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[Narrator] Is it just a sedate social game for grandma, or has bingo become something much more than it was intended to be? [Woman] This is what bingo should be for. It should not be big time gambling like it is in the state of Oregon. [chord] [Narrator] What's the current state of Oregon's economy? We'll get an economic update from two experts on the subject. [Man] I think the Northwest has borne a greater brunt of this particular recession than any recession in the past, and then the nation as a whole. [Host] People in and out of government are questioning the relevancy of county government in the 1980s. [Man] There's a whole superfluous bunch of governmental people out there costing us millions of bucks. [Another man] Perhaps county government is the one unit of government we could do without. [chord] [Narrator] Meet Jim Frantz sheriff of Deschutes county. [Frantz] The principles of the old west are still alive and well in this country. I think the principles that John Wayne and Roy Rogers and mother and the flag and chivalry all stand for are still alive and well in this

country. And I have to tell ya, I'm probably one of the biggest flag wavers you ever met. [Narrator] Your Front Street hosts: Ben Padro, Kevin McGovern and Gwyneth Gamble. [Gamble] Good evening. Welcome to Front Street Weekly. Our first story tonight deals with the business of bingo. It's commonly believed that bingo is a social exercise. That it's entertaining and has the fringe benefit of bringing in revenue for charitable organizations. [Man] To some of us bingo brings to mind images of people sitting around in church basements, marking cards as someone calls out B8 or O55. But since the Oregon legislature passed a law in 1977 exempting bingo from the gambling laws it has become big business. And as Jim Swenson points out, the nature of bingo laws in Oregon creates fertile ground for those who want to profit at the expense of other people. [Swenson] From the sedate social game amongst a few grandmothers, bingo today is a booming

business in Oregon. Somewhere between 10 and 25 thousand people are playing bingo for bucks at more than 300 games around the state. In the past two years the popularity has doubled, according to Bob Zenato, a man who sells supplies to bingo operators. [Zenato] It's a sophisticated game, more professional and the prize money is good in some of these games. You can walk away with a thousand, two thousand dollars, you know, and that's a lot of money. And some of the people are unemployed now, they're instead of, oh I guess they used to hang around a tavern, well they'll sit there and play bingo and they'll donate to the cause and on top of that they walk away with some of the money too. So it's a game of chance. [Bingo caller] I-17, one seven [steel drums] I-26, two-six. [Swenson] Out on the streets, banners, billboards, marquees and neon signs proclaim the

locations where one may engage in the legal gambling which Bingo has become. In newspapers, advertisements compete side by side to entice players with promises of free steaks, home appliances, automobiles, expense paid trips to casinos and cash jackpots in the thousands of dollars. [Bingo caller] [steel drums] G-57. Five Seven. [Swenson] Make no doubt about it - Bingo is big business. In Washington state where bingo is strictly regulated and taxed bingo players laid out between 88 and 90 million dollars last year. in Oregon. There is no regulation. but the estimates run up to 60 million. Something more than just a small social game for grandma. [Man] What is happening is people are stealing the cards out of the bingo halls, taking them home and reconstructing them by tearing them open, then on the inside they will go ahead and put a

wheel on each corner. I don't know if you can see that or not, but they can spin those wheels to whatever number they want. They close it back up with some type of a tape that will keep it down. Then they are able to take a pencil and slide the number that they want up in the corner by just spinning with the pencil. So that way they are able to call a bingo. This green card is your biggest paying card. They do have some leads on someone in the Tacoma area that is manufacturing the green cards and selling them for two hundred fifty dollars apiece. Which one night would pay for itself if a person really knew how to use them and used them properly. [Bingo caller] G-57. Five seven. [Swenson] It's easy enough to get a bingo game going in Oregon. The state law passed in 1977 allows almost any nonprofit charitable religious, education or paternal organization

to conduct bingo games. All that's required is a tax exempt certification from the IRS, which is then filed with the state corporation commission in Salem. Some four hundred sixty two such authorizations are currently on file. They include 67 Catholic churches, several other denominations, including a Buddhist temple, 51 American Legion posts, 22 Eagle areas, 38 Elks lodges, 22 Moose, 8 Lions and 15 odd fellow organizations. There are also an assortment of social service agencies, neighborhood associations, youth groups, a rabbit breeders club, a CB radio club, a mobile home park, labor unions and even a group at the Port of Portland. Obviously the IRS is quite lenient in its judgment as to what constitutes a tax exempt organization and the state doesn't look any further beyond the IRS determination. [Steel drums playing] [Bingo caller] B-6. Number six. [Swenson] Oregon's hands-off bingo law was intended to allow as many tax exempt organizations as

possible to take advantage of bingo as a source of recreation and income. And except for a few, the groups that have cashed in on the bingo boom do support good intentioned, charitable programs of service to the community. [Woman] Friendly House started the bingo game in 1979, January of 1979. We have a cooperative preschool, we have an afterschool program for children kindergarten through sixth grade, we have a youth program for youth seventh grade through high school. We have a program for chronically mentally ill. We have a senior program, we have an emergency assistance program and we have a satellite program at Linton community center. [Man] We have approximately four to five hundred boys in our hockey program from ages four years old up to 19 years old. The money that is made at bingo pays for equipment for boys that are unable to buy their own equipment. It also pays for the rental of the ice time. We pay the referees, we have referees to pay.

So this is where the most of our money goes. [Bingo caller] G-50. Five oh. [Swenson] Of growing concern to the legitimate organizations who are conducting bingo games are those who are taking advantage of Oregon law by setting up commercial bingo operations where the profits go to undetermined causes. No one in Oregon audits bingo operations and forming a tax exempt church is as easy as mailing a letter. [Man] Well as you know anyone can send away and get a Universal Life Church or some other church down in California and Texas for $15, or a bishop for maybe $50, you can be a bishop. So then now you incorporate yourself and you don't even have to have a church or meetings and there's no doctorine. In fact now you can get a group license for $15 from the Universal Life Church. [laughs] It's the same company.

But that's legal in Oregon and therefore there are a lot of games going on in Oregon where the people hand out a few dollars to some cause. It's a good cause they give it to, but they profit a majority of the money. and There's nothing you can do about that. [Swenson] According to bingo insiders, one such operation is the Church of Conceptual Truth in Southeast Portland. There are other operations like this. Here the church is the bingo parlor, a former supper club. They offer big prize money as inducements to attract players from other games. Front Street cameras were barred from filming the games, which five nights a week may draw upwards of 400 people who spend between 10 and 40 dollars an evening. The house takes can range from $4000 to $8000 a night. Maybe more. The house payout is considerably less. Where does the money go? Does it go to charitable purposes? Under Oregon law there is no way to find out. Dr.

Martin Gurgler, pastor of the Church of Conceptual Truth, refused to be interviewed by Front Street to discuss these questions. [Man] What has happened in the last year is the smaller bingo games, which basically were churches, which started bingo to help their parish or help some organization with a- with a good idea behind the whole thing, have been smothered out by the bigger games that are coming in that seem to be, well, not too much information on where they're going, where the money goes, and consequently the little fellows have had to close up because they can't pay the big money. [Woman] There's a lot of big game throughout the city offering big prizes. We couldn't match in anyway those- the prizes that other big games were offering. [Swenson] And so Friendly House was forced to shut down its bingo games. [Steel drums] No one is proposing to eliminate bingo, or make it less accessible by regulating it, and in fact the

experience in Washington is that increased regulation has not discouraged the number of games. But it has eliminated the big commercial bingo operations that, at least in Oregon, are beginning to deprive some other groups of the revenue source that the law intended them to have. [Music playing] [Woman] Bingo really- it's for people like myself. I'm a grandmother, I'm 53, you know. And all of our children are raised. It's for people like us, you know. We've worked all our lives and now we're through working, we've raised our kids, we want to have a little fun, you know. This is what bingo should be for, it should not be big time gambling like it is in the state of Oregon. [Man] Law enforcement officials who we've contacted said they will seek tighter controls of bingo in the state Now that it's obvious that commercial operators are involved. The state of Washington may be one example to observe. There, before anyone can obtain a bingo license, he or she must prove that the organization is a well-established, bona fide group whose community

service activities are well documented. In addition, operators of the games are screened for a past criminal history and their books are frequently inspected. [Guitar music] [Gamble] For too long now our economy has been in serious trouble. Many experts say we are in a depression. Lately, adding to the uncertainty is the strange and unpredictable nature of Wall Street. Ben Padre will talk to two experts. But first this report. [Swenson] United States has once enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world. Americans became accustomed to making more money than anyone else. But regrettably that situation no longer exists. Oregon's economy is particularly bad, much like states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.

[Man] I think the Northwest is probably borne a greater brunt of this particular recession than any recession in the past, and the nation as a whole. We've certainly got some of the highest unemployment rates and we've probably had some big structural changes in some of our industries as well. [Swenson] The recession in the state and the country is continuing longer than anyone has ever predicted. Unemployment is still too high and everyone is susceptible. Even people who thought they had job security are joining the unemployment line. The housing market is going nowhere but down. And long term interest rates are out of sight. Fluctuating short term interest rates have caused particular changes in the stock market. Recently it suffered it's sharpest drop since the 1929 crash. Both losses and gains have prompted many investors to make time to see their stock brokers. They are watching the market action on electronic ticker tape and getting quotes on hundreds of stocks. [Man] We're moving back to where people are starting to talk about savings and investment and stocks and bonds and traditional types of savings.

And I think that's a real positive move, but we're just not there yet. We've still got pretty high interest rates. We've still got high unemployment and so we're still in that transforming stage. [Swenson] There seems to be a vulnerability throughout the country. Difficult times force all of us to live with less. Inflation has started to increase again, is expected to rise to 8 percent by the end of 1983. That little bit of bad news is going to affect Oregonians particularly hard. And now economists are saying they see no clear sign of a recovery until 1984. [Man] Once the nation gets going Oregon will follow. It'll just take some time. [Swenson] Our guest today on our discussion of the economy is Mr. Dan Goldie, who is a private consulting economist and does a number of guest television commentaries. And is past director of economic development for the state of Oregon. Joining Mr. Goldie is Mr. Arnham Minnesin, sales manager for Merrill Lynch and Company, who has been with the firm for over five years. Started out in Omaha, Nebraska and until recently was an account executive for the Paris, France office of

this company. Gentlemen, let's begin by asking an opening question and that is - where in your view at this moment is the Oregon economy? [Man 1] Dan, I think it's bouncing along on the bottom. There are some who think that because interest rates have come down some that the Oregon economy will take off next year and do much better. I don't see that happening unless there are some major changes yet to become in both Federal Reserve actions, Federal Reserve Board actions, and the mix of policies of the Reagan administration. I think we're at the bottom and I think we'll be staying where the bottom at least for awhile. Could be- could be for a year, yeah. [Swenson] For at least for a year, in that case. And you say there has to be a new admixture in terms of the federal approach to this problem. [Man 1] A new mixture of policies which would include a new home building program. Just interest rates coming down by themselves, while they may add 100,000 or 200,000 starts to the homebuilding figures,

will not be enough to repair the damage in the lumber and plywood industry, the forest products industry, the state. And to do that it's going to take a new home building program, Hopefully we will get a new home building program in 1983 and that will help produce a real improvement in the Oregon economy in 1984. Imagine the stock market now, let's turn to Arnham for a moment about that and see if you want to comment on this thing. Why is the stock market going through these kind of wild gyrations at this time and what significance do you think this has for both business and investors in Northwest? [Arnham] OK, why is a stock market going up? Basic answer to that is because interest rates are going down. The 1970s were a period of high inflation. And investors were turning away from financial assets and towards hard assets. Real estate paintings. What have you. The nineteen eighties and since the move of the Federal Reserve Board in August, we have seen a dramatic

change where people are turning away from hard assets and into financial assets. And this is why bonds and ultimately stocks are becoming more and more attractive to the general public. [Swenson] Does this have any specific effect on business and investors in the Northwest as opposed to other parts of the country? [Arnham] It's hard for me to pinpoint what influence it will have on the Northwest but I think that the market and the actions of the market are predicting a fairly strong recovery sometime down the road. [Swenson] Alright let's talk for a moment about this factor and carry it a bit further in terms of the interest rate since it seems to be a key factor. Now in the short term apparently the interest rates are beginning to go down, what's happening with the long term rates? [Arnham] They have come down too, substantially. [Swenson] To what effect, in your view? [Arnham] Well they have come down just in line with the short term rates. Short term rates tend to decline first and then come down the long term rates. [Swenson] Is there an analogy that one can draw in terms of the stock market? Is another period in which this kind of

barometer, in essence, you're saying that the stock market is a barometer [Arnham] Yes [Swenson] of the economy [Arnham] What seems to puzzle a lot of people is that the market is going up when we seem to be touching bottom in the economy. Now we have to remember that the market is a leading indicator. Investors are usually pretty knowledgeable and they tend to detect signs or changes six months to a year before they actually happen. In 1974, the market turned around in the fall of 74 when the economy did not start to pick up until the spring of 1975. And I think we're in a similar situation, recovery would probably start in the second quarter of 1983. Many economists would agree with it [Swenson] Dan what do you say? [Goldie] Well, I think it depends on what the Federal Reserve Board does. [Swenson] Uh huh. [Goldie] You watch the gyrations daily or weekly of the stock market now it's very volatile and whenever they think that the Federal Reserve Board might cut the discount rate to the banks, the discount rate another half a percent or a percent by the stock market

goes zooming. And when they get disappointed the stock market comes down. In Oregon is a credit sensitive economy. Our basic industries respond to credit situation. The stock market has taken off because the Federal Reserve Board has brought interest rates down. The question is did they change their basic policy which was adopted October 1979? And when they decided to target monetary aggregates instead of interest rates, or is this a distinct temporary accommodation for an election, or because the economy is so fragile that they were afraid of a total collapse? And will they revert to their basic policies of trying to control monetary aggregates? There are some of us who think they can't do it. That when they do try to do it as they've done it since October 79, what happens is that interest rates are very volatile, they go up and down, they gyrate. This means that investors have to be very cautious. The fact that interest rates have come down this far.

First, it isn't down enough to permit the economy to take off. You can drown just as effectively in 13 feet of water if you can't swim that you can in 18 feet of water. And secondly, if the investors the banks that have to end the depository institutions would have to provide mortgages and the investors would have to invest in long term bonds are fearful that the volatility of rates will send them sky rocketing again somewhere down the line because of the huge budget deficits. Then they're not going to invest and not going to make those commitments and if they don't there are [Swenson] let's take that just a step further then. You touched one of the important factors which is the federal deficit. Well the federal deficit obviously is an important factor in terms of interest rates. Arnham, you want to comment as to what you perceive that deficit is going to do in terms of the future? [Arnham] Well there's no doubt that we are going to have a deficit this year and we're going to have a deficit in the year thereafter. The administration has embarked on a program to reduce the deficits. I think that these programs will probably take effect, but

we will have federal deficits for a few years to come. [Swenson] And they will have an effect on the interest rates then? [Arnham] They will have an effect but I think that the Fed is intent on bringing interest rates down. And therefore they will accommodate. The money supply to permit interest rates to go down. [Swenson] Bring that together for a moment is that the reading you're getting from this recent congressional election? Is there an economic message in that election, Dan? [Goldie] I think so. I think the message is that people don't want to stay the course, they want the Course modified. They don't want to throw everything out they like some of the Reagan objectives but they want to modify them. I think that the way it turned out the president has a different philosophical group to deal with in the Congress, I think he's lost his philosophical majority in the Congress, which he had when he could run things pretty well the way he wanted them for two years. I think the result is going to be as Arno suggests. One, pressure to bring the deficits down by reducing defense, the rate of increase in defense

expenditures and other items. Two, some tax increases to balance it out and three, there will be great congressional pressure on the Federal Reserve Board for a major modification of policy not just a temporary one to target interest rates and particularly, the new interest rate the premium and the interest rate rather than monetary aggregate. [Swenson] Well there was discussion today as I recall in the news that the Congress is thinking about essentially about essentially its ordering the Federal Reserve system to modify their interest rate. [Goldie] Yes, bills have been introduced, they were introduced in the current session and they'll be up again in the lame duck session. But I wouldn't expect to see any action on those bills until the next regular session next year. But I think that the fact that there is a really bipartisan group. It isn't just liberal Democrats who want to do it, but some of the conservative Republicans who want to do this as well. I think the fact that there is a bipartisan group leaning for a major change in Federal Reserve Board Policy. I think that the Federal Reserve Board chairman and the Board of Governors are not unmindful of this they don't want to lose an amount of

heat themselves you bet which is why they don't want to lose their independence and I think they are accommodating to some degree to that pressure. All right let's come for a moment to the pressures of here in the state of Oregon for a moment. May I ask each of you to comment on what you view the future, what is with future in terms of the state economically at least for when we talk about the future and talking about a year from now perhaps two years from now. Well in so far as. The economy of Oregon is affected by interest rates and interest rates we believe are going to come down we probably can forecast a pickup in economic activity in Oregon. Would you agree Well let me just say that there is a body of opinion around that says that our lumber and private industry wood industry which is our biggest industry will never recover will never go back to the previous levels of employment because we will never have a home building program again in the United States that it may get up to 1.3, 1.4 million starts rather than 2.3 million starts. We've become accustomed to and which has been projected for the decade of the 80s.

I disagree with all that. I don't see the economy of the United States recovering without homebuilding and the other credit sensitive industries like automobiles and so forth leading the way. I think that 1983 is going to be the year when the Congress and the president are going to argue about it. Forgive me Dan. our time is up but both of you seem to be in agreement that the situation in terms of the future looks far better than it does today. I may just say I think that they will get a new program an 83 a home building program I think in 84 we're going to go back the boom period in Oregon. I think the market is telling us the story. Gentlemen thank you very much for being with us and giving us an examination of the economy and the upturn which both of you perceive is coming. The idea of local government doesn't even appear in the U.S. Constitution yet according to a

statewide census there are thirty six counties. Two hundred thirty nine cities. Hundreds of school districts and nearly a thousand special service districts in Oregon. Many people are asking if that's too much government. They want to know if we'd get along just fine without counties. Rebecca Marsh reports on the relevance of county government in the 1980s and one of Oregon's largest counties and its smallest Washington County Oregon's third largest county with a population nearing a quarter of a million people. One of the original four counties of the territory of Oregon best known is Portland's suburban neighbor to the west for high tech growth and for bad roads a county searching for an identity. Washington county has not discovered what it wants to be when it grows up. We're a very youthful county relative to our Urbanization and our population whether you look at when we were founded liken it to 43. We've only been urbanized for the last 20, 25 years in a process of urbanization I don't think we're quite there yet.

Washington County Commissioner Bonnie Hayes admits the county's transition from rural to urban has presented some problems. The ones that a lot of our citizens point to immediately would be the transportation system the transportation system we basically have a network of roads that were functioning to get produce to market and to get the people back to their rural homes. [without?] here in Washington County Probably the best humanization of dollars by comparison to other urban counties in evidence we have a very minimal budget. Thirteen million dollars for example for a On the road levy exceeded the 10 million dollars for the operations for the rest of the county. The fact that Hillsboro is a county seat and in West Washington county, people in east Washington county do have a difficulty identifying with county government. The Beaverton, Raleigh Hills, Garden Home area yes you do see an influx of people into to the Portland area to work. On the other hand as

Because of our urban growth we are in a position of creating some exciting job opportunities I see a movement so that you can live, work, and play very close to home. You're going to be able to stay in Washington county and as that evolves in the next ten to twenty years we're going to, I'd see less migration into Portland during the daytime hours. Not so much that we'll have Portland coming out to Washington county we will see that. But just the idea that Washington County is still green and it's very appealing. And you can live here and your job is here and there are activities that you can participate in and that is going to keep our growth. That's going to maintain, it's going to Provide some consistency. Our county has not had before. Washington county government is caught in the middle. It's in a transitional situation. No County government in Oregon probably had a better head start on land use

planning in 1973 and yet because and yet because of six or eight years of political infighting and personality conflicts that head start has been frittered away quite honestly. Elden Hout was a Washington County Commissioner from 1967 to 1974 and is now on the staff of the Land Conservation and Development Commission. Washington County is the last county west of the Cascades and one of the last four in the state yet to complete its land use plan Well I think it's been a problem for Washington county over the last eight years to get it's house in order and there's been a lot of political infighting a lot of personality conflicts that have really deterred them from doing their essential job that simply has to be done or the community is going to be overrun by the growth that is inevitable in Washington county. It's come from being on the one hand a breadbasket agricultural community to becoming a housing bedroom

community of Portland and now trying to achieve a balance between commercial industrial and a bedroom function. This is very very difficult it's a very attractive place to live. it's A community that has some tremendous natural resources in terms of the people who live there. Human resources and yet there is a lack of identification with the county as a unit of government. People don't tend to identify with it. They look to Portland they look to their school district, they look to the city that they live in, and county government has kind of gotten left behind. In an urban area I think counties suffer a great deal from people not understanding what they do or how they relate to their personal lives. And I think there are regional, i.e. metropolitan kind of problems that ought to be addressed on a metropolitan basis. But the trouble is we have many metropolitan governments we have the Port of Portland, we have Trimet, we have the MSD,

we have a health planning agency. We ought to only have one metropolitan government and it ought to deliver the services that are capital intensive. Things like sewer and transportation. drainage those kinds of heavy capital line items because there is an economy of scale. State Senator Ted Helleck retiring after 20 years in the legislature supported two measures concerning counties in 1973. One would have consolidated the State into five counties paralleling congressional districts. The other would have abolished counties altogether. What I'm saying to you there is a whole superfluous bunch of governmental people out there costing us millions of bucks. If you cut out 31 county governments, and 31 sets of good old boys and you know, county sheriffs and all that kind of thing, and peel it down to five, and let the state pick up the slack you have saved the taxpayers in property taxes, property taxes I might add, hundreds of millions of dollars. That's what the bill would have done. well we we're almost laughed to death. Personally, I think, in the metropolitan area

We have far too many governments and a consolidation is in the public interest at least as I would define it. Perhaps county government is the one unit of government that we could do without. At the transportation systems, the amount of fuel that's available, new communication systems, all of that. may so radically change the way we live that government has to take some new form that none of us are aware of now. What's the future of The structure of county governments in Oregon if they are not consolidated and they're not abolished. I think that the elephant will sink in the slime. Wheeler county Oregon's smallest county with less than fifteen hundred residents established in 1899 when county seats were chosen because they were less than a day's ride from most parts

and the county government was carried west and was embodied in Oregon's Statehood Constitution and in 1869. The earliest form of governing body consists of a judge and two commissioners. That's the way it still is in Wheeler county where life is different. Government is different. It works beautifully. It works beautifully and firstly You have to understand it. The judicial function for a lay county judge such as myself and now Judge Hoover is allowed to take place in the absence of a resident circuit judge. And any decision that we make is always subject to the circuit court. It's the most visible unit of government in the county. Our little towns do have city government but I believe that

most of the people look to the county for various services. And of course the court house services of recording, and the assessor, and the treasurer, and the clerk, county judge, and the county commissioner, and factor all in the court house. I think government at the city and the county level is essential out here. I'm not sure of urban areas but I don't think the state has as heavy a regulatory hand as they would like to have. The state wanted to send one fellow out here, a bureaucrat out here, to tell me that he was presenting the county a bill for rock that we had mined out of our own rock quarries for our own roadwork. And you'd better believe that man went away with no money from Wheeler county. That to me was totally ridiculous. I just love this old store. [garbled]I think if when I was 25 years old somebody said to [?] wind up your career running an old country store and I would laugh at him. I truly believe, now this

Sounds like [?] that it is, it really is, but I think we live out here the way most Americans think they would like to live I really do. I'm part of this to the best of my recollection, the fifth generation of my family, in Wheeler county. The best records [?] they settled in the Fossil area About 1869 I think I've probably in the last year become more aware of what my responsibility is to mankind than I ever dreamed was possible. The reason I say that because in our county I am the juvenile department I'm also probate judge and I'm the chief

executive officer in the county. If there's anything is Wheeler county's business it's my business. A big land management agency directly involved in Wheeler county business And we in theirs, that probably was my feeling that a little better means of communication ... [two people speaking at once] ... our two counties there's approximately two, 2.7 million. Basically I consider we are definitely a resource orientated county. I'm talking about forest products and grazing of Livestock. Both sheep and cattle. I'm quite well aware that both of these industries, as I like to refer to them, as Rather than hobbies are anything like That. Are in economic trouble at the present time. Our, I think that's where our future lies, where our past

has been and can't see any great change. To abolish or consolidate counties I don't really think there's much, Is of much concern at the present time. I think with the legislature and the state government is probably pretty happy with the way they're set up because of the fact that We have consolidated in the last few years in the various of state districts. Wheeler county's land use plan has been submitted to but not yet approved by the LCDC. Basically what we're concerned with is we preserve the resource base of the county. I'm talking about , in our deal of, less than 3% of the county is tillable so every acre of tillable ground is important to people of Wheeler county. I fear that we have neglected in the past the attention that we should be directing towards public lands, and private lands, timber lands, and grazing lands. I mean we've approached it with the assumption that well they're here and they'll always be here and in my estimation that's not true they've got to be taken care of.

you think the future looks good for the county, are you optimistic? I'm optimistic, I think we'll be here long time after all the other species exist What did you learn about the role of county governments actually play in a citizen's life. Well I think local government is more important in eastern rural Oregon, where [umm] There's certainly less government. What about in that case county government consolidation does that make sense and you think it's going to happen. Well there's nothing coming up in the 1983 legislature dealing with the issue but it's come up before. I think it will come up again especially when we're talking about in the Portland metropolitan area there are more than 400 different separate kinds of government. Yeah it's come up here a lot. Becky was there anything in The recent elections will have an impact on our county's. well ballot Measure three failed and that was very important to counties in Oregon. Washington County would have lost 18 million dollars if that had passed. Washington County will also have a new commission chairman and he is a

strong supporter of state land use planning the former commission chairwoman was really favoring local control. And Judge Lee Hoover who we saw in the story who'd been appointed this year to fill a vacancy was elected. [music] Jim France is only the fourth. chair of Deschutes County since 1916. Although Jim is stuck behind a desk, he knows old timers still size up a law man by checking his handshake for callouses. and Jim has them. He spent hours working in the heat of the high desert. His boots are dirty. His talk is straight. Maybe that's why so many people told us Jim measures up pretty well. At 6:00 in the morning in Hampton Oregon cold cut through the leather. Nothing Sounds better than hot coffee with four fingers of whiskey in it. But that would have to wait

today. a heifer herd was being moved. Already writers were beginning to gather. Sure of their cows and ready to start herding and sorting [inaudible] I'll tell ya we lost a good one when we lost John Wayne Henry Fonda Jim French said this day away from the sheriff's office. Would be a tranquility pill for him despite the sweat and the hard work it would be a time to trace the patterns of the land on horseback and as he put it getting his head screwed on straight. If his horse wasn't faulty and didn't step in a badger hole he'd be all right. We had a lot of wrecks out here last summer for instance The foreman was onto a steer was going to rope it put his horse up in a badger hole did a cartwheel and he ended up with broken collar bone bunch of ribs but I'll have to tell you these cowboys are tough breed

even to today to think of people being back in the 1800s early 1900s cowboys are a tough breed. I like to be around very real people the ranchers in this county people who are not pretentious people who are honest people who tell you something you can take that to the bank. The principles of the old west are still alive and well in this country I think the principles that John Wayne and Roy Rodgers and mother and the flag and shit like that all stand for is still alive and well in this country and I have to tell you I'm probably the biggest flag waver you ever met. John Wayne and Roy Rogers when I was a kid were definitely my heroes and still are today. They stand for all that's good about this country. They Didn't work with the grey area, right was was right and wrong is wrong. I still hold a lot of those principles near and dear to me and I still believe that the majority of Americans

today still believe that they believe in law in order want the bad guy to be punished. And there's not enough certainty in our judicial system today but in this country we can criticize that judicial system, what's going on around us. Jim grew up in a little coast range town called Nashville. The family homestead had electricity. Other than that things were frontier style. As a boy Jim spent hours packing water to the house he often brought in groceries by horse drawn wagon in winter. He always thought there were only two kinds of jobs, farming or logging. One night in a logging shed with his back to the wind Jim made a snap decision to leave. You have a feeling something good was waiting for him. but He wasn't sure what. Finally At one point in my life I was working in the winter time and They were changing the band saw and there was another fellow had been trained to do my job for relief I told him [I said] if I'm not back the job is yours and he asked what am I gonna do, I said I don't know, I may go out and I guess pick shit with the

chickens but I'm not going to work the rest of my life. The night Jim walked away from his job at the mill he had no idea some 68000 people would call him sheriff Jim France. He would've believed he'd be calling the shots in a war against rising crime in a county covering 23000 square miles. Jim probably did a lot of writing and thinking before he ran for sheriff. But when the time came he felt he was ready. He landed a job as a correctional officer at the state penitentiary. Then went on two other law enforcement jobs in Newport Madras, Warm Springs, Sisters and Sun river. A year and a half ago after a hard fought campaign he took over as sheriff of Deschutes county with headquarters in Bend. Jim says he's interested in only one thing and that's catching bad guys. Robbers, rapists, drug dealers and murderers. In order to do it, he started a program of resident deputies in three outlying areas.

My feeling was that if we placed deputies in those areas they would be able to work there, live there, go to church there, buy their groceries there and know who the bad guys were, what kind of vehicles they drove and be a part of that community. The sheriff is outspoken. He's against gun control and for Capital punishment and says he's a man who believes in priorities and tries to stick to them. Crime solving is number one on the list. Recently there was a mysterious homicide involving a woman jogger near Bend. With only marginal clues enough evidence was gathered to book a suspect within six days [ background: this operation has broken the back of one of the largest ] Jim is also proud of an operation which he organized that resulted in the largest drug bust in the history of the county. But he's proud of smaller accomplishments too. Under France the sheriff's department has been open to women. There is now a woman Sergeant and women on patrol. I felt very strongly and I was spoken to by the females who said we don't have opportunities to advance

profession, we're as well trained as the guys were and I agreed with that. He also threatened to pull his ceremonial posse out of the state organization unless women could ride with the men. This despite raised eyebrows. Jim says that hanky panky in the posse was a groundless fear. If you hold a public position Jim says there's a risk of getting what he calls hook in mouth disease. but he says what he thinks. Here's his opinion of the 55 mile an hour speed limit. Quite frankly I don't Give a damn if somebody's doing 64,65 66 miles an hour Certainly there reaches a point where driving high rates of speed isn't safe but the normal kinds of things where somebody doing 65, 66, 67, I don't care and don't want my deputies on the state highway working those kinds of things Jim Francis in perpetual motion, a typical day includes everything from staff meetings to cutting promos for local radio stations. No request is too far fetched.

This promo was for a rock concert on records which the station was plugging, held in an imaginary place called Hickory Creek. All right here we are, we're with Deschutes County sheriff Jim France out here at Hickory Creek and Jim, how has the crowd been this year? the crowd's been great there's been no real major problems. There's a lot of people here and just the congestion really overall it's been fantastic out here hey listen this couldn't be better That's a fact. [inaudible] one of your favorites, he's here what do you think about that? Hey listen, I can't wait. I'll tell you, so far I'm singing it, but boy I'll tell you what, I can't wait until he comes on. Alright this is [inaudible] with Jim France for FM100. [background: get your drink in] About a year and a half ago Jim was divorced. His kids come to his apartment often for what he calls his specialty either Campbell's soup or pizza and grandma's cookies. His children say it's fun to have a dad who is sheriff one big bonus is peach cobbler from the jail

cook. Another is the admiration of their classmates. I'm in third grade and we voted for who would be president and who would be sheriff before the election and Ronald Reagan won and dad won. Oh yeah, well did I win by a big margin? Yeah. But [umm] mostly everybody voted for you But Jim's daughter says some people have the wrong idea about how much money a sheriff makes. Sometimes people think that sheriffs and commissioners and stuff are really rich. Oh yeah? Why, they think I was rich? After working hours Jim says he has the right to be like everybody else. Some nights he goes to the 86th Corral in

Redmond with close friends to dance the cotton eyed Joe and the Western swing He always drinks coffee after midnight but never stops swapping stories. A good friend of Jim's is Rich Rawlins From sisters. Rich says he has sized him up a long time and like what he sees. I think he's got the two most important ingredient in a law enforcement officer. He's got common sense. Number two, he knows the difference between what is legally right and morally right and he works on that. He is a person that cares about people not just about the job, or about they money or anything like that, like see a lot of people look at him, I've met some old timers, they say he's young, a big old kid he don't know what he's doing I'll tell you what he is most effective in law enforcement because nobody that ever met him everybody likes him. Like say he's a little bit firm but he's damn sure fair in all respect and I don't care if it's his best friend, if he endangered

the lives of the people in the county that he's the sheriff of, you'll in go to jail and all his friends know that he's not a guy who can be bought or sold and he'll tell the truth when when the truth becomes evident. Rawlins particularly admires Jim for riding a bull at a rodeo, even though he knew it was risky. When the sheriff arrived to ride Richard forgot to put out a bull for him. I arrived at rodeo at 1:00, Jim shows up, he shafts first and everything and says where's my bull. I said oh, god, Jim, you know, I never got one out, we could probably go get one and stuff but we had an all wicked turnout you know for the day, we had a full program every day I talked Jim out of it but he would've done it, not for no money but just because it's part of being sheriff of Deschutes county. You know how many sheriffs do you see that'll go out and get on a goddam bull, for no other reason than to just be a part of the county

I mean that's what they all like about Jim France, he fits the county. Jim's still ready to ride the bull. We'll have him one night and he'll get on you had, even though he'll be a year older next year. The bulls know too. [laughs] Although both Jim and the [inaudible] bull will be a year older next season, You have a Feeling when you've been around Jim for a while that he'll come out on top there's a lot of John Wayne in his bones [music] Jim back to our lead story on bingo. What are the police doing about those rigged bingo cards?

Well in Oregon there's not much they can do. And in Washington just in the last week three people were arrested and charged with. Using these rigged bingo cards and involvement in a scheme that netted them something like $200000 in Bingo proceeds according to the police. But in Oregon since bingo is not gambling it's not a gambling device and very little is being done. Jim what are state and local officials doing to regulate bingo in our state Well as I say they're not doing much. There is some movement toward increased regulation Captain Bob Tobin who's head of the Portland Police Bureau vice and drug detail is going to ask for additional legislation at the state legislature this year and probably will be pushing at the city level and county level for some ordinances too. What Kind of measure do you see that would strengthen Oregon's bingo laws at this point. Well Washington's got probably the best tool bag of issues or of measures to work with. They limit the number of games an organization can have per week.

They require the organization to be an established organization it's got proven experience in community service or in religious affairs, and they audit all of these operations and tax them as well. So that's the kind of thing and what Oregon will do who can say. Next time on Front Street, we'll take a look at down syndrome children and what's being done to effectively mainstream them into society. We'll go to the top of the U.S. Bancorp building in Portland talk to the high rise steelworkers about their challenges and fears. Members of the Guardian Angels and law enforcement officials will talk about what they're doing to prevent street crime and we'll have a report on the sorrows and joys of growing old. And finally, we'll look at a man who plays contemporary jazz on the airwaves and help say a mellow goodnight Good night, for the northwest. Lights out is a way, for us, for everybody, to kind of de-tune together at the end of the day. And that's where the concept behind most of the music that is played Until next week. Good night.