Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 2

The Arizona Republic Thursday, January 15, 1981 2 and State ai if Accountant accused of embezzling Legislators narrow waste-dump sites in Senate bill to 2 jiwjimiiiiiiiiiiinniiiimiin Milium 11 1 Him iinJi i "JSLbsL "2rf 11m 7 By Joel Nilsson Republic Staff The Rainbow Valley and the Ranegras Plain emerged Wednesday as the preferable proposed sites among key Republican legislators for locating a $14 million hazardous-waste-disposal facility. The sites are contained in Senate Bill 1033, which was introduced Wednesday, but its sponsors said the measure, when passed, would recommend only one site. Rainbow Valley, south of Buckeye, and Ranegras Plain, south of Vicks-burg, were cited in a recent Arizona Department of Health Services report as "excellent alternative locations" for the hazardous-waste dump. The report recommended the Western Harquahala Plain, about 90 miles west of Phoenix, as the preferred site, but legislators said Wednesday that choice was discarded as a possibility partly because of "political considerations." The Western Harquahala site would have placed the dump site in the legislative district of Senate Majority Leader Hal Runyan, R-Litchfield Park, who a year ago was the center of a bitter political fight that ultimately led to the affirmation of Perryville as the site of a medium-security prison. The prison, sched uled to open this summer, is in his district.

"All I have to do is to let the governor put one more thing in Runyan's district and he (Runyan) would, rightly so, tar and feather me," said Senate President Leo Corbet, R-Phoenix, one of four GOP sponsors of the bill. "Hal has paid his dues." Another sponsor, Bob Usdane, R-Scottsdale, and chairman of the Senate Health, Welfare and Aging Committee, said that to deny that political considerations played a part "is dumb." Usdane said he has believed, even before the DHS report was released, that "we don't want to jam it in Runyan's district again." The two House sponsors are Majority Leader Burton Barr, R-Phoe-nix, and Health Committee Chairman Carl Kunasek, R-Mesa. The bill calls for DHS Director James Sam to select either the Rainbow Valley site or the Ranegras Plain site, an apparent reversal of existing law that requires the Legislature to pick a site. However, legislators said they are not attempting to abdicate their responsibility by throwing the sticky political issue back to DHS, and indirectly to Gov. Bruce Babbitt Dump, B6 By Betty Beard Republic Staff A Phoenix accountant who is on probation for embezzling $40,000 from a local company four years ago has been indicted in the embezzlement of an additional $36,000 from a Catholic credit union last year.

Joseph Patrick Smith, 43, allegedly took about $36,000 last January and February from the Most Holy Trinity Federal Credit Union, 531 E. Alice at the same time he was being sentenced to probation for the earlier embezzlement. A 14-count indictment handed up in U.S. District Court on Wednesday accuses Smith of embezzling only $16,178 from the credit union because of a Justice Department policy limiting the counts in an indictment, said Arthur Garcia, an assistant U.S. attorney.

Smith, whose last known address was 4435 W. Ironwood in Glendale, allegedly wrote himself checks from credit-union funds in January and February 1980, according to the indictment. The loss was discovered after Smith failed to show up for work one day last March and reportedly left town. Garcia said he is believed to be in the Valley. Smith was arrested last Jan.

24 for the earlier embezzlement and pleaded guilty one week later to one count of grand theft by embezzlement. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge William P. French sentenced Smith last Feb. 29 to seven years' probation and ordered him to pay $10,000 in restitution for embezzling $37,194 from Borg-Warncr Accept- aneeCorp. Smith, who worked for two years for the company as a comptroller, pleaded guilty to embezzling the money from the firm between April 1976 and August 1977.

The loss was discovered in a routine audit and after further investigation, it was learned he had Accountant, B5 Tim Rogers Republic Traffic watch Most schools have crosswal students across streets. Most schools have crosswalk across streets. guards who shepherd at Mercury Mine School is difficult, so a caged over-students But halting traffic on pass keeps kids and cars apart, allowing students Dreamy Draw Drive near 32nd Street for youngsters to watch the road rush from a safe vantage point Phoenix strengthens employee-screening policy be provided with city police-arrest records on new employees and supervisors must check court records if the criminal activity might be. job-related or the worker is being considered for a sensitive job. In the past, the arrest "records were i sent to-the Personnel Department and were not forwarded to the hiring supervisors unless the crime related to the job.

Also, supervisors werel not required to make any additional court checks to determine convictions or criminal, activity that might have taken place outside Phoenix. Screen, B5 department heads Wednesday. It becomes effective immediately. The previous policy required a potential employee first to fill out an application that contains "'questions regarding criminal c6rivie-" tions. After they were hired, employees were fingerprinted and the Police Department made a records check to verify the application and to give the supervisor more information.

The action to beef up the procedure is the outgrowth of an alleged embezzlement last year of nearly $700,000 by a city worker who had a previous embezzlement conviction. The suspect, Jay Robert Maisel, initially was hired by By Frank Turco Republic Stall New Phoenix city employees will undergo more extensive police-and court-record -checks than in the past under a policy adcpted by City Manager Marvin Andrews. Andrews said the new screening practices are aimed at preventing the city from placing people with criminal backgrounds in certain jobs. He said the policy also involves current employees being moved to new departments and those being considered for "sensitive" positions. Andrews issued the policy statement to one department, moved to another and then was promoted to a position where he could order the drafting of checks to pay city bills.

City officials said they were aware that. Maisel bad served a. prison sentence for, Maricopa County drug offense. However, they said, they were not aware of an embezzlement conviction stemming from his involvement in a scheme to steal state funds while in prison on the drug charge. Information on the embezzlement conviction, however, was available at the Maricopa County Superior Court, across the street from City Hall.

Under the new policy, hiring supervisors will Hot item For-sale signs being placed on more tiny Arizona towns Tempe girl killed by car; 2 pupils hurt By Chuck Hawley Southeast Valley Bureau TEMPE A Tempe child was killed Wednesday morning on her way to school when she and two companions were struck by a car while crossing a street. Jenipher Haughton, 9, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gary Haughton, 615 E. Continental, was pronounced dead at Scottsdale Memorial Hospital about an hour after the accident at McAllister and E.

Continental Drive. Injured were Stacy Smith, 10, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Warren L. Smith, 611 E.

Continental, and Michael Kaehler, 11, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Kaehler, 609 E. Continental. The Smith girl received multiple internal injuries and was listed in By Marilyn Taylor Republic Staff Psssssst! Hey kid, ya wanna buy a town? Well, then, come on down! to Arizona, where buying and selling towns tiny as they may be appears to be the going thing.

It all started last month with the sale of Navajo, a town with a cafe, gas station, store and motel, bought for $600,000 by three couples in a Phoenix auction. Now there's a town-selling craze, according to Tony Serro, president and owner of First Realty Auction Sales the firm that handled the Navajo sale. "I guess it's just coming into vogue to sell towns," Serro said. "It's amazing how many people want to buy And sell them. Since his firm auctioned off Navajo, Serro said, he's received four or five calls from owners who want to put their property on the auction block.

The next town to be auctioned by Serro's firm is, well, a fake sort of town Apacheland, Serro says he's received other inquiries from movie producers, all of them "local." He said interest in Apacheland, where President Teddy Roosevelt supposedly helped build a rock fence, mind you, will be even greater than that in Navajo. That's saying something. Navajo drew interest from a protector of retired burlesque dancers, a famous football player, Wall Street investors and wealthy San Franciscans. Apacheland will be auctioned Jan. 24 at the La Posada Resort in Scottsdale.

And, then, next on the block is "Fort no, I don't think I'm going to say just yet," Serro said. "I think I'll wait. Just say right now that it's a fort in Arizona." The town-selling business is hopping so high that Serro says he hasn't had a chance to check out the other towns to decide whether he will auction them. "I don't care to say which towns they are right now," he said. "It's premature.

We can only sell one town at a time." nestled in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains. Apacheland used to be a movie set, most famous as the scene for President-elect Ronald Reagan's Death Valley Days series. Elvis Presley filmed a movie there; Richard Boone did, too. And remember the flurry of family Westerns like The Rifleman that came up in the mid-1960s? Some of them were shot at Apacheland. Now, it's a place with a bar, weekend shoot-outs and tourist mementos.

Sue Schilleman, a Valley broker, owns it, but she wants to sell it. The former owner, Martha Olson, also a Valley resident, "didn't do much with it," Ms. Schilleman said. "And I haven't done much with it either," she said. "I'm not a promoter." If it takes a promoter, aha! Serro said he talked to a possible buyer last week who represented a man who's gotten the name, lately, as one heck of a promoter Nelson Bunker Hunt, the man with the silver touch.

Jenipher Haughton serious condition at Scottsdale Me-; morial Hospital. Michael Kaehler was first taken to Tempe Community Hospital and then transferred to Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, where he was admitted with a broken leg and internal injuries. He was listed in good condition. Girl, B2 County zoning board to hear plan on hillside-building law the first acre plus 5 percent of each additional acre. All grading shall ensure that drainage discharge is disposed in the same location and manner as before grading.

The principal structure must screen the view of at least 75 percent of any slope cuts. Slope cuts cannot exceed the building height Hillside, B5 Former U-2 pilot killed as airplane crashes into field By Geoff Davidian Northeast Valley Bureau A man who once piloted a U-2 spy plane was killed Wednesday morning when the replica P-40 fighter he was testing failed to gain altitude after takeoff from Scottsdale Municipal Airport. Eugene J. O'Sullivan 47, a former Air Force major, died in the north Phoenix field where the plane crashed near 67th Street and Hearn as the craft was trying to limp back to the airport at about 7:38 a.m. The five-eighths replica of the World War II plane hit nose-first in a vacant area about three blocks from Sandpiper Elementary School.

O'Sullivan, of 17026 E. Monterey Drive, Fountain Hills, was testing the plane as a favor to Thunderbird Development Co. the manufacturer when he developed trouble shortly after takeoff, said friends who came to watch the flight. No one from Thunderbird was available for comment after the accident. Witnesses said the plane had trouble taking off and that O'Sullivan ran the plane to the end of the runway before becoming airborne.

He took off to the northeast but had trouble gaining altitude, witnesses said. O'Sullivan made a wide turn over the mountains and was turning sharply to try to come back into the airport from the southwest when the accident occurred. "One wing dipped, and then the whole plane went down," said Susan Ptak, a neighbor of By Phyllis Gillespie Republic Staff A public hearing on a proposed hillside-development ordinance, intended to preserve the integrity of the county's mountainous areas, will be held today by the Maricopa County Planning and Zoning Commission. Several representatives of homeowner associations have called the proposal too lenient, fearing it will have little or no affect in protecting hillside areas from overdevelopment. The proposed ordinance would restrict development where the slope is 15 percent or greater.

Don McDan-iel, county planning director, estimated this would include 5 to 7 percent of the privately owned land in the county. The ordinance would create a hillside "overlay" district allowing current zoning uses. The major provisions are: No development shall be allowed within 150 feet of significant peaks or ridge lines, which are yet to be designated. Structures shall not exceed 30 feet in height. The area graded, excluding the space needed for the principal structure, shall not exceed 20 percent of 0 Today Earl McCartney Republic crashed during a landing attempt.

O'Sullivan's shroud-draped body lies beside the Tigers Lines, an air-freight carrier, had been stationed in London. He flew a London-Saudi Arabia route for Seaboard World Airlines until that firm and Flying Tigers merged in October 1980. O'Sullivan had been piloting commercial planes since 1966 and had experience flying a CL-44, C-46, DC-8 and Boeing 747, said Joy Sobel, a Flying Tigers spokeswoman in Los Angeles. He was in Arizona between assignments, Ms. Sobel said.

O'Sullivan had flown combat missions during the Korean and Vietnam wars and had Pilot, B4 An investigator makes notes at the scene where Eugene J. O'Sullivan Jr. died when he O'Sullivan who watched the takeoff from the airport terminal. O'Sullivan was given a special commendation for "taking a U-2 to the edge of space," according to Roland Ptak, who read from several commendations on O'Sullivan's wall. "He was a very experienced pilot and was thrilled he was getting a chance to fly the P-40," Mrs.

Ptak said. Federal Aviation Administration officials at the scene said they were investigating the crash but offered few clues as to its cause. O'Sullivan, who was a DC-8 captain for Flying CODE REVISION House and Senate panels approve a bill to reorganize education laws. B3. RECORDS TAKEN Bank and other records are seized during a search at suspended Dairy Commissioner Debby Parenti's home.

B4. 133 WITNESSES LISTED Many well-known sports figures are among the possible witnesses in Kevin Rutledge's damage suit. B6. 1 1 1.