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Running Aground on Ross Island

It took less than three months for the USS Portland Tribune, the Rev. Dr. Bob Pamplin's journalistic "gift to Portland," to run smack-dab into a rocky little stronghold of the Rev. Dr. Bob's business empire: the Ross Island Sand & Gravel Co.

Last Friday's cover story, written by environmental reporter Ben Jacklet, was a rosy look at the future of Ross Island, which the Pamplin family has mined for 75 years.

Factually, Jacklet's story holds up well: It noted Pamplin's dual ownership on the opening page, acknowledged the environmental hazards caused by the company's past operations and even offered some mild criticism from river activist Travis Williams.

But other aspects of the story were troubling. From the headline ("Rebirth of an Island") to the photos (long-range shots of "Portland's next great nature reserve"), the presentation seemed intended to make Pamplin smile. Since Pamplin has given the city little more than a handshake agreement to donate the island, the headline could just as accurately have been "Pamplin's hollow promise," illustrated with close-in shots of ravaged landscape.

The story's premise also seemed contrived. At the paper's urging, the gravel company arranged a tour for Jacklet and a photographer, along with Mayor Vera Katz, Pamplin publicist Len Bergstein, environmentalists and regulators. It was, in effect, a Pamplin-funded floating press conference covered solely by a Pamplin-funded news organization.

Tribune editor Roger Anthony says he asked Jacklet to do the story because the island's future is a major environmental issue. He says Pamplin was never consulted. Anthony says he considered postponing the article, but thought its journalistic integrity was a "declaration of independence" that he wanted to make.

If so, it was not exactly a shot heard round the newsrooms. The story, while hardly an ethical shipwreck, raised as many questions as it answered. --John Schrag

MAY DAZED

Across the globe, May 1 is celebrated as the "real" labor day. For Police Chief Mark Kroeker, however, May Day has a more personal significance.

Last year's festivities in Portland were marred by a massive police crackdown resulting in 20 protesters arrested and several more injured by police batons, horses and bean-bag shotguns. Kroeker later acknowledged that responsibility lay not with Portland's line officers, but with poor training and lousy planning by police brass.

Thus began a year of bad press for Kroeker, including criticism of his handling of a Sept. 26 rally and a riot on New Year's Eve that culminated in televised images of skateboards shattering storefront windows. The chief blamed police handling of those events on cops' fear of public criticism sparked by May Day--an explanation that Commissioner Erik Sten recently called "inexcusable."

This year, however, Kroeker hopes to show he got the message. "There were some lessons that we needed to learn last year," he told WW. He says police will be calmer this year, thanks to a superior operational plan and new "rapid response team" to provide backup.

Still, as recently as last week, a showdown seemed inevitable, because May Day organizers, citing the First Amendment, refuse to obtain a parade permit. But at an April 22 meeting at City Hall, officials told protesters that the City Council would take out a permit for them. They also were told that police would not sport riot gear or ride horses and ATVs.

"That was a relief to hear," says Andy Davis of the May Day Coalition, "because all of those things were used to hurt people last year."

Marchers will assemble at 4 pm at the North Park Blocks, then walk down Broadway to PSU's Smith Memorial Center, at 1825 SW Broadway, where a rally is scheduled at 6 pm.

--Nick Budnick

DOUR TOWN

Squeezed by rising newsprint prices and shrinking ad revenue, local weekly Our Town--long renowned for its groundbreaking coverage of the local shopping scene--is throwing in the paper towel.

Our Town's final edition will be May 7.

Don Olson, publisher of the Portland Tribune, whose parent company, Pamplin Communications, bought Our Town early this year, broke the news to the weekly's eight staffers on Friday.

Olson said the paper would be absorbed into the Tribune's Friday edition. "This is not the demise of Our Town," he told WW. "We are taking the staff and the talent of Our Town and merging it into a new publication for our Friday product."

Our Town had a long and complex history. Its predecessor, the Downtowner, was founded in 1973 by Maggi White, a former police reporter who penned its flagship column, Conversationally Yours. The Downtowner was later sold to Advance Publications (a subsidiary of Newhouse, which publishes The Oregonian). The Downtowner ceased publication in 1995, but three months later White found investors to continue under a new name, Our Town. The paper was sold to Community Newspapers Inc. in April 1999; the Rev. Dr. Robert Pamplin then purchased CNI last year.

The impending evacuation of Our Town will sadden followers of Maggi White, whose weekly column--now titled Maggi Talk--attracted a broad readership. Some were drawn by her insights on shopping or the emotional life of celebrity dogs, others by an idiosyncratic writing style that rejected conventional narrative structure even as it championed conventional thinking.

With the exception of the three-month interregnum in 1995, White's column has run for a staggering 28 years, easily outpacing whippersnappers like Jonathan Nicholas (19 years) or Gerry Frank (13).

White hopes her byline will not be buried along with her paper. "I want to continue my column if possible," she told WW. "It was missed when the Downtowner stopped. I'm sure it will be missed now."

As WW went to press, however, it remained unclear whether White would join the revamped publication.

--Chris Lydgate

TAKING AIM AT CANADA

Poor Ben Canada. Even when the embattled school superintendent comes up with a good idea, he gets pounded.

Last week, Mayor Vera Katz, Police Chief Mark Kroeker and the Oregonian's editorial page lambasted the superintendent for daring to suggest that the Portland Police take over the 20-member school police.

Kroeker also criticized Canada for going public with the proposal before checking with the police. "No one from the school district or board has opened up discussions with us," he told The O.

In fact, more than two weeks earlier, Canada and school board chairman Marc Abrams told Katz's chief of staff, Sam Adams, that the district wanted to dump the school police to patch a $20.5 million hole in its $360 million budget.

The decision makes sense financially for the district and the police bureau, which has dozens of vacancies. And it's no secret that the bureau has long coveted the schools' police force--the only such operation in the state.

"They've been trying to grab this unit for years," Abrams says.

The controversy shows how far Canada's star has fallen; Katz was once among his biggest supporters, but now the mayor and her minions are taking gratuitous shots at him.

Ironically, Canada's role in shedding the school police has been one of his few visible initiatives in the district's effort to balance its budget. After getting blasted by the public and the board for proposing teacher layoffs as the first step, the superintendent has appeared to be disengaged at budget subcommittee meetings and public presentations, ceding leadership to staff and the board's budget committee.

Nonetheless, district spokesman Lew Frederick says Canada is fully tuned in. That's news to teachers union president Richard Garrett. "It's astonishing to me that the superintendent's contribution has been so small," Garrett says. "Practically speaking, he's invisible."

--Nigel Jaquiss

SCOREBOARD

WINNERS

LOSERS

1. Ultra- conservative GOP senators are rebelling against Prez Gene Derfler on fiscal issues, so Derfler added Minority Leader Kate Brown to the Senate budget committee, thereby giving Senate Democrats a lot more leverage. 2. While Jeff Grayson appears to be headed for the Big House, his former partner, banker Butch Swindells, is heading for a new house--the ambassador's residence in New Zealand, thanks to his generous support of Dubya. 3. Kudos to cardboard-flatteners and tinfoil tyrants. Portland is the top recycler among the nation's 30 biggest cities, according to industry journal Waste News. Last year we recycled or burned for energy 53.47 percent of our residential and commercial waste, earning us the right to trash-talk that also-ran Seattle.

1. In the never-ending PR battle between the forces of freedom for furry critters and scientific researchers, animal- rightists slipped a notch last week when the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center claimed that a saboteur had repeatedly disconnected several monkeys' water supplies. 2. Oregon voters groaned at news that ballot-measure bwana Bill Sizemore is back with an eye-popping 11 new initiatives for the 2002 ballot, including the usual slew of anti-union measures. Phoenix rising, or is Bill's house payment due? 3. Check the fine print: Insurance companies will have to take remedial riting clasesses after the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that language in the auto policies of North Pacific and State Farm Insurance companies is practically incomprehensible.

ROGUE OF THE WEEK
The Rogue desk is now accepting nominations
buzz@wweek.com

The tragic death of Jose Mejia, a Spanish-speaking nursery worker shot by police after he broke loose from a seclusion room at Pacific Gateway Hospital, has uncovered a dirty little secret at the heart of Multnomah County's freaked-out mental health system: One hand doesn't know what the other is doing.

Here at Rogue Central, we have wrestled with the question of who is responsible for the mess and, amid the finger-pointing, come up with four culprits.

Our first nominee is Lolenzo Poe, director of the county's Department of Community and Family Services, which is in charge of the Behavioral Health Division.

At a press conference last week, Poe announced that the county would suspend its contract with Gateway until the hospital could fix problems revealed by a county inspection: staffing shortages, confusing rules on restraining patients, and--yikes!--a policy of allowing police officers to enter the ward with loaded pistols.

Pacific Gateway's problems should have come as little surprise. State and federal regulators had been documenting deficiencies at the hospital for years, and the hospital twice came close to losing its Medicare certification. But Poe claims the county "was unaware" of those troubles.

That's hard to swallow. Advocates for the mentally ill say Gateway's problems were well known. "Consumers knew about it. Staff knew about it. The police knew about it," says Jason Renaud of the Portland chapter of the National Association for the Mentally Ill. "The question is, who didn't know about it?"

Nonetheless, it's unfair to blame Poe alone for the county's see-no-evil attitude: Responsibility of overseeing psychiatric hospitals is divided among the Oregon Health Division, the Oregon Mental Health Office and the federal Health Care Financing Administration, which all failed to sound the alarm about Pacific Gateway despite finding numerous shortcomings in the facility.

Murmurs
A SUBSIDIARY OF PAMPLIN ENTERTAINMENT INC.

* Top mayoral aide Sam Adams, usually a natty dresser, twice doffed his City Hall slickster look last weekend for working-class plaids. On Saturday, Vera Katz's chief of staff tagged along with the anti-FTAA march; on Sunday he met with the May Day Coalition at City Hall. Is this a not-so-subtle attempt to curry favor with the running dogs of leftism? What's next? A black hooded sweatshirt? Is there an anarchist lurking below those Eddie Bauer duds? No, no, no, insists Katz spokeswoman Elisa Dozono. Adams sports the "rugged, outdoorsy look" at the office each Friday. Why, she confessed, he's even been known to wear a ball cap!

* Speaking of hardball...Katz will toss out the first ball at PGE Park April 30. Some critics say she should wear a blindfold to symbolize the way she negotiated the deal with Portland Family Entertainment. And one final brushback: With the city agreeing to supplement PFE workers to bring them to $9.50 an hour, Larry Tuttle suggests the company's name be changed to Publicly Funded Entrepreneurs.

* Somebody in the Legislature is finally paying attention to the Port of Portland. At last week's contentious commission meeting to discuss the Portland Shipyard, state Sen. Ginny Burdick was on hand--but not in her role as a lawmaker. The port has retained Burdick, a PR consultant, to do damage control under a contract that could pay her as much as $5,250 this month.

* Former Police Chief Charles Moose made headlines in The Washington Post last week. Moose, who now heads the Montgomery County (Md.) Police Department, admitted that his office allows paid informants to have sex with suspected prostitutes. The technique, used in Portland during Moose's tenure, did not sit well with Montgomery County prosecutors. Moose quickly promised to stop the practice.