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Utter, Don (audio interview #4 of 5)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the fourth of five interviews that were conducted at Utter's home in Belmont Shore. The interviewer met him while serving on a LWV's committee to prepare a pamphlet about local history. Utter subsequently became a student of the interviewer as part of the Senior Citizen fee waiver program. 11/24/1980
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- 2020-10-20
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- SUBJECT BIO - Don Utter was a community activist and a teacher in local schools. He grew up in Long Beach and began his political education during the Depression when he supported Upton Sinclair's campaign for governor. He went to school in Long Beach until he was drafted at the beginning of World War II. As a conscientious objector, he served in a medical unit. He returned to finish his education and become a junior high school teacher and continued his interest in local political issues. In this series of five interviews, he talks about his decision, when he was diagnosed with cancer, to retire early and concentrate on trying to protect the environment and help elect progressive politicians. This interview was conducted as part of a project of study the impact of oil on Long Beach. TOPICS - Democratic clubs; Washington Junior High School; Marshall Junior High School; retirement; Craig Hosmer; Clyde Doyle; and Joseph Kennick; oil industry; pollution; Sohio pipeline; LWV; Long Beach Chamber of Commerce; and Port of Long Beach;
- *** File: cbdutter7.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:17)... Brief Introduction He belonged to several Democratic Clubs. Some were ephemeral outfits whose participation would rise during campaigns and dwindle at the end. Local groups consisted of precinct and campaign workers. They raised funds and provided a forum for candidates. He was involved in the McCarthy, McGovern, and Gottlieb campaigns. (2:17-5:17)... Art Gottlieb ran against Republican incumbent Craig Hosmer. Hosmer was unbeatable. He had a loyal constituency, financial backing and an efficient office. He once wrote a letter to Hosmer, who was in Long Beach at the time. He received a quick response from Hosmer's Washington office while Hosmer was still in Long Beach. He confronted him at a charity function and learned that he used the telex system to communicate with his office in Washington. Hosmer was always on top of things. He was a bright and talented man but he was owned by the wrong people. (5:17-8:24)... Long Beach had several Democratic clubs including the Westside Democratic Club, East West Democratic Club, and Tom Paine Democratic Club. The Westside Democratic Club was more active. The clubs had joint activities. The Tom Paine Democratic Club was liberal and opposed the war in Vietnam. The Lakewood Democratic Club was conservative. Clubs sometimes met between elections. He was disappointed that they often avoided local issues and were more interested in national crusades. He felt that local issues cut across party lines. (8:24-11:18)... He joined the Young Democrats of Long Beach and became treasurer at age 18, although he was still too young to vote. It was a small group that functioned in assembly and congressional races. He has belonged to many Democratic clubs in Long Beach including the Alamitos Bay Club and Coast Independent Democratic Club. He was program chair for the Alamitos Bay Club. They had a community centered program and were concerned with local issues. For example, they opposed the crosstown freeway. (11:18-16:26)... The Republican Party had a strong organization in Long Beach, especially among Republican women. The Democratic Women's Study Club was very effective in raising money for candidates. He was involved in local as well as party issues. He spoke to them about the Sohio Terminal. (16:26-19:07)... There were schisms in both political parties. Long Beach has always been a conservative area and winners were only elected by narrow margins. Liberal legislators were often voted in but never locked in for long terms. Clyde Doyle was the only liberal who could have been elected for life. When redistricting moved his district, Doyle moved to a different district and was elected several times before his death. (19:07-21:26)... Joseph Kennick was a liberal who appealed to voters across the spectrum. He came out of the Long Beach Police Department and was a law and order figure who was also concerned with social welfare. He had a good liberal record in the legislature. He contrasts Kennick with another local state legislator, Oliver Speraw. Speraw followed Deukmejian into his seat in the state legislature. The Republicans were determined to keep the seat. Democrats thought the seat would be too hard to win and did not invest as much money. (21:26-28:20)... George Deukmejian was a popular Republican state senator. He started a law office in Long Beach. He established himself in various organizations. He served a couple of terms in the assembly and state senate and then was elected state attorney general. He was a very straightforward, soft-spoken, gentle man. On a constituent contact basis he was gracious and a typical, pragmatic conservative. Deukmejian always did what it took to win elections. He had a standard political stance. He campaigned against strawmen, used issues with emotional appeal, and appealed to one issue constituencies. These are the kinds of pragmatic decisions made by politicians who want to get elected. Gun control is an example of these kinds of issues. (28:20-33:35)... The Long Beach school district had a policy in which teachers were rotated in the inner city schools. These schools were tough assignments and teachers needed breaks. Many students had learning disabilities and poor attitudes. After teaching for 13 years, he was selected to teach at an inner city school. He left a middle class area, where parents had high aspirations for kids, students were involved, there was a good administration, and continuity. Then he was sent to Washington Junior High, which is located near downtown. The area was deteriorating. Students were generally low achievers. There was a large Black and Mexican American population and there were conflicts between minority groups. Adult gangs were also involved in the conflicts. (33:35-41:39)... Washington Junior High was west of downtown. Teaching there was a shattering experience. He had always been a subject matter oriented teacher and had difficulty with the social work aspects of teaching. He feels that understanding science is essential and that having a foundation is necessary but he was not able to teach the same curriculum or at the same pace at Washington that he had taught at DeMille. He was disappointed that students were not learning as much. The level of achievement in all areas was about the same; it was a non-acheiving school. He felt sorry for the few gifted students at Washington; classes were directed towards the low achievers. Control was more important than teaching. He believes difficult schools need a higher teacher to student ratio. Not all of the schools were equal. He finally requested to be transferred out of Washington. He was picked up at Marshall Junior High through the help of a friend. (41:39-42:55)... Marshall Junior High's constituency was similar to DeMille's. Most of the students were from lower middle class homes with a few upper middle class families thrown in. There were quite a few students from around El Dorado Park, which was an affluent area. There was a high correlation between achievement and income of student's families. It was a good school with a good staff. He had a better feeling of job satisfaction. (42:55-45:11)... While teaching at Marshall, he went in for a physical examination and found out he had prostate cancer. That's when he took an early retirement at the age of 57. He wanted to have some time to himself. He left the public payroll and now does good works for no pay. *** File: cbdutter8.mp3 (0:00-4:30)... Petroleum migrates through permeable rock. Oil rides on large quantities of water, which is saturated with salts resulting from marine sediments. Oil field brines in this area were rich with iodine. Dow Chemical had a plant in Seal Beach where they processed the brine for iodine and bromine. It was a major industry. There was an old dump site on Bixby land and it was, at the time of the interview, a trailer park. Methane escaped from the he ground under the park; pipes were put down to vent it. There is a concentration of gases in dump sites. Richfield Oil Company had a standard process of collecting toxic materials. If they weren't too toxic they were dumped into a channel near Richfield's refinery that led to Los Angeles Harbor. The Harbor was "stinking" with chemical wastes. Later the more toxic material was collected and dumped in an open field. (4:30-9:11)... It's difficult to control air emissions at oil refineries. At the Richfield plant, he discovered "night burners." They were used to burn the refinery bottoms, sulfur wastes, at night to avoid being caught by air quality inspectors. When working on some of the Richfield units at night, the sulfur in the air was so bad he could taste it. This was illegal but everybody did it. In the shipyard no tube blowing was allowed; a huge cloud of hydrocarbon waste would result. Nobody was concerned with the health hazards; the Navy only wanted to keep soot off the boats. Progress has been made in terms of industrial clean-up. Polluters have to be forced to change. Recovery of raw materials in the cleanup operation often pay for the actual clean-up. (9:11-13:12)... There was an old Signal Hill skimming plant near Los Cerritos where brine was dumped into the Los Angeles River. The brine was not treated. Brine was also pumped out of other wells in the Signal Hill, Seal Beach and Alamitos fields. There are different producing zones in the oil fields. Toxic waste pollution is an ongoing problem. It's a struggle to keep the environment clean. Industry must be reminded of its obligation to the community to keep everything clean and healthy. (13:12-18:50)... The Sohio fight took about 2 years. The Standard Oil Company of Ohio (Sohio) had large Alaskan holdings and wanted to find a place to build pipelines. One line was built to the port of Valdez in Alaska. It was chosen because of the potential petroleum market in Japan. Congress put on a provision that the oil had to be sold in the US. and Sohio had no market on the westcoast because other companies had the market tied up. They decided to use underutilized lines owned by other companies to pipe gas to the midwest. The refined products would then be shipped to the upper midwest where Sohio could make a lot of money. This was bad for Long Beach because a plant would be built here and used to serve the needs of the eastern area. Long Beach would get pollution but all profits would go somewhere else. (18:50-28:14)... Sohio's plan was opposed by many groups in Long Beach including the LWV and the Sierra Club. They delayed the project by seeking evidentiary hearings with the Southern California Air Quality Board. The formed a coalition with many groups and conducted a long campaign protesting the building of the plant. Frank Springer discovered a provision in the city charter that would allow the possibility of a referendum. He than got involved in a referendum campaign, which lost. Sohio, owned by Bridge Petroleum, whose home office in London, denied being controlled by the London office of British Petroleum. No one thought Sohio could be defeated. One suit went to the State Supreme Court although it lost in every round. There was another challenge to the environmental impact report and that case sat for 2 years before Sohio received its final permit. If the case was moved to Superior Court for trial the expenses would be very high. The principle cost of the trial would have been the hiring of technical experts. (28:14-35:56)... Sohio finally pulled out of the project. Governor Pat Brown, Alan Cranston and others wanted Sohio to go ahead with the project. By this time Sohio had developed an alternate route through the Panama Canal. Moving the crude by tanker through the Canal was more efficient and cheaper for the company. Before this decision had been made, El Paso Natural Gas was having second thoughts about letting Sohio lease their pipelines; they wanted to hold them for future projects. Gas companies are pushing for the prices of gas to rise. Deregulation of gas prices, the believe, will make it even more profitable. (35:56-40:05)... Most people thought Sohio would definitely win although many people and groups were involved in the opposition. There was a Concerned Citizens group, Alamitos Beach Bay Preservation group, various homeowners groups, etc. It was a big issue which got a lot of press. The Press-Telegram covered the case extensively. Many of the opposition groups disappeared once the case was over. (40:05-45:11)... Sohio was supported by the Port of Long Beach, The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Long Beach Business Association. The Press-Telegram was neutral. Sohio hired professional public relations people to run their campaign and developed a front "citizen's committee." Many people joined this committee and thought they were fighting for a progressive cause. In order to win a fight like this both perseverance and money were needed. They were able to raise thousands of dollars. Coalitions of disparate groups united for a cause. They were also able to get good media coverage. Frank Springier did a lot of research for them. End of tape
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