Front Street Weekly; 418

[beeping] [theme music] [Ms. Booth]: Good evening. Welcome to Front Street Weekly, Oregon Public Television's newsmagazine. I'm Gwyneth Gamble Booth. [Mr. Swenson] I'm Jim Swenson, and here's a preview of tonight's stories. A little over two years ago, the Henry B. Wilson was on its way out of Portland, its overhaul on-time and on budget. Many were confident that more naval contracts would be awarded to the area, but that's not been the case. The Northwest has been left high and dry.

[Booth]: The Burnside district of Portland is almost like a second home to a dedicated doctor who is trying to serve those suffering from neglect. We'll follow him on house calls to transient hotels. [Swenson]: And over in Astoria, on this street it's legal to feed the pigeons. But in the downtown area dinner is not to be served to these feathered fowl. Well, 2 years ago work was completed on the U.S. Navy destroyer, the Henry B. Wilson, here in Portland, and many felt that it was the beginning of a new era, and that more Navy contracts would be on the way. But while the Navy has allocated some of their smaller repair jobs to Portland, the major overhaul contracts have been going to private yards in California. Recently there was talk that Portland would soon be awarded another large work package, but it didn't happen that way, as reporter Greg ?Hirakawa? tells us about the case of the Harry Hill. [Hirakawa]: In 1982, the USS Henry B. Wilson steamed out of Portland, its one year overhaul, completed by Northwest Marine Ironworks, on budget and one month ahead of schedule. Company officials hoped that their success with the Wilson would lead to more Navy

work for the shipyard in the future. [Different speaker]: The Navy, um, sent several senior officers out to inspect, um, how we were accomplishing the work, because we were not only running ahead of schedule, but we were not showing any significant defects, and yet we were still staying on budget, and they were impressed. In fact, 1 um, flag officer, who was here, indicated that he felt that we had the capability of doing 2 of this class of vessel at once in our yard. [Hirakawa]: Despite this praise, the large Navy contracts that ?Czaban? had hoped for never came. Most of the Navy work is being restricted to yards and home ports like San Diego. While once Northwest Marine provided jobs to more than 1,000 workers, they now saw their work force dwindle to 150. That could have changed, though, in 1984. The Navy put up for bid several overhaul contracts on what is known as a request for proposal, or RFP, a cost plus type contract that not only takes into account

the cost of the job, but the way the job is done as well. RFP contracts are not necessarily handed out to the lowest bidder, but instead to the most cost effective one. Northwest Marine submitted two RFP's, one for the destroyer Harry Hill, the other for 2 ships, the ?Merrill? and the Fletcher. In all the package would be worth about $78,000,000 to the ailing shipyard; in addition it would provide about 1,000 new jobs. [Different speaker]: There is a sort of a transient network of, of information that flows just prior to awards. They is almost infallible. It is information which is generated um, through numerous subcontractor and unofficial Navy type sources, that is invariably put into use about a week ahead of an award and a major overhaul. Northwest Marine had been

in the top 3 technically, and that we had, indeed, turned out the best cost proposal and, as a result of being number 1 overall, and having the best cost, that the award was indeed going to be made here. [Hirakawa]: So on Aug. 28 ?Czaban? expected to make that announcement on the first of the 3 ships, the Harry Hill. But the Navy delayed the announcement of the award, first from August to October, then to November, until after the election. Word was out now the Harry Hill was not going to be coming to Portland. On November 28th those rumors came true. After spending over a half million dollars in preparing the 2 proposals, ?Czaban? was officially notified the Navy was withdrawing the Harry Hill. In addition, the contracts for the other 2 ships were being placed on hold indefinitely. The Navy said no one would be awarded these overhauls until they were rebid under firm fixed price, low bid guidelines.

They changed the rules and were no longer honoring cost plus RFPs. [Different speaker]: The uh, withdrawals of the awards before they were awarded, the recent contracts, was done because we are, are simply not going to have any longer uh, the uh, Navy overhaul program become a political football uh, to be tossed around between 1 part of the coast and 1 port to another. [Hirakawa]: And ?Layman? added he didn't think Northwest Marine would have been awarded the contracts anyway. James ?Beale?, attorney for the the company, says the Secretary seemed to be misinformed on the details of the situation and added that the decision to cancel the contract was a political one. [Beale]: They brought 25 Navy personnel, technicians, professional contracting specialists, from all over the west coast, back to Washington D.C., put 'em in a room,

or a series of rooms, split the proposals into 5 different sections, took a team to evaluate each 1, have a very detailed grading system, from 1 to a 1,000 points-- 6 weeks of work. Then, after they had submitted their recommendation that Northwest Marine overhaul these ships, and somebody higher up the line said that was unacceptable. They sent it back to the source selection evaluation board, and they rewrite, rewrote their proposal, rewrote their recommendation to again recommend that Northwest Marine Ironworks receive this work, and, in the case of the Harry Hill, wrote a 90-page justification of why they were the best yard on the west coast. And, you know, why, why it is being withdrawn? I really don't know. [Hirakawa]: And Bill is not alone. Members of the state's congressional delegation are also skeptical as to why the contracts were never awarded. [Different speakers]: We are ?given? a definitive reason why

the contracts are going to be rebid. I never was given a satisfactory answer based upon what I had been told originally. I think that it's the feeling of the Oregon Congressional delegation that Northwest Marine Ironworks had earned those jobs, had earned those jobs on the basis of strict merit and objective criteria, and you can only speculate as to why the uh, why the Navy felt that it was warranted to take another approach. [Hirakawa]: Such speculation was later fueled by a December 5th item in a San Diego newspaper. In the article, officials from two local shipyards stated that they believed they had both submitted lower bids for the Harry Hill, but had information indicating the work was going to a yard in Portland. [Different speaker]: The Harry Hill was withdrawn for some reason. I don't know. I, honest to God, don't know. But internal Navy people tell us it was clear as day that 2 Congressmen from San Diego made all the difference in the world. They

went in and they basically took that away. 2 contractors, the 2, 2 San Diego contractors that we bid against, claimed on the front page of the San Diego paper that they found out that Portland, Oregon was gonna receive that award, and they went in and reversed it. They admitted that on the front page of the San Diego paper. [Hirakawa]: And Beale claims there seems to be a different set of rules for the yards in Southern California. Despite the Navy's hard line on using fixed price contracts, a 3 ship, $8,000,000 package was awarded on January 4 to National Steel Company of San Diego under a cost plus RFP, the method ?Layman? said they would not be using. [Different speaker]: It becomes clearer and clearer that politics of this, and the intensity for which these projects are lobbied for, by all kinds of elected officials, is playing too big a role. We need to look at a process that allows us to take uh, all this political uh, uh posturing, pushing,

and advocating, like, out of the process, and allows us to use objective criteria about who can best do the work. [Hirakawa]: And ?Layman? thinks the firm price, low bid method is the best way to accomplish this. [Different speaker]: If you fix price the bid, then the contractor becomes the, the policeman in effect, because if there is any overrun he's got to pay for it. [Hirakawa]: But critics feel otherwise, saying mandatory fixed price bidding will do nothing to end the controversy. The reason is because of low-balling, or the intentional underbidding of a contract. [Different speaker]: If we're gonna have fixed price contracts, let's everybody play by the same rules. It's real interesting that under their contract, in that district down there, they can bid a certain figure on a ship, and at the end of the overhaul we can demonstrate that they've been been paid something like double what they bid on that, that job. If we say

3 million up here, we're going to be held to 3 million. If they bid 3 million down there and they walk away with 6, and beat our bid when we honestly said it was gonna cost 5 or 6 in the first place, I think there's something unfair with that system. [Hirakawa]: ?Layman? says the Navy will soon be conducting an independent audit to determine if there are in fact inequities in the current policy. He reiterates however, that while adjustments may be made, the winners will still be those yards that submit the lowest bids. Congressman Wyden has a different solution to the problem of politics. [Wyden]: The central problem is that the Navy has a set of criteria that says that nationally 70 percent of the work would be done in public yards, and 30 percent of the work would be done in private yards. And that standard is being met on a national basis, but it is not being met on a regional basis. In fact, in our area in the Pacific Northwest, only about 2 percent of the work is done by private yards in our area. I have been talking to a

number of the leading figures in the Congress on defense issues, and one of them said uh, to me point blank, "We do it by region for almost everything else. Why not do it for ship repair?" [Hirakawa]: And while experts believe that this may help resolve inequities in the long run, they say neither the audit nor Wyden's plan will help in getting the three ships back to Northwest Marine. [Different speaker]: We need Navy work. The workers need it because it's the lion's share of the manpower, intensive activity that comes into this shipyard, is Navy work. [Interviewer]: The commercial sector doesn't provide that much? [Different speaker]: No, and it's sporadic at best. [Different speaker]: An immediate problem is that we were only given only 2 opportunities to bid in '84, we won 'em both, and they withdrew 'em both. Unless we address this 2 year drought now at work, we're in big trouble. [Swenson]: Members of Oregon's congressional delegation say they are still fighting to get the three ships back to Portland. Then they also asked the Navy to release the findings of the source selection review evaluation board

to determine if, in fact, Northwest Marine won the award. Meanwhile the Navy is maintaining its stance on the U.S.S. Harry Hill and will start asking for firm fixed price bids from private contractors sometime in April. Gwyneth? [Booth]: This country is capable of delivering some of the best medical care in the world. But for those not able to pay for that care, there's unnecessary illness and death. Our next story takes us to a part of Portland where volunteers are trying to help the medically disenfranchised. It's cold this early morning in Portland's Burnside district. These streets are sometimes the last place of residence for the homeless, unemployed, elderly, and disabled. For some, a warm jacket makes the wait for a hot meal easier. Others have found comfort in a different way. The lucky have slept in cheap hotels, but many have begun their day from a makeshift bed under a bridge, or in a covered doorway. If you live on

Burnside and you are sick, you find free clinics are few in number. Those that exist are understaffed and underfunded, not able to meet the need of a growing and increasingly younger group of people. Sickness and injury take a heavy toll. At Burnside downtown chapel, Sister Maria Francis is comforting one of her regulars who lives nearby. ?Pollack?, as he is called, is having seizures from a head injury received during a fight. For many who walk the streets, robberies and beatings are an everyday fact of life. Sister Maria sees a wide range of health problems. [Sister Maria]: And what I'm trying to say is there are people that have a multiple handicaps, now those are either the mental, emotional, physical, alcohol, you name it. A lot of the people from the mental hospitals, and a lot of them have that combined problem. So they come to us in a number of ways. I might just meet them on the street and it's really obvious this person has a problem. Or they may have just gotten jackrolled and somebody ?inaudible?

Sister will you help them. [Booth]: Even if free clinics prescribed medicine for the injured or sick, there is another problem. [Sister Maria]: I've met a man sitting on, you know, the, the doorstep there with a prescription in his hand, and you know darn well he should be in a hotel room or in a room resting and taking his medicine. Well first of all, he doesn't know where to go the pharmacy, he doesn't have the money to get the prescription, and he doesn't have money for rent. [Booth]: Sister Maria has learned that many Burnside people fear going to hospitals-- hospitals which often admit indigent patients only if they are in critical condition. [Sister Maria]: I've had more than one person that I've called even the police to force, you know, a gentleman to go by ambulance, to go up there, and he's died within 5 days. [Booth]: For years the downtown chapel volunteers have served Burnside residents by giving them a family-like place together. Volunteers offer free clothing, escort people to clean-up centers, bathe and shave those confined in hotel rooms, do laundry, cleaning, and even celebrate birthdays.

Many have shared their final birthday with Sister Maria, and she wants them to be remembered. Their pictures are on the wall for all to see. [Sister Maria]: In fact I can remember when I didn't have very many volunteers, or any, and I was alone. Sometimes I was the only person at the service, and that's really hard. Um, finding one of them dead in his room going around visiting, that's been-- every time I find someone, it's uh, the flashbacks of all those who have died, comes right to me. [Booth]: It's evening at the Estate Hotel. In the lobby, TV fills lonely hours. A card game is a temporary distraction. Upstairs, in two small rooms, patients are being seen by volunteers at the Wallace Medical Concern. On Thursday nights, during clinic hours, the cramped space is often crowded. John is being examined after complaining of a racking cough and muscle strain. [Dr. ?Ruler?]: His temperature's normal? 99. Okay. I don't hear-- your lungs sound fine. I don't-- it just sounds like you just have kind of a viral

infection, there's a lot of that going around in the community now. [Booth]: James ?Ruler?. a doctor at the Veterans Administration, has long donated his time to the sick in this part of town. But a year ago, with the support of businessman Edwin Wallace and space given by the Burnside consortium, this clinic opened. Both medical help and medication are free. It's a clinic with a new philosophy reaching farther than most to deliver care. [Dr. Ruler]: We make house calls throughout the Burnside and downtown areas, single room occupancy hotel units, and receive referrals from a wide range of sources including hotel managers, concerned friends, Loaves and Fishes volunteers, employers, and uh, members of the clergy. [Booth]: Since March 1st, 1984, Ruler has visited over 19 hotels on a regular basis. He makes sure that patients are seen before they reach a crisis and tries to plug them into the health care system. He gives donated medications

directly to patients when they are needed. [Dr. Ruler]: Sister Maria was concerned about him. We're the doctors and nurses from the clinic. [Booth]: At the Home Hotel, residents await his arrival. A patient is being seen for severe back pain and difficulty in walking. He hasn't slept in four nights. [Dr. Ruler]: Let's just have you rest right there. Okay, all right. [Booth]: The volunteers with Dr. Ruler come from a variety of places. Some are physicians in private practice. Others are medical students who are members of hospital staffs around town. All care deeply about what they see. [Dr. Ruler]: I think uh, probably most of our volunteers have had tears come to their eyes when we've entered some of the living situations we've encountered and some of the medical problems that have been neglected, for a variety of reason, and for many of the patients we have seen. [Booth]: A visit to each hotel means many stops down the long corridors and often a chat

with familiar residents. [Dr. Ruler]: Straighten your arm out and now bend it all the way. Okay, that's important. He has full range of motion of his elbow, which means there isn't ?inaudible? arthritis. [Booth]: Many patients are impressed with what the Wallace Concern has done. [Patient]: He's never denied anybody any help, him or his aides or his nurses, they never said no to nobody. I've never seen a doctor donate so much time in all my life. It's, it's astonishing to me. But uh, for him to turn around, he's --it would have cost me what, close to $100 for what he did today? Easy. And there was no charge. And uh, where you gonna find that? If alls you want to do is sit down for 10 minutes and talk to him about a personal problem that has absolutely no medical concern, uh, he's willing to listen to you. The way the cutbacks are and everything that's coming down, I've never seen anything like it before. It's really good. You know, what I'm saying, he's not a golf player. [laughs]

[Booth]: Sister Maria takes up where Dr. Ruler leaves off as part of his team. During the week, her volunteers check on patients, deliver medicine, and drive people to appointments, if further medical care is suggested. Sister Maria believes the clinic is a great help and she's glad to assist Dr. Ruler in reaching the people of Burnside. [Sister Maria]: I mean, when all of us talk about what, what do we really need, what's important to us, we know it's that we're loved and cared about. It's as simple as that. [Swenson]: I was impressed with the work of Sister Marie and Dr. Ruler. I just wondered if in doing the story there was any indication if, if that was sufficient, or whether they need more help, or what. [Booth]: Well, as with so many social service agencies, Jim, obviously they need more volunteers and Dr. Ruler hopes that more of his medical colleagues will join him and volunteers can go with him. If there were more doctors and nurses in the area, they could be having that clinic open 7 nights a week, which would be

wonderful. [Booth]: Well, I'm sure he's listed in the book, so hopefully he'll get some uh, help. Well, Aristotle once wrote that law is order, and good law is good order. And good order in the northern coastal town of Astoria, these days, means not feeding the pigeons in some public places. A new law on that town's books is trying to move the pigeons and the food to the outskirts of town. Marilyn Deutsch has a report. [Different speaker]: As far as I know dear, it's a protection for the, for the man on the street, and the woman. You know, we can't go down and do our shopping every day without fear of being just um, well, splattered is the word, I guess. [Booth]: What Astorians fear are pigeons. The seaport town has long had its troubles with pigeons. But last year, folks around here decided they had enough. Merchants complained you couldn't brave the city's main streets without looking up to see what messages

the couriers of the sky might send down. And city preservationists began biting their nails over the town's historic buildings. The pigeons, they pointed out, were defacing some fine old walls. So Astoria took the law into its own hands, and last December the city council made it illegal to feed the pigeons within a 20-block area of downtown. The law is called the Pigeon Control Ordinance, but really it controls those hands that feed the pigeons. Give food to a pigeon in the 20-block area of downtown Astoria and you get a fine, $25. The ban's just temporary until mid-May. [Different speaker]: If they wanna outlaw feeding pigeons, you know uh, that's part of city government, I guess. [Booth]: Here in Astoria, they're betting pigeons will go anywhere for a crumb, even if it means leaving home. Some say the law's already worked; the streets are cleaner, the complaints fewer. But it's a little puzzling. Even the most liberal estimate puts the number of pigeons at about 200. In this town of 10,000 that's only one pigeon for every 50 Astorians. So

more than pigeons, there are opinions. [Different speaker]: It makes the streets kind of messy [chuckles]. [Different speaker]: On the other hand you think of St. Peter's Square in Rome. What do they do there? Good heavens. I guess they have to clean it up every day. Thousands of pigeons! [Different speaker]: People are complaining because there was a lot of junk on the street. And, I mean, we have enough rain to wash it off. Why let the animals go hungry? [Different speaker]: There's a time and a place to feed the pigeons and any other bird. I mean, if they want to feed them, feed them in their backyard. [Different speaker]: I think an ordinance is, is something to protect them, give them food. Because they were getting shot too, you know. Have you ever heard of pigeon pie? [Booth]: To understand the problem here, you have to go back about 4 years, to February 1981, when chief librarian Bruce Birney was interviewed by The Daily Astorian. Birney warned of

the perils of pigeons. People, he said, could get sick from the birds. That was when Bernie first proposed the pigeon control ordinance. But what followed then was a storm of protests, and under attack, Birney the librarian retreated. He went back to his stacks, but he didn't stop searching for evidence. [Birney]: Here we have a book by Henr- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which includes Evangeline, and it shows us that people have been have been concerned about pigeons for a long time. So, Longfellow writes, "Then it came to pass that a pestilence fell on the city presaged by wondrous signs, and mostly by flocks of wild pigeons darkening the sun in their flight." [Booth]: Yet despite all, some folks persist. Every morning, Elsie Silver prepares a good hearty meal of pigeon feed. Potato and oatmeal bread only, please. [Elsie Silver]: Come on, birdies. Come on, birdies. Where are you, birdies?

What. [Booth]: About the only attention Elsie's paid to the city's new law, well, she set up a new feedlot. Dinner's no longer served in the town center; instead, one block east of the pigeon controlled zone. With Astoria split down the middle on the pigeon issue, it's really rather remarkable that Elsie Silver is still speaking to Sister Patricia. Just ask Sister Patricia about pigeons and she'll tell you about her slingshot, the one she borrowed some years back in Eugene from one of her second graders. Sister Patricia had a good eye. [Patricia Silver]: Aimed across to the convent roof and I was lucky enough to hit 2 pigeons where they had their heads together and were cooing and they took off in opposite directions, and that was the end of the pigeons. [Booth]: Justice has not been so swift in Astoria. It's still too early to tell just how well the new law is working.

Even town optician Carl Abraham who is all for pigeon control, even he admits pigeons out of control sometimes have their advantages. [Abraham]: I had one salesman that come in, that uh, he uh, was, he got bombarded by pigeons twice, walking up the street here. And uh, well, at the time it couldn't have happened to a better guy, you know. [laughter] [clears throat] [Swenson]: Well, the last time we checked there'd been a few warnings, but no one's been fined yet for feeding the pigeons. As we reported, the law is a temporary one, and next May the city council will take up the matter again to see if it wants to make the pigeon law permanent. Now, we're not very permanent here during spring festival. Front Street Weekly will not be seen at its regularly scheduled time. We will be back Tuesday, March 26th, and here's a preview of what you'll see. [Other voices]: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States-- [Swenson]: Homeschooling -- it's a growing trend in Oregon, but some believe the state needs to monitor the homeschool parents and the curriculum more closely. [Booth]: See why the Oregon Holocaust Resource

Center in Portland is important to all of the people of the Northwest. [Swenson]: And an Oregon artist has received a world honor. The work of Sara Harwin will be exhibited on UNICEF greeting cards. We'll see why her selection was a natural. That's our program for this evening. Thanks for joining us. [Booth]: Front Street Weekly will be back 3 weeks from tonight on Tuesday, March 26. Look forward to seeing you then. Good night.