The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 15

Thursday, Feb. 19. 1981 Philadelphia Inquirer 3Br METROPOLITAN- Kauff man puts condition on election for high court By Daniel R. Bi'ddle fnqulrrSuf Writer Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Bruce W. Kauffman said yester-'day that he would run for a full term 'on the "high court this year if and only if the Democratic and Republican state organizations both endorse him.

Kauffman. a Republican, said he wanted to take partisan politics out of judicial selection process. He said he believed the best way to do this was to persuade the parties to "reach a bipartisan agreement to support two highly qualified, independent members of the bench or bar" for the two Supreme Court vacancies being contested thisyear. At a morning news conference, Kauffman, 46, said he will decline to seek election and end his term on the seven-member court after less than two years if both parties do not endorse him. "Partisan politics and the judiciary don't mix," Kauffman said.

"I have concluded that as a sitting justice, my first responsibility is to be independent and nonpartisan in the administration of justice, and to maintain high standards in the quality of my work on the court." His announcement seemed without precedent. Judicial candidates frequently file on both parties' primary ballots but rarely seek both endorsements as a condition for candidacy. Kauffman's plea was met with great skepticism and some surprise by several top party officials yesterday. 1 "He's not a registered Democrat," said Alex Debreczini, the party's state chairman. "Our state committee meets on Feb.

28 for the purpose of nominating Democrats," Debreczini said in a telephone interview. "We would be glad to give him consideration if he would change his party registration." Debreczini and Martha Bell Schoe-ninger, the GOP state chairwoman, both said they knew of no deal or trade-off being arranged to get Kauffman a Democratic endorsement in return tor GOP support of a Democratic candidate elsewhere on the ballot. "I wish he had consulted me on this," Ms. Schoeninger said. David Glancey, City Democratic Commitlee chairman, said he had talked with Kauffman of a trade-off possibility but never came close to sealing a deal.

"If he (Kauffman) could convince jhis party and his governor to en-'dorse a Democrat, then we'd consider it," Glancey said. "Quite frankly, it would have had to take place long before this," Glancey said. He noted that both party organizations will meet within the next three weeks the Republicans will meet on March 7 to pick statewide judicial candidates in the May 19 primary. Kauffman, a longtime advocate of merit selection instead of partisan elections for judges, contended yesterday that a bipartisan endorsement would extend the merit principle to the party system. He said he was "hopeful" that the parties would not let political considerations affect their choices for the Supreme Court.

Kauffman was a partner in the large Center City law firm of Dil-worth, Paxson, Kalish, Levy Kauffman before Gov. Thornburgh ap- pointed him to a Supreme Court vacancy last February after the death of Justice Louis L. Manderino. Justices must run in one partisan election after their initial appointment to (tie court. If they win, they face yes-no refention elections every 10 years; Iu 1979 Thornburgh nominated Kauffman, also to fill a vacancy, to the Supreme Court, but the Democratic-dominated Senate balked on confirming him.

That set the stage for Kauffman's first encounterlwith electoral politics. He ran in the 1979 primary and was soundly defeated on both ballots by John P. Flaherty of Pittsburgh. After 2 months; Roofers Local 30 has a new profile Sh 1 Pihml i mitt I a 4 5 4 4A vim fX rf By Steve Twomey Inquirer Stall Wnler Its union office in Atlantic City has been closed and moved; its business agent there has returned to Philadelphia and has been replaced, and its new president has subtly shifted the union's emphasis. Slowly, quietly, a new Philadelphia's Roofers Local 30 is emerging in the aftermath of the slaying two months ago of John J.

McCullough, its leader for 20 years. Some of the changes center on Uie union's Atlantic City operations, which several law enforcement officials have tied to the killing, saying that perhaps McCullough's aggressive style there had caused friction with other unions or organized crime. Most visibly, Local 30 has moved its shore office from Atlantic City to nearby Somers Point, physically separating itself from the International Brotherhood of Security Officers Local 40B, with which it had shared offices and maintained working ties. And Local 30 business agent there, Joe Enright, is now working in the Philadelphia office. Police officials had theorized that the fact the two unions were allies might have been related to the killing.

Local 30 and Enright were reportedly aiding the guards' union in its effort to sign up casino guards, and in so doing they had run into opposition from another guards' union that has links to organized crime in New York, the officials noted. Citing the severing of ties to Local 40B, one official familiar with Local 30 said: "They're pulling back. They'd been oh an expansionist kick, and they're pulling back." But union officials strongly denied that Local 30 was lowering its shore They insisted that the Philadelphia-based union would retain the jurisdiction over unionized roofers in South Jersey that it had been given by its international union with the advent of the casino-inspired construction boom there. They said the move from Atlantic Philadelphia Inquirer WILLIAM f. STtlNME TZ buildings that will be rebuilt, has faith in House of Umoja's future Sister Fattah, outside some of the Frazier Street ream fulfillei Expansion begins for inner-city Boys Town John J.

McCullough Slain two months ago City to Somers Point was made primarily because the union did not want to pay for the usually large amount of space it had in Atlantic City, and that Enright returned to Philadelphia to help the new president, Jack Kincaid. But they acknowledged that Local 30 would now concentrate only on the roofing industry, and would nt try to organize any workers outside its traditional field. "They're sticking to roofing only they've gotten out of anything other than roofing," Ralph Williams, the head of the Philadelphia Building Trades Council, said yesterday. He added that the new office showed that Local 30 "doesn't want to be connected with any business other than roofing." "They were all things to all people," said union attorney Bernard Katz. "Anybody who needed assistance in the trade union movement got it.

That doesn't mean they can't get assistance now, but the emphasis has been altered. It's a shift in emphasis, that's all." A li-1 r4, Slaying on Schuylkill a puzzle to co-workers By Edgar Williams Inquirer Stall Writer The street is mean. It is squeezed in on both sides by many deteriorating porch-front homes, and in the sidewalks are potholes big enough lo have potholes. But when Sister Falaka Fattah walked along the 1400 block of North Frazier Street in the Carroll Park section of West Philadelphia yesterday, something pretty wonderful happened. In hroad daylight, the street seemed' to take on a glow.

"That's where the groundbreaking will take place, down at the end of the block," Sister Fattah said, pointing proudly. "And those three houses down there, they'll be the first to be rebuilt." She paused. Wearing a leopard-print caftan, she looked every inch a queen, and when she spoke again her voice was like banners. "Twelve years," she said. "For 12 years we've had this dream.

And now it's going to come true." Sister Falaka Fattah heads the House of Umoja, a nonprofit community organization located in this block of Frazier Street, which came into being in 1969 to stop black youths from killing each other in gang wars. The nation's first inner-city Boys Town, it presently has 15 residents, boys ranging in age from IS to 18, who either have been sent there by social agencies because of poor family background, or have been assigned there by the courts. It has developed a security training school for youth, a security patrol program and an emergency food-distribution plan for Carroll Park residents. It has done all this under far from optimum condiiions in of the rowhouses in the block (the House of Umoja now owns 23 of them), which have been patched up and re-patched over the years. But now, to alter Sister Fattah's expression, the Umoja (which means "unity" in Swahili) dream of dreams is about to come true.

Hassan Fattah talks via citizens band radio to Umoja youth on patrol By David Zucchino Inquirer Stall Writer To his business associates, chemical salesman James A. Maro did not seem the type of man to be drawn into violent confrontations. Nor, in the mind of a co-worker of electrical foreman Thomas Boneck. was Bo-neck inclined to force an issue with a stranger. Yet Tuesday afternoon, during a frustrating rush-hour traffic jam on the Schuylkill Expressway in uncommonly warm winter weather, the two men quarreled over a minor auto accident.

Their brief confrontation left Boneck dead of two gunshot wounds 90 minutes later and left Maro in prison, charged with Bo-neck's murder. "Something just doesn't fit," said Bob Kornfeld, a co-worker of Maro's at Arol Chemical Products Inc. in Newark, N.J., where Maro had worked for two weeks as a traveling chemical salesman. "I didn't know Mr. Maro that well, but he's definitely not domineering or aggressive.

He's a personable person, not the type at all to do something like this. He was quite a general guy." With his arms raised, a gun in his pocket and the words. "I'm the guy you want," Maro. 33. surrendered to a Philadelphia highway patrolman who was rushing to the accident scene moments after the 4 10 p.m.

Come Saturday morning at 11, a brief ground-breaking ceremony will be held in a small vacant lot next to 1411 N. Frazier St. After the politicos and dignitaries have departed, work will begin on a $1 million rehabilitation program. It is a project that will transform the Umoja properties into well-designed, well-appointed and sturdy structures headquarters for residential, educational, cultural and social services, as well as a community-based youth employment program. The first three homes to be rehabilitated, at 1411-13-15 Frazier, will become one building to house the security institute, Umoja people perform all other security duty).

Umoja set out to raise $1 million for the rehabilitation program and has come up a bit short, having solicited $810,000 from public and private sources. "We're going ahead," Sister Fattah said, "because we have faith in the future." The first segment of the rehabilitation will be dedicated to Malcolm X. the black activist who was assassinated in 1965. "We are doing so in tribute to a man who was an ex-offender from hrolfpn hnmp hut whn rose to become a great liberating force," Sister Fattah said. "That's what it's all about, we think." where security guards are trained.

Like every Umoja property on the street, the facade will have an ancient African-Moorish motif. "Right now," said Hassan Fattah, 26, a son of Sister Fattah, "we are limited in our (security institute) facilities. We can work with perhaps six or seven students at a time. But with the new quarters, we'll be able to put 20 students through the two-month course simultaneously." Umoja-trained guards now do duty at the nearby Haddington Mall (Philadelphia police are there from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Mondays through Fridays, but the shooting. Maro, of Abrams Mill Road, King of Prussia, was held in Montgomery County Prison under S250.000 bond. On Tuesday night police listed an Alta Loma, address for Maro. but they said yesterday that he had moved from California within the last six months. Maro was charged with murder, voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, weapons offenses! and recklessly endangering another person A criminal complaint filed against Maro accused him of shooting Boneck "while acting under a sudden and intense passion." Police described Maro as "calm and rational" during questioning Tuesday night.

Boneck, 34, of Henry Avenue, Nor-ristown. was returning from an electrical job when a white Lincoln driven by Maro started to cut in front of Boneck's van, state police said. Police said Maro had skirted a single lane of stalled traffic by driving along the shoulder of the expressway near the City Avenue exit. According to the criminal complaint, the two vehicles nudged one another as the drivers jockeyed for i w-- Boneck, who stopped his van, walked toward Maro's car. and, police said, was shot twice in the chest.

Witnesses told police that Maro fired one shot while leaning out of the car's opened door, then got out of the car and shot Boneck again as he was lying on the road. Richard A. Kuhn of Philadelphia, a co-worker riding in the van wiih Boneck. told police that Maro pointed the pistol at him when Kuhn approached Boneck's prone body, ordering him to "get away." Boneck was the father of a daugh ter. His wife is expecting a second child, a family friend said.

Ed Curtis, controller of Rees Weaver where Boneck had worked for two years, described Boneck asi "highly valued and well-respected employee." "It's a tragic loss, both personally and professionally," he said. Boneck, he said, was not easily provoked. "No. he really wasn't that way at all," he said. Panel urges mandatory cuts in water use years when programs could have been developed." Also at yesterday's meeting, commission staff members emphasized that the drought persisted even though conditions bad been eased significantly in recent weeks by two rainstorms.

But J. Timothy Weston, Pennsylvania's representative on the commission, warned that long-range weather forecasts predicted below-normal precipitation for the next several months. By Roger Cohn Inquirer Slall Writer A special committee recommended () yesterday that the Delaware River Basin Commission immediately impose mandatory cutbacks of up to 10 percent in water use by industries and municipalities in the basin. The committee, which was formed by the commission and included industry and water company repre-t sentatives, said in a report that reductions of 5 to 10 percent were necessary in order to conserve water 31. Robert E.

Copeland, chairman of the special committee, said that if the drought worsens, mandatory reductions should be greater than 10 percent. But he warned that cutbacks of as much as 25 percent "would have severe economic consequences." Copeland criticized the commission for being "negligent" by not developing improved drought contingency plans after the record drought of the mid-1960s. He noted that "there, were something like 15 phia area. But on Jan. 15, the commission did issue a basin-wide ban on nonessential water uses, including noncommercial washing of cars and watering of lawns and gardens.

The commission passed a resolution at its meeting yesterday requiring industries in the basin to prepare contingency plans for mandatory water reductions, as well as reports on how employment and production would be affected by such cutbacks. The plans and reports must be submitted to the commission by March during the current drought. Most industries and municipalities could cut water consumption by as much as 10 percent "without serious economic consequences," the report stated. Mandatory water rationing plans are already in effect in 107 municipalities in eastern and central Pennsylvania and in 202 communities in northern and central New Jersey. So far, the interstate commission has not ordered mandatory rationing throughout the basin, which includes the Philadel- rl.