Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 21

METROPOLITAN Classified 5-12 Happenings 12 Wednesday, September 6, 1995 Albuquerque Journal Page 1, Section JIM BELSHAW Comity May Foot Legal Fees Manager, Lobbyist See Contracts Renewed costs. Padilla has not returned several telephone calls seeking comment on how much the bills total. Padilla was represented by attorney Tim Padilla, who also recently represented Commission Chairman Al Valdez on a charge of driving while intoxicated. Valdez was found guilty but is appealing the conviction, his third for DWI. Padilla's co-defendant, Joseph Greer, who also was acquitted in 1994, also could apply for the county to pay his legal bills.

Greer still works in the county Treasurer's Office, and the amount of his legal bills wasn't available Tuesday. Under the resolution, the claim would be sent to an arbitrator, who could settle the matter if the amount is less than $40,000. If the amount is higher, it must be approved by the commission in a public vote. Chavez said the amounts paid under $40,000 would be made public also. Chavez also said public entities throughout the nation have variations of this policy.

However, the Attorney General's opinion says some governments expressly prohibit paying the legal bills even if the defendant is found innocent. Commission Lays Out Criteria for Repayment By Michelle Melendez Journal Staff Writer The Bernalillo County Commission laid the groundwork Tuesday for taxpayers to cover the legal bills of former Treasurer Patrick Padilla. Padilla, who was acquitted of charges last year stemming from an investment controversy when he was in office, asked the commission in March to pay his attorney's fees. Commissioners voted 4-1 to pass a resolution that lays out criteria that must be met before the county will pay an employee's or elected official's criminal defense costs. The charges must arise from the discharge of official duties, the person must have been acting in good faith when the alleged crime occurred, and the person must be found innocent or the charges dismissed.

County Commissioner Gene Gilbert, the resolution's sponsor, said it will be a "rare circumstance" for the county to pay the legal bills of one of its employees or elected officials. New location for The Bernalillo County Commission renewed the contracts of County Manager Juan Vigil and lobbyist Odis Echols on Tuesday as expected. The commission voted 4-0 with Commissioner Ken Sanchez abstaining to approve a two-year contract with Vigil, who beat out two contenders to keep his job. Sanchez didn't explain his not voting. The other applicants were Ralph Sigala and Michael Ciesielski, who were "A lot of times, they are doing the job they are being asked to do and they are falsely accused (of wrongdoing)," Gilbert said.

The commissioners who voted for the resolution said the policy is long overdue and provides protection to public employees and elected officials against "oppressive legal fees." The lone vote against the measure was cast by Commissioner Barbara Seward, who said she objects to government being responsible for the legal defense of someone accused of a crime when a grand jury lessons interviewed for the position last month. The commission voted 5-0 to renew the contract with Echols. Sanchez made a motion to reduce Echols' raise from 10 percent to 5 percent, which is what most county employees got this year. But the commission left both Echols' and Vigil's raises up to the two men and county to negotiate at a later date. Michelle Melendez finds reason to prosecute.

"What if the charges are dismissed due to a time limitation or other technicality?" Seward asked. "It's going to be difficult to tell whether they were acting in good faith." The criteria included in the resolution were set out in a 1985 Attorney General's opinion that said governments could establish such policies. County Attorney Tito Chavez said the resolution is retroactive and Padilla can apply to the county for money to pay his legal Jonathan's father and representative of his estate, his mother, Betty Francia, and two brothers, Larry Jr. and Christopher. Named as defendants were JB's Restaurant Inc.

and Outrigger Lodging Services doing business as Plaza Inn and believed to be owner of the premises on which JB's was located. Attorneys for the defendants could not be located for comment late Tuesday. Gilman said he did not know who the defendants'lawyers are and had had no contact with anyone representing them. The suit alleges that despite JB's location near a freeway, its parking lot had no security provisions such as lighting near the employee door where Jonathan had parked while his friend went inside. It accuses the defendants of negligence and "reckless, careless and wanton disregard for the life of Jonathan Francia" and seeks unspecified amounts of compensatory, punitive and special damages.

Paul Daniel Richardson, 27, was arrested in connection with Jonathan's death but hanged himself two days later in a Flagstaff jail cell. He died Feb. 11, 1994. Jason, another man sought in connection with the slaying, was never found. Richardson's widow, Trena, was indicted, but an Arizona judge dismissed the charges.

Of the Journal Do We Need More Favors? id Mark Fuhrman do us any I favors? Did he accidentally make us look at ourselves differently? More honestly, maybe? For those of you unable to turn off the Home Shopping Network for the past year, we can dispense with Mark Fuhrman's background quickly. He is the Los Angeles police detective of O.J. Simpson infamy who slithered out of an L.A. tar pit long enough to deny under oath that he used the N-word, then was proven to have used it repeatedly. The N-word, as it was referred to by news media outlets of tender sensibilities, was "nigger." If that word makes you flinch, that's good.

It should. It is toxic. It kills the soul. Its two corrosive syllables carry lethal doses of poison. "It is an abominable word," Fannye Irving-Gibbs says.

"When my children were growing up, I did not permit anyone to use it in my home." I She is 81 years old and well-known in the Albuquerque community. She is an inveterate volunteer, the recipient of the national Black American Heritage Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Community Leadership Award from the National Society of Black Engineers and too many others to list here. "It doesn't surprise me in the least (that Fuhrman used the word), but what bothers me more is the attitude that comes with it," she says. "We are categorized. All groups of people are to a certain degree.

African-Americans are confronted with these things daily. I truly don't believe there is an African-American anywhere who can say he has not been confronted in some way." And she tells the story of a young Black woman accused by a store owner of shoplifting. She carried a bag similar to one sold in the store. "He had the nerve to touch her and ask if she paid for the bag," she said. "It's demeaning.

It makes me angry." And she tells the story of a Black woman in her 80s who finds that White women tend to clutch their purses a little more tightly or move them closer to their laps when the old Black woman sits close by. She speaks, of course, about herself, and her laughter is like a song when I suggest she probably no longer has enough speed to be a successful purse snatcher. "Maybe he's (Fuhrman) done us a favor," she says. "So many people don't really look at what's going on in the world. He might have done us a great favor to make people sit up and pay attention and look at the world as it is.

Maybe look at themselves, too." Don Perkins doesn't think so. "I don't think he did the country a favor," he says. "I think people know these attitudes are there. We try to pretend we're a melting pot and in fact we're not." He is 57 years old, a crime prevention specialist with the Albuquerque Police Department, a former All-American football player at UNM, all-pro with the Dallas Cowboys, a member of the Ring of Honor at Texas Stadium. And when he shops in Albuquerque, he is followed by suspicious clerks.

"I don't know if it would hurt more to be called a nigger than to walk in a store and be tailed by a clerk," he says. "I am the pariah of our society a dark-skinned African-American male." When he goes out into neighborhoods on job with APD, he wears a suit and a tie. He jokingly says it might be more helpful he wore his old Cowboy jersey. The star Don Perkins is welcomed 'differently from the Black male not wearing a football hero's uniform, even if he's substituted a suit and a tie. "You get called out to meet somebody and you go to the house and ring the bell and you know they're home because you see the blinds move when they peek out," he says.

"And you know the door's not going to open. So now I break the ice for them before I leave the office. I tell them to be looking for an African-American." He laughs and says one of the challenges wearing a tuxedo and being the guest 'speaker at a banquet is making it to the head table without someone sticking luggage in his hand and asking directions, Then he says it's not all that funny. "It can be very painful," he says. "Sometimes I think I get a macabre sense power knowing that there are so many 'people who don't know you and never will know you and they're scared to death of you.

People see color. They see it heavy." So, did Mark Fuhrman do us any favors? I don't know. I want to think he did. But then I see the news from Virginia. In Richmond, someone distributed fliers in a neighborhood near the site of statue that will honor Arthur Ashe, a man of integrity and principle.

The fliers call him "an AIDS-infected nigger." I don't know how many more favors we can stand. -v ADOLPHE PIERRE-LOUISJOURNAL Albuquerque Technical-Vocational Institute kept busy expanding over the summer, Including adding a South Valley campus at the site of the old PaJarJto Elementary School, 5816 Isleta SW. Eugenia Lott taught a Spanish class at the new campus, which opened Tuesday. Classes will be held In nine classrooms on the building's south section while renovation of the north wing continues. About 20,000 students are expected to register for the fall term at T-VI.

Tour Draws Ideas On Road Funds Highway Task Force Seeks Money Shortage Solutions By Michael IIartranft Journal Staff Writer Tolls, users' fees and regional authorities with taxing power may be ways to counter New Mexico's shrinking highway funds, speakers told a governor's panel during a two-hour hearing Tuesday. Formed by Gov. Gary Johnson in July, the Governor's Citizen Highway Assessment Task Force is in the midst of a 17-city tour to gather ideas on how to fund future highway construction and repairs. Already faced with major declines in federal support, the state Highway Department estimates there could be a $3 billion shortfall in 20 years. "I think that we've got to regroup and take "You can reprioritize the monies we have until all of our time runs out, but the fact of the matter is we need more money for roads." MAYOR MARTIN CHAVEZ a look at the state as a whole," task force chairman Robert Forrest of Carlsbad told people gathered at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Speakers identified a long list of transportation needs in the Albuquerque metropolitan area. The city is attempting to complete roads such as Unser, Paseo del Norte and Eubank, Albuquerque Assistant Public Works Director John Castillo said. But he added the city also has to address its existing 3,500 "lane" miles of streets, nearly 75 percent of which is rated in poor to very poor condition. "You can reprioritize the monies we have until all of our time runs out, but the fact of the matter is we need more money for roads," Mayor Martin Chavez added. Steve Miller, director of planning for Bernalillo County Public Works, said the county has been focusing on regional projects that will carry significant amounts of traffic and relieve the interstates.

Those include completion of Paseo del Norte east from Wyoming to Tramway and construction of southeast and southwest loop roads connecting 1-25 and 1-40. "But they carry a regional price tag," he said, estimating the three projects could total $80 million. Miller said funding possibilities include local option taxes, users' fees, development impact fees and public-private partnerships. "Toll charges have never been discussed in the state of New Mexico," said Vincent Montoya, a registered lobbyist for the city of Belen. Ron Matz of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce said his organization supports a regional transportation authority with taxing power to fund various projects.

He said the chamber also supports alternative forms of transportation such as a commuter rail line between Belen and Bernalillo and a rail connection between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. State Rep. Larry Larranaga, R-Albu-querque, said he didn't foresee private vehicles being overtaken as the primary source of transportation in his lifetime. Larranaga said he thinks users' fees, such as motor vehicle excise taxes or fuel taxes, may be more acceptable to the public as ways to fund highway projects. Hot potty Francia Family Sues JB's Over Abduction, Slaying I 4 By Susanne Burks Journal Staff Writer The estate and family of Jonathan Francia, who disappeared from an Albuquerque restaurant parking lot last year, sued the restaurant and its suspected landlord Tuesday for alleged inadequate security leading to his death.

Jonathan, 16, vanished Jan. 12, 1994, from the parking lot of JB's Restaurant at Lomas and 1-25 as he waited in the family car for a friend, a JB's employee he'd taken there on an errand. The burned-out car was found about a week later in Arizona, with a charred body in the trunk. The wrongful death lawsuit, which seeks damages on several grounds, includes claims that Jonathan was locked in the trunk of his car, was stabbed repeatedly after escaping, was returned to the trunk, escaped again and was stabbed again. The kidnappers "stuffed dirt in his mouth and eyes to quiet him," the suit says.

Attorney James Gilman, who filed the suit for the Francia family, said thai information was pieced together from a grand jury transcript, the "confession" of the primary suspect's wife and medical investigator reports. Gilman filed the suit in state District Court for Larry Francia, JEFF ALEXANDERJOURNAL Two residents of the Towers Apartments, 5404 Montgomery NE, watch a portable toilet bum In the parking lot. Two passers-by who spotted the toilet burning In some bushes hooked It up to their truck and pulled It Into the parking lot away from the brush..