It accomplished a lot, but in fact what's controversial is amazing. You
do get caught up in the day-to-day, being written about or wondering,
gee whiz, what's under the dome today, or what's in the editorial pages
today. And CETA was certainly the, I don't know if it was a watershed,
but it certainly was the whipping boy. And you know, and I do have some
introspection about all of that. I don't know why I should be surprised,
but I was. It just didn't work, to make victims of poor folks and black
folks. Howard Lee is the Secretary of Natural Resources. What does it
have? It has community economic development, and I'm guessing this now,
but I roughly would say, at least 50-60 million dollars. You had the
Office of Economic Opportunity, or OEO; you had community assistance;
and you had housing finance in that area. Those four were under
community development, and I served as community development. All the
things I love to do, all the things I wanted to do, and was consistent
with my missionary zeal. Who are you helping? Where does that money go
to? Who are the recipients? Okay. Big money in CETA, big money in CETA,
big money in CETA. Money coming down so fast and many times you have to
send money back. You're knowing people in natural resources, including
land resources, environmental management, and I think maybe
Page 19 recreation. You didn't hear anything about those programs.
Parks were going to pot just like anything else, I mean, look at the
parks now. Nothing, it's almost like they were silent partners. But
community development, you heard a lot about. CETA, so you heard more
about that than about housing finance, and community assistance, they
were of planners, you didn't hear too much about them. But CETA and OEO,
yeah, there was a lot. A lot of press, but by and large that press was
about two or three events. And the press is selling papers, I mean, I
have journalists who work for me now, you know my niece is a journalist.
They are taught to get a story. Success doesn't sell any papers. They
won't admit that they try to find the negative, but it's far more
exciting to talk about community development under CETA when you have
the possibility of the union head having a contract. Probably was
nothing wrong with that in the first place, I mean, it was a non-profit
organization. What was wrong [was] it wasn't managed well. It wasn't any
impropriety on who got it, but it made for good reading, you know. My
reflection on that, yes, there was a lot of controversy on that, but gee
whiz, do I regret having been in the midst of that controversy? Not one
bit. I love saying I looked you in the eye and didn't blink. David Stick
is one who has chronicled a lot of stuff about Eva Clayton, and I don't
mind David Stick because we know exactly where we stand. He wants to
write a story and I want to get the facts right. I don't know what his
motives are, but I can tell you he's a very good reporter. He's the one
that did Soul City, and I couldn't help believe that part
Page 20 of my popularity in state government was indeed related to
my being connected to Soul City. I don't think that was the reason I was
chosen, it was just the reason why there was a good press. It makes for
good reading. There was a contract made to the foundation which I had
headed up. Even I allowed myself to think that there was some conflict
in that. Now I know absolutely not there. If people can put money in
blind trusts and still participate in housing and million and million
dollars . . . The foundation for which I worked, for which I have no
control, makes an application for forty-eight thousand dollars and I
must not sign, in fact I did not sign. The problem is that I signed the
amendments, but the contract was signed by somebody else. But I
shouldn't have had to avoid signing in the first place. The things they
put a black female, or first time black male, through in proving their
worthiness, is just completely unacceptable. What do I remember about
that? That's what I remember about that. Not about the controversy. In
some ways, I'm not so dumbfounded by the fact that the press would do
that, as I am dumbfounded by my not recognizing that it would do that.
[Laughter] I mean, what else is new? I
guess if I had not been dumbfounded, I would have been so cynical in
that process. You know, you would still think, gee whiz, there should be
a fair chance for people to do that.
But, what were our successes? We got money out to a variety of
communities. We made small grants for water and sewage they would never
have had. There are towns that are involved right now that have parks
and all. Through CETA funds the state and
Page 21 the local
units governments got far more of the CETA than anyone else. I don't
want to say they supplant it, but they certainly undergird their
employment assistance by funds that the federal government had that they
didn't have. I think the program needed changing, and I think the
program is better than it was then. That was a good experience for me,
it was really a good experience, both career-wise as well as human
relations-wise.