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Judge orders OSF to open its books By CHRIS BRISTOL GRANTS PASS -- In a move that could lead to a renewed union drive, a Josephine County judge has ordered the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to turn over most of the financial records requested by an avowed enemy of the theater's "medieval" leadership. Ruling Monday, Judge Allan Coon concluded that Ashland psychotherapist Philip Lang, a longtime patron of the nationally recognized theater, has a right to see the festival's books under Oregon law governing nonprofit, tax exempt membership corporations. Lang has described the festival as a "medieval kingdom" that is achieving record profits at the expense of its mainly non-union employees. Coon said the theater's attorneys introduced no evidence at a hearing Dec. 17 that undermined Lang's motives or legal rights as a member of the festival. "The defendant is attempting to narrowly interpret statutes which, by my reading, were not narrowly constructed," he concluded. As a result, he told the festival to produce operating budgets and minutes from the board of director's meetings dating back three years. However, he said the festival does not have to turn over detailed job and salary information unless such records were attached to board minutes. Lang was jubilant. He represented himself in the case. "It was a total and absolute victory," he said in a phone interview from Grants Pass, where he works part-time as a juvenile court mediator. "I figured I'd get something, but I did not expect the scope of this decision in terms of what he ordered them to give me, which is everything." Reached at home Monday evening, festival Executive Director Paul Nicholson said a decision whether to appeal the ruling would be made next week, after officials have a chance to meet with the theater's legal advisers. He declined to discuss the case more specifically, except to take exception to Lang's claim of total victory. "He won't get the job (and salary) classifications, because that material has never been a part of board meetings," Nicholson said. Coon took the case at the request of presiding Jackson County Judge Ross Davis, who had to recuse himself because his wife is a member of the festival board of directors. Another Jackson County judge also declined to hear the case. As a psychotherapist who did his doctoral dissertation on the festival's organizational structure, Lang has accused Nicholson and other festival officials of alienating the Ashland community and middle-class patrons in a quest for corporate profits and respectability. He filed suit after a failed attempt last spring to unionize the festival's employees. Meanwhile, the 1999 season set records for attendance and revenue. "No one is out to hurt the festival," he said. "We're out to help the festival, to help it prosper and help ourselves continue to prosper. That's what this is all about." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA