The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 22

The Beacon Journal B3 Monday, July 23, 1990 REGION AND STATE Amendments could change filling of council vacancies By Marilyn Millar Roane Beacon Journal staff writer Two Akron council members will introduce legislation tonight that would affect council terms and how vacancies are filled. Robert Otterman, D-at large, wants precinct committee members for political parties to fill midterm vacancies. "I want to put the vote back into the hands of the grass-roots people," Otterman said. "They are elected in their neighborhood and should know people in their ward and would have a better handle on who would better serve on council." Currently, council members fill vacancies created by a death or a resignation. Otterman said there have been many bitter feelings among council members during the selection process in the past.

He said his legislation "cuts out the politicking within council." would make the appointment. There are 244 precinct committee members for each party in the city's 10 wards, with an average of 24 per ward. Under a proposal by Councilman John Valle, D-at large, the terms of ward councilmen would be extended from two years to four. Valle said that with two-year terms, by the time a council member learns the job, it's time to campaign again. Valle said he doesn't think council members are as effective as they could be because of that two-year limitation.

"You tend to put your constituents on the back burner during an election year, I'm convinced of that," said Valle, who served three two-year terms as Ward 1 councilman. Valle said he has nothing to gain from the proposal. "I'm already seated for four years," he said. John Valle Robert Otterman Precinct committee members for the party of the departing council member would have five to 15 days to fill the vacancy. If they fail to act, the council would have 30 days to name a replacement.

If the council does not act, the mayor 1 dies, 4 injured in Wayne accident A woman was killed and four other people were injured in a two-car accident Saturday night in Milton Township in Wayne County. Janice A. Copley, 32, of South First Street in Rlttman, died in the 11:05 p.m. crash at Sterling and Miller roads west of Rittman, the Ohio Highway Patrol said. Each car had four occupants.

Ms. Copley was a passenger in a car driven by Leslie C. Beichler, 42, of Wadsworth, who was released after treatment at Wooster Community Hospital. His other passengers were Les Archer, 37, of Doylestown, who was in good condition Sunday night at Akron General Medical Center, and Crystal E. Thomson, 32, of Rittman, who was flown to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, where she was in critical condition.

Only one person was injured in the other car. Nicole L. Bireman, 15, of Sterling, was treated at Wooster Community and released. The driver, Edie M. McKenzie, 18, and two other passengers, Christopher C.

Lance, 19, and William L. Hunt, 19, all of Sterling, were not injured, the patrol said. The patrol said Ms. McKenzie was northbound on Miller road and failed to yield the right of way at the intersection and struck the Beichler car, which was eastbound on Sterling Road. Beichler's car spun around in the roadway and overturned, ending up in a ditch, the patrol said.

No charges have been filed pending completion of the investigation. BOATERS MISSING: The Coast Guard searched for two men Sunday after an empty boat was found drifting in Lake Erie just west of Geneva-on-the-Lake in Ashtabula County. A spokesman said the men were reported missing about 3:30 p.m. Their names were not released. They were in a 16- to 18-foot boat.

There were numerous reports of life jackets seen in the water, but those reports were not confirmed, the spokesman said. The missing men had become separated from a another group in a second craft. Waves were 2 to 4 feet. The search was being conducted by Coast Guard boats from Ashtabula and Fairport Harbor and a Coast Guard helicopter from Detroit. 2 CANTON TEENS KILLED IN WOOSTER: Two people killed Saturday in an auto accident in Wooster have been identified by police as Angela Richards, 18, and William Knowles, 15, both of Canton.

Injured in the accident were James Bowen, 15, of Magnolia and Darryl Williams, 21, of Fort Lee, who are listed in fair condition at Wooster Community Hospital. Police said the accident occurred on East Highland Avenue when a car carrying the four failed to turn a curve properly and went off the road into a ravine. The accident apparently happened sometime after midnight, police said, but the car was not found until about 10 a.m. Saturday. The accident remains under investigation.

iiwiiiiwiuviliiliaii uww- owwnw'i i pifiiuuMij mimmm-mmsmmmmmmii mjmmmmmmm. is mmmmmw i IN OHIO "i it Beacon Journal photoTad Wads Laurette Bradnick keeps op her longtime volunteer work at Barberton Citizens Hospital Mayor's spouse a wife in fast lane CAMPAIGNS AND CONTRACTS: Accountants who do work for the state auditor's office have contributed nearly $85,000 to the Democratic re-election campaign of Auditor Thomas E. Ferguson, the Plain Dealer reported Sunday. The newspaper said accountants had made nearly 400 political contributions to Ferguson since January 1989. According to the paper, its check of several dozen contracts awarded by Ferguson's office showed that in all cases the individual or firm hired to help with government auditing work had contributed to the Ferguson campaign.

The paper also said it had obtained a letter from an accountant-contributor who complained to Ferguson that his firm wasn't getting enough government work. Ferguson denied contributors were rewarded with auditing contracts. KINGS ISLAND EMPLOYEE INJURED: A Kings Island employee was in serious but stable condition at a nearby hospital recuperating from a ride accident Thursday after the park had closed. Kenneth Parker, 18, of Cincinnati, was in the intensive care unit Saturday night. Parker, a worker on the King Cobra ride, was struck by the wheel housing of a passing car "while standing adjacent to the track as he was searching for a guest's lost article," said park spokesman Dan Cahill.

He said the ride did not malfunction. PASSENGER SLAIN: A Hamilton, Ohio, man was being held in the Butler County Jail on aggravated murder charges Sunday after a passenger in his car was found stabbed to death. Hamilton police arrested Richard O. Clark, for whom no age or address was available, after they found him pushing his car. When police looked inside, they found a man in the passenger seat dead of multiple stab wounds to the chest.

Information on the victim was being withheld pending notification of his family. RINEHART WON'T RUN: Columbus Mayor Dana Rine-hart will not seek election to a third term, but isn't sure what he'll do instead, the Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday. Rinehart, a Republican, says he plans to serve the remaining 17 months of his term but will not run again. Rinehart told Cabinet members on Friday he is planning to leave, but did not make the news public until the Dispatch interview and a Sunday afternoon news conference. Rinehart said he made his decision in May.

By announcing it now, he said, the Republican Party will have plenty of time to find its strongest candidate to replace him. Rinehart told the newspaper that he based his decision on family, financial and political factors. berton neighborhoods. At home, city business and politics frequently crop up in the conversation, but Mrs. Bradnick (who's known as Larry around the house) is careful to note that she does not interfere in city business.

"I know I'm visible, but it doesn't mean I tell Art what to do," she said, noting that she enjoys playing devil's advocate with her husband. The mayor's term is up next year. All signs point to another campaign. If the mayor gives thumbs up to another four years in office, Mrs. Bradnick says shell be right there even though they will be in their 70s by the end of a second term.

"As long as Art feels he is making a difference and doing well for the city, he'll go for it," she said. "As long as our health holds out, age is just a number." to college. (Both she and her are Pittsburgh natives; she and Bradnick, a friend of her brother, Paul, met in eighth grade but didn't date until Bradnick returned from World War II.) As a political wife, she could relate to Mrs. Bush's troubles this spring when Wellesley students protested the first lady's selection as a commencement speaker on grounds that Mrs. Bush was trading on her husband's accomplishments.

To Mrs. Bradnick, the women's movement gave a woman the right to choose what she wanted. "If that's what she chose (a supporting role), I think that makes her as important as the gal that's president of the world or a company," she said. Beaver Cleaver would feel right at home at the couple's modest Cape Cod home on East Ford Avenue, in one of the nicer Bar Continued from page Bl er, not a queen." It's not unusual to find the couple out and about three or four days a week tapping their toes to the sounds of the Glenn Miller Orchestra at Lake Anna; slow dancing (their favorite) at the hospital's annual ball for Barberton debutantes; or marching in Reeboks at a parade. Nor are the Bradnicks strangers at performances of the city's Magical Theatre Company they often attend with their three grandchildren in tow.

"We do the things that we enjoy," she said. "If we didn't, we wouldn't do them." On a women's liberation scale, the diminutive Mrs. Bradnick rates herself closer to fellow Republican Barbara Bush than to Betty Friedan. She said she was never bored as a housewife and never regretted working on the war effort rather than going Voinovich tax man got city contract Candidate says he took no part in Cleveland selection Associated Press WORTH NOTING more involved than the law requires. But he also said Voinovich has proposed eliminating nearly all no-bid state contracting, including contracts for professional services.

Cynthia Rich, comptroller for the department of Port Control, which runs the airport, said she didn't recall who recommended that Panichi's firm be included among those asked to submit proposals. City records show Ciuni Panichi received the contract even though it had not submitted the lowest bid. But former Director of Port Control Jacqueline Shuck suggested in an Aug. 27, 1986, memo that the contract be given to the firm because it "received the highest technical ranking and is particularly well-suited to perform this audit group." rector of the Ohio Ethics Commission, said the commission has never addressed the issue of the relationship of a candidate and his campaign treasurer. Voinovich has never had a business relationship with Panichi's accounting firm, according to Curt Steiner, a spokesman for the Voinovich campaign.

"It's fundamentally a positive story, because what it shows is that even a close friend had to go through a stringent, competitive process to receive any city work," Steiner said on Sunday. Because the work Panichi's firm did for the city was considered a professional service, bids were not required. But records show the city sought proposals from nine other firms before awarding the contract. Steiner said the process was does tax returns for Voinovich and his wife, Janet. Voinovich said he was never involved in the decisions to give Panichi city contracts, but admitted his top aides had been involved.

"I never paid any attention to who got contracts," Voinovich said. "Absolutely never got into it." Panichi's accounting partner, Charles M. Ciuni, said, "We certainly don't believe there was any conflict of interest with any of the work we did." State conflict of interest laws forbid a public official to "authorize, or employ the authority or influence of his office to secure authorization of any public contract in which any of his business associates has an interest." David E. Freel, associated di EPA HEARING IN WOOSTER: The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public meeting Aug. 2 on plans to clean up a contaminated aquifer and soil in Wooster.

The meeting will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in Room 105 in Scovel Hall at the College of Wooster. Wooster Manufacturing a division of Regal Ware recently signed an agree-. ment with the EPA to investigate the extent of pollution and to assess cleanup options at 770 Spruce St. The contamination, discovered in 1983, spread through the ground water to the city's south well field.

The well is no longer used, although equipment has been installed to treat the water. Tests have shown levels of trichloroethylene, a probable human cancer-causing substance. It was used as a degreaser and cleaning agent. The investigation is expected to take up to two years. Republican gubernatorial candidate George Voinovich's personal tax accountant received $73,290 in city auditing contracts while Voinovich served as Cleveland's mayor, the Plain Dealer reported Sunday.

The newspaper said Vincent Panichi, a partner in the Beach-wood accounting firm of Ciuni Panichi, did contract auditing work for Cleveland City Hall between 1981 and 1986. Voinovich served as Cleveland mayor from 1979-89. In 1986, Panichi received a $33,000 contract to audit concessions at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Panichi now serves as secretary-treasurer of Voinovich's campaign for governor and has held similar positions in earlier Voinovich campaigns. He also CRIME WATCH Severe thunderstorms drench most of Ohio Here are some of the incidents reported to Akron police over the weekend: VANDALISM A club was used to do $1,000 in damage to a 1985 Subaru parked at Sterling and Allyn streets.

The damage included broken taillights and dented fenders and a front bumper. BURGLARY Fifty to 60 new truck tires of various sizes were stolen in a break-In at CTS Tire Supply, 1016 Triplett Blvd. The loss was set at between $15,000 and $18,000. Sixty-three cartons of cigarettes and candy and snack food with a total value of $1,056 were taken in a break-in at North Hill Carryout, 438 E. Tallmadge Ave.

A radar detector, a 35mm camera and surgical instruments with a total value of $5, 100 were stolen from a doctor's car in the garage of a home in the 1200 block of Weathervane Lane. Fishing gear, a shotgun and jewelry with a total value of $1,150 were stolen from a home in the first block of West York Street. THEFT Lawn furniture valued at $150 was stolen from the back porch of a home in the 700 block of Grifton Avenue. A stereo valued at $400 was stolen from a car at Brenneman Boulevard and Summit Street. Tools and a tool chest valued at $575 were stolen from the garage of a home In the 800 block of Minota Street.

Someone stole $400 in cash from an apartment In the 400 block of Carroll Street. A leather jacket and a gold wedding band with a total value of $350 were stolen from an apartment in the 200 block of Arch Street. No tornado touched down but heavy rains forced postponement of the tournament's final round until today. Activities at the United States Air and Trade Show at the Dayton International Airport in Van-dalia were delayed by bad weather Sunday afternoon. A storm at the show Friday night damaged two aircraft and several displays and injured five people.

seconds and do very little damage," Eckert said. Flood watches and warnings were issued Sunday as a line of storms swept across Ohio. At the Phar-Mor women's golf tournament in Vienna, near Youngstown, about 400 people took shelter in the clubhouse basement at Squaw Creek Country Club after reports of a funnel cloud in the area. Mike Eckert, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Cleveland, said radar did not indicate any strong thunderstorms anywhere in Ohio, and a tornado warning was not issued for Niles. While twisters are usually associated with strong thunderstorms, it is possible for smaller, less severe tornadoes to form in light rain, Eckert said.

"Usually they last only a few Continuedfrom page Bl ed in July at the airport. Normal July rainfall is 3.92 inches. Rainfall for the year is now about 32 inches, about 10 inches above normal. The weather service said there's a 40 percent chance of rain today but only a 20 percent chance tonight and Tuesday. Fair skies are predicted for Wednesday and Thursday..