St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 3

MOMDAY, JANUARY, 31, 1972 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 3 A New Policy Will Limit Legal-Opinion Publicity MOT worn A Personal Opinion. Bv Jake McCarthy uuy of the Post-Dispatch Staff 3 i fitwmu mini win mmi iiiiwnTirrniiiiwiii ii mnii iirrtjSl'irmMiMMi i iwmJ By LOUIS J. ROSE Of the Post-Dispatch Staff A new policy adopted by City Counselor Robert W. Van Dillen will make it easier for city de-' partmental heads and other officials to suppress unfavorable legal opinions they receive.

The policy change provides that any opinion issued by Van Dillen's office cannot be made public without written approval by the official who requested it. An official could also withdraw an opinion after receiving it and thus in many cases effectively suppress it. This would be likely if the official had not previously -announced that he was requesting an opinion. In such instances, the public might never learn that an opinion had been requested and then withdrawn after it was issued. Questioned today, Van Dillen aid the new policy was adopted about mid-November after a number of departmental directors complained that legal opinions they had requested were being publicized in newspapers before they had a chance to receive and study them.

Under the policy, department heads have three working days from the time they are sent an opinion to decide whether WgMMajglB8SMWt lllillllMII II GOT ANOTHER KING: Jack HE'S finds that a thumb to the nose Marks DID I DO THAT? Louis Van Deven seems apprehensive about his opponent's last move in yesterday's tournament. (Post-Dispatch Photos by Steve Perille) ert W. Duffe, executive assistant to Mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes, before being adopted by the city counselor's office. In the past, Van Dillen said, officials who requested opinions always had the option of withdrawing the opinions within one day He said that the new plan merely gave a department head more ti to study an opinion and decide on a course of action.

He said he doubted that the new policy would tend to increase the likelihood of unfavorable legal opinions being suppressed. "In most cases," he said, "the department head normally makes a press release when he asks for an opinion, so there is no secret about it." He acknowledged, however, that such an announcement was not required. There have been many instances when reporters first learned of a legal opinion after its release by Van Dillen's office. In those instances where an opinion is issued and then withdrawn by the official who requested it, the document is destroyed by Van Dillen's office. "It is as if the opinion never existed and never was requested," the city counselor declared.

He said, however, he believed that if an opinion was accepted by an official, the official could not then refuse to disclose its contents. "Even though my own office might not be able to release it, the opinion would be a public record and I think the official who received it would have to North, South Sections Because of a production adjustment, the North and South Community News Sections will be printed in Tuesday's Post-Dispatch rather than helps his concentration in checkers tournament at- the Stadium Motor Hotel. disclose it," Van Dillen explained. He said department heads would be taking a legal risk if they pursued a course of action that was contrary to advice given in an opinion they requested and then withdrew. Van Dillen has been employed by the city Law Department since lflfi3 and was appointed rtiy counselor in July 1969 by Cervantes.

He is a former assistant prosecuting attorney. Several city officials said that frequently legal opinions were withdrawn because the issue had become moot. They said also that a department might want a court test of an issue and thus would not want the Law Department, which must represent it, to have on file a legal opinion contrary to the department's position on the subject. Police Board Control Defended By King State Representative R. J.

(Bus) King, of Clayton, yesterday defended state control Pt the appointment of members of the city's Board of Police Commissioners. "I can remember the days when the Kansas City Police Department was under local control," said King, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor. "It wis a national disgrace. But if the Governor appoints someone to the police board, he should tell tliRt person to answer to the problems of the city." King spoke tn the Greater St. Louis Up-To-Dater's Club, a grouo of black women, at the Chase Park-Plaza Hotel.

King said the Government should provide equal orjportuni-ties for minority groups. "Too often, the Government itself can't create jobs," he said. "But one thing the state government can do is take advantage of all Federal money to provide opportunities for people to rn into business and create job training programs." Checker Tourney Not Jumping A Dreamer Who Refused To Quit WHEN MAX STARKLOFF speaks, you can hear the power in his voice and his strength shows in his eyes. He is a big and ruggedly handsome man of 33. When Max Starkloff slumps in his chair, you can feel his sense of helplessness, You could Max Starkloff's dreams ended 12 years ago when his car flipped on a gravel road and the accident severed his spinal cord.

But if you met him you'd know he had built new dreams because he decided not to quit. He has no power over his body below the neck. He's confined to a wheelchair and is called officially a quadra-plegic. He calls himself "disabled." If there's any bitterness in him, it doesn't show. His new dream is to build a St.

Louis housing development for the disabled something that's never been done in America. As we sat talking the other day I got the feeling he'll succeed. An old friend of his told me some things the other day that Max doesn't say about himself: About hew as a student his good looks and virility charmed the girls he dated. How he was a judo instructor 'in the Marine Corps. How he drove racing cars and had a successful day of racing the same day things changed for him at the age of 21.

Max Starkloff does say that he stayed at home for four years after the accident but discovered it wasn't good for him. "I think probably the worst thing for a disabled person is to stay home. The temptation is to give up, to become terribly dependent on the care of your family." INSTEAD HE MOVED to St. Joseph's Hill Infirmary in Eureka in 1963, and learned to paint by holding the brush in his mouth. His paintings have been shown at several galleries in the area.

Now his new dream is taking form. "I believe disabled people should be able to live in an environment that challenges their capabilities. I don't want to spend my life living in an institution." The main problem for disabled persons, he says quite frankly, is "the question of security. I know if I'm by myself and I fall, I can't help myself." The apartment development, specially designed for the disabled, would include commercial shops where the disabled could work, and apartments for able-bodied persons who would also serve as a kind of security resource for the disabled. "Not nursing care," Max says, "but help to neighbors in an emergency.

The same as if your neighbor asked if he could borrow a cup of sugar." WORKING WITH MAX Starkloff on his project is a team of experts who believe in its possibilities. "There have been no less than 30 attempts around the country to develop this kind of thing," architect Laurent Torno says. "But they've never really materialized maybe because nobody ever went about it in the right way." Max himself talks about how the disabled disappear from society. "You'll see an item in the paper that says an accident victim is in critical condition. If it's a spinal injury, the world never hears of him again.

"We want to find the disabled who want to live a human life without self-pity or the pity of others, or the doting of well-meaning relatives, or the loneliness and desperation of being out of the mainstream." That's the kind of dream Max Starkloff never lost. they will authorize its release to the press and public. If they do not respond within three days, Van Dillen said, the opinion is automatically released. Previously, Van Dillens' office made the opinions public 24 hours after they were sent to the officials who requested them. Van Dillen said the only new provision in the policy was extension of the release time to three days.

"Everything else was simply putting in writing the policy that has been in effect for 50 years," he said. "We formalized the rule in writing at the request of the department heads. It was simply an accommodation to them. The Law Department did not initiate it. The new policy was put in effect at the request of the department heads and the players would arrive.

It was like waiting for the next issue of the old Saturday Evening Post. There was William E. Carlin, who has played the game for more than half a century, repeating, "Maybe they (other players) got Some of them are coming from faraway places. They'll be here any minute now." Louis Van Deven, 52 years old, who is playing three Russians, three Hollanders and one Australian through the mail, said checkers was declining because it was not a spectacular game. "I don't think people like to sit and think," he said.

"They enjoy the more active and violent sports." Van Deven and Carlin are depending on men such as Jack Marks to help revive the game. Marks, mathematics teacher at Lincoln High School, East St. ones we've had In years," Carlin said. "When the railroads were running, you could always find someone to play checkers with. But that was years ago.

"We'd have some of the best players in the country here to give exhibition games," he said. "Thirty years ago, we'd have about 80 players in a tournament like thin. "Some of the players must have gotten lost on their way here." "i Perhaps so. Although the Stadium Motor Hotel, where the tournament is being held, sits conspicuously at 201 South Twentieth Street, there is no sign that indicates the building is a hotel, or welcomes the players in the tournament. "I'd give the game another1 75 years," Van Deven was saying after a match.

"The problem is there are too many old players and not enough young ones." The tournament will continue for the next four Sundays. Bv ROBERT L. JOINER Of the Post-Dispatch Staff They were mostly old men, worried that theirs might be the last generation of serious checker players. The attendance of only about a dozen of them, including spectators, at the opening yesterday of what they called the city checker championship tournament appeared to support their feeling. It is difficult to attract young blood to the game of checkers, the men say, because today's youth is too restless to sit and move the round, wooden pieces across checker boards.

The men know also that checkers never will reach the diplomatic stature of table tennis; and that the best among them, including their national match champion, Walter Hell-man, never will command the news coverage and audience of Bobby Fischer, the famous chess player. But there was a nostalgic air about the tournament, a stubborn refusal by most of the men to admit that the game they love so well was slowly fading away. The men are an optimistic lot. Even as the first day of the tournament was coming to a close, they were hoping more people who have been asking for opinions." Van Dillen said that the policy was co-ordinated with Rob 4 A- Louis, has formed a checker club at the school. Carlin, dressed in a baggy beige suit and an open-collar white shirt, was pleased that Marks brought three student members of the high school club to the tournament.

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