The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 7

LOS ANGELES TIMES WASHINGTON EDITION FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 25, 1994 A7 National Perspective Cities Emulate the Little Metropolis That Could A Fee Here, a Fee There President Clinton's federal budget for 1995 proposes no big tax hikes other than a 75 -cent cigarette tax increase to help finance health care reform. But tucked within its pages are several dozen new or increased "user fees and other collections" that would raise a combined total of $1.5 billion next year. Here are a few of the new revenue -raisers that Clinton is asking Congress to approve, and the amount of money they would generate in 1995: Fees in millions of dollars '1 V. 'The people understand.

They understand that they can't have everything they Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson examples of success: The city has saved $25 million through the competitive bidding process begun in 1978. Tried first for garbage collection, the system now is used for delivery of 20 services, ranging from street sweeping to staffing the city's public defender's office. Another 40 are being considered for inclusion in the program. Since the Phoenix Fire Department took over the ambulance services after competitive bidding in 1985, ambulances arrive at emergency scenes within 10 minutes 94 of the time, doubling the private companies' response record. During what Johnson calls "the biggest budget crisis since the Great Depression" while population grew and demand for services increased? the city trimmed 500 positions from its 1 1 member work force and spent less money last year than the previous year.

All of that was accomplished without a tax increase, a labor dispute or any noticeable effect on services. Ordinary citizens participate in government. City Council meetings and budget hearings are regularly conducted on the road to give residents of the sprawling city better access to their leaders. Volunteers also take part in the Phoenix Futures Forum (an ongoing planning process). Neighborhood Watch crime prevention programs and Neighborhood Fight Back improvement programs.

Residents have volunteered in droves to clean up mountain preserves, to maintain streets and medians, to read to children as part of the Mayor's Reading Corps and to support public schools through a corporate adoption program. Ima Jean Dolan got involved for the first time last year, attending public budget hearings to protest the planned cancellation of the annual electrical Christmas parade. Dolan, whose family had made participation in the amateur parade a holiday tradition, carried a jar of pennies and encouraged people to "throw in their two cents' worth." After Dolan collected nearly $6,000, the city reinstated the event and made Dolan grand marshal. What impressed her most, she said, was the small-town feeling she got during meetings with the city's top officials. "I can't say enough about them," Dolan said.

Warm feelings aside, Phoenix is not a small town. It's the ninth-largest city in the country, and it faces serious problems like crime, air pollution and transportation woes. But because the government is efficient, Johnson said, it can better use resources to target such problems. Innovative Arizona capital draws praise for competitive bidding process. Resident likes the small-town feel of government.

By LAURA LAUGHLIN SPECIAL TO THE TIMES And now, a hews flash: Things are going well in Phoenix. It's not stop -the -presses news, but Phoenix's quiet success as a municipality is beginning to be recognized. At a time when the Clinton Administration is discussing the concept of reinventing government, Phoenix is basking in the attention it is receiving for pioneering its own form of government, a system experts are lauding and other municipalities are adopting. Mayor Paul Johnson believes that Phoenix's accomplishments bode well for the nation. "What's going to happen to government is going to have to happen at the local level first," he said.

"I'm convinced the federal government is watching what's going on at the local level. And it's going to filter up." Indeed, Vice President Al Gore has pointed to Phoenix's competitive bidding process as an example of how an innovative government can increase productivity. The system, which pits the city against private enterprise in the delivery of city services, is being used in Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Versions are being considered in Los Angeles and San Diego counties. The competitive bidding system was praised by the German-based Bertelsmann Foundation, a nonprofit organization that last fall declared Phoenix one of the two best-managed cities in the world.

Although Phoenix has been honored in other ways over the years, city officials say the Bertelsmann prize is the most gratifying. It is a onetime award with a worldwide scope. And the fact that a city the size of Phoenix (population 1.04 million) was judged to be as well-managed as the much smaller Christchurch, New Zealand, (population 140,000) is a further source of pride. City Manager Frank Fairbanks said Christchurch deserves the award, but he noted that the city reformed its management as part of a national mandate. Phoenix, on the other hand, has been able to produce an efficient, effective government without any guidance from above.

"The Bertelsmann judges called us "The Lone Fairbanks said. "We had been able to do all the same things as Christchurch, but we've done them alone and Securities and Exchange Commission fees on stock and bond sales, tender offers, registration statements and investment advisers Food and Drug Administration fees, including new levies authorized by the Prescription Drug User Fee Act and Mammography Quality Standards Act U.S. Department of Agriculture fees for overtime inspections of meat and poultry plants Increased maritime shipping tonnage fees to offset cost of Coast Guard services Customs Service merchandise processing fees Internal Revenue Service fee for notifying banks of refunds to taxpayers who file electronic returns Commerce Department fee on users of fisheries management programs Farm Service Agency fee on agricultural producers to offset cost of "free" catastrophic crop insurance New 15 surcharge on judgments for debt collected by the Justice Department National Park Service fees for park entrance and recreational facilities New $15-per-hour fee for assistance provided at Small Business Administration Development Centers Increased license fee paid by firearms dealers to the U.S. Treasury Department IRS fee hike for making photocopies of tax returns, (from $4.25 to about $12 per document) Other fee increases $378 $338 $103 $100 $94 $87 $82 $40 $39 $27 $26 $25 $5 $174 we've invented them for ourselves." So what is so great about Phoenix's form of government? What is it that has prompted more than 200 businesses, cities, counties, states and countries to inquire about Phoenix's management methods? The Bertelsmann committee applauded lots of attributes that, government-speak aside, boil down to this: The city has been able to communicate effectively with its citizens and employees; it has been able to serve them efficiently, and it has not been afraid to try new tacks. Fairbanks believes that innovation is the most important factor in Phoenix's success: "We don't get entrenched in things and do them the same way we've done them for 50 years." Employees are encouraged to suggest new ways to serve the And officials level with the citizenry.

"The people understand," Johnson said. "They understand that they can't have everything they want." The secret, he says, is to involve them in the process and encourage them to be part of the solution. To those who might dismiss awards as bureaucratic back-patting and Johnson's philosophy as rhetoric, here are a few TOTAL $1,518 Sourer. Office of Managanwra and Budget i ii Ilia. -noiJcloi funtsiis ion ai si" .1 06 SHORE: Entertainer Reigned Over Television for Four Ny I Lot Angelet Timet Dinah Shore, who once said of movie roles, "I never thought I was photogenic," in 1985 interview at her Mission Hills Country Club home.

playing the Hollywood Canteen, he attended the show and confessed that he was a fan of hers as well. They were married in Las Vegas Dec. 5, 1943, and after one of Hollywood's storybook marriages, were divorced May 9, 1962. "In the end," she said, "we just drifted apart." Miss Shore married Palm Springs contractor and tennis player Maurice Fabian Smith on May 26, 1963, but that marriage lasted less than a year. She began her romantic liaison with Reynolds after he appeared on her television show.

An enthusiastic cook. Miss Shore wrote three best-selling cook- books, "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah" in 1971, "The Dinah Shore Cookbook" in 1983 and "The Dinah Shore American Kitchen" in 1990. She continued to give concerts, often benefiting her favorite philanthropiesthe March of Dimes, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and Junior Achievement, on whose national board she served. In recognition of her business acumen and wide popularity and experience in entertainment. Miss Shore was appointed to the board of directors of MGMUA Entertainment Co.

in 1985 one of the few women entertainers, including Mary Pickford and Grace Kelly, ever to serve on motion picture boards. Although she broke important ground for women in entertainment and sports and by opening up country club memberships to single women, Miss Shore remained spoke out against "women's liberation in the early 1970s. "It's always been a man's world," she said in 1972, "and it probably always will be. I don't want to change that All of my career, on radio, in recording studios, in films and on television, men have made the decisions for me, and they've usually been the right ones." Among the accolades of a lifetime before microphones were nine Gold Medal Photoplay Awards, the Downbeat Pop-Jazz Award, the Golden Globe, and frequent listing on Gallup Poll's 10 Most Admired Women in the World. In addition to her children, Miss Shore is survived by three grandchildren, Jenhefer, Adam and Continued from Al the golden-haired Southern belle garnered nine gold 10 Emmys more than any other performer in television history and her most cherished award, a Pea--body, which included the inscription, "What TV needs, obviously, is about 100 Dinah Shores." In observance of her death, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce placed flowers on one of Miss Shore's three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, awarded to her for outstanding achievement in radio, recording and television.

have lost one of the voices that defined an era for us," said Hollywood billionaire and former 20th Century Fox owner Marvin Davis, who, with his wife, Barbara, was a friend of Miss Shore. "In many ways Dinah Shore set an example for us all to follow, not least in the areas of charity and fund raising for the less fortunate. Dinah was a joy to be around, independent and humorous. We should not mourn her death but rather celebrate her life." Miss Shore reigned over television for four decades from its infancy in the 1950s until the 1990s with a succession of shows built around her husky, sentimental voice, Southern comedic charm, cooking talent and ability to cajole celebrities to join her for whatever they wanted to say or do. Her string of enviable successes on the small screen included the 15-minute musical program, "The Dinah Shore Show," from 1951 to 1957; the Chevrolet-sponsored Sunday night hour, "The Dinah Shore Show" from 1957 to 1963; the 90-minute talk show "Dinah!" from 1974 to 1980; "Dinah's Place" from 1970 to 1974; "Dinah and Friends" from 1979 to 1984, and from 1989 to 1991, a half-hour talk show on the Nashville Network, "A Conversation With Dinah." Even Miss Shore was a little nervous when she expanded her original television program from 15 minutes to an hourlong show on Sunday nights in which she sang "See the USA in your Chevrolet" and blew a huge kiss to TV viewers.

Put Times entertainment editor Cecil Smith called that 1957-58 season "the year of Dinah Shore" and said Miss Shore "waltzed into the big color shows with the casual grace and warmth of a talented neighbor dropping in from next door to sing a little and show off some brilliant friends. "And," Smith added, "she won the nation's Sunday-night hearts." Miss Shore also won her Pea-body, an Emmy, and the Sylvania Award, and was named Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year. Over the decades, she was amused by attempts to describe the character of her various shows and analyze their success. "What we are is a 'Do' show," she told The Times in 1972 when she was holding forth on 'Dinah's "Almost everyone who comes on has something they want to do. Ethel Kennedy played the piano, Joanne Woodward did some beautiful needlepoint.

Burt Lancaster did a perfect Italian spaghetti sauce." With a sports enthusiasm based in a childhood bout with polio, Miss Shore became the first woman to earn the Entertainer of the Year Award from the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. The 22nd annual Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Tournament, one of the richest on the Ladies Professional Golf Assn. tour, will be played in March at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Jim Webb, deputy commissioner of the group, said Thursday that he was "shocked deeply saddened. We've lost a great friend and tremendous supporter of not only the LPGA but golf in general.

It is like losing one of your very best friends." Miss Shore, with her well-known penchant for humor, recalled for The Times in 1992 how reluctant she had been to involve herself in the tournament two decades earlier: "The Colgate Co. was sponsoring my television show, and I was a tennis player. I didn't play golf. However, the powers that be decided they were going to sponsor a golf tournament. I said make it tennis; I didn't want to look like a dummy in two sports.

I took a crash course in golf." But in no time, even Miss Shore was describing herself as "a real golf bum." The brown-eyed natural brunette who had been known for her honey-blond hair since 1942 was often on best-dressed lists and was known for her robust health, energy and verve that made her appear far younger than her actual years. She once described her formula for living as being able to "forget everything that happened WLAC. After graduating from Vander-bilt University with a degree in sociology, Miss Shore sold her camera and radio to finance a two-week job hunt in New York. It didn't take that long. She auditioned for disc jockey Martin Block at radio station WNEW, singing "Dinah." In a historic lapse of memory.

Block announced that "Dinah Shore" had won the audition. Disliking her own given name, she carried that one to fame. Miss Shore worked as a fill-in singer at NBC radio on such shows as "Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street," and found steady work on Eddie Cantor's show. By 1943 she had her own radio show, and was recording with such famous band leaders as Xavi- erCugat. She sold 1 million copies of "Yes, My Darling Daughter," and that-recording success was followed quickly by "Blues in the Night," "Shoo Fly Pie," and "Doin' What Comes Naturally." Other hits were "Buttons and Bows," "Dear Hearts and Gentle People," "It's So Nice to Have a Man Around the House," and Til Walk Alone." A favorite on radio and jukeboxes and with GIs as America went to war, Miss Shore eventually got her chance to act She didn't like it.

She was in such films as "Thank Your Lucky Stars," in 1943, "Up in Arms," "Follow the Boys," and "Belle of the Yukon" in 1944, "Make Mine Music" and "Till the Clouds Roll By" in 1946, "Fun and Fancy Free" in 1947, "and "Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick" in 1952. "I hated it," she said years later. "Making (movies) was so boring. You sat around interminably. And I never thought I was photogenic.

I thought I looked horrible on the Technicolor screen." She said the experience also terrified, her, and that she was afraid people would learn that she didn't read music well. Miss Shore found the small screen far more to her liking. "I don't know how to be afraid of that old red eye. It's one person to me," she told Associated Press in 1989. "I don't visualize large numbers of people out there.

I'm comfortable with it." In 1941, Miss Shore fell in love with Montgomery's image when she went to see his film "The Cowboy and the Blonde" 15 times. Two years later, when she was yesterday and live in the present." Former President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan, friends with the singer for 40 years, called her "a dynamic individual talented, energetic with a sincere spark for life." "Dinah was five-star in every way," said former President Gerald Ford, a neighbor of Miss Shore in Rancho Mirage. "Betty and I have lost a very dear friend, one of the finest, most generous and thoughtful persons we have been privileged to know." Actor Burt Reynolds, who had a celebrated love affair with Miss Shore in the early 1970s, said: "Hollywood has lost its greatest and only real angel. Dinah is what God meant when he strived to make perfection.

"She was the sunshine in my life and millions and millions of Reynolds said. "She is the only person I ever knew who had nothing bad to say about anyone." Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, called Miss Shore "the kindest and the gentlest and the most enduring of -all the talented folks in our world." "It's going to be hard to face tomorrow," he said, "without Dinah." The multitalented Miss Shore, whose paintings have been exhibited at the California Museum of Science and Industry, was born Fanny Rose Shore on March 1, 1917, in Winchester, Tenn. Stricken with polio when she was 18 months old, she credited the experience with giving her an inferiority complex and for pushing her into sports and entertainment. "That early experience made me shy and ambitious at the same time," she said in 1972.

"I wanted to run faster than anyone else, and jump higher. I knew I had to do something to prove myself. "I wanted to act," she said, "but there weren't any Tennessee Wil-liamses around in those days and it wasn't easy for a girl with a Southern accent to get work. Luckily, I could sing." She started singing at Hume Fogg High School in Nashville, giving up voice lessons to become a cheerleader. Nevertheless, she was soon singing on Nashville radio stations WSM and.