Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 56

D2 ALIRJQUERQJltXX September 19, 1985 APS Must Join State Insurance Plan, Panel Rules By Susan Landon JOURNAL EDUCATION WRITER authority, said the teachers union did not develop the APS health package. Rather, he said, the district's administration was responsible for the health plans. Pete Eissele, APS assistant superintendent for personnel, said the district does not negotiate the insurance with the union. Mitchell said one of the reasons the previous APS plan had fewer benefits was because APS was trying out a "cost containment" plan in an attempt to keep premiums down. Under the new state health plan, health benefits will increase' and most premiums will also increase over last year's APS coverage.

For instance, the premium for one employee will go from $70.46 a month to $76.01. Family rates will go from $158.57 to $170.03. Depending on the employee, APS pays from 60 to 75 percent of the premium each month, and the employee pays the rest. waiver for a number of reasons. For instance, the state health plan has minimal premiums for the coverage it provides, he said.

The authority on Aug. 30 temporarily denied a waiver, indicating the APS plan was riot as good as the state plan. But it gave APS two more weeks to compare the benefits of the Albuquerque plan and the Prudential package. Between Aug. 30 and Wednesday, the APS plan was changed a fact that troubled some authority members.

APS officials obtained an opinion from the state Attorney General's Office that said the district was within its rights in continuing negotiations with bidders to improve the APS insurance proposal. The district had not violated the state Procurement Code, the Attorney General's Office concluded in a Sept. 17 opinion. An undercurrent in the APS waiver that had submitted the bid. APS currently is covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico.

"We're disappointed," said APS Deputy Superintendent Charles White, who did not rule out challenging the decision in court. He said it will be up to the Albuquerque school board to decide what action, if any, it will take. A law adopted by the Legislature this year requires that school districts participate in the state health plan, unless the districts can prove their own plans are superior. The authority, which was established by the law, is made up of representatives of several state education organizations. The statewide insurance plan was set up to give better coverage at lower rates to school districts.

Authority member John Mitchell, president of the New Mexico Federation of Teachers, said he voted to deny the APS appeal was the rivalry between the state's two biggest teacher unions the New Mexico Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association of New Mexico. The Albuquerque chapter of the Teachers Federation is the bargaining agent for APS teachers. The NEA was voted out as bargaining agent by teachers in 1979, and since has been trying to regain that status. Authority member Jay Miller, representing the NEA-New Mexico, said the APS health insurance program for last school year had 15 to 20 percent fewer benefits than most school districts. "The state insurance authority was concerned with those poor benefits, not your employee bargaining agent," Miller told APS officials.

However, a top official of the authority had earlier told the Journal that the Albuquerque Teachers Federation was not to blame for the previous APS health coverage. Tony Armijo, an adviser to the The Albuquerque public school district must participate in a new, statewide health insurance program, a state insurance committee decided Thursday. The New Mexico Public School Group Insurance Authority voted unanimously to deny a request by APS to maintain an independent insurance plan. Only four of the state's 88 school districts have been given permission to have their own insurance coverage. Starting Nov.

1, the Albuquerque public schools and 83 other districts will be covered by the state insurance plan. The Prudential Insurance Co. of America won the $31.5 million contract. APS officials argued that they had come up with an insurance plan that provided the same coverage as the state plan, but for rates that were $117,000 lower. They declined to name the firm Briefs.

Lawsuit Looms Over City-County Vendor Pact a means of a livelihood" if his concession is closed in favor of another vendor. Over those warnings and the objections of City Councilor Pat Baca and County Commissioner Pat Padilla, the Intergovernmental Committee of the city and the county voted at the meeting to find a food service operator for the new building through the competitive bidding process but also "to find a place for Joe." Under the bidding procedure approved by the committee, a handicapped individual would be awarded the concession if his bid was within 10 percent of the bid submitted by the lowest non-handicapped bidder. The governments are hoping to gain income from the operator to defer the costs of new cafeteria furnishings. Ulibarri said he'll take what comes along. "I'd prefer to be over there," said Ulibarri, 51, a 22-year veteran of the restaurant business, who previously worked in factories and shops but says he became unemployable because of high insurance for blind employees.

"It's a bigger place I'll stick with whatever they give to me." The measure triggered a denunciation by Baca, who told fellow committee members: "This is an obligation the city has By Rick Shaughnessy JOURNAL STAFF WRITER When the cafeteria opens in the new AlbuquerqueBernalillo County Local Government Center later this fall, a blind businessman might not be its operator and the city and county governments likely will be sued because of it. Fred Schroeder, president of the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico, told members of a joint committee of city and county elected officials Wednesday they will illegally keep a blind vendor out of work if they award the concession for the new facility to a sighted vendor. "The law requires preference to the blind. If a blind operator is available, preference means just that. He gets first crack at the position," Schroeder told committee members.

He referred to a state law requiring that blind individuals be given a preference in public buildings and that they not be charged rent or utilities. He said the law is intended to ease the 70 percent unemployment rate among blind New Mexicans. And he added that Joe Ulibarri, who has operated the coffee shop in City Hall for 19 years, "would be out of a job and out of V- JOURNAL PHOTO JEFF ALEXANDER City Hall coffee shop operator Joe Ulibarri: "I'll stick with whatever they give to me." Conference Will Discuss Water Problems, Solutions Problems facing the water and waste-water industry will be discussed at a joint meeting of the Water Pollution Control Federation and the American Water Works Association, Sept. 22 through 26, in Albuquerque. The WPCF and AWWA are both non-profit, scientific and educational organizations dedicated to the protection of water resources.

More than 63,000 people worldwide comprise the two groups' membership. Utility representatives, operators, managers, consultants, suppliers, educators, contractors and engineers meet annually to discuss the technological and regulatory issues facing the nation's water and waste-water industry. These issues include water shortages, ground-water contamination, toxic pollutants in water supplies and discharge permit requirements. The theme of this year's conference is "Water and Wastewater Technology for the 80s." Santo Domingo Man Jailed For Assault on Officer BERNALILLO A Santo Domingo man who pleaded guilty to assaulting a Sandoval County sheriff's deputy in Pena Blanca altercation that left the man's companion dead was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in the county jail. Reyes Moquino, 34, must participate in an alcohol rehabilitation program while he serves his jail sentence, District Judge Tibo Chavez said during the sentencing hearing.

Moquino was a companion of Roger Cordova of Pena Blanca, who was shot to death by a sheriff's deputy following an April 3 altercation in which Moquino was accused of threatening the officer with a bat. Assistant District Attorney Nick D'Angelo said alcohol appeared to contribute to Moquino's acts. neys this week. Schroeder said if the state doesn't pursue legal action his organization will consider taking the two governments to court. "The 10 percent advantage is window dressing," he said, adding that issuing the request for proposals "is to say the statute is unconstitutional." City Councilor Fred Burns, who chairs the joint committee, said that assessment of the state law may be correct.

"Clearly, the statute either does not apply to what we're doing here or if it does apply it's so restrictive it's unconstitutional," he said. to work with the handicapped and the blind. I think it would be wrong for the city to go out to McDonald's." Orlando Giron, director of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation of the state Department of Education, said from Santa Fe he will discuss the matter with his division's attor Grand Jury Indicts Nine for Child Abuse special grand jury "in the foreseeable future" because of existing burdens on his staff, which include preparing the indicted cases for trial. The earlier grand jury, empaneled in August, handed down 10 child-abuse indictments. In the child-abuse death case filed Wednesday, Andy Torres, 20, and Laurie Ann Torres, 19, both of 333 Dallas NE, No.

are charged with three counts of abusing their infant daughter, Leila, on March 4. One count charges child abuse resulting in death and the other two charge, simple child abuse. A source said the child was taken to a hospital with a fractured skull and died. A special grand jury Wednesday filed indictments naming nine people on child-abuse charges, including a couple charged jointly in the death of their baby. Five of the other seven cases involve sexual abuse and two charge child abuse.

The grand jury was the second requested this year by District Attorney Steven Schiff to help erase a backlog of child-abuse cases cases that had come to his office but had not been processed for indictment. Schiff late Wednesday estimated the backlog at 60 cases but said he does not plan to ask for another 1 Man Seeking $13 Million for Loss of Leg ASSOCIATED PRESS Nona White, 13, in photo taken shortly after heart surgery. Clovis Teen Remains in Coma Following Heart Transplant ence of liquor or drugs at the time. The suit says that Assad suffered severe injuries, lost his business and his ability to seek gainful employment, incurred medical expenses and incurred pain, suffering and mental anguish. He asks for more than $3.2 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive vated battery charges against Farah Abuaun, then 44, because he was not the driver.

Nezar Abuaun, then 24, pleaded no contest in February to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon the car and was sentenced in May to six months in jail. Assad claims in the state District Court suit that Nezar Abuaun negligently operated the vehicle owned by his father and that both defendants were under the influ A $13.2 million damage suit was filed Wednesday by an Albuquerque man who lost a leg after he was struck on Jan. 2, 1984, by a car that crashed through Presbyterian Hospital's emergency entrance. Younis Assad seeks the damages in a civil suit against Farah and Nezar Abuaun, father and son, who were charged with felonies in the incident. District Attorney Steven Schiff last December dismissed aggra THE ASSOCIATED PRESS seizures until Nona is taken off the medication.

He said a diagnosis should be made within five days. "It's going to take several days for us to make a decision on how severe the problem is," Dr. Young said Wednesday. "She had been doing fairly well post-operatively until Tuesday when she began having several seizures. She's improved since then but she's still in critical condition." Nona received the heart of a Salt Lake City accident victim Sept.

7. The Clovis girl was suffering from a congenital disease that causes the heart's muscle tissue to deteriorate. HOUSTON Heart transplant patient Nona White, 13, of Clovis, remains in a drug-induced coma after suffering a series of seizures earlier this week, the girl's doctor says. Dr. James Young, a cardiologist at Methodist Hospital in Houston, said a small brain hemorrhage caused an undetermined number of small strokes on Tuesday.

The doctor said the girl was in critical but stable condition and had been heavily sedated with drugs that suppressed the seizures. He said doctors will not be able to determine the effects of the Moquino was indicted by a grand jury on a felony charge of aggravated assault on a peace officer. The charge was dismissed in a plea agreement, Aug. 27, in which he pleaded guilty to assault on a peace officer, a high court misdemeanor. TV Station Seeks Dismissal Of Breach-of-Contraet Suit SANTA FE Attorneys for KNMZ-TV Channel 2 claim the station didn't violate an employment agreement with former news director Arthur Alpert because no specific terms were ever negotiated.

In a motion to dismiss a $500,000 breach-of-contract suit Alpert filed July 31, attorney Fred Schwendimann said the only agreement between Alpert and the station was a four-paragraph statement, written May 7, 1982 by Alpert and signed by then-General Manager Charles Scanlan. However, the agreement didn't specify any length of employment, making it "terminable by either party," the attorney said. The station, originally called KSAF-TV, claims that current General Manager Albert Lucero offered Alpert a new contract in September 1983, but that Alpert declined to sign the agreement. Alpert, now executive producer of cable television's Financial News Network in New York, claims the station breached his contract when it canceled nightly newscasts early last year after three months on the air. The station's response said the decision to fire Alpert "was not based on any dissatisfaction with either the form or the substance of its local news presentation; rather, it reflected the sound business judgment that the station simply could not continue to expend the amounts required to maintain its local news production." AX? APD Seeks Clues in Slaying mm 1 "in in -(.

m. I i 1 Ay inirr-trrr-i niiiiiri.ii liiirlllitS'irir iiMiiiif Tn was the previous evening. The victim was covered with bloodied blankets and lying on her bed. She appeared to have been stabbed in the chest, Lueras said, Lueras said there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment, no signs of a struggle, and no initial signs of the murder weapon. The daughter told police there did not appear to- be anything missing from the apartment.

The body was removed and taken to the Office of the Medical Investigator, where an autopsy was expected to be performed today. Investigating police officers said Wednesday night they knew of no motive for the slaying and had no suspects. A 39-year-old Albuquerque woman was found by her teen-age daughter stabbed to death Wednesday afternoon in the Northeast Heights apartment the two shared. Police identified the woman as Penny Listvan, a dancer at the Speakeasy Lounge, a topless bar at 5600 E. Central.

The woman's body was discovered about 3 p.m. by her 19-year-old daughter, Melissa, in their apartment at Tramway Village, 553 Tramway NE, said Sgt. Archie Lueras of the Albuquerque Police Department's violent crimes section. The daughter had just returned from her job at the Four Hills Country Club. She told police the last time she saw her mother alive JOURNAL PHOTO ALEXANDRIA KING Albuquerque International Airport Wednesday, bringing September's total to .85 of an inch, .30 of an inch more than average.

The rainy weather began last weekend and is expected to continue through Sunday, when showers are expected to begin tapering off. Monday is expected to be a dry, cool day. Ladies' Day, Rain or Shine Nothing can keep Mary Wells, far left, Midge Witz, Billie Hendrix or Sondra Stewart from ladies' day at the Arroyo del Sol city golf course, not even if "it's raining buckets," said Ms. Witz. It may not have rained buckets, but according to the National Weather Service, .24 of an inch fell at.