May 12

A time for growth

Daily News/ERIN PAINTER

    Frank Popoff, chairman of The Dow Chemical Co. board of directors, speaks at the 103rd annual shareholders meeting Thursday in the Midland Center for the Arts auditorium.

A $60 billion company by 2010

By Beth Medley Bellor of the Daily News
    Better, but also bigger.
    Bill Stavropoulos, chief executive officer of The Dow Chemical Co., outlined new and higher objectives for the company as he spoke to the 103rd annual meeting of shareholders.
    Instead of settling for the top quarter in employee empowerment and environmental health and safety performance, Dow will be best in class, he said. The company also will be best in class in customer loyalty, he added.
    But there were a few quanitifiable markers as well.
    The company plans to cut a billion dollars in productivity costs by the end of 2003.
    And growth? Stavropoulos said Dow will reach sales of $60 billion by the year 2010, with average revenue growth of 8 percent a year.
    New plans require new tools, and the much-vaunted Six Sigma program that is racing across the business world is integral to Dow's projections.
    "Six Sigma is an entirely new way of running our company," Stavropoulos said. By 2005, Six Sigma green and black belt certification will be required for promotion.
    In a nutshell, the smaller the variability a company has, the higher its sigma, and the higher its customer loyalty. The goal is to get defects to fewer than four per 1 million opportunities. Not only is that more productive, but less rework means more satisfying challenges for employees.
    Growth also comes through acquisition. Dow's No. 1 priority over the next year, of course,  is the smooth integration of Union Carbide Corp. That merger is expected to be complete by the end of June, pending regulatory approval.
    That is the largest of the acquisitions, but there are others. BSL will become 100 percent owned by Dow next month, and there also have been announcements regarding Angus, Flexible Products and General Latex.
    Such acquisitions make Dow a more valuable supplier, Stavropoulos said, and will add $8 billion to the company's sales by the end of 2001.
    Also key are new products, such as INDEX Interpolymers and SiLK, which IBM recently pushed onto the electronics market with a huge splash.
    In addition to concerns related to the merger with Union Carbide and possible liability for its Bhopal accident (see related story), several other questions were voiced during a question and answer period.
    A representative of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility brought concerns about genetically engineered seeds, and plans to continue its dialogue with Dow. INFACT once again accused the company of influence peddling.
    A Midland retiree's wife expressed concern that since her husband turned 65 and picked up Medicare, she has lost health benefits, and she knows others have suffered as well. Popoff replied that the company has to balance escalating medical costs with concern for its shareholders and retirees, and that he would be discussing this in a June 7 meeting with retirees.

Daily News/ERIN PAINTER

    Protesters stood outside the Midland Center for the Arts holding signs and puppets before Dow’s annual meeting Thursday. People concerned with environmental justice and corporate accountability related to Union Carbide’s Bhopal disaster also spoke during the meeting.

Shadow of Bhopal heading for Dow

By Beth Medley Bellor of the Daily News
    Stockholders on their way in to Dow's 103rd annual meeting Thursday saw some visitors they might not have expected — the International Alliance for Justice in Bhopal.
    About 15 protesters stood outside the Midland Center for the Arts with a large banner, signs and puppets. The messages ranged from a play on the company's motto — "Justice for Bhopal = good thinking" — to invocations of the Chemical Manufacturers Association's Responsible Care initiative to the very simple "greed." People chanted "No union with Union Carbide."
    Most of the passersby kept a "look, but don't speak" approach.
    "If the merger is permitted, all Union Carbide's outstanding legal and moral liabilities must be assumed by Dow," said Corey Conn of the IAJB. "Indian and U.S. activists are demanding the release of withheld data regarding the composition of the gases, the provision of medical care and economic compensation for those who lost family members, health and livelihoods. The contaminated factory in Bhopal must be cleaned and Union Carbide's unlawful evasion of due process and court orders must end."
    The Dow Chemical Co. expects to complete its proposed merger with Union Carbide Corp. in June. There is a lawsuit pending against UC and its former chief executive officer, charging it not only with depraved indifference to human life but also with failure to comply with orders of Indian and U.S. courts.
    In addition, a class action suit was filed last week, charging that Dow failed to disclose its potential liability to stockholders. It is the only case related to Bhopal currently facing Dow.
    Tracey Easthope of the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor told shareholders that in addition to inheriting a legacy of disaster and the activism of victims and relatives, "The company and its shareholders may also inherit legal liability."
    Easthope suggested Dow be an aggressive advocate for justice for Bhopal. "A proactive approach would address and remediate the problem," she said.
    Popoff replied with what would become a refrain as others stepped up to address the issue. Social responsibility does not mean crossing the bridge to an event that happened 15 years ago, he said.
    The company considered the case settled, and took that into account during its due diligence study of whether to merge with Union Carbide. Popoff said he knows the case has been reopened to some degree in India, and the company is concerned whether double jeopardy applies. "That's a tough question, one that we'll have to deal with," he said.
    An Indian woman holding a proxy for a Midland shareholder counted the death toll at 16,000. The poison affects all body systems, is a hazard at levels of two parts per million and is a persistent environmental hazard, she said.
    "In no way do we want to sound unsympathetic," Popoff insisted.
    But he also said it was not in his power to act on behalf of the company and its stockholders "for an event that happened 15 years ago for a product we've never manufactured in a location we've never operated."

Midland County audit reveals some problems
By Angela E. Lackey of the Daily News
    Midland County's 1999 audit came back with comments and recommendations for several departments.
    The Inmate Trust, the Spay/Neuter and the District Court accounts had not been reconciled, according to the audit. Reconciliation is similar to balancing a checkbook, where differences between the checkbook and bank statements are identified and then fixed.
    According to the audit report, "bank reconciliations are a key control over the collection and disbursement process."
    The audit looked at both the county's general fund and special accounts. The general fund is overseen by county Treasurer Wynne D. Downing. The auditors found no problems with the general fund.
    Other accounts are managed separately from the general fund by various department heads or designated people.
    Edward W. Rinn, the district court's clerk and magistrate, deals with that department's account. Rinn said he has tried to stress that anything written must be entered into the books by the end of the month.
    The Inmate Trust Account is managed by Jail Administrator Bruce Brooks. The Spay/Neuter Account is overseen by Midland County Animal Control. These two departments, in turn, are under the jurisdiction of the Midland County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff John S. Reder.
    Another part of the audit showed Reder's office had to return a portion of the Law Enforcement Block Grant II because it was not spent. The grant was awarded for Oct. 1, 1997 to Sept. 30, 1999.
    According to Reder, about 50 percent of the grant was spent, leaving $10,388. The money could only be used for community policing activities, such as meeting with the public and giving instructional classes, Reder said.
    These activities were hard to fill, because deputies already were pulling overtime in the jail. The jail must always be fully staffed and thus was first priority, according to Reder.
    The auditors also recommended that the District Court, Friend of the Court and jail department provide monthly activity reports to Downing's office. Those reports then should be used by the treasurer to record receipts and disbursements into the Trust and Agency Fund.
    "What we do when we get their commendations ... (is) we adopt them, then report back to the board," said FOC Catherine E. Davis. "We consider the auditors the experts."
    Because they haven't seen the completed audit, none was able to give much more comment on their respective departments audits. Department heads should get a copy by next week, according to Bridgette Gransden, the county's finance director.
    The audit was done by Rehmann Robson of Saginaw. The Midland County Board of Commissioners will review the audit during its 9 a.m. Tuesday meeting at the County Services Building, 220 W. Ellsworth St.

LeTourneau gets Reece award
By Cheryl Wade of the Daily News
    It was almost unthinkable in the mid-1980s for people with mental disabilities to live in their own homes. But when the idea germinated in Midland, a kindly official let the idea blossom.
    That was Art LeTourneau, 52, now acting director of Midland-Gladwin Community Mental Health Services. On Thursday, the Reece Community Living Endeavor gave LeTourneau its first-ever Michael W. Stutelberg Award, named for a man who didn't let disability block his independence. The Reece organization now owns and maintains 31 homes it rents to people with disabilities at prices they can afford. And 72 adults are on a waiting list for homes.
    LeTourneau's beliefs about disabled people were severely tested in about 1986, when he oversaw mental health services for the disabled. He went to hear a renowned teacher who pushed service providers to question old ways of thinking.
    "I had started to question the types of services and goals we were helping people to accomplish, and whether they were relevant in the real world," LeTourneau said."We were helping people to become good clients rather than good citizens.
    "Once we had that as our base of evaluation, the traditional way of doing business looked pretty bleak. And at the same time there was no good answer on how to change it."
    But it did change, over time. Parents of people with disabilities began coming to LeTourneau with unconventional dreams — they wanted their children to have more say in their own lives. And LeTourneau said he opened up to new ideas.
    In 1989, Midlander Tim Bartlett was the first to get his own house. Along with balloons and crowds of well-wishers came fears of "cease and desist" orders from the state bureaucracy — was this an unlicensed group home?
    "I was worried because the regulatory system's very powerful and greatly impacts on how people get served," LeTourneau said. "I was, indeed, worried that we would somehow get enough attention that we would be ordered to not continue."
    That attention came, but it wasn't the kind LeTourneau had feared. Early on, the state mental health director visited Bartlett's house. Sitting in the living room, "he looked at me and said, 'How can we get other communities to think this way' — which was such a great relief," LeTourneau said.
    Ironically, LeTourneau learned a few tough lessons himself as he traveled around the country for treatment of inoperable cancer. Affordable housing meant different things in different places. In one city it was "be happy for what you get," regardless if it was dirty, small or inconvenient, he said. In another, it was spacious rooms. And in a third, clients were helped on a first-come, first-served basis to find housing in a typical community environment, he said.
    "As a recipient of those services, I must tell you it made a difference," he said. 
    Stutelberg, who died Nov. 29, 1998, at age 22, was a beneficiary of Midland's new way of thinking. He'd been a regular kid playing sports; then, at 16, he was diagnosed with a disease that gradually took away his sight and hearing. He grew weaker in body but not in spirit, said Jan Lampman, president of the Reece board.
    Stutelberg's family made sure Mike was part of community life, Lampman said. When a state official came to Midland to talk about the future of services for disabled people, Mary Stutelberg asked how places such as Midland could get more resources.
    Stutelberg lived in his own Reece house and worked three part-time jobs. Lampman recalled helping out one day as a care giver. "He used a type of sign language I had no clue about," she said. As she made breakfast, Stutelberg seemed more concerned that she was having a hard time than how his breakfast would turn out, she said.
    Mary Stutelberg said the Reece group came to her family and asked to name the new award in her son's honor.
    "It was a surprise, an honor, every mother's dream," she said. "This will help people down the road who don't know Mike. Hopefully they'll ask 'Who is Michael W. Stutelberg?' and somebody will be able to tell them."

Jo-Ann Fabrics catches fire

By Candice Combs of the Daily News
    Flames and a lot of smoke caused Jo-Ann's Fabrics to be closed today.
    Firefighters responded about 3:07 p.m. to the fire at Jo-Ann's Fabrics located at 1910 N. Saginaw Road.
    The fire started in the rear corner of the building and the sprinkler system was activated to put the fire out.
    According to Midland Fire Department Batallion Chief Kenneth Powell, $100,000 damage was done to the contents of the store.
    In addition, $5,000 damage was done to the building.
    The district manager of the local store was unable to comment on the details of the fire.
    Velma Quinlin, with the store facilities department at the Jo-Ann Fabric corporate office, said she is unsure how long the store will be closed.
    "We are still trying to assess the situation ourselves," Quinlin said.
    The cause of the fire is under investigation by the police and fire departments.

Sentencing bills advance
    The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved two bills, sponsored by Rep. Tony Stamas, clarifying responsibilities for sentencing prisoners.
    Stamas said he was continuing work begun by his predecessor, Jim McNutt. Both are Midland Republicans.
    House Bills 4238 and 4239 require judges to specify whether sentences are to be served one after another (consecutively) or at the same time (concurrently).
    Without the legislation, if a judge doesn't indicate how the sentence is to be served, the Michigan Department of Corrections must do so, Stamas' office said.
    The bills put the duty back where it belongs, Stamas said.
    The legislation is long overdue, Midland County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Donker said in a prepared statement.

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