Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 10

mm i OBITUARIES B8 i SUNDAY APRIL 26, 1992 esMatnire diokinas on! Its Mil-writing excess VALLEY STAT- Many lawmakers upset as session passes deadline WILLEY: A letter to Legislature's leaders, B2 form, health care and prison crowding. She pointed out that things were moving at a snail's pace. Her implication: The Senate is at fault. But the real issue appears to be a failure of leadership. Tuesday was a late date to take a stand.

The session started Jan. 13. Hull also criticized the Senate for the use of "strike everything" amendments. Under this procedure, the language of an unimportant, bill, called a vehicle, is removed and the wording of another measure is substituted. It is a method to resurrect dead legislation.

But the House is not without sin. Only one day before Hull's angry better, a bill to protect greyhounds from inhumane treatment was resurrected on a striker and passed by the House Licensing, Professions and Tourism Committee. The bill, which many members consider pointless, already had died twice. See LEGISLATURE, page B9 Now it appears to have reached a crisis point. Under its own rules, the Legislature was supposed to have left town Saturday, which was the Saturday after its 100th day in session.

That's a joke, and has been for years. The Legislature hasn't made the deadline since 1982. Every year, members overwhelm themselves and The spat between House Speaker Jane -Hull, a north-central Phoenix Republican, and Senate President Pete Rios, D-Hayden, was cloaked in partisan garb. But it really is not partisan at all. The Legislature is near gridlock.

It is choking on more than 1,500 bills. And many members, perhaps a majority, are fed up. This problem has grown for years. News Analysis By Ed Foster The Arizona Republic By Friday, tempers appeared to have cooled at the state Legislature Lafter- angry letters were exchanged between Republican and Democratic leaders. But the fact remains that this is an organization with big problems.

their colleagues with legislation, much of it dealing with minor matters. Meanwhile, harried members cannot give important issues the attention they deserve. In a letter to Rios, sent Tuesday, Hull listed eight issues that need attention, including public-school re Jf Members of the Arizona Civil War Council (right) fire muskets to honor Confederate soldiers buried at Greenwood Memorial Park in Phoenix. One of those honored Saturday was EmilGanz (below), who was one of Phoenix's first mayors in the late 1890s. There are 13 rebel veterans buried in the cemetery.

Robert Perkins (below, right), commander of the local Col. Sherod Hunter Camp of the Confederate Sons of Veterans, marked their graves with Confederate flags. i i I.H.- li --Clo Photos by Tom StoryThe Arizona Republic i I Dallas savior still has line to Keating Tied to indebted sons-in-law By Jerry Kammer The Arizona Republic Charles Keating Jr. got into plenty of jams during his ill-fated stewardship of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, and he frequently turned to Dallas financier Gene Phillips for help. When Keating got into trouble with regulators over a deal involving a Detroit hotel, Phillips rode to the rescue with a $35 million loan.

When Keating needed to sell land southwest of Phoenix, Phillips approved a $24 million deal. Now, as Keating serves a 10-year California prison sentence for securities fraud and says he is broke, Phillips quietly is helping once again. The connection is two Keating sons-in-law, Bradley Boland and Thomas Mulhern, who last September established Boland, Mulhern Associates a Tempe-based property-management company. In a sworn statement filed last December with the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Keating said he is $5 million in the hole, largely because of $6 million in loans to Boland, Mulhern and two other sons-in-law.

The loans are "uncollectible," Keating reported, because the four sons-in-law are "insolvent." Now Boland, Mulhern Associates is working for Phillips, a controversial financier who has shown a remarkable ability to prosper even after guiding highflying business ventures to ruin. Phillips, former chairman of the Southmark a Dallas-based real-estate and investment company, is still in business with William Friedman, a longtime partner and former Southmark vice chairman, despite some serious setbacks: In 1989, angry Southmark shareholders, accusing the two of running the $9 billion company like a fiefdom, forced them to resign several months before Southmark staggered to the protection of U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Federal regulators who in 1990 seized Southmark's thrift subsidiary, San Jacinto Savings of Houston, say it was ruined by their high-rolling real-estate investments. They are defendants in a raft of lawsuits charging that they misled investors with bogus claims of prosperity.

And their dealings at Southmark, including their ties to Keating, are being investigated by the FBI. Today, Phillips and Friedman control National Realty L.P., a publicly traded limited partnership that they received from Southmark as part of a severance agreement. See KEATINC'S, page B6 Mayor's proposal on minors, guns spurs hot debate By M.E. Saavedra The Arizona Republic Eliseo, 14, who wears a rosary around his neck and says he is in a central Phoenix gang, thought for a minute about a proposal by Mayor Paul Johnson to ban minors from carrying guns within city limits. "I don't know who this guy is, but we're still going to be able to get guns," said Eliseo, who asked that his last name not be used.

"Why should you be walking down the street, and (if) somebody shoots you, what are you going to do? Just stand there? You're going to shoot back." With that, Eliseo joined the debate over Johnson's proposal, aimed at giving police additional leverage in combating youth- and gang-related violence. The proposal has drawn praise from police, neighborhood activists and school officials, but opposition from gun enthusiasts and civil libertarians. Johnson announced the proposal Tuesday, three days after a shooting spree at a crowded skating rink in east Phoenix left two people dead. Johnson said the city has sustained enough mayhem at the hands of armed juveniles. The proposed ordinance would prohibit anyone under 18 from carrying a firearm in public unless a parent were present or had given written consent.

Police officers would be able to seize offenders' guns, and offenders could be incarcerated at a juvenile-detention facility for as long as six months. Under state law, someone must be 18 or older to buy a rifle or shotgun, and 21 or older to buy a handgun. The law does not prohibit minors from carrying weapons-1 openly. Although Johnson acknowledged that his ordinance would not eliminate the city's problems with youth-related crimes, police welcomed it as a tool to combat gang and other illegal activity. See MAYOR'S, pageB8 V- fijjr H1JJLUJ 'W 1 MimiiliilHI'TI BOUND Sk 1,1 If For LORY I v.

Confederate soldiers are honored in ceremony at Phoenix cemetery "To these people, the Confederate banner represents the evil of human bondage, while the Union flag is seen as the banner of freedom," said Robert Perkins, commander of the local Col. Sherod Hunter Camp of the Confederate Sons of Veterans. "The truth, of course, is vastly different." The South did not take up arms against the North because of slavery, but to win secession rights from an exploitative federal government, Perkins said. He compared the Confederate cause to that of the colonists in the American Revolution. Saturday's event was held to praise the valor of Confederate soldiers and the contributions they made to the country after the war, Perkins said.

Civil War enthusiasts have identified 90 Confederate veterans buried in Arizona and expect to find many more. Among the 13 interred at Greenwood was Emil Ganz, one of Phoenix's first mayors in the late 1890s. "Nothing can ever stain the glory which they have won through their gallant sacrifices, and this glory loses none of its luster because the cause for which these men fought went down to defeat," Perkins said. Robert Wilbanks IV of Phoenix, lieutenant commander of the Hunter Camp and whose ancestors owned slaves, said he belongs to the group partly because he has a deep respect for the Old South's rural ways. "I personally am very proud of my Southern heritage," he said.

"(But) we are not a racist organization. I am personally glad the way it turned out." By David Fritze The Arizona Republic In cemetery after cemetery, the soldiers of the Confederacy keep turning up, the memory of their struggles reclaimed from the grave by Arizona hobbyists. On Saturday, the latest 13 veterans to be discovered were honored in a ceremony at Greenwood Memorial Park, 23rd Avenue and Van Buren Street. And befitting the occasion, the picture seemed to belong in the 19th century, in the heart of the Old South. The women were dressed in veils and hoop skirts, some With bloomers hidden underneath.

The men were decked out in Confederate gray, sporting rebel caps, wool uniforms and muskets. The only red badge of courage to be earned was a sunburn. But despite the' heat, the Phoenix branch of the Sons of Confederate Veterans stood tall in bringing off its first event. There were speeches eulogizing the bravery and mettle of Confederate soldiers, and the freedom and causes they fought for. Many in the crowd of about 50 claimed ancestors who fought in the Civil War, on both Confederate and Union sides.

A color guard displayed Confederate flags as well as a U.S. flag, and members of the Arizona Civil War Council fired muskets and a cannon. After saying the Pledge of Allegiance, everyone paused as one man read a salute to the Confederate flag, promising "affection, reverence and undying devotion to the cause for which it stands." The participants were well aware that some may find their devotion to a dead, slave-holding institution rather strange,.