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Mr. and Mrs. Sigman with memento of visit.
GRIFFIN
Daily Since 1872
Feely wants to protect
privacy at G-S hospital
Publishing exact salaries of hospital
personnel would be an invasion of
privacy, according to Griffin-Spalding
Hospital Director William Feely.
Feely, who has been under pressure
from City Commissioner Louis Gold
stein to publicize the salaries, said he
will recommend to the Hospital
Authority at its meeting tonight that the
authority take the advice of County
Commissioner Reid Childers.
That advice, said Feely, is that
anyone who wants to look at the records
and is dissatisfied with Feely’s decision
about them, can come to the authority
meeting and “we will all as a working
group determine if the request is
valid,” Feely said.
“Let them look at whatever records
are necessary and which do not violate
anyone’s rights,” Feely said.
Feely said he has offered to make
public the salary range, from the
starting rate to the highest amount the
Carter expresses
Bert confidence
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Carter says he has confidence in
, Budget Director Bert Lance but knows
Lance will quit if government in
vestigators prove there are any impro
prieties in his financial dealings.
' The President’s statement was his
first expression of personal confidence
in Lance since the Treasury Depart
ment, under the authority of the comp
troller of the currency, began in
vestigating loans Carter’s longtime
friend obtained when he was a Georgia
banker.
Carter spoke in an interview with
ABC News that was broadcast Sunday
night. He was questioned Wednesday,
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA —
Continued hot and humid through
• Tuesday with chance of thun
dershowers.
LOCAL WEATHER — Low this
morning at Spalding Forestry Unit 68,
high Sunday 87.
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Monday Afternoon, August 15,1977
job pays, of any job in the hospital.
He compared the state of hospital
personnel during the last 2 weeks with
Anthropologist Margaret Mead’s
description (in the August issue of
Redbook Magazine) of a person whose
privacy has been invaded as “feeling
insulted, outraged and denigrated.”
“It should not be this way. We have a
dual responsibility both to the public
and the individual,” he said.
“We want to give information to the
public, not because we are a tax sup
ported hospital, but because we are a
hospital. The amount of taxes spent on
a hospital does not determine its
responsibility to th? public. Its function
determines that.
“However, individuals, both patients
and employes, have rights that are to
be protected. These protected rights do
not interfere with public information
when the information is documented in
a correct and dignified manner,” Feely
at the end of a five-day visit to his
hometown of Plains, Ga. Since Wed
nesday, there have been reports that
the comptroller has broadened his
investigation.
The New York Times said Saturday
that investigators for Comptroller John
Heimann are searching the records for
about 20 additional loans which might
have been extended to Mrs. Lance, as
well as other family members and
business entities.
In a story Sunday, the Times said “a
potentially embarrassing agreement”
between Lance and Robert Bloom, act
ing comptroller before Heimann took
office, was rescinded the day before
Carter nominated Lance to be budget
director.
Under the agreement, signed Dec. 2,
1975, Lance pledged to correct a
number of serious management
deficiencies at his Calhoun First
National Bank in Georgia, some of
which violated the law, the Times said.
Former fighter pilot who fought Japanese during
World War II finds them friendly when he visits
Homer Sigman and his wife, Willie,
were impressed with the beauty of the
Japanese islands and the friendliness of
the people while there on tour.
Sigman said the ancient country is
showing sign of Westernism so much so
that a customary friendly bow now also
includes a hand shake as well.
He said the Japanese people are a
friendly and seemingly humble as
exemplified by the customary bow.
Sigman, a local car dealer, was
awarded the trip to Japan with several
hundred other dealers in the
southeastern area for increased sales.
The 10-day trip including travel time
was eventful from the start, according
to Sigman. They went from Atlanta to
San Francisco to Anchorage Alaska.
The stop in Alaska was not scheduled
but Sigman said he was happy just to
get the chance to land there to say he
has also been to Alaska.
“That was a treat,” Sigman said. “I
was just impressed looking out the
window at the low treelines of the
Alaskan landscape,” he continued.
Upon arrival in Japan the sponsoring
company gave the usual tour of the
company in Nagoya, home of the
Toyota plant.
The Sigmans spent the rest of their
time between Nagoya and Tokyo.
said.
Feely’s statement which he will
read to board members tonight in
cludes sections of the Privacy Act of
1974, a law concerned with protecting
the privacy of the individual.
“Hospitals involve the most intimate
parts of people’s lives. Most of us are
born here and many of us die here. Not
everyone wants these events
publicized. This is why hospital records
have been protected by law. This does
not mean that hospitals are secretive,”
he said.
Feely said even though he thinks the
hospital’s annual financial records
should be made public, he is opposed to
publicizing interim financial operating
reports.
They are incomplete and are
misleading in that they represent a
very short segment of the financial
cycle, he said.
He cited an example in the spring
People
••• and things
Sheep dog, obviously having climbed
through open second story window of
house, watching busy afternoon traffic
on old U. S. 41 from roof.
Five-year-old to older escort as he
took a seat on floor of bank lobby, “I am
tired; I’ve been on my feet all day.”
Chain-link fence going up on East
Broadway, along railroad tracks.
The Country Parson
In I .auk ( lark
“Whcn people supplied their
own energy they didn’t seqm to
worry so much about shor
tages.”
The cleanliness of the countryside
struck a lasting impression with both
Sigmans.
“It was a clean country, the people
seemed to be obsessed with
cleanliness,” Sigman said.
It was hard for a car dealer not to
notice the interest the Japanese people
take in the care of their cars. He said
they were washing them everywhere.
“They are fanatics about keeping
their cars clean,” Sigman said.
Sigman said he was impressed with
their energy and industriousness.
“They all seemed to enjoy what they
were doing and they were doing it in a
hurry,” the Griffin car dealer said.
Sigman could be considered a tour
guide’s dream patron because he
listened and ably rattled off cultural
differences he heard while on tour in
the country.
One, for instance, is that a written
Japanese word would begin with
Chinese characters and would end with
Japanese phonics. There are 48
Japanese phonics and 1800 Chinese
characters. Five of the Japanese
phonics are vowels which always have
the same sound as opposed to the dif
ferent sounds we give our vowels.
As far as Western influences are
concerned, English appears oc-
Vol. 105 No. 192
when it was publicized that the hospital
made a profit of SIOO,OOO for one month.
The public probably still thinks the
hospital is making a great deal of
money. But this is not true. We will
probably show about a $30,000 loss for
the entire fiscal year, he explained.
“Ideally we work to provide services
and to break even. The estimated
$30,000 loss is close to break-even,
considering the size of our budget," he
said.
“The public is entitled to know the
financial status of their hospital,
however, I think it should be certified
through a certified Public Accountant
to be accurate and complete, he con
tinued.
Feely said he will recommend that
the authority make available to the
public an annual report which has been
certified, stating the financial status.
“I think the annual audit in which the
hospital is reviewed by an objective
outside accountant firm should be
available for anyone in the community
to review, he said.
“For some reason, our committee
meetings in the past have gotten the
reputation of being secretive. I believe
the authority needs to destroy this
image,” he said.
Feely said he will recommend that all
committee meetings, except the
executive committee, be made ad
visory and that they meet for discussion
(Continued on page 2)
Gov. Busbee names McDaniel
state school superintendent
ATLANTA (AP) — The superin
tendent of the Clarke County school
system, Dr. Charles McDaniel, was
named today as superintendent of state
schools by Gov. George Busbee.
He replaces Jack Nix who resigned
two weeks ago.
McDaniel, 54, began his education
career as an elementary school teacher
in Tucker, Ga., in 1946, later serving as
a principal at 2 high schools and as
superintendent of Thomasville public
schools until he was appointed superin
tendent in Clarke County in 1969.
casionally among the characters. The
Sigmans rode on a 130 mile per hour
train called the “Bullet”. The Toyota
company also spelled out Toyota in
English on its cars destined for Japan.
Sigman said the island once belonged
to the Ainu Indians of which there are
only some 13,000 pure Ainus left.
“America and Japan have the same
kind of background because they both
got land from the Indians,” Sigman
quipped.
The Sigmans thought the food in the
country was good and estimated one
could feed two persons for an average
good meal in the restaurants there for
around S3O. They had one meal which
cost them around SSO, tips included.
The meal included Kobe beef which
had been massaged and tenderized,
according to Sigman.
He said generally the Japanese eat a
lot of fish and rice but more and more
they are eating more beef.
Mrs. Sigman tried some of the rice
and was completely disappointed in the
flavor. The rice was gummy and was
not seasoned.
“I was completely disappointed; it
was void of flavor, the worse rice you
could eat,” Mrs. Sigman said.
The Sigmans did not worry about
drinking the water as do most
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Winner
The camera caught Paula Westmoreland in the act of winning a trophy in the
tournament at city park Sunday afternoon. More pictures and story on page 6.
In accepting the appointment, which
McDaniel said he had not sought, he
said he was optimistic about public
education in Georgia but has “no
illusions about the pace or the price of
real progress in our schools."
At a news conference, Gov. Busbee
praised McDaniel’s “rich diversity of
public school experience and sufficient
range of responsible positions to truly
know the problems and potential of
public education in Georgia.”
“We have islands of high academic
achievement in systems whose overall
Americans in many foreign countries.
They said the water was well treated
like that in the states.
Sigman said one carrying enough
Japanese money, the yen, would have
large denomination pieces in his
possession. The value of the yen fluc
tuates amounting to 269.9 yens to a
dollar. Money, therefore, is printed in
denominations such as 5,000,10,000 and
others.
“I never did get used to figuring the
yen,” Mrs. Sigman said.
Sigman, a naval aviator and dive
bomber pilot during World War II
against the Japanese, had a special
interest in the Japanese city called Ota
City. He asked a guide if they still have
an aircraft factory there. The guide
said there was one there but now its an
automobile plant.
“I never would tell him I bombed it,”
Sigman quipped.
Those things of war behind, Sigman
feels the Japanese people are peace
loving and do not want war any more.
Night life in Japan is about the same
as in the States. The Sigmans toured the
Mikado Cabaret, a Las Vegas type club.
They said the girls were not quite as
bare, however, as they are in Las
(Continued on page 3.)
academic results are disappointing,
and we have islands of disappointing
academic results in systems whose
overall record is excellent,” Busbee
said.
It will be up to McDaniel to try to
improve both the weak systems and the
weak spots in the strong systems.
“My objective will be to build upon
that which is sound and effective in our.
educational system and to begin to
change those parts which need to be
strengthened,” McDaniel said.
