Insurance Man Heavy Mettle Antlergate

A FAREWELL
TO JOCELYN
GRAY
Pg.
A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES
23
OCTOBER 26, 1990 • $1.50
LOUIS DUBOSE
Insurance Man
Clayton Williams's Credit Life Business Merits a Second Look
Heavy Mettle
New Braunfels Residents Stand Firm in a Fight
Against a Toxic Waste Incinerator
Antlergate
Who Paid for Rick Perry's Parks and Wildlife Deer Herd?
Also: Contributors to the Most Expensive Governor's Race in History
DIALOGUE
A Single
Sour Note
A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES
We will serve no group or party but hill hew hard to the
truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are
dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all
interests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation
of democracy: we will take orders from none but our
own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or
cater to the ignoble in the human spirit.
Writers are responsible for their own work, but not
for anything they have not themselves written, and in
publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we
agree with them because this is a journal offree voices.
SINCE
1954
Publisher: Ronnie Dugger
Editor: Louis Dubose
Associate Editor: Brett Campbell
Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka
Editorial Interns: Vince Lozano, Richard Arellano,
Jennifer Wong, Ali Hossaini
Mexico City Correspondent: Barbara Belejack
Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink,
Warren Burnett, Jo Clifton, Terry FitzPatrick, Gregg
Franzwa, James Harrington, Bill Helmer, Ellen
Hosmer, Steven Kellman, Michael King, Mary
Lenz, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Greg Moses,
Debbie Nathan, Gary Pomerantz, Lawrence Walsh.
Editorial Advisory Board: Frances Barton, Austin;
Elroy Bode, Kerrville; Chandler Davidson, Houston;
Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; Bob Eckhardt,
Washington, D.C.; Sissy Farenthold, Houston;
Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith,
Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham,
N.C.: George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly lvins,
Austin; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury
Maverick, Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford,
Miss.; Kaye Northcott, Austin; James Presley,
Texarkana; Susan Reid, Austin; Geoffrey Rips,
Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Galveston; Fred
Schmidt, Fredericksburg.
Layout and Design: Lana Kaupp
Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic
Hinterlang, Alan Pogue.
Contributing Artists: Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger,
Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth Epstein,
Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, Michael
Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, Dan Thibodeau,
Gail Woods.
Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson
Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom
Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons
Development Consultant: Frances Barton
SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $27, two years 548, three years 569. Full-time
students $15 per year. Back issues 53 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group. and
bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms Intl.. 300 N. Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current subscriber
who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no one need forgo
reading the Observer simply because of the cost.
THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/UPS 541300), 0 1990. is
published biweekly except for a three-week interval between issues in
January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Observer Publishing Co.,
307 West 7th Street. Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746.
Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER. 307
West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701.
Brett Campbell's recent essay praising the
achievements of Justice William Brennan
("A Justice For All," TO, 9/28/90) struck a
single sour note that left me wondering
whether he either understands or appreciates Brennan's legacy. Dismissing Justice
Brennan's steadfast opposition to the death
penalty as an aberration in his jurisprudence, Mr. Campbell observed that
Brennan's foursquare aversion to statesponsored killing "stretched the Bill of
Rights too far."
On the contrary; Justice Brennan rejected
capital punishment because he felt it
incompatible with the basic respect for fundamental human dignity at the core of the
Eighth Amendment's prohibition against
"cruel and unusual punishments." Justice
Brennan's opinions in other civil rights and
civil liberties cases, from school desegregation to due-process rights for welfare
recipients to freedom of expression, were
animated by precisely that same concern
for individual dignity. To Justice Brennan,
the fact that the text of the Constitution
itself plainly contemplates capital punishment did not end the inquiry into whether
the practice violates the "evolving standards of decency" by which its constitutionality must be measured.
It is characteristic of the political temper
of our times to fear the unpopular consequences of our ideas. To laud Justice
Brennan's politically palatable decisions
(the ones that extended rights to people we
like — women, people of color, and
political dissidents) while ignoring or
belittling his courageous opinions that
extended protections to the despised
(including, the criminally accused generally, and the condemned in particular),
betrays his principles and does the memory
of his judicial career no service.
Robert C. Owen
Austin
Jake, Lena
and David
I noticed in the most recent Observer that
you endorsed Lena Guerrero for the Tenth
Congressional District, then made a
backhanded endorsement of my opponent,
Jake Pickle.
If you really want Lena in Congress,
your readers need to vote me into office.
Next year's redistricting will change the
ball game. If Jake is reelected, he'll carve
out a safe chunk of Travis County, leaving
2 • OCTOBER 26, 1990
XV ,pe, 4
Mer,
little for a liberal Democrat. If I'm elected,
I'll want a Western-oriented district,
leaving the good liberal territory for Lena.
David Beilharz
Austin
Psuedo-pachiquismo
and Chochitos
Two big mentions and one cross-reference,
from a Chic-lit barrio to a golondrina
outcry and a safari out to connect, not with
Diego but Thomas Rivera — all in one
issue of T.O. in the Texas heartland. Say,
Dago, I've no quarrel with academics who
live out their lives and write truthfully
about their "real" experience, but I do find
pseudo-batos truly boring ... I do feel that
all sentient beings have lives which are
meaningful, if only they look at their truths
and not strive to be quasi-batos while
hiding out in Stanford or Wellesley
College or Harvard — not that a first rate
job of writing about Stanford wouldn't
make for good reading ... IT PROBABLY
WOULD! I would like to read something
that rings of authenticity from those makebelief prissy-pseudo-pachucos which
spring from the minds of "chochitos
(squares)" like Luis and other pretenders.
The quasi-barrios in Sandra Cisneros's
proxy-raza and Gary Soto's pneumatic
migrants are a bit too much — to jivesteeped. For a real sense of pachuquismo,
Ratil R. Salinas and Roberto Duran (a
Califas poet) pack a piquant bite.
Pat, you be one out of sight loca, and
your pen is wacky and creative, while the
world you imagine galavants through much
madness ... ooh, it be a roller coaster
poetics you bespeak, one which careens
through jive infested labyrinths, greasing
the quays of Texasville with panache and
outcries ...
Dave, thanks for the mention ... most of
all, Dago, Pat, Dave and T.O., it felt
strange to get so much space (finally?) in a
Texas mainstream mag, but then I've only
been around a few decades — writing,
reading, and organizing along poetical and
political lines, within barrios, prisons,
academe, and other settings — from El
Paso to the nation and onto Canada,
Mexico, and Europe. Still, I appreciate
your words and love you for checking out
my stuff ... don't matter if academia
unloves me, but I am not a chunk wanting
to melt down into the sameness of a
conformist idiocy ... heck, I enjoy messing
with the burrocats of Guacamolee Centers
& other tontos
Ricardo Sanchez, Ph.D.
El Paso
EDITORIALS
Clayton's Hispanic Vote
The human species, according to the best
theory I can form of it, is composed of two
distinct races, the men who borrow and the
men who lend.
— Charles Lamb
The Two Races of Men
And all of my friends are insurance men ...
— John Prine
"Dear Abby"
OR SEVERAL MONTHS now a debate has been waged over what percentage of the Mexican-American vote Republican gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams will win. There has been some polling,
but most of the inquiry has been a variation
on the methodologies of Samuel Ramos and
his imitator, Octavio Paz, that is, an attempt
to define the profile or to penetrate the reality
of the Mexicano. Which is more important?
That Williams 30 years ago embraced Frank
Velasco, a Fort Stockton resident who now
serves as both chairman of "Amigos for
Clayton Williams," and foreman of
Williams's West Texas ranch, after Velasco
was spurned by the local Jaycees? Or that 40
years ago, as he admitted to John Gravois of
the Houston Post, Williams was "serviced"
by Mexican prostitutes? Is it more important
that Williams stood up for a man or that he
laid down with a woman? It's all the sort of
mascaras de machisrnolsanta o puta discourse that disciples of Ramos and Paz have
long since worn out.
Then there is the debate about Williams's
Spanish. Is it more important that he has
made an attempt to learn the language, or that
F
opJver
26, 1990
82, No. 21
OCTOBER
the language he learned is, as it was correctly
characterized by Austin state Representative
Lena Guerrero, ranch-hand Spanish, a language sufficient to communicate with one's
hired inferiors? Does Williams, as it has been
implied, use the sort of language that Colonel
Sanders might have used when talking to
chickens? Again, the question is no more
current than Paz's 30-year-old discourse on
the many variations of the verb chingar.
Since such non-scientific inquiry is unlikely to yield scientific results, we have
taken a stab at a more scientific, or at least a
more pseudo-social-scientific, attempt at
predicting the percentage of the Hispanic
vote that Williams will win. Twenty-three.
That is, we can say with some certainty that
Clayton Williams will win 23 percent of the
Hispanic vote in the November 6 election.
That Williams will win 23 percent is based
on a fairly straightforward methodology.
Exhibit A in the civil suit styled Rosalinda
Cruz, Vondell Dunlapp, Johnny Martinez
and Allen J. Thompson Individually and on
behalf of all others similarly situated v.
ClayDesta National Bank, Service Life &
Casualty Insurance Company, Lloyd Williams, and Compliance Labs, Inc. a/k/a and
d/b/a Texas Lender Services and/or TLS, is a
list of Harris County creditors who received
automobile loans from Williams's bank and
allegedly were compelled to buy credit life
insurance, from which ClayDesta National
made a huge profit. The list includes approximately 454 names and of those 454 names
approximately 128 surnames are Hispanic.
So, if the claims made in the suit are correct,
Remembering Jocelyn Gray
A humanist and a feminist with a kindly
wisdom, Jocelyn was also a competent person on whom other serious people relied,
as, for example, in her staff work for Bob
Eckhardt, Garry Mauro, and Johnny Faulk
when he ran for Congress. During her la't
years when she was fighting the cancer she
stayed on the job with Mauro, and — unless
she was actually in the hospital in Houston
— she never missed the afternoon and
evening meetings of the inner planning
group of the Observer. She was a key planner and player, for instance, in the first two
Observer celebration banquets, taking care
of many kinds of things for each of them.
Always equable, she was also unfailingly
serious, advancing dissonant views when-
ra., b1§1 IleX A i
ever she was so moved, freely and for nothing putting her wide experience in public
service, political campaigning, and fundraising in the service of the few causes she
chose to be her own. We miss her personally, and we miss her as a force behind the
survival and persistence of this journal.
Those who cannot understand how the Observer and like causes can seem to defy the
economic laws of gravity do not understand
Jocelyn Gray and the people like her who
put their full and generous hearts and bodies
behind what they believe in, just and only
because they believe in it. They are the lifters; they are the ones who count the most.
Life means, among other things, what we
make it mean. Jocelyn made it mean much.
— Ronnie Dugger
VOLUME
FEATURES
Heavy Mettle
By Richard Arellano
The Richards Program
By Roxanne Bogucka
Bright and Shining
By Jim Lacy
9
No More Bay Bashing
By Art Agnos
11
Whitetail Whitewash
By Louis Dubose
Heavy Hitters
By Editorial Interns
12
16
DEPARTMENTS
Political Intelligence
14
Journal
20
28 percent of the borrowers who were compelled to purchase credit life insurance at a
price in excess of $1,000 per policy were
Hispanic. Since 28 percent seemed a bit high
as a prediction of the Hispanic vote, and
since perhaps Harris County borrowers are
not representative of other Mexican Americans — for example the aforementioned
Frank Velasco, who probably cuts better
deals with his bank — we decided to include
another variable in the equation: 18 percent.
Eighteen percent is the maximum legal
amount of interest that a lender can charge a
borrower in Texas. It's also usury, at least
according to Henry B. Gonzalez, who should
be qualified to define usury since he is chairman of the House Banking Committee and a
smart man. Eighteen percent is also the interest rate that ClayDesta National charged
working-class borrowers unable to qualify
with other lenders. So, 28 percent (Harris
County Hispanic working-class borrowers),
added to 18 percent (usury, or the amount
charged by ClayDesta), divided by two
(representing addends 28 and 18), equals 23
percent and you read it here first. (Such
methodology, when used in the past, has
allowed a margin or error of plus or minus
two percentage points.) — L.D.
THE TEXAS OBSERVER •
3
Clayton Williams:
Banking on Insurance
C
REDIT LIFE INSURANCE, however,
is a serious and lucrative business. "It is
the biggest ripoff in America for consumers," said Bob Hunter of the National Insurance Consumer Organization (NICO). A
NICO study of credit life discovered that in
1988 American consumers were overcharged
nearly $1 billion. For consumers, the value of
insurance is best determined by the loss ratio
— the proportion of premiums paid out in
claims. Premium income not paid out in
claims is retained by lenders as commissions
and by insurers as administrative costs and
profits.
Texas does not fall at the bottom of the
credit-life rate survey conducted by NICO.
Nor does it fall at the top. But even at an
average of $327 on a $10,000, 48-month, 12
percent loan, consumers in Texas do not fare
very well, according to the study. Rates in
Texas, which fall close to the mid-point in the
national premium survey, are, according to
Hunter "excessive." And the rates ClayDesta
allegedly required borrowers to accept far
exceed excessive. All of the named plaintiffs
in the lawsuit paid more than $1,000 for their
policies, according to court records. And one
plaintiff, the records show, paid $4,145 for a
one-year premium on an automobile.
How did the ClayDesta loan program work?
Borrowers who initially failed to qualify for
loans were informed that they could get a
loan from an out-of-town bank if they agreed
to pay 17.9 percent interest and to purchase
credit life and disability insurance through
the same bank. The consumer, in such a case,
is what the NICO report characterizes as a
A RETRACTION
When we were making our endorsements in legislative races last issue, we
talked to several sources, and then looked
at San Angelo's District 67 and assumed
that no one could be much worse than oneterm Republican incumbent Harvey
Hilderbran, a former Farm Bureau lobbyist. We endorsed his Democratic opponent, Lester Dahlberg, about whom our
sources knew little. We've since learned
that Dahlberg is a LaRouchite, and not
even a competent LaRouchite. We apologize to the good people of San Angelo,
who though they deserve better representation than they now have, do not, in our
opinion, deserve Lester Dahlberg. — The
Editors
4•
OCTOBER
26, 1990
"captive borrower." The plaintiffs in the suit
against ClayDesta fit the description, because the credit-life program they describe
offered them no other option. All the shopping has already been done by the bank,
which doesn't allow the borrower to deal
with competing insurance companies. That's
all prearranged. The only competition involved, characterized by NICO as "reverse
competition," has already occurred when the
lending institution went shopping for an
insurer that would provide high premiums
and high commissions to be divided between
insurer and lending institution. The lender
then further enhances earnings by financing
the insurance policy and collecting interest
from the captive borrower.
A passage from a deposition of a plaintiff
in the Cruz et al. lawsuit illustrates how the
credit life scheme allegedly worked:
"Plaintiff Allen, J. Thompson went to a
dealer in Houston, Texas, and was turned
down on purchasing a car by the dealer.
Subsequently, in accordance with the scheme
and conspiracy set out above, Plaintiff, Allen
J. Thompson, was contacted by the dealer
and told that ClayDesta National Bank would
finance a purchase for him on the condition
that he purchase credit life and disability
insurance and that he sign the contract exactly as presented to him. A payment of
$650.00 was made by the dealer to Compliance Labs, Inc. The premiums charged Mr.
Thompson for credit life and disability insurance totaled $1,245.16. Furthermore, when
Mr. Thompson's initial property insurance
lapsed, ClayDesta National Bank purchased
property insurance upon Mr. Thompson's
vehicle and charged Mr. Thompson $4,145.00
for one year's premium. ClayDesta National
Bank also charged him interest on that amount
at the rate of 18 percent, for an additional
$2,849.48. This total was added to Mr.
Thompson's total loan."
A plaintiff's affidavit, attached to a motion
to expand the suit to a class action, describes
a situation in which a disabled loan appli,ant,
first told his car would be financed by First
Interstate Bank, later discovered that
ClayDesta Bank was making the loan and
that they required credit life and disability
insurance:
"My wife, Jennifer, looked over the papers
and told Craig Roberts [the salesman] that I
was totally disabled and on social security
and that the insurance would not pay someone who was already 'disabled.' Craig
Roberts told us that he didn't know and that
that was a good question. He said he would
call the bank and check with them on this.
Mr. Roberts called ClayDesta National Bank
and stated to us that they required the insurance even if I was already disabled and he
told us if we wanted the loan, we would have
to have the insurance as the bank required."
F
OR CLAYDESTA national bank, the
credit life program quickly became their
cash cow. The bank was founded in 1982 by
Williams, in an attempt to diversify his oil
and ranching investments, and like many
Texas banks which had watched land and
energy notes turn sour, ClayDesta found its
salvation in consumer lending. The small
regional bank, located in Midland and described by Dallas Morning News reporters
Mark Tatge and George Kuempel as "consistently ranked among the worst-performing
banks in the nation by leading bank-rating
firms," used credit life and disability to get
out of the red for the first time since 1984.
The program earned the bank $500,000 in a
12-month period that ended in February 1990
when they did $12.5 million in car loan
business.
The insurance program provided the bank
an immediate 50 percent commission, with
15 percent of the premium going to the
company and 35 percent "set aside" by the
bank to pay off claims. The "set aside,"
however, became profit when not paid out as
claims.
In a deposition, Barry Neil Dees Jr., a loan
broker who worked with the ClayDesta carloan program, said that the bank's officers
decided to pursue lower quality loans: "They
wanted to restructure the program by going
after a lower quality of credit. If you used a
grading scale, we would traditionally produce an A-minus or a B-plus grade customer,
and they were going after a C-grade, D-grade
type customer, a customer whose credit history was irrelevant."
There are a lot more people with poor
credit, Dees said, so loan volume can be
increased. And those customers, according
to Dees, are more willing to take what's
offered to them. When the plaintiffs' attorney asked what makes these customers so
willing, Dees replied, "They're desperate."
Dees further explained how increased volume of even bad loans works to the advantage of banks. "The way ClayDesta structured their loan program allowed them to
own credit life and disability. They would
earn the full 17.9, 18 percent; they would sell
their own credit life and disability, which the
profit on that, as you know, rims 50 percent."
So credit life and disability insurance provided for ClayDesta bankers what was, in a
LOUIS DUBOSE
Congressional Candidate Joe Dial, Clayton Williams, Phil Gramm, and Dan Quayle
sense, risk-free banking. Like savings and
loan executives who made their money on
fees at the closing table, ClayDesta bankers
made their money up front, as soon as they
made their loans.
How much did Clayton Williams know
and when did he know it? "Yes, I'm aware of
it. I approved of it then and I approve of it
now," Williams told the Beaumont Enterprise at a Jefferson County Airport press
conference on September 12. Later, Williams distanced himself from the bank operation, after it was made public that Houston
loan broker Lloyd Williams, the linchpin in
the credit life program, was linked through
depositions in another case to a drug-laundering scheme. Clayton Williams also told
reporters, as the story unfolded in the pages
of the Dallas Morning News that he doesn't
run the bank, he is only a stockholder. (He
owns, however, 92 percent of the bank stock.)
He said that he never met Lloyd Williams,
who is not related to him. But a front-page
story in the Dallas Morning News cited a
source who claims that Lloyd Williams and
Clayton Williams met at a Houston campaign reception. When Lloyd Williams introduced himself to Clayton Williams, as the
one who was doing the car program, Clayton
Williams is reported to have responded: "Yes,
I'm aware of that program and I really do like
that program."
Clayton Williams knew enough about the
program to fight with federal regulators trying
to compel the bank to raise its credit standards, a change in policy that would have
resulted in the loss of the lucrative credit life
and disability income. Williams, according
to a source cited in the Dallas Morning News,
offered to personally guarantee 5 percent of
all car loans if the bank could hold on to the
program.
Lloyd Williams's alleged drug laundering
scheme, it seems, is not an issue in the
governor's race. Clayton Williams's relationship with his consumers, who in three
months might be his constituents, is. Compelling a borrower to buy credit life insurance in order to qualify for a loan is illegal in
Texas. And a bank's paying a $472,484 to
stockholders in a year in which it lost money
is also an issue, particularly when the owner
of 92 percent of the bank's stock is a candidate for governor. The dividend, paid to
ClayDesta National's parent company in
1986, was ordered returned by the office of
the federal Comptroller of the Currency.
ClayDesta's lending and insurance practices are currently under investigation by the
Travis County District Attorney, the Texas
Attorney General, and the State Insurance
Board. How ironic, that at a moment when
credible authorities from both the private and
public sectors are predicting possible taxpayer bailouts for both the banking and insurance industries, Texas is poised to elect a
governor who might understand too well
how it all came to pass.
ClayDesta's loan and insurance program,
according to a bank memo cited in the Morning News, is "on hold until after the election"
—L.D.
Research for this article was done by Jim
Lacy.
This publication
is available
in microform
from University
Microfilms
International.
Call toll-tree 800-521-3044. In Michigan.
Alaska and Hawaii call collect 313-761-4700. Or
mail inquiry to: University Microfilms International,
300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor. MI 48106.
THE TEXAS OBSERVER •
5
Heavy Mettle
Can New Braunfels Stand Up Against a Toxic Waste Disposal Company?
BY RICHARD ARELLANO
New Braunfels
T THE INTERSECTION of Castell and San Antonio, just beyond
the turnaround that encircles the
gazebo on the New Braunfels town square,
the city police had erected barricades. In the
afternoon sun, one officer managed the flow
of traffic while another kept watch over the
people walking toward the town square, where
the demonstration was about to begin. The
traffic backed up, and some angrily honked
their horns while others looked for a place to
park.
Traffic jams and demonstrations are rare
events in New Braunfels. The nearby rush of
1-35 and the tourists who come looking for
the cool waters of the Guadalupe give this
town of 23,000 a busier feel than others of
similar size. But for the most part, people
here carry on quietly, and they rarely encounter a problem that demands a demonstration
at the town square, a march up Seguin Street,
and a town meeting at the civic center.
However, during the three weeks preceding July 25, many throughout Comal County
had heard for the first time that a local cement
plant, Balcones-La Farge, wanted to burn
hazardous waste as a supplemental fuel in its
kiln located just outside the New Braunfels
city limits. Although the applications to store
and burn hazardous wastes had been filed in
1987 and were now entering the final phases
of review with the Texas Water Commission
and the Texas Air Control Board, most residents of New Braunfels were just beginning
to discover the basic facts of the matter.
A few people in the area were not newcomers to the issue. Kathy Porter, New Braunfels resident and member of Air, Water,
Earth, a local environmental group, had for
three years been investigating La Farge's
plans for "waste derived fuel" (WDF). In
1987, while serving on the city's Local
Emergency Planning Committee, she came
across a letter from the Water Commission to
the County Commissioners Court that said
La Farge had submitted an application for the
"receipt, collection, and storage of selected
hazardous waste solvents which are to be
used as supplemental fuels in the plant's
cement kilns."
By burning the hazardous waste, La Farge
stands to turn a much greater profit that it
does by simply producing cement. Generators of hazardous waste will pay to have their
Richard Arellano is an Observer editorial
intern.
6•
OCTOBER
26, 1990
waste byproduct consumed as fuel in the
kilns, and La Farge will turn another industry's
cost into its own profit. John Chadbourne,
vice president of technology and regulatory
affairs for Systech (a wholly-owned subsidiary of La Farge which specializes in handling
hazardous wastes), regards the supplemental
fuel program at the kiln as the best means for
disposing of hazardous wastes. "The kiln
process completely and safely destroys hazardous wastes. The solids are isolated in the
concrete, and the emissions are no more
harmful than those that come from traditional sources," Chadbourne told the
Observer. "This is a responsible way of
dealing with hazardous waste."
But Porter saw potential dangers in the
Systech/La Farge plan. The solvents that
Systech/La Farge hope to burn contain toxic
metals in solution. As La Farge admits in its
initial permit request to the TACB, "the waste
streams received at the facility are almost
always ignitable and quite frequently contain
toxic metals (paint and ink pigment metals)
or toxic organics (solvents such as methyl
ethyl ketone or isobutyl alcohol)." For Porter, who as an occupational-safety expert has
studied the effects of metals on human health,
there are serious questions about using these
waste solvents for fuel: Would their combustion release toxic metals into the environment? Would the ash from these wastes be
toxic, and if so, where would it be disposed?
How would the waste solvents be transported
to the plant?
For three years Porter has researched these
questions and published her findings in a
newsletter. The Comal County Commissioners Court, meanwhile, did nothing. In fact,
the situation only attracted public concern
after Porter contacted an Austin-based Greenpeace action group. Following their talks
with Porter, the group canvassed the issue in
a door-to-door campaign in New Braunfels.
In turn, Chadbourne accused Greenpeace of
spreading misinformation to "ignite the
emotions" of local residents. Citing EPA
regulations which limit emissions, and the
25-mile dispersion-radius of their kiln stack,
Chadbourne claimed that for the people of
New Braunfels, the health risks of burning
hazardous waste at the kiln would not be any
different than those faced on a daily basis. In
many of his talks with concerned citizens,
Chadbourne illustrated this point by talking
about the dangers of barbecue smoke.
Many in New Braunfels rejected the
comparison of burning hazardous waste to a
weekend cookout. They felt that regardless
of assurances from Systech/La Farge, there
might be serious risks, and they did not want
to gamble. David Wallace, a local businessman, along with several others, began an
action group called SAFE (Securing A Future Environment), and drew up a petition
that stated their opposition to the "transporting, storing, processing, and burning of any
supplemental fuel (defined as hazardous/toxic
waste, chemical materials) in any amount in
Comal County, Texas." They publicized the
July 25 meeting with the TWC, and arranged
for a rally on the town square and a march to
the civic center.
Although the march was to begin at 6:30
p.m., people were still arriving when the
half-hour struck on the bells of the county
courthouse. During the few minutes the delay offered, Wallace told the crowd that more
than 2,000 people had signed the petition,
and that others were calling to find out where
they could sign up. He talked about the structure of the meeting, the right to ask questions,
and the need to make these questions concise
and topical so that as many as possible could
speak.
W
HEN THE CROWD filed into
the auditorium and saw the
question cards left in their seats
and the long table on the stage set up for the
TWC, La Farge, and SAFE, many realized
that this meeting was not an opportunity to
defeat the permit to burn hazardous waste,
but was only a chance to discuss further
something they had already decided against.
Asked one citizen later, during the question
and answer period, "What does it take for a
meeting to occur where something actually
gets done? We have a whole room full of
people here saying, 'We don't want it.'" In
response, Leela Fireside, a TWC public interest counsel, said the decision on the permit
"is not a vote." Fireside explained that the
public opposition must "present evidence
that fits in with some of the concerns that are
in the statutes. And that's why you all work
on organizing, that's why you have your
group ... getting petitions and funds together,
and organizing to get evidence together so
that the examiner can find with you. It's more
than a vote, it's sworn testimony from experts."
Everyone in the 1,200-plus crowd then
understood that they were playing by someone else's rules. Though only three weeks
ago they knew nothing of La Farge's plan to
burn hazardous waste, and were left with
perhaps three months to find the time, the
money, and the experts to enter a bureaucratic battle in its final hour.
A
LTHOUGH BOTH STATE regulatory agents and company officials say they are sure that the
Systech/La Farge waste-derived-fuel plan
will meet the newest standards for pollution
control, there is reason to be cautious. The
use of hazardous waste as supplemental fuel
for cement kilns is a new procedure, and it
has yet to bear out claims of environmental
safety. In Holiday Valley, a small community in northwestern Los Angeles County,
California, residents contend that the nearby
waste-fuel operation is destroying their health.
They report headaches, nosebleeds, nausea,
chronic fatigue, and irritation of the eyes and
mouth. Although cement plant officials say
their testing shows the plant to be safe, the
California Department of Health Services
has begun an investigation.
If the burn permit is approved for the Systech/La Farge cement plant in New Braunfels, large quantities of heavy metals can
legally be discharged into the air. According
to their revised permit application, up to
58.343 pounds per hour of zinc, 0.722 pounds
per hour of lead, and 0.0183 pounds per hour
of arsenic could legally issue, from the La
Farge stack. Both the company and the regulatory agencies contend that these levels of
emissions are harmless. Chadbourne, speaking for Systech/La Farge, further stated that
"actual" emissions will be far below these
levels, perhaps as little as 10 percent of
what's permitted. And as for the seemingly
large levels of fugitive emissions (material
which escapes during the course of handling
or storing the hazardous waste), Chadbourne
said that the figures on the permits list the
amount that would escape in a worst-case
scenario — that is, if every valve in the plant
were leaking.
As with most permit applications to the
TWC and TACB, the numbers that Systech/
La Farge gives for fugitive and stack emissions are tailored to limits that the regulatory
agencies have established. These "effectsscreening-levels" (ESLs) define quantities
of material that the agencies believe can be
released into the environment without harm.
According to Jo Ann Wiersema, a toxicologist with the TACB, the state determines
ESLs by researching occupational data, animal experiments, and epidemiological studies. To date, close to 2000 compounds have
been assigned an ESL, and the list continues
to grow and be updated. For instance, until
fairly recently, butadeine, a compound used
in the manufacture of synthetic rubber, was
considered safe even at high levels of exposure. However, when researchers reviewed
data which described the synergistic effect of
butadeine in combination with other compounds, they discovered that for lab animals
it was highly carcinogenic. Although some
researchers still doubt that butadeine is as
carcinogenic for humans as it is for small
animals, the ESL for the substance has been
amended to a much lower level.
The example of butadeine and its changing
ESL rating best describes what worries many
residents of New Braunfels. Since the Systech/La Farge operation will most likely meet
every state and federal standard for emissions control, community opposition to the
use of waste-derived-fuel comes down to a
distrust of the whole regulatory process. First,
some residents fear that the emissions levels
now considered safe will someday be considered dangerous: In fact, they wonder if they
are to be part of the "real-time" test for this
new method of destroying hazardous waste.
Second, many in New Braunfels feel that the
relationship between the regulatory agencies
and industry is too close. At the July 25 town
meeting with the TWC, several people in the
audience noted angrily that the Systech/La
Farge officials and state regulatory agents
spoke comfortably on a first-name basis.
Systech/La Farge is, however, not secretive
about this close relationship with state and
federal agencies. In a company brochure,
Systech explains that, "much of the scientific
data used to establish standards and regulations for the industry [i.e., cement kiln use of
waste-derived-fuel] were gathered at Systech/La Farge facilities."
For opponents of Systech/La Farge, their
concern about the intertwining of industry
and regulatory agencies became greater when
Cookie Barboza, a New Braunfels resident,
asked at the July 25 town meeting how the
state would monitor emissions from the kiln.
Bill Colbert, director of public information
for the TWC, responded: "If they [Systech/
La Farge] get a permit to burn the waste from
the Air Control Board, they are the monitoring and enforcement agency." The audience
shouted out their disbelief. "Will they be
policing themselves, or will someone be
checking up on them?" Barboza asked.
Colbert replied, "They are the state agency
responsible for those activities." Some in the
audience laughed and others booed.
Given the limited budgets of the TWC and
the TACB, and the large number of facilities'
they must regulate, it is not surprising that
these agencies delegate the responsibility for
monitoring emissions and ensuring compliance with the permit. As some officials in
these agencies readily admit, the problem
rests ultimately with the Legislature. "We
have 70 percent of all U.S. chemical production here in Texas. And I have only four
toxicologists in my department. We need
more money for more personnel," said Jo
Ann Wiersema of the TACB. Wiersema and
others believe that the regulatory agencies
can be more effective if they receive the right
to charge industry larger inspection fees and
perhaps even exact a $1-per-car emissioninspection. But for now, the agencies must
draw up regulations as best they can and trust
that industry will cooperate in good faith.
Kiln and fugitive emissions are the most
obvious topic of concern in the debate over
the Systech/La Farge plan to use hazardous
waste as supplemental fuel in the Balcones
cement kiln. However, there are also questions about the transportation of waste to the
plant and disposal of the waste products from
the kiln.
While Systech/La Farge officials say that
there will be no ash, since all the materials
that enter the kiln later exit in the clinker
product (one of the intermediate, post-kiln
stages of concrete), they do not openly discuss "kiln dust," a compound that must be
regularly flushed from the kiln to keep it
operational. David Ferrell of the TACB, Troy
Wattler of the TWC, and John Chadbourne
of Systech/La Farge have all said that the
composition of kiln dust directly reflects the
composition of the kiln feed. Yet the state
agencies do not consider this "dust" a product of a hazardous waste burn, and unlike the
ash from hazardous waste incinerators, it
does.not have to buried in specially designed
landfills. La Farge has said that the kiln dust
will be deposited in their clay quarry in
Seguin. If the dust should in fact prove to be
toxic, there is no guarantee that the quarry
will be a safe container and prevent contamination of groundwater and nearby land.
In order to transport the large quantities of
hazardous waste to the kiln (up to 15 million
gallons a year), five trucks a day and several •
train cars a week will pass through New
Braunfels. The trucks will follow 1-35 to the
Solms Road exit, and there they will turn and
travel down two-lane county roads for a little
over a mile. The train cars will have to move
through the heart of New Braunfels. Residents are extremely worried about hazardous
waste spills. For many years, Texas has led
the nation in rail and trucking accidents.
Coincidentally, on the night before the town
meeting with the TWC, a train derailed at the
local switching station. Compounding the
danger is the fact that the city does not have
the personnel to respond to a hazardous waste
accident. If the Systech/La Farge plan to burn
hazardous waste is approved, New Braunfels
must either raise the money to enlarge and
retrain their fire department, or rely on help
from Austin and San Antonio. Austin is 60
miles from New Braunfels, San Antonio is
30. In an interview with the Observer, John
Chadbourne of Systech/La Farge has said
that the company has no responsibility to
develop an emergency response plan for
transportation accidents, and that due to insurance concerns, only "limited advice" can
be offered in the case of an accident.
Despite the issues raised by opponents of
the waste-derived fuel program, state regulatory agencies consider the process the best
means of destroying hazardous waste. They
point to the "five-nine" figure (99.999) for
destruction and removal efficiency of organic toxics (DRE), the absence of "ash,"
and the conversion of waste to an industrial
fuel. Yet they avoid questions about metals
emissions, disposal of "kiln dust," and the
dangers of transporting hazardous materials
through populated areas.
For the residents of New Braunfels who
Continued on page 10
THE TEXAS OBSERVER •
7
The Richards Program
Ann Richards's New Texas agenda
doesn't contain any real surprises. It pretty
much reads "standard Democrat" in big
letters, it's pretty much geared to average
working family folks, and it's pretty much
what we here in Travis County would expect
of the woman we're going to vote for in
overwhelming numbers, again. It conveys
nothing of whatever it is that makes people
such ardent supporters of "Ann." For those
of you in the other 253 counties who were
wondering, here's Ann's plan.
CRIME
The foundation of Ann Richards's crime
plan is that most crime is rooted in substance abuse, therefore Richards has logically focused on law enforcement, education, and treatment. Ann has assumed the
"tough on crime" stance required of all, but
especially female, candidates. Where her
plan is not an outright showdown of
hormones with Claytie, Richards has some
common sense ideas intertwined with some
of the trendier items of the 1990s:
•Unite communities—homes, churches,
schools, and workplaces — in education
about and opposition to substance abuse;
• Guarantee that treatment programs are
available;
• Require parole-seekers to participate in
a program of education, including substance-abuse education, treatment, and
work training;
• Support the death penalty and no parole
for violent offenders;
• Start "boot camp" programs for nonviolent criminals;
• Mandate sentences for pushers in designated "drug-free" zones such as schools
and public housing areas;
• Cut costs for incarceration of non-violent and first-time criminals, and improve
management of jails;
• Increase involvement of violent crime
victims and local law enforcement in parole and policy decisions; and
• Match state funds with local dollars so
-communities can hire more police.
CIVIL RIGHTS
It's no secret that Ann Richards is a proabortion rights candidate who opposes any
state restrictions on Roe v. Wade, or that
she is also a supporter of single-member judicial districts and an opponent of the English first movement. Her ideas for women
and minority Texans in the 1990s include:
• Hiring and procurement programs that
expand opportunities for women and minorities;
• Working for equal access to funds for
all Texas public schools:
• Increasing parental/cOmmunity in8•
OCTOBER
26, 1990
Ann Richards, Jim Harrington and Cesar Chavez
volvement and decision-making so that
schools improve the <basic education of
minority students;
• Lowering the dropout rate through early
childhood development programs and
through mentoring and specialized programs
that target at-risk older students;
• Improving enrollment and retention of
minority students in public colleges and
universities,. and increasing minority faculty members; and
• Expanding health and human services
and preventive services, particularly for
children and pregnant women.
QUALITY OF LIFE
Ann Richards's plan recognizes a range
of just plain folks' concerns, from the daily
life issues such as care for our parents and
our kids, to pocketbook issues, to global
issues such as care for our environment:
• Establish networks to help parents locate good child care;
• Encourage development of child-care
programs for children with special needs
and for children of lower-income families;
• Join public and private resources to provide services for the elderly;
• Protect retirement programs and benefits of state workers, specifically public
school employees;
• Provide adequate education programs
for kids with disabilities;
• Work to keep health-care services adequately distributed throughout the state by
encouraging health-care professionals to
practice in rural areas, expanding nursing
education programs, overseeing Medicare
payments in rural facilities, and cutting paperwork for health care providers;
BILL LEISSNER
• Protect the environment through oilspill preparedness and coastal management
plans, recycling incentives and waste disposal legislation, nature preserves, and enforcement of criminal penalties on polluters and of communities' "Right to Know"
standards;
•Demonstrate support for the arts through
commitment to free creative expression
and public/private sponsorship and funding;
• Improve the state's higher education
system by making more scholarships available to more students, obtaining more federal research dollars, giving students and
faculty a voice on Boards of Regents, developing ties between business and technical schools, encouraging high school/college partnerships;
• Appoint independent, consumer-oriented, commissioners to oversee the public
utilities;
• Provide teachers more adequate salaries and benefits and removing non-teaching duties from their workloads;
• Develop and expand programs to market and process Texas agricultural products
and lobby for federal assistance;
• Bring jobs to Texas by promoting sales
of Texas products and by providing education, training, and industrial research centers to prepare our work force and assist
businesses;
• Institute more robust, consumer-friendly
insurance reforms; and
• Require public official and state employees to meet rigorous political ethics
standards.
— Roxanne Bogucka
A Bright and
Shining Lie
BY JIM LACY
Waco
UGH SHINE knows the importance
of education for our children," the
voiceover says, while the camera
pans across the 11th Congressional District
candidate and a smiling boy and girl. "He has
two of his own." It's a lovely picture, but
there is one flaw in it.
These may not be Hugh Shine's children.
Since Ronald Reagan made style more
important than substance in public life, the
Reagan prescription for electoral success has
often proved effective. State Representative
Hugh Shine, though, seems determined to
push this Republican campaign tactic to the
limit in his race for the House of Representatives seat vacated by Democrat Marvin Leath.
And while Shine claims to recognize the
importance of education for children in his
legislative district, which includes Waco,
voters might profit from a little education
about Hugh Shine.
Shine fashions himself today as a far-right
conservative, and his voting record in the
Texas House between 1986 and 1990 reflects
that philosophy. But Shine's old-fashioned
conservatism is actually a relatively new
development. In 1984, Shine served as a
Walter Mondale delegate to the state Democratic convention and had his own name
placed into nomination as a delegate to the
national convention. Shine now claims that
he became disillusioned with the convention
and walked out, a claim others who attended
the convention dispute. In any event, Shine
showed no signs of switching parties while
he was active in city government in Temple
from 1984 to 1986. It was shortly before the
1986 election that Hugh Shine made the
switch.
John Messer, a Belton lawyer and Shine's
Democratic opponent in that 1986 state House
race, told the Observer the following story
about Shine's party conversion. Before the
1986 election, Messer had been approached
by local Republican leaders who tried to
persuade him to switch parties and run against
Shine, whom the Republicans were convinced
would run as a Democrat. When Messer
refused and entered the race as a Democrat,
Shine, who had been considered a liberal
Democrat, declared his candidacy — as a
Republican.
Why did Shine switch? Messer has his
H
Jim Lacy is a freelance writer whose most
recent mailing address was in Waco.
LOUIS DUBOSE
Hugh Shine: family value
own ideas about Shine's conversion: "He'll
do anything to win and to keep on winning.
You can ask anyone about that," said Messer,
who compares Shine to another Republican
office holder. "If people think Dan Quayle is
shallow," Messer said, "they've never met
Hugh Shine."
Messer's suggestion that Shine is unlikely
to let principle get in the way of electoral
victory seems to be borne out in Shine's
current Congressional campaign. Early in
the campaign, anonymous mailings arrived
at homes around the 11th District. They included pages from a Houston gay-oriented
magazine which reported that Shine's opponent, state Senator Chet Edwards, had attended a Houston Gay and Lesbian Caucussponsored banquet honoring the late Congressman Mickey Leland. When he learned
about the mailings, Edwards demanded that
Shine "stop the gutter politics."
Shine, while denying that he was responsible for the mailing, released the following
statement, which was reported in the Waco
Tribune-Herald: "Chet, quit trying to hide
behind phony excuses and the memory of a
dead Houston congressman. Tell the people
the truth. You support gay rights and you
have contributed your own campaign funds
to a homosexual political group in Houston.
You didn't do it to fight AIDS or celebrate
the record of the late Mickey Leland. You did
it to gain political support from the Houston
Gay and Lesbian Caucus."
Edwards's response was not exactly praiseworthy, either. Perhaps remembering Phil
Gramm's success with a similar charge
against Lloyd Doggett in the 1984 U.S. Senate
race, Edwards said it is a "lie" that he has
supported gay rights. And Shine showed no
signs of letting up; he even ran a radio spot
that implies that Edwards, who is not married, is gay.
While depicting his opponent, who is
unmarried, as something less than a family
man, Shine has stressed his own "devotion to
family" in his campaign literature and advertising. But his real family life bears little
resemblance to the family life — indeed, the
family — in his advertising. In 1985, Shine
and his wife of 11 years, Debbie Kelly,
separated. Bell County District Court records show that Hugh and Debbie's legal
struggles continued off and on for two years
thereafter. After a jury trial to determine
custody of the two children had commenced,
but before a verdict was rendered, Shine
signed an agreement giving custody of the
THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9
gp.mirqi.4*' 7,,s0enblow.
children to Debbie. The dissolution of the
Shine family was contentious enough that
the court agreement listed, in longhand, under
a typed list of property Shine was to receive:
"Photos of girls with father." At the time of
the final agreement in 1986, Hugh Shine
consented to a court order compelling his
employer, Dean Witter of Temple, to withhold $500 of his salary per month in child
support. Shine also agreed to provide Debbie
$200 a month in alimony for 15 years.
Shortly after this settlement, Debbie Shine
married Hugh Shine's longtime business
partner, Jeff Lagow, and Shine was back in
court filing suit against his former wife.
Debbie Lagow (née Shine) accepted Hugh
Shine's conditions to settle the new suit: that
the alimony payments be discontinued, that
the court order mandating the withholding of
Hugh's income be dropped, and that the child
support payments be lowered by $100 a
month. It is unclear from the court papers
whether Shine had been paying the child
support or alimony prior to this new
settlement. Observer sources say that Shine
was deficient in his child support payments.
On the campaign trail, Shine often mentions his wife and children, but he omits the
fact that he married his current wife, another,
younger Debbie, 15 months ago and that his
two girls, age 8 and 10, live in Houston with
his ex-wife and ex-business partner. By the
terms of the divorce agreement, Shine is
allowed very little access to these children.
One of the issues in this rather nasty campaign has been whether the kids seen in the
commercial are actually the candidate's.
Shine has two girls, but to many who have
viewed the commercial, one of the children
appears to be a boy. When Shine was challenged on this point at a press conference, he
insisted that both children were girls, and
were his. But the limited contact access he is
allowed with the children raises the question
whether Shine could have put them in his TV
ad. (He has since pulled the spot from the air,
after a man shown in the ad shaking hands
with Shine turned out to be a Democratic
county chairman who threatened to sue.)
In addition to the charge that Edwards
supports gay rights, Shine has said that
Edwards is an outsider to the 1 1 th District.
Edwards's state Senate district, which he has
represented since 1982, includes the largest
city in the Congressional district, Waco, but
Edwards had to change his residence to run
for the seat.
Shine, however, may not have his own
roots planted very deeply in the soil of the
11th District. A biography distributed by the
Shine campaign says that the candidate only
moved to the district in 1980. And though
Shine owns two pieces of property in Bell
County, he does not presently own a home in
the district, according to Bell County tax
records.
"Hugh Shine first served us in Korea," an
announcer says in an ad featuring a black and
white photo of the candidate in uniform.
Once again, the words may be accurate, but
they are misleading. The implicit message is
that Shine is a war veteran, but records in the
Bell County Courthouse show that Shine did
not join the military until 1974, a good 20
years after most U.S. troops had left Korea.
Shine, born in 1952, was still in the crib in
1953, when the armistice was signed ending
the Korean War. By the time Shine did visit
Korea, M*A*S*H was well past its second
season.
Hugh Shine (like Republican U.S. Senator
Phil Gramm, who is paying for many of
Shine's commercials), might be a product of
the Republican Party's design to run every
race in the same fashion, beginning with the
formulaic ad campaign which includes a
proper admixture of prejudice, patriotism,
and innuendo, to serve as a backdrop for a
candidate who is by design an exemplar of
Christian, middle-class "family values." In
Hugh Shine's case — as in the case of a few
other candidates — the man just doesn't fit
the mold.
Continued from page 7
oppose the use of hazardous waste as a supplemental fuel, the first step has been to
convince the City Council to oppose the
Systech/La Farge operation and to enter the
TWC review process as a legal intervenor.
Initially, the council seemed inclined either
to support or be ambivalent about the burning of hazardous waste. They declared the
SAFE petitions invalid, and said only that
they were "concerned" with the future operation at Systech/La Farge.
At. the September 24 meeting of the City
Council, however, 700 people attended, and
many spoke against the burning of hazardous
waste. By the meeting's end, the council had
declared its opposition to the transportation,
storage, and burning of hazardous waste in
the city of New Braunfels, and set aside
$50,000 for the legal counsel and experts
needed for the final hearing with the TWC.
Further, the council decided to research the
legality of annex ordinances and the possibility of taxing and restricting the transportation and burning of hazardous waste.
Officials at Systech/La Farge characterize
the negative response to their application as
irrational. "It's perfectly safe, they just don't
want it," said Chadbourne to the Observer.
"It's almost like somebody saying, 'You're
black, I don't want you here in my cafeteria." Now, Chadbourne and his co-workers
await the TWC hearing that will decide on
their permit application.
On Saturday, October 27, over 200 residents of New Braunfels, San Marcos, Wimberley, and other towns marched to the front
gate of the LaFarge plant, chanting slogans
such as "We're in charge, not LaFarge." It
was a characteristically polite rally; La Farge
officials officials refused to come out and
talk to the marchers, but did hire two ladies to
sell lemonade to them. The rallyers presented the company with a banner-sized
"eviction notice," and made a point of cleaning up all their litter. Representatives from
Air, Water, Earth, Greenpeace, and Texans
United made speeches, as did local residents.
One professor read off a list of the hazardous
chemicals that would be produced by the
plant; after each name, the crowd shouted
"No!"
Since the opponents of Systech/La Farge
are pursuing their case by hiring lawyers and
experts to represent them in the TWC hearing, the conflict between industry and community continues to proceed by rules that
were produced in compromise between the
state and industry. And if the permits to burn
and store hazardous waste are denied, then,
for a time at least, one match is finished and
the rules remain unchanged. However, if the
Systech/La Farge permits are approved and
New Braunfels tries to control the burning of
hazardous waste by taxing and regulating the
company" activities, the situation changes
considerably. By discovering and developing its own regulatory powers, New Braunfels might test the limits of a community's
sovereignty and challenge the centralized
authority of the state regulatory agencies.
• Data Processing
• Typesetting
• Printing
FUTUM
• Mailing
COMMUNICATIONS. INC
512-389-1500
FAX 512-389-0867
3019 Alvin DeVane, Suite 500 Austin, Texas 78741
❑
❑
10 • OCTOBER
26, 1990
No More Bay Bashing:
A Letter to Clayton
BY ART AGNOS
5
0, CLAYTON WILLIAMS thinks
he can land a hit on his opponent by
charging that she "must think she's
running for mayor of San Francisco."
As the person who is the mayor of San
Francisco, I have some news that apparently
hasn't reached Williams: Not only is being
mayor of San Francisco one of the greatest
jobs in the world, my city has set some
standards other places — Texas included —
would have a hard time matching.
The latest reports show San Francisco has
an unemployment rate of 4 percent, below
last year's level despite recovering from an
earthquake, and far below the national level.
This year, San Francisco set, the national
record — for the third straight year — for
successful start-ups of new businesses. Nine
out of 10 businesses started in our city in each
of the past three years have succeeded. We're
also a national leader in big business: Five of
the top 10 public as well as five of the top 10
private U.S. companies are headquartered in
our city.
Those factors combine to give our city the
highest per capita income in the nation. Our
Bay Area is now the third- largest economy
in the United States, and the education level
in the area ranks second in the nation.
Even with our compact size and population of 750,000, we're managing to plan
growth that will continue to make us a leader
well into the next century. Our voters just
approved a $100 million-plus new main library, and we've just unveiled plans for a
new Museum of Modern Art. We just completed a Fashion Center to showcase what is
now the nation's third-largest design industry, and our revitalization of San Francisco's
historic seven-mile working waterfront is the
largest public works project in the country. It
will include everything from a new fisheries
center — we're still one of the nation's
largest fishing industry ports — to a new
boulevard and cruise-ship terminal to welcome passengers who consistently vote us
the world's most romantic port of call.
Our public transit system is second to
none, and getting better with new lines and
services, including a historic trolley service
down the city's spine of Market Street and
Agnos is mayor of San Francisco.
around to Fisherman's Wharf. San Francisco
is also building the institutions that add to the
quality of life — and provide models for
other locales.
We're opening child-care centers at the
rate of one a month, using an innovative
program that helps train and license childcare providers as new businesses at the same
time as it increases child-care options for
parents.
We won a rewrite of the nation's federal
loan rules so that new businesses can get
community development loans; and after the
Loma Prieta earthquake, we won a rewrite of
federal law so that non-profit agencies and
recreation facilities can get disaster aid. That
will help Texas if a hurricane or other disaster hits you.
We've developed the nation's best response
to the AIDS epidemic, altering its course
through education and doing research at our
San Francisco General Hospital that will
improve and hopefully save the lives of
Texans as well as San Franciscans. We're
implementing a model program for the
homeless that provides the services as well as
the housing needed so that we don't simply
recycle them from one low-rent hotel to
another.
We are a city that has taken America's
values to heart — the Golden Gate isn't
simply a piece of geography, but it represents
the way we feel about our country, a place
with golden opportunity for every person.
We're also proud that the Bay Area nurtured such American movements as the Sierra Club and making environment a priority, and Consumer's Union,• which helped
consumers combine their strength in the
marketplace with education.
Most of all, we are a city that will not
tolerate intolerance. You can't get elected
Mayor of San Francisco — and I sincerely
hope you can't get elected governor of Texas
or to any other post in America — by pitting
one group of citizens against another because
of their race, sex, religion, sexual orientation,
or nationality. We are city of great diversity
— and we are proud of it.
Our city picked itself up after a devastating
earthquake last year. We did it by caring
about each other, not by forgetting about
each other's needs. On prime time television,
we showed the nation we are made of "the
right stuff. - We had America's help — and
we'll never forget it. We will do our best to
return America's support by showing America her values at their very best.
There are people from all over the world
— including from Texas — who concluded
that they could be their personal best by
living in a city with our kind of values. They
brought with them the kind of character other
Texas politicians — from Lyndon Johnson to
George Bush — so proudly displayed. It is in
marked contrast to the kind of mindless bravado we hear from the present Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate, Clayton "Drag
Her Through the Dirt" Williams.
Will Texans really be proud of someone
who talks like that?
The presence in San Francisco of former
Texans also made us better. We're proud of
Willie. Brown, son of a Texas sharecropper,
who now is speaker of the California State
Assembly and considered the most powerful
man in the state, after the governor. The
president of the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors, Harry Britt, used to call Port
Arthur home. Our chief of protocol, Charlotte Mailliard Swig, who most recently
organized our welcome for Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev, is also a former Texan.
Each of them found that, because they were
black, gay or a woman, they would have
opportunity. As a result, our city is richer,
more successful and better for having them.
My own parents came to America from
Greece because they believed in the values
written at the Statue of Liberty. They taught
me to believe in those values. I chose to live
in San Francisco because I believed that this
city uniquely offered a chance to put those
values into practice. Neither my parents nor
I have ever regretted our decisions — and my
commitment as mayor is that no one will ever
have cause to believe that San Francisco
doesn't practice what only gets preached in
too many parts of our country — whether it
is economic opportunity for small businesses
as well as big businesses, affordable housing,
health care even in an epidemic, or respect
and dignity for every person.
So, to Clayton Williams, I say: Recognizing that you can't compete in a contest with
us over our economy, our education, our
cultural values, I'm willing to settle this on a
level playing field. If you keep this up, we're
going to send the San Francisco 49ers back
down to Houston, and this time we're not
going to wait till the fourth quarter to get
serious.
❑
THE TEXAS OBSERVER •
Whitetail Whitewash
Who Paid for Rick Perry's Deer?
BY LOUIS DUBOSE
Austin
HAT IS KNOWN is this. On
. February 4, 1988, Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife driver
Max Traweek drove his trailer onto a ranch in
Haskell County and released 22 deer. Twenty
were adult does, one was an adult buck, and
one was a doe fawn. That's all anyone knows.
Trying to get anything more specific out of
Parks and Wildlife might be an easier task
than going out and single-handedly rounding
up those 22 deer — and their offspring.
A routine Open Records request doesn't
exactly solve the mystery of whether the
deer, as one campaign consultant contends,
were improperly released on a ranch belonging to Haskell Republican Representative
Rick Perry. Perry maintains that they weren't
released on the J.R. Perry ranch. When the
incident first came to light, he told the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram that as a legislator,
good neighbor, and former animal science
major at Texas A&M University, he talked to
several landowners whose property was
located near his and asked if they wanted
South Texas whitetail deer, which according
to the Star-Telegram story have a better
bloodline than North Texas deer. Perry, a
former Democrat, is now a Republican candidate for commissioner of agriculture.
After a wildlife stocking scandal that involved House Speaker Gib Lewis and others,
the agency's wildlife program director,
Charles Allen, was replaced, and there has
been some reorganization at Parks and Wildlife. But the agency still seems to have difficulty dealing with such items as straightforward Open Records Act requests for public
information.
A request by this publication for the trap
and release form, which should explain
whether Perry used his position as an elected
official to obtain deer at state expense, was
answered within the 10 days allowed by the
Texas Open Records Act. But the record was
amended written in longhand on the lower
half of the page was: "This may be incorrect.
Deer may have been released on neighbor's
ranch. (Ft. Worth Star Telegram, 3/7/89)."
An arrow was drawn from the note to the
blank on which the release site, the J.R. Perry
Ranch, was listed.
The Texas Open Records Act provides
public access to public records or photocopies of the records. Public records, with certain clearly defined exceptions, must be made
available upon request. When asked if adding information to a document does not change
/VD/
W
12 • OCTOBER 26, 1990
i_
.
.
DEER TRAP AND RELEASE FORM
TRAILER NUMBER
DRIVER
tr
Pqii A
DATE • 2•
RANCH /)
eV EaTOTAL
ADDLT DOES
I
ADULT BUCXS
DOE FAWNS
r>.Pir.r
TOTAL
TOTAL
■
BUCK FAWNS
TOTAL
SUM TOTAL
RELEASE SITE
•
Febt q, /?(
_RELEASE DATE
NUMBER DEER RELEASED
74
r)
5 e71
/-
"7/7
. ), A/0,4'
•r a- f(/,(
Pr%
1971
/e_
)7e7'
441
V‘71
I
ACROSS THE AISLE
1311 BERKSHIRE DR.
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78723
the nature of the record, Boyd Johnson,
general counsel for the agency, said that the
explanation of any possible error in release
sites should have been included in a cover
letter accompanying the trap and release form,
not written on it. "Whoever did it," Johnson
said, "was probably trying to provide additional information." It is evident that there
was no attempt to present the most recent
addendum to the form as a notation made at
the time of the release — unless it was a
hopelessly clumsy attempt to do so — since
the notation cited by date a Fort Worth StarTelegram article published one year after the
deer were released.
But the Rick Perry antlergate story became
something of an altergate story when a second document, obtained from a campaign
consultant, also was amended. And though
the amended information was the essentially
the same, it was conveyed in a slightly different fashion. (Both documents are reproduced
on the adjacent pages.) On the second document, which includes at the bottom a stamp
identifying the Austin political consultant
that requested it, there is a new notation in the
upper left hand corner of the page: "Not Type
H." Another note is handwritten at the bottom: "These deer reportedly were not released on Perry's ranch but on a neighbor's
ranch."
Type II designates a program by which
deer are moved to land on which the public,
with the purchase of a Type II license, is
allowed to hunt. According to the Austin
questionable game stockings, that ultimately
led to the departure of Parks and Wildlife's
wildlife director.
According to a list of 1987-88 Type II deer
stockings conducted by Parks and Wildlife,
whitetail deer were delivered to 41 separate
sites in the state. The final four entries,
however, are designated "Other Deer Stocking," and include dates of delivery of deer to
two ranches owned by Gib Lewis, one
Hopkins County ranch with a site identified
DEER TRAP AND RELEASE FORM
TRAILER NUMBER
DRIVER
r
BUCKS
RANCH
NJ 14 11 114.1111
6•
YS'
DATE
1V )/4 ?t 14/AW
ADULT DOES
ADULT
q
)3
—51S
TOTAL
B..ek
TOTAL
DOE FAWNS
TOTAL
tke
BUCK FAWNS TOTAL
SUM TOTAL
R.
777 RELEASE SITE
FZ4 x
RELEASE DATE
Perry Reit,ccic
L/, /' c
A
lask
NUMBER DEER RELEASED
rya-7-1
e—yrvi
I
fle4A his
.kr90,)-1 S//T-r
3/x/W
AA Ve%
0,,,P 4
American- Statesman, which last year published a series of deer-stocking stories, Type
II funds, essentially user fees, were used to
stock the two ranches owned by House
Speaker Gib Lewis. While Lewis offered to
have the animals removed at his expense, or
to repay the state for the cost of trapping and
transporting the deer (on average, $175 per
animal), Perry, now the Republican candidate for agriculture commissioner, has made
no such offer. It was the stocking of the
House Speaker's ranch, and several other
as Pickton, and the Perry Ranch in Haskell
County.
"Not Type II" was written on one of the
forms released, according to agency counsel
Johnson, because Parks and Wildlife driver
Traweek thought he was doing a Type II program stocking and, as Johnson remembered,
originally designated the delivery as Type H.
What actually happened on February 4,
1988? Perry's version, as told to the StarTelegram, had him and several local landowners waiting for the Parks and Wildlife
truck. Traweek then followed Perry to a site
and unloaded the deer. "I'm not familiar with
the area," Traweek said. "And I don't recall
exactly whose property they were going on.
They could easily have been put on a property adjacent to Perry's." On the same day he
delivered the deer, however, Traweek wrote
that the deer were delivered to the Perry
ranch.
Perry disagreed, telling the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram that the records are "very,
very wrong." He even insisted that there was
no way the deer would get to his property.
"There is nothing to draw them there. There
is no dense cover, there is no water. We don't
even lease our country for hunting. Never
have." Perry said. (Lewis, at the time, used an
entirely different sort of logic to justify shipping deer to his ranch, saying that the deer
released on his place "are not hemmed in on
1,500 acres. They went wherever they wanted
to go.")
Where were the deer delivered? Acting
Wildlife Director Bobby Alexander said that
it is not certain. And he could not explain
who approved the request. Nor could general
counsel Johnson, who said that many such
requests made at the time were not documented, but only verbally approved. Nor
could it be determined, Alexander said, what
funds were used to pay for the stocking. And
there is no record that any agency survey was
conducted to determine if moving the deer to
the Perry ranch, or one of the ranches adjacent to the Perry ranch, was biologically
sound.
If, at the time the Perry et al. stocking was
done, a private citizen wanted livestock
moved to his land, a survey would have been
required. Or, the applicant would have been
required to locate his animals and pay the
state for trapping and transportation.
At the time of the incident involving the
Speaker, the American-Statesman cited a
number of agency employees who complained of the pressure they felt when legislators, who vote on Parks and Wildlife budgets and therefore had some control over the
agency, requested that their ranches or deer
leases be stocked with wildlife. Members of
the wildlife department's field staff told
Statesman reporters that delivering game to
legislators was referred to as "political stockings." They had no choice, agency employees said, but to fill the requests.
Policies have been changed and state
employees have lost their jobs at the state
agency as a result of the 1988 wildlife stocking controversy. And the Speaker suffered
some political damage before he resolved his
problem with his offer to pay or have the deer
removed. Since there is no record of state
Representative Rick Perry, or any of his
neighbors, paying for the deer, it seems that
Perry, before he considers being sworn in as
commissioner of agriculture in January, might
have some explaining to do. And if the agency
has put its house in order, it's time that it put
its files in order.
0
THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13
POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE
✓ CLAYTON WILLIAMS'S contradictions often go unnoticed in West Texas,
where the Republican gubernatorial candidate is considered something of a native son.
But Lubbock Avalanche-Journal editor Jay
Harris couldn't help noticing that Williams's
"cut and not trim the fat" approach to government puts him squarely at odds with his
party's candidate for lieutenant governor.
"There is fat," Williams was reported as
saying in an interview with Harris. "There
are 15 layers of managers in the Department
of Human Services and most managers
manage two people."
Harris asked Williams if the ad was not an
indirect criticism of lieutenant governor
candidate Rob Mosbacher, who one day
earlier had been taken to task by three state
senators for requesting "10,000 employees
for the deficit-ridden DHS, of which
Mosbacher is chairman." Williams said he
would defend Mosbacher "but not 10,000
new people."
✓ WILLIAMS is a fiscal conservative in
most circumstances, but not when it comes
to campaign spending. It's widely known
that he has spent more money on his campaign than any other previous gubernatorial
candidate. And, it seems, that's the way he
planned it all along. According to Republican gubernatorial primary candidate Tom
Luce, who appeared recently on Fort Worth's
Channel 8 News Index, Williams always
admitted that money was the big variable in
his election equation. The Fort Worth program ran a taped segment of Luce discussing former opponent Clayton Williams before a group of Harvard students. Luce quoted
Williams saying (to him) "I like the hell out
of you ... don't take it personal but I'm going
to buy this governor's race."
✓ EL PASO state Representative Jack
Vowell, a four-term progressive Republican, is the pro-abortion-rights candidate in a
campaign against anti-abortion-rights candidate Paula Thomas. Thomas is a lawyer,
who according to Diana Washington Valdez
of the El Paso Times, has built an unusual
coalition of "labor, pro-lifers, the local
Democratic Party and some Republicans
who oppose Vowell's bid for re-election."
Vowell, however, is expected to prevail in
the race.
✓ PEGGY ROSSON, the former Public
Utilities Commissioner from El Paso, is on
the opposite side of the abortion issue from
fellow Democrat Thomas. Rosson's Republican opponent Frank Lozito, is, according
to Gary Scharrer of the El Paso Times,
attacking Rosson for her pro-abortion-rights
position. Rosson disagreed with Lozito's
argument that both parents should be required to consent to a minor's abortion. "I
want you to think of it [parental consent
requirements] in regards to the girl who gets
impregnated by the father, by the brother,
and those parents, when they go to them,
throw them out of the house, break their jaw,
and beat them unmercifully," Rosson said of
young women who are sexual victims within
their own home. Of Lozito's claim that schoolbased clinics should never be allowed to
hand out contraceptives, Rosson said: "We
have the highest teenage pregnancy rate
among the states. That's a fact ... You have
to get to these young people and teach them
the consequences of sexual activity." If they
persist in their behavior, "then for God's sake
teach them how not to get pregnant. Don't
have babies having babies." Lozito's other
public school initiative is a proposal that the
police employ dog patrols in public schools
to sniff out possible illegal drugs.
✓ HOUSTON CHRONICLE reporter
Mark Smith's 23-column-inch story on Bryan
state Representative Richard Smith's imbroglio with the Resolution Trust Corporation
could make a difference in Smith's state
Senate campaign. The Chronicle, which circulates in Bryan and most of the Fifth Senatorial District (now represented by retiring
Democrat Kent Caperton), reported that
Smith voluntarily withdrew his real estate
company's listings of RTC-foreclosed properties to avoid "possible fines and penalties
at a federal ethics committee hearing."
Smith, according to the Chronicle, has
admitted that he is not eligible to sell RTC
properties. Federal rules prohibit "any individual, firm, or related entity in default on
bank or S&L loans of more than $50,000" to
do business with the RTC. Smith, the Chronicle reported, has been in default since August 16, 1987, on a $460,000 loan. He refused to tell the Chronicle how much he had
earned from the sale of RTC properties before he withdrew the listings. But one sales
agent with Smith's firm had told the paper
that she alone received more than $130,000
this year from the sale of RTC properties.
And an office manager in one of Smith's five
Austin offices said that the commission split
between the firm and its agents ranges from
50/50 to 75/25. Smith's firm is Coldwell
Banker/Richard Smith Realtors. Smith's
opponent is Crockett mayor and former House
member Jim Turner.
✓ HENRY CISNEROS, former mayor
of San Antonio, decried Bexar County Sheriff Harlon Copeland for engaging in "cesspool" politics. "It took Harlon Copeland to
be willing to put his hands into the cesspool
of filthy tactics," Cisneros said of Copeland,
who along with J.D. Arnold, a former press
secretary for Jim Mattox, accused Richards
of using cocaine 13 years ago at a Mattox
fundraiser.
Copeland called a press conference to announce that his chief of criminal investigators visited Arnold at his home in Santa Fe,
New Mexico, after the Albuquerque Journal
published Arnold's claim. "He had decided
that by some stretch of logic that it was within
his responsibility to investigate a matter that
allegedly occurred in 1977 — 13 years ago in
Dallas, 250 miles away — and that justified
sending an investigator," Cisneros said,
according to the San Antonio Light.
✓ A PENGUIN FOR A DUCK? Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Rob
Mosbacher said that he would get the penguins out of his ad if his opponent, Comptroller Bob Bullock, would get the duck out of
his, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Mosbacher's ad takes Bullock to task for his
use of state aircraft, citing, in particular, one
flight to Alaska. The ad includes a group of
penguins looking up at what is supposed to
be Bullock's plane flying over Alaska. Penguins, however, are not found in Alaska, and
there is no evidence that the Comptroller
ever flew to the Antarctic on the taxpayers'
tab. Bullock's ad hits closer to home and
includes a dead bird — presented as a victim
of one of the oil spills caused by a barge company partly owned by Mosbacher Jr.
✓ ANOTHER HIGH flyer was recently
scuffed up in pages of the Austin AmericanStatesman, where political writer Dave
McNeely suggested that state Representative Rick Perry of Haskell, who "pilots his
own plane, flew too HIGH without his oxygen mask on." At issue was a Perry press
release attacking his opponent, Democratic
Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower,
for Hightower's promotion of crop-diversification. Perry wrote that he "wouldn't be
surprised that HIGHtower's emphasis on
diversification [of crops] has encouraged the
spread of marijuana in the state. Mr
HIGHtower has spent most of the past eight
years talking about Chinese cabbage and
reishi mushrooms. Is marijuana one of those
niche crops?" Before cutting off Perry's air,
McNeely gave Perry's statement the twoand-a-half column inches it deserved — at
the tail end of a Sunday column.
✓ WITH THE U.S. TREASURY just
about empty, what better way to use its custodian than for a little politicking? U.S. Treasurer Catalina Vasquez Villalpando, a native
of San Marcos, has campaigned for Clayton
Williams and Larry Vick (GOP challenger to
Senator Judith Zaffirini), and plans to help
14 • OCTOBER 26, 1990
V74.-
other Republican candidates for statewide
office. Speaking of Vick to the San Antonio
Express-News, Villalpando said: "I like his
positions. I'm not a feminist."
✓ A FUNDAMENTALIST Christian
group from Austin, the Texas Grassroots
Coalition, is again preying — and again the
object of their prayers is the gay and lesbian
community in the state. That's not unusual
for the group directed by Adrian Van Zelfden
whose organization urges Christians to start
small issue groups in their churches. What is
newsworthy is that the coalition is, in part,
funded by the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams.
Listed among the recipients of Williams
campaign expenditures on file with the Secretary of State's office is at least $9,500 paid
to the Grassroots Coalition for consulting on
direct mail services. In one mailing, Van
Zelfden wrote: "I am blowing my trumpet
again now." What, besides his reiteration of
his primary endorsement of Williams, is Van
Zelfden blowing?
"Ann Richards had pledged to do everything she can to repeal the Texas criminal law
statute that makes homosexual acts illegal ...
The lesbians and homosexuals hate this law,
because it allows people like me to describe
their conduct as criminal. It alsovuts them at
risk when they cruise parks and public rest
rooms in search of casual sex with each other
or to recruit children.
"Another strong push is to force society
and individuals to give special preferences to
lesbians and homosexuals. ... This has led to
the view that courts will require something
akin to quotas, which would be a particular
problem for churches that hire people like organists and janitors, as well as the pastoral
staff. ... Landlords and agents have been
forced to rent to lesbians and homosexuals,
even in the case of a person who has a duPlex
and lives in one side. Some other affirmative
action agenda items sought by the lesbians
and homosexuals are marriage, adoption,
medical and life insurance, inheritance, and
pensions.
"If their champion goes down in ignominious defeat because of her stand for them, it
will set back the lesbian/homosexual political movement for a long time. (I think it is not
unreasonable to hope it knocks them out for
as much as a generation.)"
Van Zelfden's mailing is something of a
chain letter. He urges those who receive it to
make 10 copies and mail them to friends.
✓ RALPH NADER has turned his attentions toward Texas recently. Besides headlining the Eco-Fair held in Austin, Nader
criticized Senator Phil Gramm for being one
of a handful of senators who has consistently
voted against measures to end special interest influence and corruption in Washington.
Nader's remarks were based on a report by
his Public Citizen organization, which revealed that 17 Senators — including Gramm
— voted down the line against 10 important
LOUIS DUBOSE
Rep. Richard Smith: Problems with savings & loan foreclosures
reform bills during the last decade, legislation that would have enacted campaign finance reform, limited honoraria and free
gifts from special interest groups, and similar
measures. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, by contrast, voted for reform 70 percent of the time.
✓ A SECOND Public Citizen study con"cerning Texas reveals that the state is one of
the five most wasteful in terms of energy
used per person. "Though it has only the third
largest population, Texas uses far more energy and more petroleum overall than any
other state," the study noted. "Texas has 42
percent fewer citizens than California, which
is the second most energy-consuming state,
but it uses 37 percent more energy and 28
percent more petroleum. ... In fact, although
it has less than 7 percent of the nation's population, Texas accounts for nearly 12 percent
of U.S. energy use," the report continued.
The results are particularly disturbing during
a time when U.S. consumption of energy
may embroil the country in a Persian Gulf
war.
0
THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15
Heavy Hitters
Bidding for Influence in a Clayton Williams Administration
The $18 million-plus raised by Republican
Clayton Williams and his campaign has made
the 1990 election in Texas the most expensive single governor's race ever conducted in
this - or probably any - republic. Below is
a list of contributions made to the Williams
Campaign during the quarter which ended
September 27, 1990 - the most recent filing
period. Observer interns Richard Arellano,
Ali Hossaini, Vince Lozano, and Jennifer
Wong compiled the list from candidate disclosure forms, which by law must be filed in
the secretary of state's office in Austin. Our
original plan was to list all contributions of
$1,000 or more. Such a list, however, would
have filled almost half of this issue. We have
therefore included only contributions above
$1,000, along with a few notable lesser givers. During the recent quarter, Williams raised
$3,585,924.24 In mid-October, at a Dallas
fundraiser featuring President Bush, $2 million was raised.
Frederick R. Meyer
$10,400
Dallas
Paul J. Meyer
$20,000
Waco
A. M. Micallef
$10,000
Fort Worth
Vance C. Miller
$1,500
Dallas
Rev. Gene A. Moore
$5,000
Pearland•
Monte Hasie . $1,000
Lubbock
George S. Hawn
$2,300
Corpus Christi
Thomas E. Martinson
$2,000
New York, New York
Arden R. Grover
$10,000
Midland
Brian McCoy
$1,005
San Marcos
J. Donald Guinn (NCNB)
$1,000
Tyler
Michel T. Halbouty
$1,000
Houston Bill Ham
$2,000
Houston
Gene Bishop
$5,000
Dallas
J.H. Conine Jr. $2,500
Midland C.C. Winn
$5,000
Eagle Pass
Harry Westmoreland (NCNB) $1,000
Lubbock
Bill Whepley
$8,000
Irving
16 • OCTOBER 26, 1990
Mike Toomey
Austin
Tich N. Truong
Dallas
Chester R. Upham Jr.
Mineral Wells
J. Virgil Waggoner
Houston
Dary Stone
Dallas
James C. Storm (MBank)
Corpus Christi
A.M. Stringfellow
San Antonio
Ken M. Talkington
Arlington
Charles W. Tate
New York, New York
Peter Terpeuluk Jr.
Washington, DC
Gillis Thomas
Dallas
Gerard L. Smith
New York, New York
Jan H. Stenbeck
New York, New York
Robert H. Stewart
Dallas
Delbert L. Dunmire
Grandview, Missouri
Joseph F. Fogg
Mullontown, New York
Jon Newton
Austin
T. Boone Pickens
Dallas
Clive Runnells III
Houston
George A. Robinson
Houston
John F. Lott
Lubbock
Donald J. Carter
Coppell
SCOPE PAC
Amarillo
San Jacinto Fund PAC
Houston
Sawtelle et al PAC
San Antonio
Texas Oxy Employees PAC
Lubbock
Texas DPS PAC
Austin
IBP PAC
Dakota City, Nebraska
Korean Senior Citizens PAC
Dallas
MBANK Employees PAC
$10,000
$1,050
$10,000
$40,000
$2,000
$1,000
$10,000
$5,000
$1,000
$3,000
$5,000
$1,000
$10,000
$10,000
$2,000
$1,000
$5,000
$10,000
$10,000
$10,000
$2,500
$20,000
$5,000
$5,000
$1,500
$500
$1,000
$1,000
$250
$5,000
Dallas
Goldman Sachs PAC $6,000
Washington, DC
Houston Area Chiropractic PAC $1,600
Houston
W. Warren Prater $1,250
Plano
G.H. McClesky
$2,000
Lubbock
Blas M. Martinez
$5,000
Laredo
DLJ Better Government PAC $2,000
New York, New York
Diamond Shamrock R&M PAC $500
San Antonio
ACS PAC
$17,500
Dallas
ARA PAC
$2,500
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Amoco Texas PAC
$2,500
Austin & Houston
American Petrofina PAC
$10,500
Dallas
Ned Holmes
$10,000
Houston
Elton Hyder Jr.
$1,000
Fort Worth
Harold Hyman
$1,500
Dimmitt
Bruno Scherrer
$1,000
Los Angeles, Califorina
Paul Schilder
$1,250
Lubbock
Robert Schneeflock
$1,000
Brandon, Mississippi
F. H. Richardson
$5,000
Houston
Frank E. Richardson
$1,000
New York, New York
Joe C. Richardson
$1,750
Amarillo
John C. Robbins
$3,650
Longview
Thomas P. Roddy
$2,000
Washington, DC
Beatrice C. Pickens
$28,900
Dallas
R. H. Pickens
$5,500
Dallas
James R. Ratliff
$2,500
Lubbock
Powell Industries PAC
$1,000
Houston AIA-PAC
$2,500
Houston
Ruff PAC State
$1,000
Washington, DC
Texas Eagle Forum PAC
$250
Lubbock
H. Ross Perot Jr.
Dallas
Bob J. Perry
Houston
Neal Nance
Giddings
Peter O'Donnell Jr.
Dallas
Beef PAC
Amarillo
Bear Stearns PAC
New York, New York
(Bob Dole) Campaign
America PAC
Washington, DC
Constructive Citizenship PAC
Dallas
Impact Operating Acct. PAC
Austin
Exxon Corp. PAC
Houston
GTE State PAC
Austin
Glenn McMennamy
Amarillo
Wm. A. McMinn
Houston
Mrs. A L. Hunt
Dallas
Ray L. Hunt
Dallas
Gary Jacobs
Laredo
Daniel K. Hedges
Houston
F. Lee Hicks
Amarillo
George C. Hixon
San Antonio
Robert B. Holt
Midland
John Keck
Laredo
David W. Killam
Laredo
Danny Kilpatrick
Angleton
Martha S. Lyne
Dallas
Wales Madden Jr.
Amarillo
Robert Josserand
Hereford
Bobby Loggins
Tyler
Bob Loggins
Tyler
Bob Lanier
Fort Worth
H. Ward Lay
Dallas
Jack Finney
Greenville
Raymond L. Fisher
Houston
Dale F. Dorn
San Antonio
H.W. Davidson
Midland
John Drake
Dallas
$500
$25,000
$1,200
$10,500
$5,000
$1,000
$1,000
$5,000
$1,000
$8,400
$4,000
$1,200
$25,000
$10,000
$10,000
$5,000
$3,000
$10,000
$10,000
$3,000
$5,000
$25,000
$1,500
$1,600
$1,500
$2,000
$2,000
$2,500
$1,000
$12,500
$2,500
$1,100
$2,000
$1,500
$5,000
David G. Eller
Houston
Jimmie L. Davis
Midland
Alfred L. Deaton III
Houston
Mr. R. H. Dedman
Dallas
Eddie Chiles
Fort Worth
Dalton Cobb
Midland
George Conley
Midland
Richard K. Crane
Garland
T.J. Cronk
Odessa
Leona M. Bryant
Midland
Robert Calhoun Jr.
Greenwich, Connecticut
Philip Carroll
Houston
Geoffrey Boisi
New York, New York
John G. Brittingham
Dallas
Eugene Becknell
Idalou
Louis A. Beecherl
Dallas
Charles A. Bird
Midland
Teel Bivins
Amarillo
Tom Bivins
Amarillo
Carol C. Ballard
Houston
H.B. Zachry Jr.
San Antonio
H.T. Ardinger Jr.
Dallas
Connie C. Armstrong
Dallas
Ernest Angelo Jr.
Midland
Nancy Anguish
Midland
Joe Bailey
Houston
Kenneth Banks
Schulenburg
Thomas D. Barrow
Longview
Carlton Beal
Midland
Louis Beercherl Jr.
Dallas
Lee B. M. Biggart
Austin
Herbert Blankinship
Midland
Norman Blankinship
Amarillo
Daniel Bower
Atlanta, Georgia
Othal Brand
McAllen
$1,750
$25,000
$10,000
$500
$13,500
$3,000
$1,500
$15,000
$1,500
$1,250
$1,000
$3,000
$3,000
$7,500
$1,250
$10,000
$5,000
$1,000
$1,300
$2,000
$10,000
$10,000
$100,000
$1,000
$2,500
$2,000
$19,000
$5,000
$2,000
$5,500
$1,000
$7,500
$10,000
$2,000
$10,000
Jack Brown
Midland
D. Button
Midland
G.R. Chapman
Amarillo
Eddie Chiles
Fort Worth
Ken Clark
Midland
Billy W. Clayton
Austin
Woodrow W. Clements
Dallas
Ted Collins
Midland
Harold D. Courson
Perryton
Frank Cowden
Midland
Wright E. Cowden Jr.
Midland
Bobby D. Cox
Odessa
Earle Craig Jr.
Midland
Richard K. Crane
Garland
James R. Currie
Garden City
John N. Darby
Longview
H. W. Davidson
Midland
A.R. Dillard Jr.
Wichita Falls
H. Allen Doss
Houston
Wayne B. Duddlesten
Houston
Lynn D. Durham Jr.
Midland
John E. Elliott
Austin
David G. Fox
Dallas
Gale L. Galloway
Austin
James S. Garvey
Fort Worth
George H. Glass
Midland
James C. Gordon
Houston
Nancy R. Gordon
Houston
Robert D. Gunn
Wichita Falls
Frances S. Haley
Midland
Michael E. Hanson
Houston
Neil E. Hanson
Houston
Fred Havenick
Miami, Florida
Florence Hecht
Miami, Florida
Joe Henderson
Midland
$12,500
$2,500
$10,000
$3,000
$2,500
$1,000
$5,000
$2,500
$15,000
$2,500
$2,500
$5,000
$2,500
$5,000
$2,500
$1,500
$1,500
$5,000
$2,500
$1,000
$1,200
$2,000
$5,000
$1,790
$2,000
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$3,100
$2,500
$5,000
$25,000
$5,000
$2,500
$2,600
THE TEXAS OBSERVER •
17
Walter C. Hubbard
Midland
J.L. Huffines Jr.
Lewisville
James R. Huffines
Austin
Michael Huffington
Houston
Tim Hunt
Greeenville
Gary Jacobs
Laredo
Richard P. Keeton
Houston
W.D. Kennedy
Midland
Peter C. Kern
Pilot Point
Harris Kerr
Midland
Randy M. Kidwell
Midland
Marion Y.S. Kimbro
Brownsville
James W. Lacy
Midland
Edward H. Leede
Englewood, Colorado
John G. Leede
Englewood, Colorado
Kevin Leede
Englewood, Colorado
Michael H. Leede
Englewood, Colorado
Paul Lewin
Miami, Florida
James R. Lightner
Dallas
Steven J. Lindley
Houston
Walden Little
Tyler
Stephen C. Lockwood
Arlington
Tom Loeffler
San Antonio
Mary R. Lowe
Houston
Travis Lynch
San Antonio
Robert C. Lyon
Midland
E.O. Matthews
Humble
Lowry Mays
San Antonio
John P. McGovern
Houston
Bob McKelvey
Palestine
Drayton McLane
Temple
Edwin Magruder Jr.
Midland
Frederick R. Meyer
Dallas
Vance Miller
Dallas
Charles Moncrief
Fort Worth
18 • OCTOBER 26, 1990
$1,500
$25,250
$1,000
$5,000
$2,500
$5,000
$1,000
$2,500
$35,000
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
$5,000
$1,250
$1,500
$5,000
$7,500
$5,000
$4,168
$2,000
$1,100
$10,000
$25,000
$1,050
$25,000
$2,500
$5,000
$3,000
$1,000
Reed Morian
$2,500
Houston
Frank M. Muller Jr. $25,000
Houston
Lucille G. Murchison $5,000
Dallas
Rob Neblett $1,250
Houston
T.B. O'Brien $2,500
Midland
Peter O'Donnell Jr. $20,000
Dallas
AT & T PAC - Texas $1,000
Austin
Arter & Hadden PAC $1,000
Austin
Autopac Automobile Dealers PAC $1,500
Auston
Chevron Employees Texas PAC $1,000
San Francisco, California
EMPAC, Central Division
Dow Chemical
$2,500
Freeport
East PAC
$1,500
Kingsport
First Interstate Texas PAC $5,000
Houston
Godwin, Carlton & Maxwell PAC $1,000
Dallas
Houston Industries PAC $1,000
Houston
Lan-PAC $1,000
Houston
MBank Employee PAC $1,000
Dallas
OXY PAC
$5,000
Los Angeles, C alifornia
Palo Pinto Co. Women's PAC $3,500
Mineral Wells
Pennzoil PAC
$2,000
Houston
Responsible Government PAC $2,500
Fort Worth
Texas Good Government
Fund PAC $5,000
Houston
Texas Commerce PAC $1,250
Houston
Tenneco Employee PAC $4,000
Mont Belvieu
Tex Den PAC
$1,000
Austin
Texas Energy PAC $1,000
Austin
Turner, Collie, & Braden PAC $1,000
Houston
United Telephone PAC $1,000
Austin
AmSouth Bank
$1,000
Birmingham, Alabama
Robert L. Parker Jr. $2,000
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Wesley E. Pittman $2,500
Midland
Clayton J. Pollard
$2,500
Midland
B.M. Rankin Jr.
$5,000
Dallas
John Robbins $6,000
Longview
George Robinson
Houston
Jim Rochelle
Texarkana
Clive Runnells
Houston
Mike Rutherford
Houston
C. Hill Rylander
Austin
Henry G. Smith
Dallas
Tom Scott
Midland
John Sheets
Odessa
D. J. Sibley
Austin
L.D. Sipes Jr.
Midland
Frank R. Sitton
Midland
Gene Sledge
Midland
E. Ashley Smith
Houston
Niley J. Smith
Cameron
Thomas Smith
Houston
Thornton Snider
Turlock, California
Betty Stedman
Houston
Stuart Stedman
Houston
W.D. Stevens
Houston
Mrs. Charles Stringfellow
Alpine
Nicholas Taylor
Midland
Patrick Taylor
New Orleans, Louisiana
Gillis Thomas
Dallas
Jere Thompson
Dallas
Fred Turner
San Antonio
Tom E. Turner
San Antonio
Robert Venable
Dallas
Shelton Viney
Midland
J. Virgil Waggoner
Houston
Cyril Wagner Jr.
Midland
Neita Walling
Fort Stockton
Joe Walter
Houston
Deas Warley III
Midland
Johnny Warren
Midland
Wesley West
Houston
$5,000
$1,000
$13,000
$5,000
$1,000
$25,000
$2,500
$3,000
$2,500
$5,000
$12,000
$2,500
$5,000
$5,000
$2,500
$5,000
$2,500
$5,000
$2,500
$1,000
$2,500
$8,000
$10,000
$5,000
$1,250
$2,000
$5,000
$2,500
$25,000
$12,500
$4,050
$5,000
$2,500
$2,500
$2,500
Bill Whelpley
$5,000
Irving
Stephen Weisenfeld $2,500
Midland
Mrs. Chic Williams $1,550
Fort Stockton
Ken Williams
$2,500
Midland
C. Ward Williamson $2,500
Midland
G. W. Worth Jr. $20,000
Comfort
Robert Wright $5,000
Dallas
W.B. Yarborough $2,100
Midland
Thomas D. Barrrow $23,000
Houston
Carlton Beal $2,000
Midland
Dennis Berryhill $2,500
The Woodlands
Robert Davis
$2,500
Austin
Hector DeLeon
$1,000
Austin
David H. Dewhurst $15,000
Houston
John Elliott $2,000
Austin
Marcus Hart $1,125
San Antonio
Jack Heard Jr. $1,000
Houston
John Johnson
$5,000
Dallas
Dan N. Matheson $5,000
Austin
Rick A. McMinn $2,500
The Woodlands
Charles Miller $4,000
Houston
John D. Murchison $20,000
Dallas
Joseph I. O'Neill Jr. $5,000
Midland
Central & Southwest Services PAC $1,000
Dallas
Central Power & Light Co. PAC $1,000
Corpus Christi
Enserch Employees Pac$2,500
Dallas
Impact Operating Account PAC $1,000
Austin
First Financial Corp. PAC$1,000
Waco
Hollywood Marine PAC $15,000
Houston
Leadership PAC $1,000
San Antonio
Republican Nat'l Committee
PAC
$10,000
Washington, DC
Republican Nat'l Committee
PAC
$10,000
Washington, DC
Republican Nat'l Committee PAC $5,000
Washington, DC
Sawtelle, et al Committee PAC $1,000
San Antonio
Texas Good
Government
Fund PAC
$1,000
Houston
Texas Rep. Campaign PAC
$2,500
Austin
Texas Farm Bureau PAC
$7,500
Waco
USAA Group PAC
$4,500
San Antonio
USAA Group PAC
$4,500
San Antonio
West Texas Utilities Co. PAC
$1,000
Abilene
Lonnie A. Pilgrim
$10,000
Pittsburgh
Patrik W. Pilgrim
$1,000
Pittsburgh Chesly Pruet
$2,000
El Paso
Anthony J. Saragusa
$1,500
Richmond
Wallace H. Scott Jr. $2,500
Austin
Ralph B. Thomas
$21,000
Houston
Robert T. Priddy
$10,000
Wichita Falls
Jon Newton
$1,000
Austin
Specific-Purpose Committee Contributions
and Loans from Financial Institutions
Robert J. Cruikshank $18,561
Houston
Rip Byrd
$2,550
Huntsville
Charley Beckwith $1,088
Austin
Michelle L. Brench $3,500
Willis
Bo and Patty Pilgrim $2,500
Pittsburg
Joe Davis $1,298
Abilene
Joe Bradberry $1,700
San Antonio
T. Michael O'Connor $4,352.85
Victoria
Travis & Susan Lynch $1,832
San Antonio
George P. Mitchell $2,039.18
The Woodlands
Emil E. Ogden
$1,855
College Station
Albert McWilliams
$1,005.46
Texarkana
George McWilliams
$1,005.46
Texarkana Bill Calhoun
$2,000
Odessa
Pati Whitfield
$2,680.95
Tyler
Richard Harvey
$1,050
Tyler
John Robbins
$1,350
Longview
Gale L. Galloway
$7,500
Austin
Tommy Barrow
$2,168.45
Longview
This is Texas today. A state full
of Sunbelt boosters, strident antiunionists, oil and gas companies,
nuclear weapons and power
plants, political hucksters, underpaid workers, and toxic wastes,
to mention a few.
BUT
DO NOT
DESPAIR!
el
1511§1
aver
XAS
TO SUBSCRIBE:
Address
City
State
❑
$27 enclosed for a one-year
subscription.
❑
Bill me for $27.
Zip
307 W•st 7th,
AUSTIN, TX 78701
THE TEXAS OBSERVER •
19
JOURNAL
Ten Years
Of Organizing
The City
HOUSTON
The Metropolitan Organization, an association of 60 congregations, parishes, and religious institutions in Houston, celebrated its
10th anniversary of community organizing
and set the stage for its next decade with the
theme "Rebuilding the City." Nearly 1,000
TMO delegates crowded into the auditorium
of Jefferson Davis High School on Sunday,
October 14. They came to proclaim their
agenda for the '90s — an agenda which calls
for, among other things, creation of a housing trust fund to provide affordable housing
for the working families of Houston, equity
in public school financing, and opposition to
Houston Lighting & Power's proposed rate
increase. They came to display their numbers
and their unity to city and county politicians,
and to challenge them to support the fight to
rebuild Houston for all Houstonians.
TMO is one of 12 member organizations
and committees in the Texas Industrial Areas
Foundation Network, which includes COPS
of San Antonio and Valley Interfaith in South
Texas. For 10 years it has worked to empower poor and working families of Houston, and force the changes necessary to improve life in the city.
Social movements of the powerless face
problems of success as well as of failure. If
after a long and difficult struggle they manage to win a place at the table of power, they
must be ready to make a transition from
reaction to initiation. They must not simply
respond to problems, but lead with solutions.
They must also take on the responsibilities of
governance, and at times, weigh the importance of their principles against the need to
negotiate compromises with other power
players.
TMO has assumed that role. Houston
Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, city council mem-
ANDERSON & COMPANY
COFFEE
TEA SPICES
TWO JEFFERSON SWAMI
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78131
512 453-1533
Send me your list.
Name Street City Zip 20 • OCTOBER 26, 1990
.-.404, ••- 14,
bers, state senators and representatives were
present to recognize that the organization has
won a place at the table. In addressing the
convention, city councilmember Dale
Gorczynski pointed out that he was proud to
work with a partner "that comes to you not
only with the problems that we see everywhere, but with viable solutions and the
energy to lead the way."
TMO is responding to the new challenges
of its position by taking the lead on issues it
once only had the power to react to. While the
accomplishments of the first 10 years are impressive—improvements to the streets, parks
and drainage in their communities, better
security in the inner city, a forced rate-hike
reduction from Houston Lighting & Power,
and other projects — the strategy for the '90s
is to rebuild entire communities. TMO has
prepared a plan to rebuild the things that
matter most to families: their homes and their
schools.
Beginning in 1987, TMO borrowed about
$1 million from the city of Houston, a private
foundation, one charity, and one commercial
lender to renovate two entire blocks of housing in the inner-city Fifth Ward (the late
Mickey Leland's district). TMO purchased
23 units of rental housing, rehabilitated them
and then sold them back to their previous
tenants and other area residents.
This innovative combination of public and
private dollars, grants and loans (both at
market and below market interest rates), transformed tenants into homeowners and an
assortment of run-down houses into a neighborhood. Today, a year after the homes were
sold, not a single owner has been late on a
payment, and the new homeowners continue
to improve their property.
Encouraged by this success, TMO leaders
are currently developing a strategy for renovating an area of more than 100 blocks in the
Frenchtown community, where French-Creole African Americans settled 50 years ago.
Once a vibrant community, the area is today
full of abandoned homes and has been devastated by the crack epidemic.
TMO has also pioneered a program to
improve community schools. The Houston
Independent School District, one of the largest in the country, presents some of the most
pressing problems of any school district in
Texas. Over 80 percent of the students are
Hispanic or African American, with a majority coming from families of below-povertylevel income. Academic indicators consistently place HISD students in the bottom 25
percent of Texas schools.
It was against this backdrop that TMO
introduced their Parental Involvement Programs in three middle schools in Houston's
most troubled neighborhoods. Although these
schools had dedicated and enthusiastic leadership, the principals had realized little suc-
cess involving parents in school affairs. In
one school, even after years of efforts, the
principal couldn't create an active PTA. At
the other schools, PTA meetings rarely had
over 10 people in attendance.
Drawing on its organizational experience,
TMO began working through its member
churches to form education-strategy teams to
guide the church's participation in the program. Leaders began meeting individually
with parents of students and held hundreds of
these meetings to develop awareness of the
program, solicit input and ideas, identify
potential leaders, and build relationships
between the families of these schoolchildren
and TMO.
One early program was designed to raise
student scores on the TEAMS test by developing a special tutoring program with teachers and persuading parents to bring kids to
the sessions. The results were striking. In all
three schools scores improved by more than
10 percent. Parents are learning how to better
help their children at home. They are also
learning how schools work, and in that way
getting the knowledge they need to change
and improve the education of their children.
In one of the nation's most ethnically
diverse cities, TMO demonstrates pluralism
at its best. It has united Anglo, AfricanAmerican, and Hispanic families, drawn together Catholics and Protestants, and built a
constituency that includes poor, middle-class,
and upper middle-class families.
In closing the convention, Reverend Robert
McGee called on the delegates to join him in
San Antonio along with thousands of other
leaders from the IAF organizations across
the state on Sunday, October 28. "We march
to San Antonio to rebuild the state. We march
for quality education for all our children,
health care for all Texans, job training for
good jobs, and affordable housing for all
working families."
The 12 organizations — Communities Organized for Public Service, the Metro Alliance, Valley Interfaith, the Border Organization, Allied Communities of Tarrant, El Paso
Interreligious Sponsoring Organization,
Austin Interfaith, Fort Bend Interfaith Council, Gulf Coast Organizing Effort in Victoria,
the Metropolitan Organization, the Port
Arthur Sponsoring Committee, and the Dallas Interfaith Sponsoring Committee — will
come together in San Antonio to initiate a
united effort to bring a new vision to Texas,
a vision in which the state invests in its
people. They will present their agenda to
elected officials, including Senator Lloyd
Bentsen, and call on them to actively support
the investment of serious resources in the
future of Texas families. — BErrY WEED
Betty Weed is an Austin writer.
BOOKS & THE CULTURE
American Multiplex
Boundless Vision, Boyish Despair
BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN
AVALON
Directed by Barry Levinson
METROPOLITAN
Directed by Whit Stillman
I
T IS THE END of a long December day
that salesman Jules Kaye (Aidan Quinn)
has spent working house to house. As he
is about to get into his car, a mugger demands
that Jules surrender the day's proceeds. He
cannot believe this is happening, and neither
can we, so utterly devoid is Avalon of any
malevolence. Misfortunes — fires, bankruptcies, funerals — abound, and one character, Jules's long-lost uncle Simcha, materializes out of something called a concentration camp. But, though the people we see on
screen may be mulish or foolish, they are
presented with such affection — for them
and among them — that, if only we could see
his mug for a few more seconds, we would
probably love the thief as well. Avalon is a
triumph of sentimentality over history.
It is a luminous story of arrivals and departures. "I came to America in 1914 by way of
Philadelphia," announces the opening voiceover of Sam Krichinsky (Armin MuellerStahl). The exuberant Jewish immigrant
made his way alone from Russia to Baltimore, where his four brothers took him into
their paperhanging business. As he tells it,
again and again, this time to enraptured
grandson Michael and his cousins, Sam's
entry into Baltimore was greeted by a lavish
display of fireworks. "It was the most beautiful place you've ever seen in your whole
life," Sam insists, and we are inclined to
agree, dazzled by a radiant visual flashback.
So what if it happens to be the Fourth of July,
and the colorful bombs bursting in the Baltimore air were not contrived as a welcome
salute to the awestruck newcomer? "What a
country is this!" declares Sam three decades
later, his eyes still glowing with the celebration of independence.
Later, when Michael gets a baby brother
and Sam and his yenta wife Eva (Joan Plowright) move out of the house they share with
him and his parents, the boy is distraught.
Steven G. Kellman is professor of comparative literature at The University of Texas at
San Antonio.
"One way or another, we all have to leave,"
explains the old man, in a film that is shaped
around the comings and goings of human
life. Avalon invites us to become part of Sam
Krichinsky's family circle, the extended clan
who, gathered yearly for a Thanksgiving
repast, are able to dine on his passionate
memories. "If I knew things would no longer
be here," sighs Sam in the geriatric home
where he ends his days, "I would have tried
to remember better." Like Hope and Glory
and The Night of the Shooting Stars, Avalon
is an exercise in creative remembrance so
lustrous we forgive it its omission of darkness. When Eva points out that an event Sam
is recounting actually took place in May, not
winter, the flashback suddenly loses its snow.
But the movie never shakes its ingratiating
innocence. Writer-director Barry Levinson
projects a world that does not know from the
Oedipus complex, in which fathers and sons
and grandsons are genuine pals. Levinson's
1940s Baltimore, where upwardly mobile
Jews belong to the country club, lacks any
trace of anti-Semitism. Even when Sam
breaks with his cranky brother Gabriel in a
senseless spat over carving the turkey, the
mood is bittersweet, and more sweet than
bitter.
Jules changes his name from Krichinsky to
Kaye, and Cousin Izzy changes it to Kirk.
The two begin a department store chain and
are for a while extremely successful. The
American dream does not metamorphose
into nightmare, even when their largest store
goes up in flames. "I can sell anything," says
the indomitable Jules, and, like the Luftmenschen in Levinson's Tin Men, he returns to
the trade of peddler, now of commercial time
in the popular new medium of television.
Television proves the agent and metaphor for
changes in the Krichinskys and American
society. When Jules brings the first crude
model home from the store he has stocked
with sets, the entire family gathers round,
mesmerized by mere test patterns. Later,
clamorous family convocations are hushed
by the power of the electronic box. Ultimately, only the nuclear family of Jules, wife
Ann (Elizabeth Perkins), Michael and baby
David attend the Thanksgiving dinner, and
they do so in silence, transfixed by the TV
screen set beyond their plates. Sam lives to
see his great grandson, but also the loss of
family bonds. When he learns that Michael
has named his little boy Sam, he reminds his
grandson of an Eastern European Jewish
taboo: "You're not supposed to name him
after the living." "I know," replies Michael,
as though the ancient Sam in effect no longer
lives or else the blasphemy no longer matters. Assimilation in Avalon is accomplished
with minimal anguish, because not much of
substance is seen to be sacrificed. It is always
the secular American feast of Thanksgiving,
not a Passover seder, at which the Krichinskys
assemble. Though scattered and distracted,
the family continues, and it is Michael who
now tells little Sam the legend of their patriarch: "He came to America in 1914. ..."
As with the ballpark scenes in The Natural, Levinson transforms a fond man's fantasy of personal history into myth, and he
does so with a beguiling complexity of visual
and aural montages. We view Sam's arrival
in 1914 in a gauzy reverie timed to the
rhythms of a silent movie. Like Michael —
who gazes out the back of the family car at
something wondrous, a diner being lowered
from a crane (a reminder of Levinson's own
fabulous emergence into film with Diner?)
— we are forever wide-eyed at the precious
life passing before us. Avalon astonishes
with the revelation of archetype; this is no
test pattern.
I
T'S AMAZING to see these things still
go on," says Tom Townsend (Edward
Clements), an outsider who provides
the . viewer with entree into an exclusive
domain. These things are debutante balls,
and they go on off-camera every evening in
Metropolitan, an ethnographic comedy. It is
a story of being up and in on Park Avenue
during Christmas vacation "not so long ago."
Writer-director Whit Stillman defies the
convention that an "honest" film must concern itself exclusively with characters who
are impoverished, inarticulate, and in trouble.
The very rich might, as Fitzgerald claimed,
be different from you and me, but they, too,
exist, and Stillman does a convincing job of
taking the measure of their heirs.
Because of "a bit of an escort shortage,"
Tom is befriended by a group of adolescent
socialites who gather nightly at Sally Fowler's
parents' posh apartment and call themselves
the SFRP: an acronym for Sally Fowler Rat
Pack. Most of Metropolitan is set at their
successive after-parties, following cotillions
THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21
at the Plaza or St. Regis. Half a dozen of them
sit around exchanging ideas on life, love, and
the terminal infirmity of their class. Charlie
Black (Taylor Nichols), adept at socio-philosophical babble, is convinced of the imminent demise of what he calls the UHB: the
Urban Haute Bourgeoisie. The breed has lost
its vigor, and most of the SFRP consider their
fathers failures and themselves lacking any
prospect but downward mobility. Metropolitan chronicles the disintegration of this small
circle of wealthy friends. More reminiscent
of Chekhov and Wharton than Footloose and
Porky's, this is a teen film devoid of cruising,
because no one has a driver's license, whose
characters come equipped with trust funds
and clever pronouncements on Marx and
Fourier. Parlor prattle about utopian communes is the closest these privileged kids
come to political consciousness.
Like most viewers, Tom brings a skeptical
attitude toward the quaint rites of the Manhattan socialites who adopt him. He feigns
distaste for Jane Austen, their favorite author, though he later confesses that he has
never read her. "I prefer good literary criticism," he declares, like plutophobes who
consider Thorsten Veblen an adequate substitute for direct acquaintance with the leisured class. Though he can barely afford to
rent the requisite tuxedo, Tom, like the viewer,
comes to scoff but stays to regret the collapse
of the SFRP. One of them, Audrey Rouget
(Carolyn Farina), develops a heartfelt crush
on this interloper from the unfashionable
West Side. To the extent that there is drama
in Metropolitan, it is in the star-crossed infatuation that develops between Tom, who
cannot forget the siren Serena, and Audrey,
who cannot forget Tom. Along the way, we
are granted access to the customs of a vanishing tribe. None is more engaging than Nick
Smith (Christopher Eigeman), the amiably
obnoxious leader of the group who confronts
communal extinction with valedictory panache. He challenges Rick Von Sloneker
(Will Kempe), an arrogant young baron whose
wanton ways with women betray the preppie
code of chivalry.
Metropolitan is a genially low-budget
portrait of a high-income caste. Though few
in its cast of unknowns come from the world
they depict, they enact the game of truth as
convincingly as their characters do one evening at Sally's when the group plays at revelation of secret thoughts. What a country is
this! America is a multiplex large enough to
screen both Sam Krichinsky and Nick Smith,
a buoyant vision of boundless opportunity
and a boyish despair over terminal entropy.
SOCIAL CAUSE CALENDAR
PAPA HALLOWEEN PARTY
The Political Asylum Project of Austin is
having a Halloween Costume Party fundraiser on Wednesday, October 31 from
7:30 p.m. until midnight.
SYSTECH PROTEST
A coalition of environmental groups and
local political leaders will stage a peaceful
demonstration at the LaFarge/Systech Cement Plant in New Braunfels on Saturday,
October 27 at 2:00 p.m. Prevailing winds
would tend to carry emissions from the
plant (lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium)
over the Edwards Aquifer Zone. For directions and information call John Lofy at
474-2117, or Kathy Porter in New Braunfels at 625-8577.
ARMADILLO WORLD
HEADQUARTERS REVISITED
Esther's Follies, Turk Pipkin, the Guacamole Queen, and many more will join'Balcones Fault and Master of Ceremonies Michael Priest in a benefit concert reviving the
spirit of the late Armadillo concert venue.
Festivities will be held Saturday, November 3 at the Austin Opera House beginning
at 8:30 p.m. For ticket information contact
Mary Kay Mackey at Whole Foods Market
or the Opera House box office.
DEMOCRACY IN
THE '90s SYMPOSIUM
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey
Clark will speak at a Voting Rights Symposium sponsored by the Texas Young Lawyers Association, the LBJ Library, and the
LBJ School of Public Affairs. The symposium will take place Sunday October 28
and Monday, October 29 at the Lyndon
22 • OCTOBER 26, 1990
OBSERVANCES
October 29, 1929 • Stock market crashes,
beginning the Great Depression.
October 29, 1966 • NOW (National Organization for Women) organized.
October 30, 1888 • Ballpoint pen patented.
October 31, 1968 • U.S. ends bombing of
North Vietnam.
November 1, 1961 • Women Strike for
Peace founded.
November 2, 1920 • Anti-war activist Eugene V. Debs receives almost one million
votes for President while in prison.
November 3, 1883 • Supreme Court rules
that Native Americans are "aliens."
November 4, 1958 • B-47 carrying nuclear weapons crashes near Abilene,
Texas.
November 6, 1917 • Bolshevik Revolution.
November 7, 1916 • Jeannette Rankin of
Montana becomes first woman elected to
U.S. House of Representatives.
Baines Johnson Library. For information
contact Charles W. Corkran or Barbara
Biffle at (512) 482- 5137.
MOSAIC ON WOMEN
The Barker Texas History Center has selected a collection of artifacts that depict
various facets of the lives and experiences
of women in the South and Southwest.
Among the items displayed are letters,
minute books, sheet music, photographs,
postcards, oral history transcripts, broadsides and posters, and books. The exhibit
will be open to the public through January 31.
TEXAS HEAD INJURY
HILL COUNTRY 100
On November 3 at 7 a.m. the Texas Head
Injury Association will sponsor a bike ride
through the Texas Hill Country. Participants may choose their routes of 5, 25, 62,
or 100 miles. All proceeds benefit the
THIA. More information can be obtained
from David Painter at (512) 472-3254 or
Debbie Frazier at 794-8688.
GREY PANTHERS
POST CARD CAMPAIGN
The Grey Panthers of Austin are helping
provide pre-addressed postcards to send
Dr. Louis Sullivan, Secretary of Health
and Human Services, in order to lobby for
a revamped national health care system.
The cards contain a message pointing out
that nearly 40 million people are without
health insurance. A packet of 50 can be
obtained by sending $2.00 to: National
Office of Grey Panthers, 1424 16th Street,
Ste. 602, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20036.
TEXAS FOLKLIFE BLACK
TRADITION EXHIBITION
"Texas Folklife/Texas Photographers: Focus on Black Tradition" is an exhibition of
45 black and white photographs documenting the vital character of AfricanAmerican folklife in Texas. The exhibition is scheduled to appear in Austin at the
George Washington Carver Museum at
1165 Angelina from November 1 - 30.
AFTERWORD
Reflections in Gray
BY KAYE NORTMCOTT
Austin
OCELYN GRAY was part of the
Austin women's mafia. A unsung
laborer in the political vineyards, she
drew sustenance from her feminism and
dispensed an exuberance and grace that her
friends only began quantifying when she
died gallantly of complications from cancer
recently at the age of 58. She raised money
for the Observer, for her former boss Bob
Eckhardt, for feminist candidates and generally pitched in on progressive causes. I could
list her political history here, but in a short
space there are more important things to say
about a friend.
She offered to many of us a close-up introduction to death. During two years of surgery
and physical crisis after physidal crisis, she
never put her face to the wall, never pulled
away from life or those who gathered around
her. Jocelyn's final, invaluable lesson to her
younger friends was how to die. For her memorial service, she stipulated there should be
time for grief as well as for celebration.
Accordingly it started on a somber note and
ascended to laughter. Her half-sister, Sidney,
recounted that during her last two weeks in
the hospital, Jocelyn had bouts of pure terror
as pneumonia inexorably drew life's breath
from her.
But there were sweet moments as well.
Her daughters Jane and Kathleen slept on a
rollaway bed next to her and took turns
watching over her.
On the last night as Jane slept, Jocelyn
motioned Kathleen to sit by her on the bed.
She stroked her cheek and said, "Beautiful
child, beautiful child." Sometime during that
long night, she told Jane, "Janey, I've run a
good race."
"I know momma, I'm proud of you," Jane
answered.
Lisa McGiffert praised her for "the strength
of her remarkable spirit and her ability to
continually issue classic one-liners right to
the end." Lisa remembered, "On a particularly frightening night in the hospital a week
before she died, it was very scary for her and
all of us. She turned to me and in that melodic
voice of hers that came through the oxygen
mask loud and clear, she said, 'I may not
make it past tonight, but this has all been too
fascinating.' And it was."
Former Observer editor Kaye Northcott is a
political writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
An electric gathering of compadres
crowded into the tiny room. There were more
hands than Jocelyn could hold. People got
tangled up in the wires, setting off alarm
bells, but the Seton Hospital staff took it all
in good stride.
Through much of the ordeal Jocelyn presided like the good hostess she had always
been. Jocelyn's room offered the best food
and best conversation by far I've ever encountered in a hospital setting. After she
slipped into unconsciousness we consoled
one another with stories about Jocelyn and
debated which should be told at the memorial
service.
There were tales of Jocelyn's haughtiness.
Stacey Abel was partial to the tale about
Jocelyn having to fly on Continental to a
meeting with Gloria Steinem because the
original airline on which she was booked
went on strike.
Continental was on strike too, but it had
hired non-union crews to fill in. When the
flight ran late into O'Hare, she missed her
connecting flight. Registering her displeasure, she summoned an airline exec and told
him, "I should have kn000wn better than to
fly a scab airline."
There were tales of her pluckiness during
chemotherapy. Celebrating her birthday at
an Austin restaurant, she wore a matronly
grey-streaked wig borrowed from a gay friend
who had bought it for $1.99 at St. Vincent de
Paul as part of a Halloween nun costume.
One of her birthday presents was yet another
thrift store wig, a gaudy blonde wig. She
whipped off the gray one and became an
instantaneous blonde as those seated at her
own table and a couple of tables nearby
applauded her.
The haughty Jocelyn lost anecdotally to
the culinary Jocelyn at the memorial service.
Ron Waters, a former Houston legislator,
said she taught him not only how to eat an
artichoke, but "how to savor it." Even when
she was dotty from drugs in the hospital,
Jocelyn was still thinking about food. Waters
remembered her saying, "What I'd really
like to have is a big juicy glass of tartar
sauce."
Lisa said Jocelyn helped her overcome
age-ism, a prejudice she didn't know she
had. "Jocelyn was the first close friend I had
that was 20 years older than me. She helped
me understand that friendships, title friendships can easily span generations. I've reveled in the example of what my life could be
in 20 years," she said.
Her friend Claire Geeson said that Jocelyn
was a nurturer: "She was always there for
you when you were feeling a little puny. She
was right there with just kind of holding you
up. I can just remember her (saying) 'What?
Did you say you felt inadequate? Oh, perish
the thought.'
"You just felt so good about yourself. You
felt so strong and wonderful and empowered
by Jocelyn. After a good dose of Jocelyn's
love, I would walk away feeling bold, brilliant, and beautiful."
Leslie Lemon celebrated Jocelyn's manner, her dress, and especially her language,
explaining, "If we were to see the same thing,
I would say it's so big and she would say, 'It's
magnificent.'
"Colors and colorful words, like red, radiant, ravishing, and even regal. Purple, passionate, purposeful, and very proper.
"Gold, she was made of gold, gilded, gracious, gallant, and giving. Jocelyn was joyful, jeweled, and just.
0
"She was just splendid."
CASA MARIANELLA BANQUET
Central American food & Flamenco Dancers
Friday November 9 at 6:00 PM
San Jose Catholic Church
you decide your donation:
$10.00/ $15.00/ $20.00 OR MORE!
mail donations to:
821 Gunter, 78702
THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23
Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, P. 0. Box 49019, Austin, Texas 78765
A.4,-.4-40witimageoatein
1
INN)
(TARI
"I)11
OBSERVER SEEKS EDITOR
"Best Lodging Location for
Fishermen & Beachgoers"
Group Discounts
THE TEXAS OBSERVER is looking for a full-time editor for our two-editor office. Strong
writing, editing, and reporting skills are required, and experience in investigative
reporting and magazine production is preferred. For long hours, hard work, and low pay,
we offer great editorial freedom, an unruly state, responsibility, and all you'll ever want
to know about putting together a bi-weekly journal. Salary is in the mid-teens, with
prospect for improvement. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply. Send your
vita, examples of work, personal requirements, and a very short essay on your view of
the Observer's mission and purpose. Mail to Ronnie Dugger, 307 W. 7th St., Austin, TX
(512) 749-5555
P.O. Box 8
Port Aransas, TX 78373
Send for Free Gulf & Bay
Fishing Information
CLASSIFIED
SERVICES
LOW-COST MICROCOMPUTER ASSISTANCE. Tape to diskette conversion,
statistical analysis, help with setting up
special projects, custom programming,
needs assessment. Gary Lundquest, (512)
474-6882, 1405 West 6th, Austin, TX
78703.
MARY NELL MATHIS, CPA, 17 years experience in tax, litigation support, and
other analyses. 400 West 15th, #304,
Austin, 78701, (512) 477-1040.
YELLOW DREAM MACHINE, computerbulletin board system. Telephone (512)
473-2702. Disability-based subject
matter.
KEITH & ASSOCIATES. Research &
writing, project management, grant
writing, desktop publishing. Gary Keith,
P.O. Box 49225, Austin, TX 78765.
(512) 454-1193.
MERCHANDISE
FREEWHEELING BICYCLES. 2404 San
Gabriel, Austin. For whatever your bicycle needs.
WATCH REPAIRS & BATTERIES. Band
repairs. 35th & Guadalupe, Austin, 4526312.
"EMBELLISHED FLAG", Limited series,
18"x24"x2" flag, mixed, plexiglas,
$300. Mark Muhich, 2808 Strand,
Galveston, TX 77550, (409) 762-6042.
THE NEW TEXAS ENVIRONMENTAL
DIRECTORY! A must for all Environmental Activists. Information and useful. Sendi$2.75 to 110 Faith, Highlands, TX 77562. (713) 426-4606.
"VOTE REPUBLICAN, It's Easier Than
Thinking" bumpersticker. $1.00 ea. L.
Ross P.O. Box 3594, Austin, TX 78764.
24 •
OCTOBER 26,
1990
CLASSIFIED RATES: Minimum ten words. One time, 50 cents per word; three times, 45
cents per word; six times, 40 cents per word; 12 times, 35 cents per word; 25 times, 30 cents
per word. Telephone and box numbers count as two words; abbreviations and zip codes as
one. Payment must accompany order for all classified ads. Deadline is three weeks before
cover date. Address orders and inquiries to Advertising Director, The Texas Observer, 307
West 7th, Austin, TX 78701. (512) 477-0746.
HIGHTOWER FOR PRESIDENT, T-Shirts!
Support progressive PhD government
student. $15 each. M. Galindo, P.O.
Box 3193, Austin, TX 78764. Specify
size, color. Great Presents!
TRAVEL
BACKPACKING — MOUNTAINEERING
— RAFTING. Outback Expeditions, P.O.
Box 44, Terlingua, TX 79852. (915) 3712490.
Getaway to ... A CABIN IN THE WOODS
. . . your very own mountain hideaway!
Enjoy fine country accommodations deep
in the Ozark Mts. Our Cabin is fully
furnished and includes a screened-in
porch, deck, sauna, and tennis court.
Take a breather — Come to the mountains! Call or write for free brochure: (501)
446-2293, HCR 72 Box 135B, Parthenon, AR 72666.
Enjoy beautiful fall weather in our nation's
capital. Will pay gas plus $60 for someone to drive our Toyota from Austin to
Washington. Call (202) 453-5371.
ORGANIZATIONS
LESBIAN/GAY DEMOCRATS of Texas—
Our Voice in the Party. Membership $15,
P.O. Box 190933, Dallas, 75219.
TEXAS TENANTS' UNION. Membership
$18/year, $10/six months, $30 or more/
sponsor. Receive handbook on tenants'
rights, newsletter, and more. 5405 East
Grand, Dallas, TX 75223.
BECOME A CARD-CARRYING MEMBER of the ACLU. Membership $20.
Texas Civil Liberties Union, 1611 E. 1st,
Austin, 78702.
CATHOLICS for a Free Choice — DFW
Metroplex. Information: 3527 Oak Lawn
Ave., Ste. 156, Dallas, TX 75219.
CASA MARIANELLA, A SHORT-TERM
SHELTER IN AUSTIN for refugees from
oppression in Central America, needs
volunteers for clerical tasks, tutoring,
stocking and storing food and clothing,
and legal and medical help. Financial
contributions and donations of food,
clothing, and household items are welcome. Call (512) 385-5571.
FIGHT POLLUTION. Get paid for it. Clean
Water Action. (512) 474-0605, Austin.
SICK OF KIWNG? Join the Amnesty International Campaign Against the Death
Penalty. Call: Austin (512) 443-7250,
Houston (713) 852-7860, Dallas (214)
739-8239, San Antonio (512) 6802694.
JOIN AN ACTIVIST, issues oriented
Democratic women's group in the Houston-Ft. Band area - TEXAS DEMOCRATIC
WOMEN -( 713) 491-8783.
WORK FOR OPEN, responsible government in Texas. Join Common Cause/
Texas, 316 West 12th #317, Austin,
Texas 78701 (512) 474-2374.
HELP SHUT COMANCHE PEAK. Citizens
for Fair Utility Regulation (CFUR) is appealing to the Supreme Court the decision
to license the Comanche Peak Nuclear
Plant located in Somervell County, 40
miles from Dallas. We need help and/or
$. Send donations to CFUR, 3821 Burkette Drive, Ft. Worth, Texas 76116, or
call Betty Brink (817) 478-6372. (For
PUBLICATIONS
HOME STUDY COURSE in economics. a
10-lesson study that will throw light on
today's baffling problems. Tuition free—
small charge for materials. Write: Henry
George Institute, 121 E. 30th St., New
York, NY 10016.
INSIDE INFORMATION. Subscribe to
Texas Weekly, largest Texas political
newsletter. Sam Kinch, Jr., editor. Straight,
salty. $120 annually. P.O. Box 5306,
Austin, TX 78763. (512) 322-9332.
EMPLOYMENT
POSTALJOBS Start $11.41 /hr. For exam
and application information call (219)
769-6649, ext. TX-165 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. 7
days.
ATTORNEY WANTED for small progressive Austin firm. Three or more years
experience, plaintiff's civil rights, labor
and employment, some personal injury.
Salary negotiable. Good benefits. Send
resume and writing sample. Lisa Morrison, Van Os, Deots, Rubinett & Owen,
P.C., 900 Congress Ave. Suite 400,
Austin, TX 78701.
BOOKS ,
JOHN HENRY FAULK'S Fear On Trial
recently reprinted by UT Press. Send
$11.00 (book $9.95, tax .80, postage
.25), to Mack Lee, 200 Palo Duro Rd.,
Austin, TX 78757.