Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 11

REPUBLIC GOP candidate admits opponent received no 'direct' union funds By BILL KING GLENDALE Stan Akers, Republican Cor-poratfon Commission candidate, conceded Tuesday that no "direct" labor union contributions were made to the campaign of his Democratic opponent, John Ahearn. The concession came at a Glendale Chamber of Commerce luncheon, where Ahearn said a letter written about him by Akers' fund raisers is "still a big lie." The letter said unions and their allies gave thousands to Ahearn in an effort to take over the Corporation Commission. Ahearn. said he would accept contributions from any political action committee whether it represented banks or labor provided they were not regulated by the commission. But Ahearn said his campaign financing reports show no union contributions and not more than three or four totaling $325 from lawyers practicing labor law.

Ahearn's denial of any direct union contributions was correct, said Akers, adding that labor contributions are neither illegal, immoral nor unethical. "I certainly can't criticize the numerous individual contributions he does show from labor attorneys and the former secretary-treasurer of the state AFL-CIO for his current campaign," Akers said. "Maybe they really are supporting him out of the goodness of their hearts with their own personal funds. But knowing lawyers I have some severe doubts." Akers said he was puzzled by Ahearn's denial of union support in view of well-documented labor contributions to Ahearn's losing campaigns for Congress and attorney general in the past Akers said Ahearn may be "trying to paint himself as pro-business." Ahearn said Akers has been campaigning as a consumer advocate after compiling an anti-consumer voting record in the Arizona House of Representatives. Ahearn charged, for example, Akers voted for a telephone company bill to eliminate the company's competition.

Ahearn said Akers "became a rather reluc- tant legislator" House speaker. after Akers was "deposed" as Ahearn maintained lies were told about him in a fund-raising letter written on Akers' behalf by five prominent Arizona Republicans, Sen. Barry Goldwater, Rep. John Rhodes, and ex-Govs. Paul Fannin, Jack Williams and Howard Pyle.

The letter said Arizona labor unions "and their allies in the left wing of the Democratic Party" poured thousands into Ahearn's campaign to control the commission and step up business regulation. The letter requested donations to Akers' media advertising budget for the closing weeks of his campaign. Ahearn Akers i Mb Luhrs deal receives state's tentative OK The Arizona Republic WEGNER ByLAURE A request by Maricopa County to Page 1 section Pes SsaF-! 4 candidates discuss taxes, prison on TV County Manager Charles Miller, who has recommended the purchase strongly, told Kennedy that some county operations eventually would be moved into the 162,500 square feet of office space in the complex. I The county has been leasing about 33,000 square feet of space there for about $180,000 per year, Miller said. Kennedy solicited and heard comments about the condition of the buildings and their selling "price two years ago.

In 1976, Patrician Land Co. of Canada purchased the buildings for $3.75 million from the Luhrs family. The structures, assessed by the county at $3.8 million, violate Phoenix fire codes, Kennedy was told. Charles McCurdy, Patrician's vice president, told Kennedy the 1976 purchase price was based on lower lease charges at that time. He had told the supervisors earlier that the deal included $1 million cash and Patrician made "a heck of a buy." The first appraisal commissioned by the county was made by A.

Ball As-Continued on Page B-2 use $5.9 million in federal revenue-sharing funds to purchase the Luhrs Building and four other structures in downtown Phoenix is "technically proper," state Tax Commissioner Bob Kennedy said Tuesday. Kennedy attended a hearing during which county officials explained their plan to transfer about $5.3 million earmarked for a parking garage and $552,841 set aside for land purchases into a fund to buy the Canadian-owned buildings. Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to sign a letter of intent to make the purchase, contingent upon Kennedy's decision and a second appraisal of the property. Kennedy is expected to make a final decision within two weeks. The second appraisal is being made by Burke, Hansen Homan of Phoenix.

In addition to the Luhrs Building, the proposed purchase would include the Luhrs Tower, a parking garage with 458 spaces, Luhrs Arcade and Madison Central Building. The buildings cover one square block east of the county complex. By DON HARRIS Gov. Bruce Babbitt vowed during a televised forum Tuesday night never to build a prison in a residential area. But his Republican opponent, Evan Mecham, insisted that Babbitt is doing exactly that in Litchfield Park.

DmiiMI nkAtu few lAhn lftflltrri ratal crash motor-home owner Henry M. Coutu, 68, of Two men were killed and another was hurt Wednesday on 1-10 near Tonopah when a tractor-trailer rig rammed into a parked motor home. Killed were truck driver Michael A. Morris, 30, of Galva, Texas, and Alberta, British Columbia. Above is the ruin of the rig from which passenger Loyd F.

Blacker by, 34, Marbanic, Texas, escaped. Below is skeleton of Canadian motor home. Computation method attacked Hearing officer suggests APS refund 1 5 million Prisons and taxes dominated the one-hour exchange between Democrat Babbitt, Republican Mecham, Libertarian V. Gene Lewter and Socialist Workers Party candidate Jessica Sampson. The forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, was televised live from 8 to 9 p.m.

by KAET. Questions were submitted by persons in the audience. Babbitt was asked about his selection of the Litchfield Park site for a medium-security prison and whether he plans to place four more prisons in residential areas. "There will never be any prison in a residential area as long as I am governor," Babbitt responded. He said the Litchfield Park site is four and one-half miles from any homes and is in the middle of a tract of state-owned land.

"There will be no more prisons built in Maricopa County," Babbitt said. "We had to have one here and we felt it ought to be agriculturally based." He said he would have to "bite the bullet" on that decision. Mecham disagreed with Babbitt, saying the Litchfield Park site "is right in the middle of a residential area" and very close to Scott- Libby Elementary School. "I'm glad," said Mecham, "that Governor Babbitt has gotten the word not to build prisons in residential areas. They should be built in Florence, where they want them." Continued on Page B-2 'r5- Arizona Public Service Co.

should recompute its 1977 return in a way that would entitle consumers to a $15 million refund, the state Corporation Commission's chief hearing officer recommended Tuesday. Meanwhile, Commissioner Jim Weeks proposed replacing automatic electricity rate adjustments every month with commission-monitored adjustments at intervals of no less than six months. Chief Hearing Officer Andy Bettwy recommendation was filed with the commission as the result of a recent hearing to determine whether APS's 5 percent electricity rate increase last January would be refunded. In the hearing, APS claimed its 1977 returns on its stockholders' year-end equity in the business was low enough to qualify for the increase under an earlier commission order. But the staff of the commission's utilities division contended that the return should have been computed by a different method reflecting 12 months' income from an August 1977 rate increase.

Bettwy recommended that "the commission determine that the staff's method of computing return on year-end common equity is the appropriate method for the reason that such a determination would be consistent with rate-making procedures employed generally by the commission." A staff witness testified that APS did not qualify for the January rate increase by the staff's method of computation. It is now up to the commission to decide the method it will require APS to use. Oct. 24 is the tentative date for consideration of Week's proposal on automatic electricty rare adjustments based on fuel cost fluctuations. A commission order ending such adjustments was to have taken effect in about a month, but it was found to be Continued on Page B-2 Greighton OKs school-bond sale; Murphy votes no Paul Dean London Bridge promoters get last laugh on skeptics 6.

In Murphy No. 1 the vote was 90 for it and 116 against. Voters at Sullivan School defeated it 151 to 50. "Evidently, Sullivan did not want the bond election in its present form," Salopek said. Murphy board member Charles Sierras, who opposed the bond proposal, said he and several other persons were kept outside the district office while the ballots were being counted.

He said the results from Murphy 1 and 3 wore posted, showing that the yes votes were leading. But later, when the last ballot box arrived from Sullivan School, Salopek and other officials left the office without posting the results. Sierras said he and other parents in the district going to stay outside the office "to make sure no one comes in and removes the ballots. would be used to replace old buildings constructed before World War II. "I feel our measure passed because many of the, parents and many of the senior citizens realized we needed the money, that we weren't asking for anything extra," said Moody.

He credited senior citizens, "who are really dedicated to the community," as being the force behind the measure's passage. Moody saiJ actual construction would begin at the end of this school year. He explained that it would be early spring before the bonds would be sold. In the Murphy district, about $2.3 million would have been used to build a facility for sixth-through-eighth graders at 27th Avenue and Buckeye at Murphy No. 1.

In voting at the three schools, only Murphy No. 3 voters approved the bond issue. The vote was 86 to Creighton school district voters approved a $4 million bond issue Tuesday while voters across town in the Murphy district defeated a $2.95 million bond proposal. Creighton Superintendent Earl Moody said his district's measure passed 1,668 to 1,269. Murphy Superintendent David Salopek said the vote defeating the proposal in his district was 273 to 226.

"The community and staff and board of trustees will have to rework another plan that has a chance of passing," Salopek said. He added that the facilities situation in the district was critical and that Murphy No. 1 school was substandard. "We felt that the bond issue was probably the most equitable and reasonable way" of improving the situation," he said. Moody said funds from the sale of the bonds The British, even those with memories of Getty, Hearst and other free-spending Americans addicted to l)lank-check purchases of European heritage, couldn't believe the size of their windfall.

Americans back home, including promoters who could subdivide and sell Death Valley as Coppertone Ran-chettes, said the birth rate of suckers had increased to two per minute. But a chain-saw manufacturer in sneakers and a chili cook who got through college on a trick-roping scholarship wrote a check for $2.5 million and bought London Bridge anyway. New state job pays $32,333 PEANUTS in Arizona. The state governor and the lord mayor of London tamped a commemorative stone into hot desert sand. In 1971, reconstruction was completed and black ties, red carpets and pageantry welcomed the five-span antique and the Bridgewater Canal dug beneath it to their new home.

The closing of the annual London Bridge Days at Lake Havasu City last weekend marked the 7th year in Arizona for this 146-year-old monument. And all chuckles concerning the bridge's purpose should have been snuffed out with this year's birthday candles. London Bridge now attracts visitors a year and threatens the Grand Canyon as Arizona's premier tourist attraction. The one-pub village built in its shadow grosses $2.5 million a year. Modern reconstruction techniques yielded a surplus of London I VE GOT PI5C0 Ousted warden lands highways post Former Arizona State Prison Warden Harold Cardwell on Tuesday was named state highways coordina HOW PO YOU LIKE Cardwell, however, said in a press conference after his removal that he had been made "a scapegoat" for problems at the prison.

Upon learning of Cardwell's new assignment, MacDougall said Tuesday, WHAT PO YOU 5M, BABE? PO YOU COME L0HAT'5 YOUR SIGN, BABE? YOU A LEO? Guffaws embraced the British Empire. Imagine buying a used bridge that, nobody wanted and dismantling it for shipment to a place nobody had heard Mrf, where there was no river to bridge "and the population was 10 to 1, scor-pions over people? 1 And what possible profits could be earned by a chipped and sooty hulk that tourists would pay nothing to cross or to see? Bridge buyers C. V. Woods Jr'. and the late Robert McCulloch smiled and said they'd cross those worries when they got to them.

That was 10 years ago. One year later, the first of 10,000 tons of London Bridge granite arrived HERE OFTEN? tor. The post pays $32,333. Gov. Bruce Babbitt, in announcing the appointment, said he has "every confidence that Mr.

Cardwell will continue to serve the state effectively in his new responsibilities." Cardwell was removed as head of the Florence prison two months ago after convicted murderers Gary Tison and Randy Greenawalt escaped and allegedly killed as many as six persons. Corrections Director Ellis Mac-Dougall has said he fired Cardwell because he was an "inefficient administrator" and ran an "unworkable prison." "I'm delighted he got a new job. He is an experienced highway patrolman and had a very distinguished career." Cardwell could not be reached for comment. He replaces Jim Hill, who was reassigned to other duties within the highway department. As highway safety coordinator, Cardwell will be responsible for overseeing the distribution of federal highway funds through the state.

Bridge granite. This was sold by McCullock Properties for use in paperweights, bookends, cuff links, match holders and pen sets at a profit of $250,000. When McCulloch and Woods bought London Bridge, their Lake Havasu development contained 5,000 acres of unsold residential and corn-Continued on Page B-2 SrmttettB, too. I 197g UnHWl Fwtuf Cardwell V'.