WGBH Journal; Fincom Profile

Good evening and welcome to you Beach Journal I'm Amy sands tonight Governor King appoints Edward f king chairperson of the Boston Finance Commission and will profile what that agency does. Housing remains one of the principal issues in Boston's mayoral race. The report and reflections on that last Sunday's game march in Washington D.C. and a report on the use of Syrian S. surgical procedure at Cambridge City hospital. We'll have all of these stories right after a look at the local news. Boston Mayor Kevin White today asked the city council for help against the involuntary eviction of tenants whose apartments are being converted into condominiums. White wants landlords to give tenants one years notice before forcing them out of their apartments and converting the housing units to condominiums. We'll have more on housing and Merrill the Merrill campaign later in tonight's program. The Department of Mental Health today said that the Boston Herald painted a quote an accurate picture of the problems in the community mental health system. In an article that appeared in this morning's issue written after yesterday's meeting between mental health commissioner Robert oaken and health union officials. The article

quotes oaken as saying there are serious problems in the DE institutionalizing process of mental patients. Jenny Gelber of the commissioner's office says the comments quoted refer to the conditions that existed in the 1980s and not at the present. Well there are some problems in mainstreaming mental patients she says the department has made significant improvements. We've been doing essentially things up until this point to improve the problem areas that do exist. The first is in an area already assured. Every program in each region of the state has been a value rated by a quality assurance which is made up of citizens and professionals and the results of those evaluations have demonstrated that most are in fact well-run and for if you were to show deficiencies you there are quite a correction is being followed or the program has. The second thing that we've been doing is auditing the department has recently undertaken a major expansion of its auditing capacity through the

provision of services by recognized certified public accounting firms are also said his department will be licensing community health mental health services by January of next year. Bassett or Elliot Richardson today briefed members of the Boston press on his political future. He confirmed recent reports that he will not run as a Republican candidate for the presidency but made it plain that he would be prepared for a presidential draft if it comes. The former US attorney general who resigned during the Nixon administration commented on the Carter Kennedy race heating up on the Democratic side. Richard said the race would come down to the wire and that if Kennedy wins he would seriously consider running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. Meanwhile at the State House today Republican presidential candidate Larry Pressler brought his youth oriented campaign to the Bay State Pressler who is the junior senator from South Dakota urged the Republican Party to pay more attention to working class needs and asked for lifting the expiration date on veterans benefits. And at Boston

College last night Democratic hopeful Jerry Brown attempted to convince a student audience there that there were definite differences between his qualifications and those of President Carter. The California governor especially pushed his domestic focus. I would just say that I have. Building America and helping all the people in this part of the world a higher priority than building some military hardware which I don't think will help anybody and I've tried to refocus the dialogue to Building up America and its cities its transit its quality of life because I see in its deterioration a greater threat then from Soviet Union or from the loss of the Panama Canal or the troops in Cuba and not to many of the other candidates to my knowledge have identified the challenge to America as being internal as being domestic as being in the in the

potential of alienation that exist both here and then on a larger sense on a larger scale. The disparities between the Third World and the developed world and in my campaign I'm going to be talking about that often. 12 anti-nuclear protesters who demonstrated at the Yankee atomic power plant in ROH last June were found guilty today of trespassing and fined $55 each. Greenfield district court judge Benjamin Acton said the defendant's defense of necessity was not a clickable. The protesters had claimed they trespassed for the higher good of the public in an effort to cause the shutdown of the nuclear power plant. And in brief tonight one of the largest real estate developers in the country Cabot Cabot and Forbes has tentatively agreed to sell out its holdings. The buyer will be Field Enterprises of Chicago who own the Chicago Sun Times and Kaiser broadcasting as well as a Boston UHF television station. The chairperson of the Boston firm said today that the tentative sale will enable his company to finance projects up to 100 million dollars. Finally a former investigator who inspected

cars in dealers lots for the Office of Attorney General Francis Ballade he was indicted today for extortion. The indictment alleges that Richard Paul and another former investigator received payoffs from car dealers in return for overlooking violations uncovered by them. Both inspectors resigned from their posts in the spring. And that's the local news. At a hastily called news conference yesterday Governor King announced the appointment of Edward f king as the new chairperson of the Boston Finance Commission. The Republican King ran against Frances hatch in the Republican primary race for governor. King lost that race and supported the Democrat King because of his fiscally conservative philosophies. And yesterday's news conference both kings thou to look into the inability

of Mayor White to lower Boston's property tax rate despite record amounts of state aid to the city. That prospect does not please Maryl candidate white. Since the property tax rate issue is one of the major issues in candidate Timothy's campaign. But as we hear in this report from Greg Fitzgerald white seemingly has little to fear. The Boston Finance Commission can hardly be called a new political institution. It was established around the turn of the century as a watchdog agency to investigate the financial affairs of the city of Boston and Suffolk County. It has no enforcement mechanisms but it does have subpoena powers powers that are often used to investigate the city's no bid contracts of which there are many. And to watch the city's departments and employees to make sure people who are paid in fact do work for the city in 1977 then Con discovered a number of so-called no shows who are paid by the city but rarely made an appearance at city hall. With the recent appointment of Edward f king as Finn comes chairperson there have been numerous reports that the appointment was strictly politically motivated

to embarrass Mayor White for not cutting the city's property tax past finca heads have attempted to investigate the taxation issue in Boston and it is certainly within the mandate of fin com to look into taxation abuses. But in order to embarrass Mayor White prior to the November election Edward f king would have to act rather quickly on an investigation a prospect passed Phin calm heads feel is impossible Andrea Gargiulo was the chairperson of income from 1975 to 1977 I think. Thought it has been made clear with regard to that another. Watch out for that. I think it covered a great deal that will be able to uncover anything that has already been uncovered. You

project through every budget of every department. You know I think it would be great to work with a number of the president commissioners on the Boston Finance Commission were taken by surprise by the sudden appointment of Edward f king as their new chairperson. But few if any of them are pulling their hair out in desperation. King has begun discussions with finca members and has assured them that investigations at Fin com is now involved and will be continued. And King has promised at least one member that his political considerations will be kept separate from his actions as Finn comes chairperson. In the meantime trying to trace where the city has spent all the record amount of state money it has received won't be easy and it is that issue which is the basis for governor King's assertion that the mayor could have lowered the property tax rate. Jeffrey Connelly is a present member of the fan club and the general fund. It's impossible for example to trace a date as to where it was ultimately expected to have to be narrowly

defined and there's no question that can be done but it should the tax rate be low I think we all think it should be lower. But you've got to be able to point to specific areas showing that yes it can be lower because it can be lower because of the situation. You just have to be specific on the significance of the appointment of Edward F. King as the new chair of the Boston Finance Committee has apparently been blown a bit out of proportion. While there are few doubts the focus of the thin calm will be shifted towards Boston's taxation issues. There is little chance that King's appointment will generate enough solid work to have any effect on Mayor White's attempt to seek his fourth term as mayor. The campaign which is widely believed to be his last journal. I'm Greg Fitzgerald. Nationwide from 1968 to 1976 the rate of CES

verion S. births rose one hundred fifty six percent in Massachusetts one out of every six births arses Arion and one Massachusetts hospital the rate approaches an alarming 30 percent. Anita McFadden fills us in with this report. One of the most recurring things is the feeling of being passive of not giving birth but losing control of an experience that you had planned that had been your family experience and suddenly it's the doctors. Norma Schulman of C sect an organization that does education and support work for parents who have experience a Syrian section births. This emergency surgical procedure can be life saving for both mother and child but it Cambridge City hospital almost one out of every three births source's Arion close to double the statewide rate. And Cambridge City Hospital has had the highest rate in Massachusetts for the past three years in a row. In response to a letter of inquiry from the State Department of Public Health and suggestions from the community the Cambridge Health Policy Board has begun its own investigation.

What they're trying to do is to gather comparative statistics and ask questions of the staff doctors to determine more about hospital practices. Peter Gill of the Cambridge Health Policy Board feels there is no cause for alarm. We have no reason to suspect that anybody is doing something that they shouldn't do especially since it seems to me that nobody today really understands exactly what's going on. As far as the increase in Syrians are concerned they may be perfectly normal. How would you characterize the reaction of the maternity service a Cambridge City hospital to the statistics with a shockingly defensive when they open. No they were very relaxed about it. As near as I could see they they felt that that they were doing the best they could and we have no reason to feel otherwise. It's a touchy subject. If people start making the wrong decisions they could you could hurt the baby you could hurt the mother. And right now I must confess if I were a medical doctor I'm not sure I would know which way to swing and if

I were a mother about to have a baby I don't. I'm not so sure what my feelings would be. Women tell me that most women would not like to have us in Syria but I don't know that that's a fact. Peter Gill of the Cambridge Health Policy Board. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health gathers just the kind of statistics that the Cambridge Health Policy Board is looking for milk feels that the disparity between hospital Sunseri and section rates is significant. Boston cities figures are actually just a little lower than the state average and for Boston City Hospital they had fifteen point two percent of their births last year with this area and sections again about about half the rate for Cambridge City Hospital and Boston city has the poor has the poorest population of any any obstetric unit in the state. Cambridge does have a fairly high Portuguese immigrant population but the New Bedford area has an even higher percentage of Portuguese immigrants and if you compare Cambridge City Hospital the twenty nine point six percent to the St. Luke's Hospital which was only eleven point two percent. It's

doubtful that the increase in Syrian's is due to the high Portuguese population. Given that Cambridge City hospitals not that much different same population. What else is left over to explain this high rate. Basically speaking from what data is known at the state level the data from the state level we can tell that there is too high a rate of C-sections or appears to be too high or a to c sections of Cambridge City Hospital relative to other hospitals in the state. All we can do is a limit what are sort of. Arguments that might explain this namely the fact it has a unique demographic characteristics which it does not appear to have. What this leaves is the question about the medical practice that is taking place at the hospital. The question is what characteristics are taking place in the actual operating room at Cambridge City hospital what are the medical practices that are going on there. Because those would explain what they may be that the explanation for what is the reason for the high seas Ariens could be as

several people have suggested it's a teaching hospital. It allows for increases in finances could be doctors who are nervous about lawsuits there are several different kinds of explanations but they really deal strictly with the question of what is the medical practice within the hospital the non-medical practice explanations for this cause do not seem to be very I do not seem to be very substantial for now the officials of Cambridge City Hospital are waiting for the results of the Cambridge Health Policy Board report to comment. The report is due sometime around the middle of November for GBH Journal MacFadden. Boston Mayor Kevin White attempted to upgrade his image on housing today by announcing some

concessions to opponents of condominium conversion. And by announcing a new mortgage program Mickey Rourke prepared this report on where both white and Tumulty stand on housing. Three weeks from today is Election Day in Boston the heated race for mayor has focused on housing as one of the major issues it has become an issue partly because Boston tenants realized that their needs were not being dealt with the needs for safe and well maintained housing. The need for affordable rents and the need for stability in their apartments the existence of rent control keeps rent stable enabling tenants to stay in their apartments. Vacancy decontrol creates a situation where the rent of a vacated apartment may increase dramatically. The rent control ordinance was going to expire at the end of this year but a large public hearing held this summer convinced Mayor White that rent control was an important issue. The next day he proposed an ordinance to continue rent control for another three years but continuing the present right Control Ordinance meant also continuing bacon see decontrol. I asked Andy

Owens who was mayor White's housing advisor about the mayor's position on a record or not. We have a strong effect of one control program that covers about 60 city. We focus really protection for a group of kind of scenario where I could probably been performed agree we have made back the people who want to protect the people who generally don't know much. When I was a large transfer of population Lots of which were students and there was no particular public policy purpose in subsidizing rents and that's what rent control doesn't away. What's your response to critics who say that vacancy control is going to phase out rent control. Well I mean I don't have any response to that. Maybe we'll have a new program 10 years from now when when if that comes to pass just of Tumulty Kevin White's opponent in the mayoral campaign has changed

his position on gun control since the preliminary election in September. Before that time his position on gun control was identical to Mayor White's. Now he's taken a stronger stand on rent control advocating that vacancy decontrol be abolished. His deputy campaign manager Judy Meredith explained why Tumulty changed his mind. New information that we kept on gathering not only during the primary but after the primary indicated to think that the vacancy rate was getting smaller and getting down close to 1 percent. That heating costs were going above anybody's expectations of that they ever would be and this is one way to keep down inflation for people for poor people. And people on fixed income and simply that the rent control advocates had a very good job of organizing around that issue. And everywhere he went during the primary people talk to him about how important rent control was to them and he simply said that it was very

very important to people and. Decided he should change his mind both on the new information that we kept on pulling out and the fact that people very much wanted it and need felt they needed it. I think the fact that mail came as well was so high was another piece of evidence that showed how much people wanted it needed rent control and what do the candidates positions mean for the tenants of Boston. The Alliance for rent control has been active in making rent control an issue in this campaign they favor passage of the Home Protection Act which calls for a continuation of rent control without vacancy decontrol and a ban on condominium conversion. MIKE KANE of the alliance expressed some of their views and extending coverage for the units that are currently covered. Clearly responding to pressure from the kind of movement that was building up in the fact that some of this. We're pushing the reconciliation very hard in the preliminary election. But the mere support of vacancy decontrol means that the reconciled

system will eventually be phased out. That is a very anti kind of posture and we'd like to see some movement by the mayor on that issue. So far you haven't budged on at issue. Senator Kennedy has a verse and stuff on that issue and that is a major difference. So in both cases we need to clarify what their positions are. But clearly Senator Timothy's position is much closer to the kind of movement or position they can seek to control. I think I think that we have to hold the mayor accountable before the election on the issue he is the incumbent and the only standard that will be acceptable to the kind of blossom or will be for the mayor to reverse himself and they completely control to and condominium evictions to stop conversions and if he would support our bill the Home Protection Act those things would occur and there still is time to enact it prior to the election anything short of that will not satisfy the tenants of Boston for GBH Journal. That's why the Los Angeles great American freedom banned gay men and lesbians only one of the

star attractions of last weekend's lesbian and gay national march on Washington. There's a battle of crowd estimates going on so all we can tell you is anywhere from 25000 to 100000 people showed up from every state in the union for the march they marched under banners proclaiming their State of Origin. New York Tennessee Iowa Alaska and chanted whistled and Wolf their way down Constitution Avenue to a three hour rally. Right. I next Biggers will be Adele Starr from Los Angeles parents and friends

of gays. And when you get a million dollars and a Chinese for everybody you have here today we have hard tonight you know your little child we live without children. We already know what I did was. From our hearts to your knowledge there are barriers we have how do you have any of the men and the discrimination that hurt our gay children together we and our children shall be added to the abductees that have piled higher levels and even more than.

That here in the last contingent ideal. What did you look at here. When I wouldn't really think I'll ever get around you know your parents are living away what you like and you're thinking about. I doubt if my mom could knowing that I really do I wish you were I mean it would matter and I wish you would change the way you feel and I know that she loves me and wants to have and make no demands and yet I know it does make a difference to her. Back here in Boston lesbian and gay activists are saying the march signaled a new era for the gay liberation movement in this country. Richard Burns of the gay community news says from now on the movement will not only be local but also national It was the first time that elements of

all the elements of the gay community in America had come together in a national nationwide struggle. I think historically in America you've had the development of local gay activist movements. This is the first time that a real conscious effort has been made to develop a national consciousness. We had the first inklings of this development perhaps in the struggle against Anita Bryant in the Dade County referendum a number of years ago. The message for for me was that it is time that we here in Boston and activist and other local community throughout the country to start. In addition to directing energies on a local level to begin to take pay attention. True the need for activism on a federal level. We have got to start lobbying the federal government both the executive branch as well as the legislature. Richard Burns of the gay community news gay movement not only went national with a march this weekend hundreds of marchers stayed over on Monday to lobby their congresspeople for gay rights legislation. And third world lesbians and gay men also held their first national conference on Friday and Saturday.

We'll have more on that conference in the next week. That's the journal for TONIGHT producer for Tonight Show's Marcia Hirtz and the engineer Margo Garrison Orna Feldman help us out with production assistants My name is Amy sands have a good night.