Front Street Weekly; 702

[test tone] [music] I took this job understanding that it had no guarantees, that I'm not building up brownie points that assure me I can retire from it or anything like that. Christine Gebbie she is a woman who says exactly what she thinks. But as Oregon's administrator the State Health Division her style has often been sharply criticized. Tonight we'll hear from the critics and also find out what Christine Gebbie herself thinks about the controversy. The work of a crop duster is a lot like threading a needle. It takes precision flying skills to make sure the job gets done right. Tonight we'll give you a high flying view of this special air force. When we think about. Civilizations in this world and makes

significant Contribution to the progress of mankind we'll realize that all of those are the civilizations that have supported the arts and the artists. He's a man who has served at the highest levels of government, but Wynton Blunt also has a passion for art. Tonight we'll hear why he believes it's good business for American business people to support the arts throughout this country. Good evening, I'm Jim Swenson. Gwenyth Gamble Booth is on assignment but will be joining us for a story later tonight. Welcome to another edition of Front Street Weekly. We begin tonight with a report on one of Oregon's most controversial state officials. Christine Gaby is the administrator of the State Health Division. And during the past few years there has been growing opposition to the way she has run that agency. The debate over her past performance has also raised doubts about her future. Some political insiders believe she'll be replaced soon. Tonight, reporter Marilyn Deutsch takes a close up look at the controversy and what Gabby herself has to say about it.

I took this job understanding that it had no guarantees, that I'm not building up brownie points that assure me I can retire from it or anything like that. For nearly a decade, Christine Gebbie has headed a relatively small state agency that in some way touches the life of virtually every Oregonian. As the hardworking, strong-willed 44 year old administrator of the State Health Division, this one-time nurse dispenses a 36 million dollar budget for public health programs across Oregon. Christine Gebbie is responsible for everything from water quality to restaurant inspections to setting AIDS policy. And she has been criticized for all those things, and more. Dr. Brady is no longer in the employee of the state. October 1985. Christine Gebbie fires state medical examiner William Brady after an Attorney General's investigation finds Brady misused public funds. Some still feel the punishment exceeded the crime. Brady had, after all, served

Oregon well for almost two decades. Do you ever wish you had never fired William Brady? I think that had to happen. The abuse of public funds that was involved in that case is something that I think was intolerable under Oregon's approach to good government and clean government, and so I think it had to happen. So no, I haven't sat around thinking I'm sorry I did it. But last March a jury awarded William Brady three hundred thousand dollars in damages because Christine Gebbie denied him due process, denied him a hearing before firing him. The case is being appealed. Meanwhile, Gebbie claims she had followed procedural advice from the attorney general's office. So you did get an attorney's opinion on this? Oh yes, several times. Two years later, Oregon is still without someone to fill Brady's shoes. There's only one item on the agenda, as all of you are well aware, which has to do with the, uh, finding a Medical Examiner for the state here and recommended... the Medical Examiner Advisory Board suggests

candidates to Christine Gebbie, but negotiations fell through between Gebbie and both the first two applicants. Dr. Brady claims his firing gave the state a bad name. Many of the people that I think would be logical and responsible successors have not applied. But Christine Gebbie may not be the whole problem. In Oregon, the Medical Examiner reports to the Health Division Administrator. In other states the office is independent, and that's how many Medical Examiners prefer it. I'm sure if we can sit down and talk we could work out our differences. As for William Brady, he still wants his old job back but claims word has gone out to the Medical Examiner Advisory Board that under no circumstances will Getty rehire Brady. I certainly did not tell them that, I don't- if they've talked with other people in the division individually - word ever came down from you in any way? No.

That's not directly indirectly. No. We. He was an applicant everybody knew he was going to apply and said so. I told them I would consider anybody. And then they sent forward. I would say today, and I think I may have said this to them at one point, many of the people on that board are themselves supervisors and employers. They run the District Attorney with the staff, ahead of the State Police Agency with the staff, is to say that- were the name of somebody I had disciplined to come forward to me, they might want to think of how they would be, how they would feel in the position of considering re-hiring someone who they had disciplined or fired. However, acting State Medical Examiner Larry Lumen, who Christine Gebbie is now negotiating with for the permanent top spot, was disciplined along with Brady. This is-

quarter of- yeah, make them line- If it's been a simple personnel matter that's brought Christine Gebbie local notoriety, it's been a complex medical issue that's earned her recognition across the nation. [music] Let's get news of Gebbie's position on this, on the health insurance issue. Well clearly, what AIDS is done is highlight a fundamental problem in our system of paying for illness care. AIDS has given Christine Gebbie the public spotlight and a personal crusade. In Oregon, it's made her almost a household name, bringing her both praise- She has some, basically carved out, what I think is wise in saying public policy regarding AIDS- And criticism. But I disagree on the program that she submitted to the last legislature, which was basically a quarantine bill. But Gebbie defends the new law is actually a restriction of her quarantine powers. As she told a group of Kaiser physicians recently, quarantine is the last resort. Using the hospital staffers as an example, Gebbie casually

explained how and why she might quarantine the lot of them. I have to be able to show that voluntary means didn't work. I've been yammering with them for three hours trying to talk them out of this orgy and they won't stop, and they're not paying any attention to me, and so on. [clapping] Relations with the gay community have been both warm and cool. Gebbie flip-flopped on the issue of anonymous testing for the AIDS anti-body. First, she was against anonymous testing, then for it after realizing, she says, she could never allay everyone's fears about confidentiality. Gay men and drug abusers are absolutely convinced the only reason the government wants their names is to beat them up in some way. AIDS has not only pushed Christine Gebbie into the most controversial public health debate of the decade, but it has also forced the former R.N. to talk about some things they never taught in Nursing 101. We have learned That. Sexual practices such as anal sex, where there is much more apt to be a tear. Also, Issue precautions about oral sex

Without use of condoms. Well there is some disagreement. Most credit Kristin Gebbie with leading Oregon in a no-nonsense, sophisticated approach to AIDS, well ahead of most other states where there are many more reported AIDS cases. But on other fronts, Gebbie faces searing criticism. She's attacked by colleagues for lack of leadership and for ignoring significant public health issues other than AIDS. I do solemnly swear. When Neil Goldschmidt took office earlier this year, few of Christine Gebbie's critics expected her to stay in office. In the past year, calls for Gebbie's resignation have come from state legislators, gay activists, and county health officials. Local health departments provide health care to those who cannot afford it. A portion of the money to run these clinics comes from the State Health Division. County health officials are among Gebbie's most vocal critics. But because she controls their purse strings, they're camera shy. The only local official who would talk to us on the record is former Multnomah County Health Officer Charles

Shay. Shay doesn't live here anymore. I think that there is follow up is happening. Shay charges that public health in Oregon is not a team effort, and blames Christine Gebbie for that, saying she takes little advise from outside her inner circle. That in particular, she does not listen to county health people. Christine Gebbie denies this, but admits, "I do see things differently. I think I have an obligation to push them. I don't think my job is to do only what counties want done. I'm not their gopher. -and that I will faithfully discharge my duties... Christine Gebbie's future is now in the hands of her newly appointed boss: Department of Human Resources Director Kevin Concannon. But Concannon's boss is Governor Neil Goldschmidt. And it is said he was publicly embarrassed by Gebbie last February when she came out with a request for her AIDS program: ten million dollars over what Goldschmidt had called for in the state budget. "We cannot wish AIDS away. It exists..." At the recent AIDS ad campaign kick-off, the governor all but ignored Gebbie. She was

forced to chase Goldschmidt to the men's room just to present him with a momento from the campaign. Thank you for this year. And last week in Salem. Neil Goldschmidt was publicly not giving Kristin Getty a vote of confidence. Oh, I give her mixed reviews. "I think mixed reviews is probably a fair assessment." "Is that good enough to keep someone on, if someone only has mixed reviews?" It can be. Is she on her way out? Not necessarily. [background voices] While Christine Gebbie carried on with business as usual last week, an emergency planning drill here, those unhappy with Gebbie's reign at the Health Division were giving Kevin Concannon an earful. But Gebbie's supporters are also talking, and rallying to her defense. I think it would be a great loss to the state if Chris was not in that position. She is a person that does make decisions and move.

As for Christine Gebbie, what does she think of the latest media flap surrounding her? Sure, I wish it didn't happen that way. If in fact the governor has a direct message for me, or if Kevin has a direct message for me, my preference is that one of them get it to me directly so I can react to it. That, of course, will happen soon. Within the next two weeks, Christine Gebbie and Kevin Concannon will sit down with one another to discuss the future of public health in Oregon and to decide the future of Christine Gebbie. Well, whether Christine Gebbie keeps her job or is replaced, her long tenure in the State Health Division will be hard to match. Gebbie has held her post for nearly 10 years. And before she became administrator of the health division, six different people held the job during the previous seven years. Well our next story is particularly appropriate this time of year. Fall is the harvest season and we've come to expect abundant crops in our supermarkets. But the hard work that goes with farming doesn't all happen on the land. A key part of it takes place in the sky. And all over the country,

and across Oregon, crop dusters are waging an aerial war against insects. Reporter Steve Lobell and photographer Steven Morgan give us a view from the cockpit. "We have a job to do, we call it threading the needle. We put the airplane into places that are narrow that are close to the ground. Put them under wires, over wires, occasionally through the wires. Threading the needle: it's flying five feet above the ground at 120 mph. This is no air show. It's the serious business of crop dusting. That's the aerial application of fertilizers and pesticides to America's farmlands. You're totally involved with the aircraft and what you're doing. And it may look like fun to someone on the ground but. Our workload is equivalent, each hour of flying that airplane, is equivalent to about three hours of manual labor. And

you accustomed to that. And his reactions are geared around speed. Back in the early days, every pilot with a long white scarf became a crop duster. They were a rough and ready bunch. The goggles go back to the early days. We didn't have windshields. We're out in the open and we wore a scarf to keep our neck warm and we had within the industry some people who were rough and ready. We used to call them the Cowboys. The professionals have really taken over the business. You don't have the daring do young kids who drink all night and fly all day anymore, that is absolutely a thing of the past now. Agricultural aviation got its start on a farm near Troy, Ohio back in 1921. That's when the Army Air Force was called in to battle an insect infestation.

Dr. Burke Koed an entomologist with the Department of Agriculture is the father of the industry. Interested in insect control, Koed started the Delta Air Corporation, a crop dusting service. And that was back in 1931. But today it's known as Delta Airlines. "The aircraft were Not what we would consider today. Airworthy. The manner in which we were using. them was uneducated. I mean, we just didn't know what the heck we were doing and we had people out there that, actually, they did more buzzing than they did crop dusting. The industry started as a grand experiment to help out the American farmer. Without regulation, hardly a day passed in those early years when a crop dusting plane did not crash. We did consider the potential that we had. There was a high risk, but as we used to say when we'd get together once a year, that probably the greatest risk we had was getting the automobile to the

airport. More than 50 years ago Cal Butler started swamping airplanes for a northern California flying service. Then there was time out as a fighter pilot in World War 2. Through 40 years of running his own business in Redmond, he has dusted millions of acres. Butler is known as an Oregon aviation pioneer. I'd fly a lot in a t-shirt in the summertime. And that wind would get to tickling the hair on your chest, and as you rounded the turn you'd just plain shudder I don't know what you would call it. All the early work was done with finely ground dust, hence the name crop dusting. The planes were worn out military aircraft and the pilots would follow the growing seasons just to keep flying. But that was then, and things are a lot different now. And also crop duster kind of. Denotes an individual that is carefree and careless and swashbuckling, and such is not the case anymore.

The industry is now called aerial application, or agricultural aviation. And like everything else, it is more complicated. The pilots need more than just hundreds of hours of flight training. Definitely need an educational background in chemistry and physics, mathematics. An ag pilot can spray about 200 acres in an hour. Cost to the farmer: about $6 an acre. It would take a week for the farmer to handle the job himself. So, what sometimes appears to be an air show from the ground, is serious business in the cockpit. How tough is it to thread the needle? It's not tough at all. Nothing tough about it. It either fits or it doesn't fit. You better have that made up- or determined, before you start threading. If you don't, you're gonna trim something, there'll probably be a burn. There are about ten thousand crop dusting pilots around the US and their industry has the best safety record of all types of general aviation. To their credit, crop dusters play a key role in producing about 10 percent of all the

food and fiber grown in this country each year. Also, you heard Steve mention that Cal Butler began his career by swamping for a crop dusting company. The term swamper is aviation jargon for a general handyman who gets planes ready for takeoff. Well, our final story tonight is about a man who's worn many hats during his career. You may remember Wynton Blount as Postmaster General during the Nixon administration. He's also chairman of the board of the corporation that acquired Omark two years ago. To his friends, he's known as Red Blount: a dedicated art collector who believes that American business has to get more involved with the arts. On a recent visit to Portland he spelled out his views to Gwyneth Gamble Booth. Red Blunt brought an exhibition to the Oregon Art Institute late last summer.

It was a show of part of his large collection of American Art spanning 200 years. The exhibit included such American luminaries as Edward Hopper, Child Hassam, Georgia O'Keeffe. Andrew Wyeth. And Joseph Hirsch among the 22 paintings on loan to Portland. But Wynton Blount, or Red as he is known to everyone, had more on his mind than just the fall exhibit. And the Oregon Art Institute provided the perfect forum. Art can't survive without our support. When we think about. Civilizations in this world that have made significant contributions to the progress of mankind, We realize that all those other civilizations that have supported the arts and the artists. And I think that's what we are about.

Red Blunt has written that it is a matter of enlightened self-interest for business to support the arts. And that it is a matter of good citizenship as well. He believes that business is beginning to understand and demonstrate its responsibility to support the arts. Today, the cost of artists is much more than it used to be. And wealth in this country is spread broadly. It's not concentrated in a few hands like it used to be in some countries. But that means that the opportunity to use that wealth, and the obligation to use it well, is spread broadly too. And that's one of the things that the corporations have come to understand and to participate in. Blunt does not believe the federal government should subsidize the arts. His view concerns past history of governments interfering with and ultimately dictating what is art. I'm glad that the federal budget has been reduced for the arts.

Many nations around the world, the governments have gotten involved with the arts, so much so that they've directed the course of art. For instance in Germany in World War Two and before. They have preempted the art field And they directed the way in which art should be presented As a result, the quality of that art deteriorated enormously. And we don't remember anything that contributed from a dictatorial country like that in the art field. I think arts require freedom, just as we in the business world require freedom to prosper and flourish. And that's the broad highway of community that we have, that business has with the arts. Because we both require freedom to flourish and to grow. One of the many hats Blunt was wearing while in Portland was as chairman of the National Business Committee for the Arts. As such he promotes corporate

support of the arts as good business. He applauded those business leaders in Oregon whose names appear on the newly formed Oregon Business Committee for the Arts letterhead. And, he encourages Oregon's business community to support its important institutions. Ashland's Shakespearean Festival, for example. But you've had here a gem of a Shakespeare festival since the 1930s, the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It's recognized all over this country and all over the world. And in my view, it doesn't get the kind of support that it should. But I'm delighted that they're coming into Portland and to the Portland Arts Center. it Reminds me of. The Stratford Royal Shakespeare Company in England which is based in Stratford on Avon. And now they have this theatre in London, The Barbican Theatre, and they went back and forth between the two, and it's worked well for both of them. And I think this will work well for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the corporate community and the business

leaders and the individuals in Portland will begin to understand what they're doing and down in Ashland and we'll get the kind of contributions and support level we should have. Dan Monroe, Executive Director of the Oregon Art Institute, feels Oregon's business community has begun to understand its role in cultural support. But he warns it has a long way to go. We don't focus enough on our human resources and the capabilities that we have in Oregon. So, I think that's got to change. There has to be a close working together. Are you optimistic that it will change?" "I am, I'm very optimistic. In the two and a half or three years since I've been here I've seen substantial changes, and I know in talking to many CEOs that there's beginning to be a real shift in recognition that, again, this partnership between the arts and corporations goes beyond simply charitable giving and has to do with developing the state. It has to do with developing jobs and business opportunities. And obviously

too, and ultimately for us, it has to do with making art a vital part of people's lives." "Red Blount has put his money where his mouth is when it comes to Omark's cultural contributions. Well, I suggested to Jared Prow, the President Omar, that that Omar should support the Oregon festival and they made a contribution, corporate contribution to it, and I'm told it was the first corporate contribution they ever had. Hopefully there will be many more. Will the tax law, the new tax law, have an effect on corporate giving to the arts?" "I think the impact will be some at the beginning of this new law that is being administered. But I don't think people really go to the arch give for tax benefits. And on the long time I don't think it will have any major problems in that respect. In August, corporate CEOs mingled with art aficionados and those who just like a good party at the opening of the five week exhibit.

And for Red Blunt it was another example of a happy business and arts marriage, making the community a better place in which to live. And we think that art ought to be made available to the public, to the people. And this is what we're trying to do. You know, this world is sometimes a dull and depressing world, and what we can do to lift man up, lift his view, I think is highly worthwhile. [music] Well Gwyneth also learned that Red Blount's commitment to the arts has had a major impact on his home community in Montgomery, Alabama. He donated more than 21 million dollars to build a Shakespeare theater in that city. He's also giving part of his art collection to the city is a gift and donated six million dollars for a new museum to house the collection. Well next week on Front Street Weekly: a rare interview with one of the most controversial men in this country.

I don't anticipate going to prison whatsoever. But they're in their races will grow. The Aryan Nations is a race. This is a race of people. You're going to exterminate us all at once. Richard Butler heads the Aryan Nations based in Idaho. He and his followers want a white homeland in the northwest, but federal investigators say he's been plotting to overthrow the government. And now, he'll have to face those charges in court. Reporter Rod Minot went to Butler's headquarters and got some answers. Face to face. We'll also have a visit with one of the most intriguing personalities in the local musical scene. I just like the- I just sort of like the idea of doing a lot of different weird things at the same time." John Newton is a man of many talents who has conducted a number of unusual musical projects. As you can see, it's not easy to put a label on his performing style but that's the way he likes it. And we'll find out how all that creative energy goes from his mind to his music,

next time on Front Street Weekly. We leave you tonight with another look at those high flying crop dusters. Thanks for joining us and good night.