Goldschmidt, who is currently negotiating on behalf of the Ontario district in Eastern Oregon, says he's mystified by PAT's opposition, having never met any of its leaders. --Nigel Jaquiss The Party's Over For years, Portland's five city commissioners have had it easy. No longer. This year's city budget talks kicked off Monday, Dec. 6, at a seven-hour City Council retreat in a North Portland water-pollution laboratory conference room. Looking out on a mud-brown Willamette River, finance director Tim Grewe forecast stormy weather. The city's budget will grow, he said, but not enough to cover the cost of existing programs. That could mean the most spirited budget debate in years. "Wait, wait, wait--hold it," said an agitated Commissioner Jim Francesconi, upon realizing that programs he won funding for last year, such as $500,000 worth of parks and school projects, are back on the chopping block. "We had this list that we agreed was a priority. Now we're sitting around and we've come up with different priorities." "Well," replied Commissioner Charlie Hales, "that was last year's budget." In past years the city has benefited from double-digit property-tax growth. This year, growth in property-tax revenues and business-license fees are down, while the cost of employee benefits is up. Projected revenues are an estimated $275 million for the city's general fund, which is used to pay for police, fire, and other discretionary spending. But the city would need $276 million to maintain existing programs, including the programs that Francesconi is worried about. The upshot is at least $1 million in cuts--and more if commissioners are to find money for the new programs that make their jobs fun. Like what? Dan Saltzman talked about making city-subsidized buildings more "green" through things like eco-roofs. Erik Sten wants $5 million for affordable housing. And Francesconi wants to create small-business jobs in neighborhoods. But when it comes to new programs, Hales said the mantra should be: "Get real--there's not much money." The council will hold budget forums from Jan. 24 through Feb. 4 to get public input, culminating in a proposed budget on April 14. The council wants to attract more interest from the public than it did last year, when nobody showed up for about half the budget meetings. If the forums were a TV show, said Sten, "We would have been canceled." --Nick Budnick Dueling Measures The gun-control wars of 2000 have officially started. Oregon Gun Owners filed a gun-show ballot initiative this week to go up against a measure being proposed by Sen. Ginny Burdick and Sheriff Dan Noelle. With its initiative, OGO will be fighting not only gun-control advocates but also fellow Second Amendment protectors. The OGO measure, like Burdick's, would extend background checks to all handgun transfers by any dealer who handles more than 25 guns. This will close what's been called the gun-show loophole in the current law. The OGO figures that since voters seem intent on closing the loophole, government-wary gun owners should get something in return. So the OGO measure includes a provision to help them rest easier. Current law requires the state to keep for five years the records of any instant-check gun purchase. The records are held in Salem and accessible by any law-enforcement officer who is investigating a gun crime. The OGO's measure would eliminate all record-keeping. Coming out of a legislative session in which it was seen as compromising with gun-control people, OGO's initiative strategy puts it on shaky ground with other gun-rights groups. Kevin Starrett, executive director of the Oregon Firearms Federation, has been aggressively critical of OGO's initiative and has vowed to fight it. It isn't clear whether the big dog of the gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, plans to oppose the measure or stay neutral. John Hellen, lobbyist for OGO, says Rod Harder of the NRA had some issues with his measure. Even if the NRA comes out against him, though, Hellen plans to win. "The NRA's ability to influence the general public is quickly fading," he says. "We'll take it to gun owners and we'll match the NRA letter for letter. I have a lot of concealed-handgun license lists, hunting license lists, a lot of names." --Patty Wentz Watch and Learn It wasn't just protesters who made the trip from Portland to Seattle last week. Central Precinct Cmdr. Larry Findling was on hand with three other Police Bureau officials Nov. 30. to observe events at Sixth Avenue and Pike Street, where he says the streets were packed shoulder-to-shoulder with an estimated 2,000 people. Findling says the group went to observe the Seattle police, since they used tactics similar to those Portland police are being trained in. He says he didn't witness any of the acts of vandalism, nor did he get a sense as to whether the police or protesters provoked the clash late Tuesday, but he says he thought the officers "were appropriate and professional." Still, he adds, "I hope we never have to apply [the tactics] in Portland. I'm happy having demonstrations that are non-events." And what about those anarchists? Are the Portland police preparing for any visitors from Eugene on New Year's Eve? All Findling will say is, "We're making every effort to make New Year's a safe and fun event." --Philip Dawdy - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published December 8, 1999