Jack-Of-All-Trades:
Geoff Thompson's complex career path.
Since last June, Geoff Thompson has been banned from Multnomah
County.
Not from the actual county, of course, but from the county
offices. A letter signed by County Attorney Patrick Henry
warns that if Thompson shows up at a county office unannounced,
the police will be called. The county took that move, according
to the letter, because of Thompson's continued verbal abuse,
use of profanity, displays of anger and "physical and verbal
threats" against staff in four county agencies, the county
counsel office and the office of County Chairwoman Beverly
Stein.
According to Stein's assistant Jason Dimen, the county
is taking the additional precaution of having a sheriff's
deputy present during any meetings with Thompson.
"We've never gone to that length before," says Dimen.
Thompson admits he is no fan of Multnomah County. He says,
however, that Stein is overreacting to his personality.
"I'm direct," he says. "People don't like that."
Thompson operates the Viewpoint Inn and Restaurant in Corbett,
a spectacular property that perches 1,100 feet above the
river in the Columbia Gorge. He bought the inn two years
ago for $650,000. This week, at the request of the county,
Judge Jean Kerr Maurer issued a preliminary injunction to
put Thompson out of business.
At issue is whether Thompson has been operating the inn
as a commercial restaurant instead of the vocational school
for the mentally disabled he promised to open two years
ago.
Thompson says he knew he wouldn't get a fair hearing under
Maurer. "I don't want to be sexist," he says, "but I think
there is some ego going on there, with her being a woman
judge."
Thompson's story is as much about unmitigated gall as it
is about land-use laws. It is the story of how one of Portland's
biggest bullies may finally have had his comeuppance.
Thompson hasn't always been a restaurateur. He has also
been a country-western singer, a soap peddler and a nude
model ("Jack-of-All-Trades," page 26). "I think you can
do anything you want in life," he says. "Me, I'm a genius
at marketing."
Through all his careers, he says, he has advocated for
the mentally disabled. The reason, Thompson says, is his
younger brother, Matt, 36, who was born with physical and
mental disabilities. In 1994, after their mother died, Matt
moved into a county-licensed group home, at which he was
"abused and neglected," Thompson says. "He was sent off
with an empty lunch box to work and he was left on his own
too much."
Spurred by the desire to create a better life for his brother,
in 1995 Thompson opened the Lois Thompson Housing Project
on Northeast 97th Avenue. There, his brother and three other
mentally disabled residents were cared for by Thompson and
his business partner and companion of 10 years, Stephen
Perkins.
The work was exhausting, but Thompson didn't have extra
money for additional staff. In 1997, however, he hit on
an idea that he says he thought would give him the resources
to hire help.
That year, Thompson learned that the Viewpoint Inn was
for sale. He had dreamed of owning the property since he
was a child. The inn was designed by Carl Linde in 1924
to be a teahouse and restaurant serving the auto tourists
that flocked to the Columbia River Highway. It has a massive
river-rock fireplace in the center of an elegant dining
room and two gorgeous guest rooms upstairs. The west-facing
alcove is all French doors and glass, providing a dizzying
view of the gorge from Crown Point to the bridge over Interstate
205.
From 1962 to 1997 the inn was a private residence, but
Thompson wanted to reopen it as a commercial business. "The
thinking was," he says, "to earn enough money from the inn
to support the group home."
There was one problem with his plan: the Columbia River
Gorge National Scenic Act.
In 1986, Congress passed the NSA essentially to place the
Columbia Gorge in a development deep-freeze. The gorge,
one of nature's most spectacular works of architecture,
was considered so precious that it merited permanent protection
from unchecked development. The NSA formed the 12-member
Columbia Gorge Commission, which created some of the most
rigid land-use laws in the state. Because the Viewpoint
was a private home when the act took effect, the law said
it must remain a private home forever. Only an act of Congress
could change it.
Thompson found a pinprick of a loophole in the act, and
he barreled through it: Certain kinds of educational facilities
are allowed to operate in the gorge. In July 1997, Thompson
applied for a permit from Multnomah County, which administers
the NSA. The application stated that the Lois Thompson Housing
Project for Challenged Citizens, a nonprofit organization,
was purchasing the Viewpoint. The stated purpose was to
run a vocational school for disabled adults. On a letter
attached to the application, Thompson wrote, "We plan to
reopen the restaurant on weekends to serve breakfast and
lunch and offer two suites for overnight weekend guests."
The county agreed this would be a low-impact, beneficial
use of the property. A hearings officer issued Thompson
a permit in October 1997.
Michael Lang of the watchdog group Friends of the Columbia
Gorge says his organization supported the permit application,
while making it clear a commercial use of the property would
be illegal.
"When I went into the hearing, and I saw four developmentally
disabled people with Thompson, I wanted to give him the
benefit of the doubt," says Lang. "Thompson claimed he was
going to do some good for society."
That isn't the way it worked out. Before the permit was
even issued, Thompson started holding concerts at the inn
and staying open late nights.Childhood acquaintance Michael
Allen Harrison had a fund-raising concert that July. To
the eye of Lennart Swenson, a Corbett neighbor, the Viewpoint
was more a business than a school. Swenson sits on the board
of directors of Friends of the Columbia Gorge. He says he
and his wife went to dinner at the inn when it first opened.
"The only handicapped person there was Geoff Thompson's
brother," Swenson says. "He was folding some napkins, then
sat down and chatted with people the whole time." Swenson
and several other neighbors complained to Multnomah County.
In July--two years, five warning letters and one notice
of violation later--the county filed suit against Thompson.
What took so long? Stein says the county was stumped by
Thompson's tenacity. "Usually when we tell people they're
breaking the law," she says, "they stop. Thompson never
has."
In the request for a preliminary injunction, the county
accuses Thompson and Perkins of the following violations
of the conditional-use permit, among others:
* The Viewpoint is not an educational facility and does
not train developmentally disabled adults.
* Disabled adults do not make up the primary workforce
of the inn.
* The Viewpoint has been open for food service seven days
a week as late as midnight, instead of just the four meals
a week Thompson promised.
* In addition to being used as a restaurant, the Viewpoint
is operating as a banquet facility and catering service
and holds weddings nearly every weekend during the summer
months--none of which is allowed under the conditional-use
permit.
Ron Hurl, who was a partner in The Viewpoint Inn and Restaurant
Inc. from August 1998 until April, says Thompson's primary
dream was for a restaurant, and he thought he could run
the school as well.
Hurl says he knows this because he had a personal interest
in seeing Thompson's dream fulfilled. Hurl's 21-year-old
daughter has autism, and he says he is all too familiar
with bad homes.
As Thompson's partner, Hurl says, he maxed out his credit
cards to loan him $40,000. He also stepped in when Thompson's
bad credit kept him from getting a loan to buy the inn.
Hurl arranged financing under his own name to pay off the
$625,000 lease-to-own option.
Hurl bolted in April, he says, when the county issued the
first notice of violation. He says it became clear to him
then that the inn was nothing but Thompson's fantasy.
"Getting involved with Geoff Thompson was the stupidest
thing I've ever done--and the most anguishing," he says.
Thompson's defense is as ballsy as it is illogical.
He says his permit granted him permission to run a vocational
school, and that it's up to him to determine what that means.
"We have never broken the terms of our conditional-use permit,"
he says. "Where does it say we can't be open longer hours?
Where does it say we can't hold weddings? I can't run this
place using a majority of disabled people."
He acknowledges that most of his employees are not disabled,
but that the residents of his group home were, and that
they were learning skills--such as how to pour water
and show up for work. He also says that for several weeks
last year Corbett High School sent a group of developmentally
disabled students to work at the inn.
Thompson says finances forced him to extend his hours.
"You can't run a million-dollar property," he says, "on
breakfast and lunch."
The Scenic Act's guidelines for operating a vocational
school are indeed vague. Thompson never submitted a curriculum
plan or said how many students he would train, but the county
never asked.
The county says knowing the details of the school was not
necessary to issue the land-use permit. Jeff Litwak, a county
attorney, says it was the violations that triggered further
investigation.
What's not in dispute, however, is Thompson's style. He
has gone beyond merely breaking his permit. He's creating
chaos in the gorge and at the county.
Swenson, his neighbor, has experienced the heat of Thompson's
legendary temper first-hand.
Swenson's vocal opposition to the Viewpoint has angered
Thompson. During a phone conversation this summer, Swenson
says, Thompson accused him of meddling because Swenson's
wife is in a wheelchair (she has multiple sclerosis) and
he needs something to do while "stuck at home with her."
"Finally I hung up after several minutes," says Swenson.
"The phone rang again with his tirade. He couldn't stop."
Thompson confirmed the story. "He needs to get a life,"
he says of Swenson.
Swenson also says that after he testified against Thompson
two weeks ago in court, Thompson approached him and said
he had better watch out or his house could burn down over
the weekend.
Thompson denies he made that comment. His anger counselor
was with him that day, and he says he felt in control.
"I wasn't angry at the hearing that day," he says. "I looked
incredible and I did great."
Thompson has also had run-ins with a number of bureaucrats
at the county, leading to his banishment from county offices.
Thompson admits he has been aggressive with county staff,
but says it was in defense of his brother, who is now living
in a group home in Portland.
"Had I not gotten in their faces, my brother would have
been continually attacked," says Thompson.
As for the charge that he's been verbally abusive with
other county staff, he says that most of it is just blatant
hearsay.
"OK, I told Jeff Litwak to fuck off," he says.
Talking with Thompson is like talking with someone who
has a syndrome like Tourette's, but one that compels not
only profanity but also grandiose claims, deeply cutting
insults and threats.
Thompson says the entire case against him is built on the
insecurity and idiocy of county employees.
He says it isn't permit violations that have brought the
wrath of the county upon him, it's that the county's enforcement
officer is so unattractive that she is wreaking revenge
on him to build herself up. "People probably made her miserable
her entire life," he says. "This is her chance to squish
out the people I represent, the people who can control what
they put in their mouths."
As for Stein, "She is a despicable human being. If she
shuts us down I will dedicate my life to destroying her
gubernatorial campaign."
Thompson even attacked when given a chance to tell his
side of the story. "From the beginning it was clear this
story was going to be slanted against me," he told this
reporter. "I don't know who you're sleeping with at the
Friends of the Columbia Gorge."
The restaurant at the Viewpoint has been closed for the
last month. Thompson says he didn't have the energy to run
it while fighting the county. He has continued to hold weddings
and special functions, but this week's injunction will cancel
all weddings and events after Oct. 30.
Thompson says it will be impossible for him to run the
Viewpoint without commercial income. Earlier this month
the bank foreclosed on the group home on 97th Avenue. For
the past two weeks he and Perkins have been sleeping on
a futon in the servants' quarters over the Viewpoint's kitchen.
Still, he is optimistic about his future. He says he's
ready to lead a recall campaign against Stein, and may run
for the commission. He says his battle with the county has
generated public support for his cause, and the time may
be right to cash in on it for a political career.
"Why not?" he says. "I've been bankrupt. I'm queer. I've
been in people's faces. But I'm human."
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Willamette Week | originally
published September 29,
1999
|
