Jail Birds One of Multnomah County's top elected officials is getting tired of playing jailer for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Last week Commissioner Serena Cruz voted against extending the county's agreement to rent jail beds to the federal agency. Cruz knew the extension would pass but voted against it as a quiet protest. INS uses 100 beds for persons who are placed on "INS holds" until their immigration status is determined, which can take several months. For this service, the feds pay the county approximately $267,000 a month. Cruz is not happy getting cash for county services this way. She abhors the INS policy of detaining people who are merely suspected of being in the country illegally. "I don't think a piece of paper represents a person's humanity," she says. Cruz is also frustrated that renting beds to INS creates a situation that nudges the county closer to releasing other county inmates. Sheriff Dan Noelle says the county hasn't been forced to release any local offenders because of overcrowding since July 1998, but he's quickly running out of room. He's also troubled by the arrangement, saying he is "not willing to become a warehouse [for federal inmates] to increase revenue for the county." Noelle sees even the potential for early release of local inmates as a significant public-safety issue. So far, however, Cruz and Noelle are outnumbered. Despite Cruz's objections, the county board voted to extend the INS agreement until Oct. 31 as negotiations for a long-term agreement continue. --Philip Dawdy Downtown Willie Brown The political fund-raising season is kicking into high gear this month. Tipper Gore is in town Wednesday, Sept. 15, for a $500-a-pop luncheon at the West Hills home of Terry Bean, a longtime liberal activist. Word is this will be the only local "Team Gore" event before next year's presidential primary. Slightly more affordable is "Da Mayor." San Francisco's Willie Brown is coming to Portland on Sept. 30 to tour the Center for Self Enhancement Inc. and New Avenues for Youth. He was invited by former staffer Andy Olshin, who now works with X-Pac and New Avenues. Brown's welcoming committee includes prominent Portland Democrats such as Jo Ann Bowman, Deborah Kafoury and Diane Linn. Speculating that there might be a little gold outside California, Brown will ditch the youth programs and head downtown to the University Club for a first-class, $250-a-head, two-hour fund-raiser. He'll then be whisked away to the Moon & Sixpence, a new British pub in the Hollywood district, for the coach version, which is a mere $50. It may not be as silly as it seems for a local pol to drop $250 to support another city's mayor. Brown is a passionate orator who can rouse a crowd--and given the infighting among state Democrats lately, they may need the inspiration. --Patty Wentz Hoop Schemes With only a month remaining before a WNBA-imposed deadline, the as-yet-unnamed Portland women's professional basketball team has sold only about 2,500 season tickets--less than half the number required by the league. The team's current print ad campaign summarizes the situation: "We have to sell 5,500 season tickets by October 15th or there won't be a WNBA team in Portland. Without you there is no game." League officials are sticking to the premise that if you don't first agree to come, they won't build it. WNBA spokesman Mark Pray insists there are no exceptions to the 5,500-ticket threshold. "It's a hard-and-fast rule," he says. Local sports agent Fred Schreyer doesn't buy it. He says there will be women's basketball in Portland next summer, period. "My sense is [WNBA officials] would probably figure out a way to make the numbers work," says Schreyer, who represented ex-Power stars Katie Steding and Natalie Williams. "They don't want not to give Portland the franchise." If the WNBA pulls out of Portland, after all, the team would go to a city in which no season tickets have been sold. In addition, Paul Allen, the world's third-richest man, would control the Portland franchise; the Blazers organization, which would operate the franchise, was named by Forbes magazine as the NBA's most profitable team; and the Portland Power, of the now-defunct ABL, led the league in attendance. Team officials deny they've got a slam-dunk with the WNBA, however. Sandy Bitler, the team's director of business operations, says the ad campaign reflects a real sense of urgency. In the meantime, she's looking for corporations who will buy tickets and then give them away. --Nigel Jaquiss The Alpenrose Files When a national public-interest group posted a list of potentially environmentally hazardous businesses on its Web site last month, it was no surprise to see Boise Cascade's St. Helen's paper mill or Great Western Chemical's Portland warehouse on the roster. But Alpenrose Dairy? The Southwest Portland institution has only one cow on the premises and is so squeaky clean it refuses to buy any milk that comes from hormone-boosted bovines. Nonetheless, according to the risk-management plan that Alpenrose filed with the federal Environmental Protection Agency in May, the company commonly keeps 10 tons of anhydrous ammonia on hand for use in refrigerating dairy products. If released accidentally, says the company's disclosure form, "the toxic cloud formed by the evaporating ammonia would reach offsite endpoints and public receptors." Translation: It would be a good time to be in, say, Bend. The posting of 12,000 such plans on the Internet caused quite a stir. The EPA gathered the information as part of its efforts to plan for worst-case scenarios involving hazardous materials stored by businesses. It planned to release detailed reports on all the sites it studied, but Congress and President Clinton blocked those plans last month, citing national security reasons. The Washington, D.C.-based OMB Watch then took the EPA summaries, which remained public documents, and put them on its Web site. (For Oregon companies, see http://old.rtk.net/ T1114.) So how do the folks at Alpenrose feel about their business practices being shared with the world? Vice-president Carl Cadonau Jr. applauds OMB Watch's actions. "I think the neighborhood has a right to know what's here," Cadonau says, adding that the company, like many food processors, has used anhydrous ammonia for decades. The once-obscure chemical, which is also commonly used as a fertilizer, exploded into prominence when Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh mixed a truckload of anhydrous ammonia with other chemicals to create his fatal cocktail. There are also reports of operators of methamphetamine labs stealing the chemical from farmers. Cadonau says that although Alpenrose is required to account for all the anhydrous ammonia it uses, mad bombers--and even meth freaks, for that matter--aren't a big concern at Alpenrose. "We haven't thought a lot about the terrorist issue," he says. --Nigel Jaquiss FOLLOW-UP Congressional Backgrounder U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley wants to make sure that what happened to Tammy Rattey doesn't happen to anyone else. The 5th District Democrat has introduced a bill to mandate fingerprinting and FBI checks on all drivers for the federal Medicaid program. That would include subcontractors who pick up disabled Tri-Met passengers, such as Rattey. In 1998, Rattey, who is brain-damaged, was raped by her driver--a man with a previous murder conviction who worked for a subcontractor. Rattey's ordeal sparked a WW investigation, which found that a year after her rape dozens of the drivers transporting disabled people had criminal records ranging from stalking to sodomy and sex abuse (see "The Other Face of Tri-Met," WW, June 23, 1999). Hooley says that should not be allowed--in Portland or anywhere. "I was shocked when I read the reports about Tammy being raped by her driver," Hooley says. "After talking with the victim's family, law enforcement and experts in this field, I decided we needed strong national protections for our most vulnerable citizens," said Hooley in a prepared statement. Hooley aide Joan Mooney says her boss will be drumming up support and organizing hearings to get the bill through before Congress adjourns for Thanksgiving. She says Rattey's family has already volunteered to testify. Meanwhile, an audit commissioned by Tri-Met found a significant breakdown in the oversight of drivers who work for subcontractors. Specifically, auditors found that the group of state and local officials charged with overseeing the program for disabled passengers and investigating complaints "seems to have limited or no involvement" with the transportation program. Moreover, of the 21 members of the Tri-County Advisory Group, only 11 regularly attend its bimonthly meetings. The audit, conducted by the Arthur Andersen consulting group, was ordered shortly after WW published its findings. Auditors recommended that Tri-Met do a better job of keeping driver records and tracking complaints, require contract drivers to undergo the same drug and alcohol tests that bus and light-rail drivers do and fingerprint all drivers--both employees and contractors. In October, a new state law goes into effect that will allow Tri-Met to fingerprint all drivers. The audit was given to an advisory panel, which is scheduled to make recommendations next month on how to improve the program. --Nick Budnick - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published September 15, 1999