Front Street Weekly; 216

[music] [narrator]: Tonight we'll examine legislative charges of bureaucratic malpractice in Oregon's treatment of its injured workers. [new speaker]: They begin to see rather early that there's a high probability they're going to get pushed into some kind of training that doesn't have a job at the end. And it's very humiliating and, uh, demeaning. [narrator]: Coronary artery disease is the number one killer in America. [new speaker]: Death and life are very personal experiences. And you may read about it but until you feel it it's just an incredible experience. [narrator]: We'll look beyond the stereotype of bureaucracy and meet some workers who make their careers within the system. [new speaker]: I don't like the control part of it I don't like the notion that, um, there is a hierarchy of control and people kind of get in line down below it and

everybody operates under a single kinda rule. [narrator]: They're call private eyes when they meet an action packed life of excitement and suspense. Or do they? [new speaker]: If I broke down a door like a private investigator does on television or race through the streets shooting guns and crashing and I'd be arrested. [Gamble]: Good evening. Welcome to Front Street Weekly. In addition to those stories, we'll discuss why there has been a rise in civil suits in the state's courtrooms. Kevin has our first story on the problems of injured workers. [McGovern]: Ore- as we know is a great place to live. But historically, it has been a dangerous place to work. Our primary industries have a high number of workers hurt or killed on the job. Oregon's system of compensating and caring for injured workers is expensive, controversial and currently under fire in the legislature. Reporter Jeff Young looks at an agency causing a large part of that

controversy. [Young]: Part of what we're paid for when we go to work each morning, is the risk we take while doing our jobs. Though many of us shuffle papers in the comfort and safety of an air conditioned office, others use their backs or run the machines of industry. Generally they know the risk. And sooner or later, they generally get hurt. Depending upon the extent of their injuries, they may become a client of the state's system of worker's compensation. If that happens, they're given a number, a file and informational bro- and some money. And like over 30,000 other workers a year, a series of appointments with their doctors, caseworkers and insurance agents. They've become part of a system that spends a half billion dollars a year on injured workers. Workers are paid by their employers insurance company while they recuperate. And if

their injury is serious and permanent, then they also receive a cash settlement to compensate for lost earning power. The cold fact is that while they rest, suffer or contemplate the future, they're costing someone money while off the job. Since 1976, the worker's compensation department has operated a facility to rehabilitate them physically and to assess their chances of returning to their job or perhaps being trained for a new one. If within 120 days of their injury they haven't returned to work, entered in a physical therapy program or have demonstrated success in retraining for a different job, but most likely be referred to this facility in Wilsonville. The Callahan center cost the worker's comp system 5.5 million dollars. Its facilities are lavish. The staff is large and the annual budget for its nationally accredited program runs just over 3 million dollars. But

workers usually don't hear of the place until they receive a letter in the mail. What specifically did the letter tell you to do? [Chinchen]: Tell me to report to the Callahan's center on such and such day. or my benefits would be terminated that time. [Young]: Who told you that? [Chinchen]: It was in a letter that I got from the insurance company and I've never heard of anything like that in my life. I just-- I-- I couldn't believe it. [Young]: The workers compensation department is very serious about the help that fills the Callahan's center offers the injured worker. Attendance is more than encouraged. [Ripka]: Statute requires that we inform the patient. That failure to appear will result in an action. Placing them we needed inform them they're in jeopardy. You'd see a l- a lot more complaints if we failed to inform and then suspended. You would be deluged. So we have a statutory requirement there to inform people that they're in jeopardy. Uh, it shouldn't offend anybody who plans on attending.

It's just- [Young]: That's that's like saying welcome, you're in you're in jeopardy. [Ripka]: Okay well I have no control. The legislature has said that if you do not attend, uh, you, uh, you will lose your benefits. OR compensation Department employee Mike Caulkins had neurological damage on the job and was himself referred to Callahan. Caulkins says the mandatory attendance rule fosters a less than positive environment there. [Caulkins]: Lotta workers would get me to one side over coffee or, uhh, at lunchtime, uh, and and and discuss, uh, the problem that they were having. And, uh, they were frightened, very frightened. They had been told if they didn't cooperate their, uh, income would be cut off. Uh, that, uh, they, uh, wouldn't be able to go to their doctor anymore. [Springer]: I would say 9 out of 10 injured workers that I've talked to, have had a negative experience as a

result of the Callahan's Center. First of all, they don't understand why it exists, why they're being asked to go there. Too many fear that, uh, in the, uh, examination process that takes there, physical and mental that in effect the personnel there become investigators for the insurance carrier or the employer who's tryna close down a claim. And in fact it would appear that the number of claims that are closed based upon the findings reached at the Callahan's center, have increased in the past year or 2 and this may be contrary to the opinion, uh, that injured workers own physician as to whether or not that person is, uh, recovered or is able to go back to work or the kind of work that that person can do. [Wyers]: I think the concept of the Callahan's center is probably a good one initially to try to do a better job of diagnosing and helping with treatment of injured workers to get them back to work. See if they maybe needed to be scheduled into some retraining but somehow it's gone very much awry. The, uh, workers told

initially you have to go or you're going to lose your time loss payments even though you haven't been told by your doctor that you're ready to go back to work yet. Uh, they get out there and they get run around through tests that they can't see much meaning for. They begin to see rather early that there's a high probability they're going to get pushed into some kind of training that doesn't have a job at the end. It's very humiliating and, uh, demeaning. There's an atmosphere that hangs over the place that, uh, workers who are injured are somehow trying to beat the system or live off the system. [Young]: Workers compensation department administrator Roy Green says some workers may be tempted to abuse the system. Green feels although most cooperate, rules are necessary for those who wouldn't. [Green]: Can the system afford to allow a worker to not cooperate in his own improvement? And I I believe very strongly the system can't afford it. [Young]: So you have to be kinda tough? [Green]: You have

to be tough. [Young]: That toughness also seems to apply to the center's approach to physical therapy. [Green]: Basically what the Callahan Center does is to institute a medically supervised, uh, increasingly resistant set of exercises that a worker does 2 and 3 times a day. So that as the body or that part of the body builds up, it becomes stronger. While a worker is in there, it hurts. It hurts. To use those muscles and most of those are muscle strains. To use those muscles, causes pain. Now it's not intractable pain but it does hurt. But the problem is if they are ever going to get better they're gonna have to go through some sort of a program of that sort

where they hurt. [Young]: Some patients say they were hurt too much and the pain did not produce healing. [McGrew]: They injured my upper back, again. I had injured it once at work. Missed one day at work with it. They injured it there. I went to chiropractor. He says. You're not doing it. I went back the next day. I said I'm not doing those exercises any more. My hands drawn out. This is straight because of it. That's as straight as I can 'em. And if I use 'em, right very much, they're just like this. [Young]: This man says that in addition to his injuries suffered on the job. He was diagnosed by the Center as having a coronary disease. He claims that although a series of rigorous exercises were prescribed including work on a treadmill, the heart problem wasn't brought to his attention until it was too late. [Chinchen]: After my 15th day there, I had a minor stroke on the freeway coming from the Callahan center after I'd spent a day there. I went back the

next day I told 'em about it. They sent me to a doctor here in Salem. And since then I've had 5 minor strokes. [Young]: Now obviously they do obviously, that you commuted to and from the center. [Chinchen]: Yes. [Young]: Every day. [Chinchen]: Yes. [Young]: They knew that you had a serious heart condition. [Chinchen]: Yes they did. [Green]: And yet it was ok for you to be out driving your car? [Chinchen]: It was all right for me to be out driving my car. To drive to drive the 80 mile round trip a day. Back and forth between Salem and the Callahan Center. Without my knowledge. I did not know it. My first time that I knew it is when I had is when they put me in a hospital. You're getting an arteriogram. At that time they told me that I could have a major stroke at any time. [Young]: Virtually everyone we talked with, had at least one horror story. Every agency seems to generate at least a few. But the consistency of bad experiences at Callahan is documented by the governor's task force and

worker's compensation report of 1980. Of patients surveyed, 67 percent rated the center either harmful or at least unhelpful in their recovery. Only one in 4 say the center's assistants help them. The report also listed relations with the outside medical community as a key problem. [Smith]: Our general Impression has been that that the Callahan center has not benefit benefited patients. I personally have yet to see a patient that's been benefited by the Callahan center. [Young]: Is it it's something inherent with their procedures there their mode of operation, their structure. What is it? [Smith]: I don't know the answer and honestly I've not been there so I've not seen it either. But the response of patients my private patients that I've had about the Callahan center is, uh, they are not complementary, that it's basically a big joke. [Young]: Others find it less amusing. When we first visited the Callahan center a few

weeks ago, this man was storming into the administrators office to complain about the treatment he felt his wife was receiving. [speaker]: I see and what you like and what you don't like- [second man]: I'm going by what I see [speaker]: But you don't know anything about what [second man]: I know that my wife came in here damn near ready to go back to work she was almost normal. You damn near got ready for a wheelchair. [speaker]: That's your opinion. [second man]: That's not my opinion that's a fact sitting right there in that chair it's a fact. [speaker]: Are you a doctor? [second man]: Are you? [speaker]: No but I'm asking. [second man]: I live with the lady, you think I don't know whether she was hurting or not? For Christ's sake. [speaker]: Are you a doctor? [second man]: she was damn near good when she come here. If she sticks around to be a paraplegic for Christ's sakes. [Young]: Does that happen commonly, was that a bizarre event? Was, what was that? [Ripka]: It's neither. It's neither it's neither a bizarre event or a common. It's it does happen. Not routinely but occasionally. It's something we have to deal with and it's an outgrowth of of a number of things. It's an outgrowth of frustration I think number 1.

Fear number 2. I think last but not least is some injured workers have their own agenda and it may not be returning to work. We ask no more of you than we would a- that your employer would ask if you. Put in a day's work for a day's pay. That's all we ask for and that's part of the preparing people to return to work. Getting back to a work ethic that's all. [Young]: Now this program is their last resort. They they can't drop out of this program and go somewhere else and continue to collect? [Ripka]: No. [Young]: So in a sense they are trapped. [Ripka]: Yeah, they are trapped. I didn't build the trap, the legislature did. [McGovern]: Not only did the legislature build the trap, they're now part of it. Although they approve the legislation necessary to build the Callahan's center, they now may have limited power to modify its operations. The center is funded through an assessment of Oregon employers. Limited general revenue funds are used for its operation. If the center is to change, it will

be because Governor Atiyeh decides to work with those outside the executive branch who are critical of the center. [music] [Gamble]: Coronary artery disease is the number 1 health problem in the United States. More and more Americans face the trauma of heart attack and stroke. February is heart month Front street examined why Heart disease is the number one killer and what treatment methods are available. In this story, we show the actual open heart surgery of 3 patients performed in Oregon. A few scenes may be difficult for some viewers to watch. The heart. One of nature's miracles. The chambered muscular organ that contracts rhythmically due to its unique muscle tissue. Through its contraction, it pumps blood throughout our bodies. Poets write about broken hearts usually defining our reactions to lost love. But a broken, in this

case, diseased heart has a far different meaning for the cardiologist. The doctor who deals with diagnosis and treatment of heart disease and for the cardiac surgeon, the specialist who operates to repair damaged hearts. Because of the catastrophic rise in heart and blood vessel diseases, there is a growing concern on the part of the medical community to inform people about ways to prevent these diseases. Cardiac surgeon Dr. Albert Starr explains- [Starr]: A considerable amount of fat around the heart. And this is just a sign of the times. You know, people are basically over nourished and, uh, this is one of the problems. [Gamble]: Dr. Starr what is a heart attack? [Starr]: Well a heart attack is an interruption of blood supply to a important area of heart muscle that produces death of that muscle. [Gamble]: Who gets a heart attack? [Starr]: Uh, anyone can get a heart attack. But it most often occurs in people who have hypertension, who are overweight, maybe diabetic, heavy

cigarette smokers, over nourished. [Gamble]: Most people are either unaware of the causes of heart disease or think they are immune to having a heart attack. Attorney Ferris Booth was no exception. [Booth]: And I had I guess a certain arrogance about my physical fitness being far above men of my age and I will be 60 in another week. So I didn't feel I was a candidate for a heart attack. [Gamble]: But Booth discovered he too would be a heart attack victim. Uh, when you have a heart attack, it seems like every pore of your body is as big that simply turns out water an instant. I was absolutely dripping wet. And then I felt like an elephant was standing and putting pressure on the middle of my chest right in my heart. And I managed to make the bed. And then when you have the tremendous pressure of pain around your heart, your arms and legs sort of go out almost twitching as if an epileptic seizure.

[Gamble]: How has this changed your perception about life? [Booth]: Suddenly human relationships become much more important. And the idea of money, hard work, becomes less important. Now I'm getting back somewhat to my old feeling of optimism where I know I've gotta go out and earn a living and be a good lawyer and make money. But I will never ever be the person I was before. [Gamble]: Although medication and a change in the patient's lifestyle can sometimes be the best treatment for a heart attack victim, incredible advances in surgery techniques in the last few years now offer hope to patients who don't respond to the traditional methods or who need actual heart repair. Front Street met 3 people needing heart surgery and followed each through the surgery itself. Reuben Freidel age 76, had his first heart attack years ago. [Freidel]: I had one in '60 and I also had one-- I mean in '62, and I also had one in '79. [Gamble]: But you never had surgery? [Freidel]: No. [Gamble]: Why was

that? [Freidle]: Well it just seemed more of a mild mild attack ?inaudible? [Gamble]: As you anticipate this surgery in just a little while now, are you afraid? [Freidel]: No, not whatsoever. Maybe some of 'em do but I never did, uh, even when I had my heart attacks I never even was worried or anything like that. [Gamble]: 9 month old Elizabeth Young was born with a condition commonly referred to as the blue baby syndrome. Her parents Judy and Dan have faced the fact she must have corrective surgery. Dan when did you discover the baby had this problem? [Dan]: From birth we knew that she did have the, uh, the problem, the murmur. And, uh, but we didn't know about the complications until about 7 months, uh, you know something we've kept, uh, uh, a tight rein on as far as follow through. But, uh, it definitely is gonna have to be taken care of surgically. [Gamble]: Do you have, um, any fear, Dan, at this point? [Dan]: Oh certainly there's always fear that's more of an anxiety. But

today with the new techniques and the, uh, just the time of the age, uh, it's it's looks really good for her. We want her to be happy. We want her to have every advantage and, uh, that's why we're doing surgery right now. [Gamble]: Machinist Larry Vandyke is 37. He learned 2 weeks ago his diseased heart made him a walking time bomb. How do you feel at this moment? [Larry]: Right now I feel good. [Gamble]: Any idea what caused you to be here? [Larry]: Eh, too much smoking, over work [Gamble]: Are you afraid of the surgery? [Larry]: Right now I'm not. Yesterday was when I had my doubts and my fears A little shook up but it's ?inaudible? now. [Gamble]: But what steps lead to heart surgery and how did Friedel, Young and Vandyke find themselves on the operating table? Dr. Michael Brodure, cardiologist. When is surgery generally indicated?

[Brodure]: I would say, uh, it's generally indicated when, uh, uh, patients, uh, experience symptoms, uh, which are relieved by medications. [Gamble]: Would you comment on the criticism that has been made by some that there are doctors who are too quick to suggest surgery? [Brodure]: I think with any new procedure that, uh, um, you've got a lot of initial enthusiasm and, uh, I think what's happened now is a bypass. Surgery's been around long enough that the indication certainly amongst cardiologists and people who are close to the surgery are are pretty well understood. [Gamble]: At what point does the cardiologist recommend consulting with a surgeon? [Starr]: He would he would call a surgeon if in his view the patient c- aid for an operation. That is they don't they don't always make the decision themselves and then call us and say we want you to do a such and such operation on this particular patient. They would like to explore the possibility of surgery and so, uh,

they would they would call us to see a particular patient for that kind of exploration. [Gamble]: There are 2 important diagnostic tools to help the cardiologist in determining whether to call for the surgeon. One is the stress test, which assesses the flow of blood to the heart. It checks for blockage and detects heart areas not getting enough blood. Front Street passed that test. [man]: Everything looks pretty good so far. No major heart disease. [woman]: Well That's good. [Gamble]: Another diagnostic tool is the arteriogram or angiogram. Where dye is injected into the heart and then the heart is photographed. Dr. William Simcoff cardiologist administers the angiogram to his patient. He explains the test results. [Simcoff]: He's in the hospital. He was placed in bed rest and started on the appropriate, uh, medications in anticipation of the angiogram. And once the angiogram confirms that there was severe narrowing of almost every, uh, vessel supplying his heart. Uh, I

was in contact with the the surgeons, uh, in order to plan, uh, bypass surgery. [Gamble]: So clearly then Dr. Simcoff, bypass surgery is indicated. [Simcoff]: In this case, there's just about no question that bypass surgery is about the only appropriate way to go. [Gamble]: Here in the monitor room at St. Vincent Hospital, we're watching Larry Vandyke who is behind us, being prepared for surgery coronary artery bypass graft. They will do 4 or 5 depending upon the need once the surgeon gets in. Larry Vandyke is an example of the tragic consequence of coronary artery disease affecting more and more young people. [Starr]: We see a lot of young men in this age group with severe coronary artery disease. Now, uh, this patient is a heavy smoker, he's very much overweight, he's not been on an exercise program, he's big and he looks ferocious but he's really out of shape. [Gamble]: What are you doing with him? [Starr]: Well what we're doing is that, uh, he has fortunately

disease confined only to the coronary arteries. He has not had any major heart attacks and he's coming in at the ideal time for correction. And he's got a nice long piece of vein it's an excellent, uh, excellent segment of vein. He has beautiful arteries for bypassing that is the arteries are diseased, it's true, but the disease is confined only to small segments of the artery at the very origins that we plan to, uh, hook into 5 of his arteries. First, using the downstream vessel first and then placing the other end of the grafts on the aorta. We see this problem more commonly in heavy cigarette smokers. That is it's unusual to have to operate on someone under the age of 40. Who was not a heavy smoker. [Gamble]: Elizabeth Young presents a different need to Dr. Starr. She is on the operating table not because of her lifestyle but due to a birth defect. [Starr]: Elizabeth is a, uh, 9 month old little blue baby.

And this is a congenital defect which is really progressive with time. Now that we are able to operate on very small infants sometimes even in the first day of life, we can get her heart back to normal so she can grow and develop normally. [Gamble]: Dr. Starr operates on 76 year old Reuben Freidel, who because of his age, has a higher risk factor. Starr completes a triple bypass graft as well as a valve replacement. He explains the next phase of heart patient care immediately following surgery. [Starr]: Now the patient is is in the cardiac recovering room and it becomes the responsibility of our excellent nursing staff in that area. The anesthesiologist will relate to them, uh, the status of the patient, all the medications that were received in, uh, the surgery, many will be continued by the nurses in the cardiac recovery room. The patient has a tube in his throat, he's on a respirator. Uh, the heart is monitored constantly. Uh, there are tubes for draining excess blood from the

chest. Uh, the patient is sort of in a holding pattern with lots of experienced people around him. Um, moving him towards, uh, uh, a safe landing so to speak. [Gamble]: While each patient is carefully monitored in cardiac care recovery. For the surgeon, remains the happy task of informing his patients families of the surgery's results. [doctor]: Very strong way and there are no complications, no heart block or any other problems. Okay? [woman sighs]: Thank you. [man]: That's great. [doctor]: We'll talk to you later, then. [man]: Okay, thanks. [Gamble]: For Judy and Dan Young, it is an immense relief and an emotion filled moment. [Dan]: Great. Great. Fantastic. [Gamble]: Was it a long night for you? Following the period spent in cardiac care, heart patients are returned to pre-surgery rooms and daily grow stronger towards their goal of hospital discharge and normal lives. But heart disease diagnosis and care, as well as lifesaving surgeries, are

ongoing daily missions for both cardiologists and cardiac surgeon. You do surgeries, several surgeries a day. 5 times a week. Does this surgery for you ever become routine or ho hum? [Starr]: No they never do. They never do because I'm constantly aware that this is a person under these drapes and that, um, what we're doing is so important to them that we we cannot take it lightly. As routine as it may seem to us, for them, it cannot be taken lightly. [Gamble]: Despite the advances that have made open heart surgery more routine, heart disease remains the primary cause of death in this country. Although new medications are also available, still many Americans will face the fact of living with a diseased heart. Changes in diet, regular exercise, no smoking and a less stressful lifestyle are essential components in warding off America's number one killer.

Most heart disease is easier to prevent and to cure. [McGovern]: The dictionary defines bureaucracy as administration of government following inflexible routine. But whether we perceive it as a wasteful unresponsive Giants or a provider of essential services, the impact of bureaucracy on our lives is pervasive. More and more of us are employed in a bureaucratic setting. At some time, all of us deal with those in the bureaucracy. Tonight we will look behind the impersonal face of the bureaucracy and at the careers of those with leadership roles in government agencies. We'll examine why some find this work challenging and rewarding and others equally competent choose to drop out of the system. [music]: Bureaucracy is a pervasive reality in all our lives. Whether applying for a permit, paying a parking ticket, or filing our taxes. We have all had experiences

confronting bureaucracy which reinforce our negative view of the system. What comes to mind when you think of bureaucracy? [man]: The government. [woman]: Unfairness. [man]: Needless red tape and [woman]: Government offices and tryna get things done with, uh, a lotta paperwork I guess. [music continues] [McGovern]: What do bureaucrats do? [woman]: Not very much. [man]: Waste a lot of time and money. [another man]: Help society stay stabilized. [another speaker]: Bureaucrat really doesn't do anything that's the whole problem. [new speaker]: They don't seem to get anything really accomplished. [Thomas Higgins]: People think of bureaucrats as being soulless and unimaginative and wasteful. I came into the bureaucracy through politics

and I've gained a great deal of respect for it and I I have no qualms whatsoever about saying yeah I'm a bureaucrat and I'm a good one. [Shirley Melton]: There's a certain stigma associated with being a bureaucrat which I don't think I or probably most of the people Bonneville they'll suffer from. I do believe that it's important to be an advocate of whatever it is your corporation or your organization is involved in. And at Bonneville, we have a definite mission and role that our agency serves and I think it's very important or to be effective within Bonneville that one is an advocate of that mission and I certainly am at Bonneville I'm very proud of our agency and what it has accomplished. [Ernie Bonner]: I've asked myself that question about why in the world can't I live in such a, uh, group and organization in bureaucracy. I I don't know the full answer to it but I guess probably some of the things that are clear to me are that I don't I don't like the control part but I don't like

the notion that, um, there is a hierarchy of control and people kind of get in line down below it and everybody operates under a single kinda rule. [McGovern:] Tom Higgins held several positions in the Carter administration. Finally a senior staff member at the White House. Here's an example of those who come to their top positions for political appointment. Higgins has served as director of the Multnomah county Department of Human Services for 2 years. [Higgins]: The most important thing I think to a life that gives you a great deal of satisfaction is a feeling that you really are part of something larger than yourself and that doesn't make me or anybody who's involved in it, somehow special or out of the ordinary. But public service does in fact give you the opportunity to touch other people's lives in a way that can be of benefit to their life. And so as a consequence, it's it's incredibly rewarding. [McGovern]: Shirley Melton, chief of the branch of wholesale rates for Bonneville Power Administration, worked her way up through the ranks. This career servant went to work for Bonneville right after

graduating from college and has served 15 years with the agency. [Melton]: I think it's been to my advantage to stay in stay at Bonneville during my entire career. I've sort of been pushed along. So I've been comfortable in the positions that I've moved into. I have enough knowledge of what's going on that I'm not taking a big risk and they're not taking a big risk in promoting me. So the environment has been right for me to succeed. [Bonner]: I didn't feel like I was a failure when I left the city. I think that failure was a failure of, uh, us to kind of match up you know like, uh, that city was plodding along toward its, uh, wherever the hell it was going and and I wasn't with that at all. [McGovern]: Ernie Bonner is the president of sunlight energy systems, a solar energy firm. After serving as director of planning for the city of Portland for 5 years, Bonner chose to leave this key administrative post for the private sector. [Bonner]: There are a lot of things that will go on there. Budget matters where you get creamed by the

city council are, uh, disappointing, um, work by members of the staff or, uh, somebody from the community saying you know who in the hell are you and why and why in the world did you do that. How could you possibly do that. Something like that all of which could just say I don't believe I'm here. If I had to stay another year I would have been less and less able to do the things you just got to do as a minimum in a position like that. Particular leadership which is, uh, positive, uh, you know come on and let's all get together exhortation things like that. You can't do that when you're getting more and more convinced that, uh, things don't go anywhere. [Melton]: I think you have to be able to work within the confines of the bureaucracy somewhat comfortably in order to be effective if because if you can't then you're going to be constantly trying to effect change. Change is very difficult to accomplish in a bureaucracy so you will end up being very frustrated and therefore an effective individual.

I do feel that I I have impact in my job and that's the one reason why I enjoy my job as much as I do. Uh, I'm very happy that I have managed to move into a position at Bonneville that allows me to be influential in the agency's decision making process. [Higgins]: Oh I'd much prefer running things. I've worked for other people and I've had other people work for me and yeah, it's true it's better to have other people work for you there's no question about it. [Melton]: Being a woman with some power is different than being a man with some power and you have to deal with it differently when you are a woman. I have always been very careful about how I view power and it's because of being very sensitive to being a woman in a managerial position supervising mostly men. They, uh, don't view me as a threat in the same sense that they might uh, a woman in particular who has a more aggressive attitude and is out to prove that she can do exactly the same thing that a man could do in her situation and that she deserves the same kind of treatment as a man does. Instead, I

try to influence their thinking by the way in which I relate to them such that they can, uh, begin to appreciate the fact that women can be, uh, successful and effective in situations where they formerly thought only men could be. [Bonner]: ?inaudible? stop the city cause I wanted to go do something else. I wanted a little bit more control over what I did and so [laughs] now I have more control I have absolute control over hardly nothing. There's no articulation of labor. I mean I do everything like I'm going out and put the battery in that I had to get recharged for the left track I do the typing. I do the books. I do the sales. I have a guy who comes and helps me have time to pretty much I have to do everything. With the city when I left there, I really did not have any hope anything was gonna get done. At least now every once in a while I have some hope. You know like w- this is gonna be a successful business right here, we're gonna make money and stuff like that. So I have you know periods of time now when I think you and I have a lot of hope

about what's gonna happen. Although I was making 3 times as much money there as I'm making today. [new speaker]: Top positions in the public sector, invariably do not pay as well as the private sector and that drives some people nuts. They're saying what're talking about, you get a good salary. Yeah I get a good salary, you know. But frankly I also run you know a a 35 million dollar a year operation. If I were running a 35 million dollar year operation with 600 employees in the private sector, I'd be making more money. I'm not in it for the money and I'm not complaining. But if you ask me why a lot of good people won't do this stuff, that that is one of the reasons. [Higgins]: Bureaucracy has a bad reputation. In large measure, uh, because it's visible. It's what people see. [speaker]: It has the same frailties, the same inefficiencies, the same lethargy but also the occasional touches of nobility and dedication and grace. It's it's a very human institution and it works about as well as we work.

[speaker]: What do you think it's like to work for the bureaucracy? [woman]: Boring, very boring. [man]: People defer decisions, they pass things on to someone else rather make the decision themselves. And, uh, I guess I'd just like to I'm more action oriented. [woman]: When I think about doing something I want to just do it instead of just wait around. [Bonner]: If you expect a large organization by virtue the fact that it's large and let's say well funded and so forth to be able to do a lot, you are bound to be, um, disappointed. Bound to be because that is almost exactly the kind organization that will not do a lot. I mean they may have a lot of resources, stuff like that. But it will not go this way or that way easily. Uh, it basically will just go, ooha. It j- it will just sit there. [Higgins]: I think I'm fairly good at moving moving things toward their goal toward toward their completion. Uhh, there's so many variables in the public

sector that don't exist in the private sector, uh, but nevertheless decision making can be done just as fast if not faster in the public sector, uh, if you've got good leadership. [Melton]: I have found that as I've gotten into higher positions within Bonneville it's become necessary for me to be much less shy and retiring in order to be effective. As a young child and all through my early adult life I was a very shy almost introverted, personality. And, um, in the last 5 to 10 years I have changed tremendously as an individual and one area that I have made great strides in is becoming an assertive individual. I have had comments made to me by people that I work for now jokingly telling me that I'm a pushy broad and that they're going to have to watch getting pushy broads into higher management positions at Bonneville cause it really causes them a lot of trouble. So in that respect I feel that I really have achieved a lot in terms of, uh, adapting to what's necessary to be successful in my job.

[Bonner]: I got some some advice, uh, when I was thinking about leaving, uh, from the chairman of planning commission that time. And so he was aghast that I would just wave and he said it's it's the you gotta remember ?any the old? the iron law when walking. He says we just don't take your hand off one strut until you got your other hand on another strut. I don't know what it is I like the challenge but I felt the challenge would be good for me. I'm a much happier person, much, much happier. I like this a lot. It's, um, a good thing that, uh, um, that is is working. I like it a lot. [music] [McGovern]: Like much in life, bureaucracy is far more complex than the stereotypical images we hold of it.

Certainly the inside reality is different from that which we experience as citizens dealing with it from the outside. The motivations and rewards of people attracted to the bureaucracy are as diverse as the numbers who work within it and whether you can personally relate to a choice of a career in the bureaucracy or not. The trend in the American workforce is away from solo entrepreneur businesses. Now more than half of all working Americans are involved in large service related organizations. [music] It seems that no matter what the complaint, people are running to court with their grievances. We've become a sewing society. In the state of Oregon, there has been a 60 percent rise in civil suits over the past 10 years. Cases being brought to court include not only medical malpractice and bankruptcy but also sexual harassment, personal injuries and an

assortment of outrageous claims. For examplem a 9 year old girl in Indiana filed a lawsuit because she didn't find a prize in a crackerjack box. Experts cite many reasons for this rise in litigation. Among those are a poor economy and an increase in the public's awareness that the courts are available to handle these problems. The suing binge is causing additional problems however. With the added legal costs, comes a rise in insurable rates and taxes which is then passed onto the consumer. The power of the judiciary seems to be on the rise as judges are constantly expanding the rights of the individual. [Ben Padrow]: Tonight we will focus on the increase in civil suits in the state of Oregon. With us is Multnomah County Judge Charles Crookham, the presiding judge of the Multnomah County Circuit Court. Judge Crookham, are there too many frivolous suits being filed today? [Crookham]: Yes Ben, uh, there are and sort of a national phenomena we're not the only place that gets them and I, uh, noticed an article in the USA Today last week where a young lady by the name of Loretta

Martin in Billerica, Massachusetts says appearing in Playboy magazine is her ambition and she wants her high school yearbook to say so. School officials say they don't care if she does pose. They just don't want her ambition her ambition listed in the yearbook. She has not discussed the ambitions with Playboy but has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union. And that probably means a frivolous lawsuit in Massachusetts. [Padrow]: Are we getting too many lawsuits, is there too much litigation at this point in terms of Multnomah County? [Crookham]: Well I'm not sure what you mean by too much. I know that there is a marked increase. Uh, 1972 we had 5,300 cases filed. This year or 1982, 8,000. So that's, uh, a considerable increase. [Padrow]: A considerable increase indeed. Is there some kind of a demography, is there some reason in your view why we are getting this tremendous glut of litigation? [Crookham]: Oh I think it encompasses a number of factors. Uh, there's a marked increase in the number of

lawyers, the numbers doubled in a, uh, 10 year period that I'm talking about here from about 3,500 to 7,000. It becomes more popular I think television popularizes going to court. There is m- greater awareness by the public of their rights. Uh, there's been an increase in certain types of litigation fostered by legislative action. [Padrow]: All right let's look at those one by one for a moment. Let's talk about lawyers and with us in the studio is Mr. Jim Rice who is a Portland attorney with the firm of Wolfe, Guthrie, Rice and Gordon. Mr. Rice, are there too many lawyers filing too many suits today? [Rice]: I don't think there are necessarily too many lawyers and with regard to filing suits, there always has to be the underlying act before someone even comes to a lawyer. I don't believe lawyers initiate the litigation. There are outside acts that start them. [Padrow]: In essence however, what is happening is is that we have a tremendous number of lawyers about 7,000 of them here in Oregon as I recall. [Rice]: I believe that's correct. [Padrow]: And at the same time we are having as, uh, Judge Crookham points out, almost double the number of civil suits that we have had in the last 10 years. And what's accounting for that in your

mind? [Rice]: I think there's several factors. The judge pointed out for example that legislation has increased the amount of legis- litigation in certain areas. [Padrow]: For example? [Rice]: The change in the bankruptcy act recently. I've seen statistics that indicate bankruptcies are way up on account of that. There have been changes in rights for individuals, for example in the area of civil rights, uh, years ago women are minorities that may have been discriminated against. Uh, today I think they're standing up and they are taking their cases to lawyers and asking the courts to resolve these disputes. [Padrow]: In essence the court is really between the arbitrator than of the morals and the values of the society. Is that's what's happening Judge Crookham? [Crookham]: Apparently so. People seem to be confident that the court can do all sorts of panaceas for them. I'm sure a lot of them get sadly disappointed with the outcome but that's the anticipation. [Padrow]: Let's turn to this factor of legislation if we may again and look at that more closely. We've talked about the legislation having to do with the discrimination. There is also a whole plethora of legislation now available in the area of consumer rights. Now is that a factor Jim, in your view in terms of

litigation? [Rice]: Uh, that is. We have unfair trade practices which are spelled out by the legislature. And we also have the area of product liability where a manufacturer or a seller can be held liable if if an individual is injured by a product. Uh, that's an area that's grown over the years and more and more that type of litigation is coming to the court system. [Padrow]: Have you found yourself Judge Crookham, that these kinds of cases are appearing in a greater number in your own court? [Crookham]: Yes, uh, I can see a shift away from certain types of cases and an increase in others. The the normal old fender bender with some soft tissue damage has come way down in the total number of cases and, uh, the new things consumer legislation has increased, uh, those cases the discrimination area is, uh, becoming what I might say is popular if there is such an appropriate term. Uh, there are a number of other areas that, uh, we hardly scratched the surface on 10 years ago that are coming to the forefront now.

[Padrow]: So there are some positive aspects to the nature of what is happening with regard to litigation? [Crookham]: Well certainly if there weren't I'm sure most of us wouldn't be around. [Padrow]: At this stage of the game you mean that in terms of discrimination, in terms of consumer protection these are useful kinds of things? [Rice]: That's correct I believe there's an underlying social policy there that's been enunciated by the legislature and the courts and the lawyers are in fact enforcing those goals. [Padrow]: Is there not another factor involved and that has to do with the nature of the society and the change, the radical change in society in the last 15 or 20 years. In the sense that the bond that used to hold people together. Let me put it another way to you it used to be a stigma to go to court. Just used to be a stigma to be divorced. Is this this is no longer the case? [Crookham]: I think that's correct. [Rice]: I also believe that's correct. [Padrow]: Why? What's happened? [Rice]: I think the breakdown between if you lived in a small town perhaps you were reluctant to sue some other person in a small town or even if your injury was in a neighborhood in a larger city, uh, this neighborhood in this small town both are changing both in size and also in composition. We have shifting populations and I think those old loyalties have really been destroyed. [Crookham]: There's another factor.

I see a lot the ferment of the late '60s and the '70s where protest was the order of the day. Protest has been channeled into the courts and I think that that really creates a lot of these things that we didn't have before. [Padrow]: So we've narrowed the focus essentially and as you've said we have to assume that the court in some ways is kind of a Valhalla is gonna be able to pass on to these kinds of thing. On the one who picks up the bill for this incredible amount of litigation which is going on not only in Oregon but across the country? [Crookham]: Basically the taxpayers do because our court, uh, costs money to operate. Our court is not a revenue producing court like some other courts that have parking tags and traffic and things like that. Every time somebody comes in and files a case, we lose money on it. [Padrow]: So in essence you are really not a profit maker. [Crookham]: Well that's exactly right. We are not a profit maker. [Padrow]: Who else has to pay for it Jim? [Rice]: Uh, the clients themselves often have to pay then and that also reduces cases when someone comes in and explains their situation to me. I may explain that it's going to cost several thousand dollars to even get the

case into court. Expert witness fees can be very high whether they're a doctor and a personal injury case or take the product liability case and you not only have the medical doctor but also engineers you can only have 5 or $20,000 in expenses just to get the case before the jury and you may still lose. [Padrow]: There is yet another factor however and I think Chief Justice Berger touched on it at the federal level. I wonder if it's true at the local level. Is the court system really capable of handling this incredible onrush of litigation? Probably not when the taxpayers and the legislators do not want to fund it, uh, fully. And funding it means not only operating capital and personnel but the construction, the capital investment for courthouses and areas to try the cases. And so we're seeing a a response to that by a lot of ideas of diversion, taking cases out of the formal courtrooms setting and disposing of them as expeditiously and as inexpensively as possible.

[Padrow]: That brings us to one of the solutions which has been advocated in several apparently has already been instituted in several states which is the concept of arbitration. You wanna just talk about that for a moment Jim? [Rice]: It's an alternative to actually going to a jury where the court system steps in and imposes arbitration where an arbiter is selected. The rules of evidence are less stringent. It is cheaper and quicker to get your case into court and to get your dispute resolved. And even then if you're unhappy with the result, you still could proceed to a jury trial. It's also done by contract many times in the area of uninsured motorist coverage with insurance companies and also among corporations often they'll institute right into the lease agreement that if there is a dispute arbitration or resolve it. [Padrow]: Where is Oregon with regard to arbitration, judge? [Crookham]: We don't have any firm statute to take care of what we're doing right now. Uh, we have set up a program in Multnomah County. Uh, where the parties may apply for arbitration diversion and then we put them into that system. Uh, those are cases where they agree that the ?lottery? recovery should not exceed $15,000. We've gone to the legislature and, uh, have

asked that they enact some statutes that would, um, formalize this and that we could then have some sort of a penalty but if you are elected out of arbitration you'd have to better yourself or pay the piper. [Gamble]: Private Eyes. We know them from television and movies but are they really like that? Our next story takes a look at how real private eyes operate. [music] [speaker]: Since the early '40s they have been portrayed as the tough guy who got the bad breaks fighting for what's right in this crummy little world. They hit the silver screen in force and sleazy second floor offices where blinking street lights always illuminated those rock hard features that made us feel safe. It was someone you could count on to do the right thing, not the easy thing but the right thing. Life was fast in their company. It was guns and cars and booze and broads. Actions speak louder than words cause might was right. With one foot in the gutter and one foot in the grave we loved 'em.

They were Private Eyes. [new speaker]: I'm up to see it. You're a private eye, huh? [other speaker]: That's right. [speaker]: I'd like for you to look for somebody. [speaker]: I'm closed up pal. Come on we'll talk about it. [speaker]: When they hit the tube they got some class and started making money. But all those fancy apartments and fancy clothes never changed one thing. It was still guns and cars and booze and broads and fighting for right. Because we like 'em that way. They were private eyes. There's only one thing wrong with our image of those rough and tough keepers of justice. Life ain't like that. It seems real private eyes don't even call themselves private eyes. They are private investigators and they don't drive big expensive cars and they don't have fancy offices. So what's it like to be a real private investigator? We did some private investigating of our own and got the

following goods on all of it. [John Beovich]: We've got to obey all the laws that the police obey. We, uh, we've got laws that we can't just go out commit a crime in order to do surveillance or, uh, break the law in order to get evidence on somebody. We're, uh, on the same jurisdiction as the police as far as the laws go. We just can't break the law. However we probably can get away with a lot more stuff than what the police get because they're afraid of lawsuits. [Don Delaney]: We cannot violate somebody's, uh, uh, privacy, trespass on their property like and break down doors and search their houses and offices like you might see on television. However we can observe people. Uh, surveillance as long as we're not obvious in what we're doing. Try not to be obvious and that has gone through the Supreme Court as what a private investigator can do and it's pretty well documented as to what a private investigator can and cannot do. If I broke down a door like a private investigator does on television or raced through the streets shooting

guns and crashing and I'd be arrested and thrown in jail. [speaker]: The work performed by private investigators has been called dirty work because it can involve custody of children, divorce actions and serving papers. Is it still that way we asked? [Delaney]: ?inaudible? dirty work? No long as you're helping somebody out how can you possibly consider that dirty work. It's not my responsibility meaning, uh, I do not I'm not the judge and jury as to who should have the trial or who who has the right for the divorce or who should have this or that. I am not responsible for that. I present the evidence as fairly as I can. The judge makes the decision. The jury makes the decisi- decision. Th- the attorneys use this information and how it's presented. I can only give you facts and they a- they darn well better be truthful and accurate. [speaker]: So let's see. They don't live in the fast lane and solve exotic cases.

There's not a beautiful woman at the end of each solid caper. The fancy cars, apartments and offices don't exist. And a lot of the work is tedious and routine. So what gives? Why do it? [Beovich]: Well I enjoy doing it because I feel I can help people. The need the help where they can't get help from the police or district attorney's office or even probably an attorney. [Delaney]: There is a thrilling part to it. It's different from what anybody else does. But I think the most enjoyable thing is, uh, having all your plans come out right. When a there is a person for example when someone is steaming from a business coming you know. Or, uh, you've set up your, uh, scenario so you can catch that person then he actually comes and you put him on film. There is a thrill to that. Actually all your planning and everything you've done is come out right. [music starts]: Private Eyes, they're watching you, they see your every move. Private eyes, they're watching you. Private eyes, they're watching you watching you watching you watching you [speaker]: If it's your secret dream to be one of those glamorous PI's

that adorn our TV and movie screens. Maybe you should reconsider because as far as we can tell it's not a life of guns and cars and booze and broads. Aw, shoot. Darn it. [music]: Private eyes, they're watching you, they see your every move, baby. Private eyes [Gamble]: And that's all the time we have tonight. Until next week, goodnight. [closing music] [music continues] [music]