06:57 PM PDT on Tuesday, June 22, 2004

By JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff

SALEM -- A committee of Oregon lawmakers decided Tuesday afternoon to move a portrait of Neil Goldschmidt from a prominent corridor at the state Capitol into a much less-public library area because of the former governor's admission that he had sex with a 14-year-old girl in the 1970s.

Some people want this portrait of former Ore. gov. Neil Goldschmidt removed from the Capitol building in Salem. (KGW photo)

"This is a tragedy, not only for the victim... it's a tragedy for the state and I'm saddened that we even have to take this issue up," said House Speaker Karen Minnis, R- Wood Village, who co-chairs the Legislative Administration Committee.

"There is a lot of damage to the people of Oregon and to the associates of the former governor," Minnis said, her comments reflective of the state's anger and shame.

The committee, following a public hearing, agreed unanimously to move the portrait and sought to establish a policy for hanging pictures and portraits at the Oregon Capitol in the future.

Herb Colomb, the Capitol's facilities manager, said the removal and relocation of the Goldschmidt portrait would occur Wednesday morning.

The committee's action followed a formal request from state Rep. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, who cited letters and e-mails from constituents who demanded the Goldschmidt painting's removal.

"It's not appropriate (to keep the portrait on display.) I would advocate moving it in its entirety," Knopp told the committee in testimony leading off Tuesday's hearing on the topic. "The public feels the same sense of betrayal and outrage that I have."

Goldschmidt had sex with the girl when he was mayor of Portland. He went on to become a U.S. Transportation Secretary and then Oregon governor from 1987 to 1991.

Knopp told his fellow lawmakers that there was "a 30-year cover-up of (Goldschmidt's) crime. We need to speak clear and powerfully to the people of Oregon today on this issue."

"We're talking about an admission of a serious person-to-person felony crime," he said.

Published reports have said Goldschmidt had sex with the girl for nearly three years while he was Portland mayor, and that the relationship ruined her life.

The girl baby-sat Goldschmidt's children. She now lives in Nevada and has been receiving monthly payments from Goldschmidt under a legal settlement.

While the girl's age at the time made the relationship third-degree rape, Goldschmidt can't be charged because the statute of limitations has long since expired.

His recent confession to the sexual relationship has not only shocked the state -- it also sparked the heated debate about whether the portrait of Goldschmidt, once one of the most respected men in the state, should stay on public display at the Capitol.

"Nobody has suggested that we attempt to rewrite history," Knopp said, "...but had this been found out and prosecuted in the '70s, he wouldn't have become governor."

Knopp's remarks Tuesday were echoed by several other people who also said Goldschmidt disgraced his office and didn't deserve a place of honor in the Capitol.

"By continuing to hang Mr. Goldschmidt's portrait, we as a community are making a statement that violates everything we value when it comes to protecting our children," said Gary Sackley, a counselor in Salem-Keizer schools who has worked with sex abuse victims for 25 years.

Some who testified said they weren't trying to rewrite history, they just felt that Goldschmidt's portrait shouldn't be prominently displayed in view of his misdeeds.

"Having someone's portrait in the hall who has done something like this is horrible," said Amy Rabon, a legislative aide who has three daughters.

Paintings of eight former Oregon governors adorn the walls of the Capitol, hanging in the marble-tiled second floor corridor which connects the state House and Senate chambers. Five are recent governors: Tom McCall, Bob Straub, Vic Atiyeh, Barbara Roberts and Goldschmidt. A painting showing John Kitzhaber, who preceded the current governor, Ted Kulongoski, has not yet been hung there. Three other portraits are governors from the more distant past.

The Goldschmidt painting shows him in a gray suit and blue striped tie and in three poses: Smiling broadly, another with his chin resting on the palm of his hand, and a third with him sitting back in his chair.

His larger-than-life portrait had been hanging on the south wall, just outside the Senate chamber. Now with the committee's action, it will move into a third-floor library and office rarely used by the public.

The portrait program was started in the early 1980s by then-Secretary of State Norma Paulus, who opposed removing Goldschmidt's picture -- calling it part of history. Current Gov. Ted Kulongoski also opposed removing the portrait from the corridor.

"The governor doesn't think it should come down altogether, simply because the fact is Neil Goldschmidt was the governor," Kulongoski spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn said.

One member of the legislative panel, state Rep. Dan Doyle, R-Salem, called Knopp's removal request a step "without precedent" and questioned the lack of an overall broader policy on gubernatorial portraits.

The committee action taken Tuesday requires Capitol staffers to begin drafting future policy guidelines on pictures and paintings that will be examined by the panel in October.

Senate President Peter Courtney, who serves as committee co-chair along with Minnis, said he supported moving the portrait for security reasons -- fearing someone angered by the disgraced ex-governor's behavior might vandalize the valuable painting.

"I do not think the portrait should be removed from the building (altogether). I respect history," he said. "For the purposes of history, the picture should be relocated to a more secure and less-public room."

Goldschmidt's spokesman, Portland public relations executive Brian Gard, said the former governor "just doesn't want to comment" on the removal of his portrait.

Gard also said Goldschmidt and his wife, Diana, have been traveling out of state. He declined to say where the Goldschmidts are and when they plan to return.

The once-popular former governor has vanished from public view since his startling admission last month. He stepped down from two jobs, surrendered his law license and issued a public apology.

(KGW reporter Vince Patton and the AP contributed to this report.)