North Carolina Newspapers

5A OPINIONS/The Charlotte Post Marche, 1997 Heavy regulations stifle some Charlotte entrepreneurs By Clint BoHck SPECIAL TO THE POST There’s nothing more American than apple pie. But try to bake one at home for sale in Charlotte and you’ll find yourself crosswise with the law. That discovery astonished Thelma Connell, a Charlotte senior citizen who was planning to can some homegrown fruits and sell them at the nearby farmer's market. She didn't encounter trouble until she called the city's health depart ment to inspect her kitchen. Don’t bother, the health officials told her: If you live in a residen tial area in Charlotte, zoning laws absolutely forbid anything other than “customary home occupations.” And that doesn’t include making anything for sale. As a consequence, when Thelma Connell visits the farmer’s market with her friend. Louise KoUer, who makes knit ted and crocheted goods, they can buy home-baked goods and handicrafts produced outside county limits, but can’t sell their ovm. Instead, they have to cross the state line into South Carolina. Though farmer’s mar ket officials say they aren’t about to enforce the siUy restric tions, the two women refuse to engage in civil disobedience. knowing I’m breaking the law," says Mrs. Connell. Louise Roller agrees. “I don’t have a police record, and I don’t want one.” “I know I was breaking the law, and I can't live with myself In many ways, Charlotte exemplifies the “New South”: prosperous, progressive, pro business. It’s a growing city, and entrepreneurial activities are growing with it. But too often, government gets in the way through anachronistic and anti competitive regulations Charlotte zoning officials have outlawed home-based business es that produce goods for sale, while placing capricious restric tions on home-based offices. The sum of the regulations is to con strict severely home-based busi nesses in most instances and to preclude them altogether in oth- CLINT BOLICK is vice presi dent and director of litigation for the Institute for Justice in Washington, D.C. How much of Clinton White House for sale? By Walter R. Meats THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Don’t ask, do teU was about the way it worked in the White House political fund-raising oper ation. No blatant requests for money while the president had prospective or past donors over to the White House for coffee or overnight visits. Tell them later, after they’ve left, that the Democrats need contributions for the 1996 campaign. And big ones. The people on those guest lists would have been expect ing it anyhow. President Clinton said it was all entirely appropriate and strictly legal. Still, his personal role in the money hunt was far more direct than he had acknowledged earlier. The political plaimers set targets of up to $500,000 in Democratic pro ceeds from people who attended White House coffees with the president. White House memos referred to events as fund-raisers, which can’t legally be held there. One suggested that Clinton’s staff briefings should be abbreviated or elimi nated to make time for more fund-raising early in 1996. All of which pushes close to the brink of propriety, and perhaps legality, deepening the controversy over his and his party’s money hunt for the 1996 campaign. That is the product of a 500-page sheaf of documents on the fund-raising affairs, which included the names of 938 overnight White House guests during the president’s first term. No strangers, Clinton said, most of them fiiends, not all of them donors. But enough were contributors to produce millions of dollars in Democratic contributions, $6 mil- hon according to a Washington Post computer analysis, more than $10 million according to one conducted for The New York Times. “Look at the list of people,” Clinton said last week. “We put it out there.” The public release of the documents was a matter of political tactics, since they already had been surrendered to a House investigating committee. “Some people did come and stay with me who helped me, and I think that's entirely appropriate,” the presi dent said. He said people who backed him and his pro grams shouldn't be disqualified as overnight guests. His handwritten instructions on a Jan. 5, 1995, memo fi-om the Democrats’ finance chairman was not so genial. “Ready to start overnights right away,” he wrote then, and asked for the top 10 donor list, along with the roster of $100,000 and $50,000 contributors. Presidents and their parties always have used the posi tion and the White House as fund-raising attractions. Clinton’s spokesman, Mike McCuny, said Democratic efforts to raise campaign funds mirrored what Repubhcans already were doing. Access to the powerful is the most lucrative form of political flattery. And while it works for both parties, nothing matches the lure of the White House and the president. Clinton said Democratic donors weren’t asked for money while they were there. “There was no sohcitation at the White House, and the guidelines made clear that there was to be no price tag on these events,” he said. “Did the people hope that the folks who came to the events would subsequently support me? Yes, they did,” the president said. WALTER R. MEARS is a vice president of The Associated Press. USD A discrimination yields a bitter harvest By Bennie G. Thompson NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHSERS ASSOCIATION If Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman is serious about putting an end to the discrimi natory practices at the United States Department of Agriculture, and I believe he is, then USDA should immediately develop a process to pay reme dies to those individuals who have lost their farms as a direct result of USDA discrimination. Second, USDA needs to estab lish and implement an indepen dent system - a “watchdog” - to monitor field activities and enforce civil rights laws and regulations. The present system of complaints and appeals, in which the accused USDA agency investigates itself, is thoroughly inadequate. Third, those USDA officials and field supervisors who have consistently demonstrated more allegiance to maintaining “good ole boy” networks than in pro moting fairness and equity, should be immediately dis missed and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Fourth, Congress, once again, should revisit the county com mittee system, which is con trolled by a few farmers who receive a majority of the bene fits, and reform the policies and regulations that perpetuate a system which allows minority, female, and small producers to be discriminated against. A series of “listening sessions” recently concluded by the Secretary of Agriculture in my district, and elsewhere, revealed that racism and discrimination continues to run amok at USDA. The agency has made a mockery of Titles VI and VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and other laws which are sup posed to ensure fairness and equal opportunity. Blacks, whites and female farmers in Mississippi told Secretary Glickman, and his recently appointed “Civil Rights Action Team,” that USDA coun ty committees slam their doors in the faces of those who are not a part of local cliques. The lis tening sessions have served as a vehicle to expose how serious and widespread the discrimina tion at the department has been. USDA is now a national dis grace, a catalyst to the tragic, in some cases even criminal, loss of millions of acres of land, and wealth, by black farmers. Estimates are that black farm ers have lost over 12.5 million acres of land since 1920, with only 2.5 million acres left today. In some cases, land acquired by black fami- Thompson lies in the decades after slavery has been trans ferred, with USDA’s help, to the coffers of wealthy farmers. When robbing the descen dants of for mer slaves of their legacy has become a status quo practice for the USDA, it is easy to under stand why employees and farm ers refer to it as the “last planta tion.” Secretary Glickman’s “listen ing sessions,” have given farm ers and employees hope that change is coming. But USDA’s bureaucracy and its protectors have historically resisted real change - just ask former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. President Clinton needs to let us know where eradicating racism and sexism from the USDA ranks as a priority in the agenda of his second term, and Secretary Glickman has to give us more than warm platitudes and feel-good quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the USDA’s founding father, Abraham Lincoln. The time for rhetoric is over. Every American that wears clothing or eats food has a vest ed interest in eliminating the decades-old policies of discrimi nation at the USDA. The agency’s history of racial bias and antagonism towards minor ity and female farmers is well documented. It is time for President Clinton, Secretary Glickman, and Congress to take decisive action, rebuke these antiquated practices, and restore the American people's faith in this $60 billion federal agency. BENNIE G. THOMPSON of Mississippi is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee. Letters to The Post Clinic restrictions discriminatory It is more appalling to have read with dismay certain actions taken by Carolinas Medical Center. We refer specifically to the article enti tled “CMC’s exclusionary act isn’t good for black patients,” by Dr. Yele Aluko, which appeared in The Observer on Feb. 18. The action by CMC to restrict the cardiac catheriza- tion laboratories to one clinic appears to be discriminatory at the very least. This action can deprive citizens of free choice. We ask this question, does CMC receive federal, state or county funds? In our view, the action taken by CMC: • Deprives citizens of free choice • Fosters economic oppres sion • Restricts qualified physi cians in the use of some of CMC’s facilities • Negates goodwill and posi tive relations • Advocates a monopolistic system It is hoped that the city/county leaders who are organizing various task forces to study the pulse of the com munity will deem the “excul- sionary as” worthy of study. We therefore call upon our leaders to seek ways to rectify the apparent inequity. ANNA HOOD Charlotte What’s on your mind? Send your comments to The Charlotte Post, P.O. Box 30144, Charlotte, N.C. 28230 or fax (704) 342-2160, You can also use E-mail - charpost@clt.mindspring.com All correspondence must include a daytime telephone number for ver ification, Why you get what you get By John W. Templeton NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHSERS ASSOCIATION I was listening to an African- American businessman report that in 1997 - for the first time — advertiser spending targeted to African American consumers would exceed $1 billion. Although it sounded like a lot, something made me ask, “Compared to what?” It took a few weeks to nail down the number I was looking for - the total amount spent on adver tising in the U.S., $115 billion in 1997, according to invest ment house Veronis Suhler and Associates. "What differ ence does this make to you? Well, if you think your black newspaper should have more color pictures or a bigger staff; or if you wonder why your local television station has no shows that cover your commu nity or only shows them after midnight, then these figures make a big difference to you. Alexis Herman deserves a chance to win labor secretary position By Donald M. Rothberg THE ASSOCIATED PRESS nomination to be secretary of labor. WASHINGTON - Rumpled, gruff, street-smart Paul Tully always opened the meetings with exaggerated politeness. “Madam, and how are you today?” Slender, cool Alexis Herman unfailingly responded in her soft Alabama drawl, “I’m just fine, Paul.” Then the battle began, Tully demanding more money for Democratic campaigns and Herman keeping a firm hand on the purse strings. In that 1992 campaign year, Tully, then the Democratic Party’s political director, smelled victory and was always looking for more money for this or that House or Senate cam paign. As party executive direc tor, Herman was the one who often had to say no. Now, President Clinton is pressing a Republican-run Senate to say yes to Herman’s “She deserves a hearing and if she gets a hearing she’s going to be confirmed,” Clinton said last week. Sen. James Jeffords, R- Vt., chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, has said he will not schedule a hearing until he gets answers to questions about Herman’s past activities. Herman, in a chance encounter with reporters at the White House, was asked if she would stick with the fight. She smiled and said, “Of course.” As so often is the case with Herman, most of the questions involve money and politics, par ticularly her work for Democratic causes while on the White House staff. Among the questions being asked: What role did she have in arranging the White House coffee Match that gave political contributors from the banMng industry a chance to chat with the president and the govern ment's chief banking regulator? White House officials say doc uments show that Herman did not attend the Herman event and did not know that it was arranged by the Democratic National Committee and that Comptroller of the Currency Eugene allowed her to be the tough cop to Ron Brown’s always smiley, funny cop,” said Steitz. Brown, who later became Clinton’s com merce secretary, was party chairmrm and Herman’s politi cal patron. Ludwig was on the guest list. Herman’s strongest support ers describe her as highly orga nized, a master of detail. “Alexis is a very strong man ager,” said Mark Steitz, who was communications director of the DNC when Herman was executive director and Tully was running the political division. “The skill of knowing how to understand people, imderstand situations and manage them, those were the things that When Clinton took office in 1993, Herman was named director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. Clinton has described Herman as one of Brown’s closest advis ers. When the commerce secre tary was killed in a plane crash in the Balkans last April, Herman played the lead role in making arrangements for his funeral. Herman’s White House job involves building coalitions around issues and working with constituency groups, especially when they are unhappy. Her ability to mingle and sooth ruf fled feelings earned her the sobriquet “Queen of Schmooze.” “I feel like I’ve known Alexis forever,” said Bill Lynch, who was a deputy mayor of New York during the administration of David Dinkins. Lynch worked with Herman and Brovm when they joined the Jesse Jackson presidential campaign just before the 1988 Democratic National Convention. “She has this kind of genteel facade," said Lynch. “But she’s tough as nails inside and takes no prisoners.” The 49-year-old Herman was bom into pohtics in Mobile, Ala. Her father sued the state Democratic Party to force it to give blacks the vote. He later became the first black ward leader in the state. President Carter named her director of the Women’s Bureau in the Labor Department. When she left government service, Herman formed a company to help recmit black women for corporations. The Rev. Calvin Harper worked with Herman in the mid-1980s when he was in charge of recruiting for the research and development divi sion of Procter & Gamble Co. Herman was hired to help employees “develop the skills to help them fimction in the corpo rate environment.” Harper cited the case of a black woman with a doctorate in biochemistry who was having difficulty fitting in at Procter & Gamble. “A good scientist but having trouble working into the sys tem,” he said. Herman pointed out the need to get the woman plugged into the informal com pany network that involved socializing over lunch or at the company fitness club. “Alexis was able to make that kind of thing happen and this young lady now is probably at the associate director level,” said Harper. DONALD M. ROTHBERG has covered politics and nation al affairs in Washington for The Associated Press since 1966.