The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page B1

Time: 03-13-2007 23:51 User: mmatherly PubDate: 03-14-2007 Zone: IN Page Name: B1 Color: Bftapbnta Indiaiia AROUND INDIANA B3 LOUISVILLE B4 WEATHER B8 DEATHS B6-8 DALE'S VIEW Check out Dale Moss' past columns at PHOTOS AND VIDEOS There are lots of Web-exclusive photos and videos at www.courier-journal.commultimedia AROUND THE STATE Read news from around Indiana updated throughout the day at www.cou-rier-journal.comindiana Joe Taylor, editor 948-1315, phone 949-4041, fax WEDNESDAY MARCH 14, 2007 Floyd officers to get 5 raises Other employees must wait for now least a little longer for theirs. A majority of the Floyd County Council voted last night to give about 25 police of-ficers the 5 percent pay increase, retroactive to Jan. 1, and to use the county's "rainy day" account to do so through May. Members also voted to use about $200,000 in rainy-day money for three new officers, whose hiring they approved last month. By May, the council hopes that its 2007 budget will have been approved by the state and that its general fund, which includes the police raises, can be used to keep paying them If the state-approved budget has enough money, the county also would give raises of $500 a year to 290 other employees, as well as increases to court and other personnel.

It's not clear whether the day account to cover other expenses if the state cuts are deep. Five of the council's seven members voted to use the rainy-day money for the police raises through May: Aebersold, McAllister, Dana Fendley, Tom Pickett and John Schellenberg-er. Randall Stumler opposed See FLOYD, B5, col. 1 state will approve the $14.3 million budget. But council President Larry McAllister said state officials have indicated some cuts are likely.

Last year the state ordered cuts of about $3 million from a $13.3 million budget. Limiting the raises to police at this time, said council member Lana Aebersold, "would be the responsible thing to do" so the county could use the rainy- By Dick Kaukas The Courier-Journal Floyd County police officers are getting their 5 percent raises, but other county employees will have to wait at "The more time is allowed to go by, the harder it is to find a missing person." KERI DATTIL0, cousin of Molly Dattilo, missing since 2004 Missing-persons bill advances to Senate jo mm SMITH PJj 122700 STATE NEWS FROM WIRE, STAFF CLARK COUNTY County council to vote on bridges appropriation The County Council has scheduled a special session for Tuesday at 4 p.m. to vote on a request by the Board of Commissioners for a $1.2 million appropriation to build three bridges. At its meeting Monday night, council members Monty Snelling and David Abbott said the council also urged the commissioners not to enact a proposed bridge tax of 5 cents per $100 of assessed value for other bridge construction. The council believes funding for that construction already is available within the county budget.

NEW ALBANY Waiz to hold interim post at Community Foundation Retired banker Mike Waiz has been named interim president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana. Waiz will take over the position after Laura Hansen Dean steps down on Friday. A member of its board of directors, Waiz is scheduled to become chairman this summer. Don Day, the current chairman, said the board is reviewing applications for presidentCEO and will interview candidates in the next few weeks. BEDFORD NTSB releases early report on fatal plane crash The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report on last week's small plane crash into the home of the pilot's former mother-in-law includes no mention of possible accidental causes.

The report, released yesterday, does not cite specific causes for the crash, which state police investigators have said was deliberate. Eric Johnson, 47, was at the controls of the leased plane on March 5 when it crashed near the Virgil I. Grissom Municipal Airport, killing him and his 8-year-old daughter, Emily. It could be a year before the agency releases a final report. The preliminary report said the plane took off about 9 a.m.

from the airport and was in the air for about 90 minutes. The report notes that the weather was clear with winds less than 10 mph at the time of the crash. BL00MINGT0N Alumnus donates Florida land to IU business school An Indiana University alum-nus has donated nearly $2 million of undeveloped Florida beachfront property to the university's business school so students can come up with a development and marketing plan. Stanley Benecki, al981 IU graduate who now designs luxury homes, gave the school the property on Dog Island off the northwestern Florida coast. The island is accessible only by plane or boat.

Graduate and undergraduate students in the IU Kelley School of Business will have the opportunity to craft a business plan for the property. Proceeds from the land sale would establish and support endowments for the school's Center for Real Estate Studies, a professorship and an undergraduate scholarship program, all of which would be named for Benecki, who was in the real estate program when he was a Proposal would require quick action by police By Lesley Stedman Weidenbener The Courier-Journal INDIANAPOLIS A Senate committee listened to heart-wrenching testimony yesterday from the families of missing adults before unanimously approving a bill that would require police to act quickly in similar cases. Keri Dattilo said her family pleaded with police to immediately begin investigating the disappearance of her cousin Molly, who was last seen in 2004 in Indianapolis where she was attending classes. But she said it was weeks even months before police began taking the case seriously. Molly Dattilo, of Madison, still is missing.

"The more time is allowed to go by, the harder it is to find a missing person," Keri Dattilo told the Homeland Security, Transportation Veterans Affairs Committee, which sent the bill to the full Senate. "We need law enforcement to take responsibility and to act immediately." House Bill 1306 establishes criteria for police to determine whether an adult is a "high-risk missing person" and then sets procedures for dealing with such cases. A person could be "high risk" even if there is no direct evidence of a crime, such as bloodstains or witnesses to an abduction. Molly Dattilo would have qualified as a high-risk missing person, forcing police to begin searching for her more quickly, Keri Dattilo said. In that case, there were no obvious signs of wrongdoing, but the family maintains she left behind key belongings and had no history of disappearing.

Photos by Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, The Courier-Journal Payton Johnston, 14, with aunt Tammy Luster, left, and grandmother Barbara McCown told a Senate committee yesterday she misses her mother, who disappeared in 2001 in Richmond. "It's hard growing up not knowing where your mom is at," she said. ON THE WEB See a gallery of photos from the hearing on the missing-persons bill at Keri Dattilo said it took police weeks, even months, to take seriously the disapperance of her cousin, Molly Dattilo of Madison, who was last seen in 2004 in Indianapolis. The Dattilo case sparked the legislation. The bill's primary author, Rep.

Dave Cheatham, represents Madison. Its Senate sponsor, Mike Young, represents the Indianapolis area where Molly Dattilo was staying when she vanished. But Dattilo family members aren't the only ones backing the bill. Yesterday, 14-year-old Payton Johnston of Richmond told the committee about her mother, Niqui McCown, See MISSING, B6, col. 1 Community Foundation director set the standard Waiz campaign to be investigated Dale Moss someone to maintain Dean's fast-lane momentum.

"They are big shoes to fill," said Harbeson, who now directs the In-terfaith Community Council. In Dean, 56, the Community Foundation took a chance. Her roots are elsewhere. Her ambition is as understandable as her numerous contacts. She will have stayed less than four years, surely to no one's absolute shock.

"I knew she'd move on at some point," said Don Day, chairman of the board. With the Community Foundation, Dean likewise took a chance. Would it readily follow her lead? Was it poised to expand? Dean was glad she could deliver. "I think I was the right person for the right time," she said. The director of the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana would be free to advise, to consult, long distance.

That was Laura Hansen Dean's perk. She had developed a national reputation. "They'd call from all over the world, actually," said Christine Harbeson, a former Community Foundation employee. Ultimately, they would want more than Dean's spare time. Dean resisted job offers until receiving one from the University of Texas.

Her husband, Ken Ruff, has Longhorn ties. As of next week, so does she. Dean will be executive director of gift planning for the main campus in Austin. And the Community Foundation must find a successor, which was appointed last fall. Ethics Board member Rachel Browne said she wants to know if Roger Hardy, Jeffersonville's director of information technology and the Waiz campaign's computer consultant, bought the site names on city time or using city computers.

Either action would violate the ethics ordinance. The Waiz re-election campaign acknowledged last month that it had bought three Internet addresses, or domain names likely to be used by the Galligan campaign to limit his ability to communicate with voters. The names are tomgalligan, See ETHICS, B5, col. 1 Jeff ethics board OKs first inquiry By Ben Zion Hershberg The Courier-Journal Jeffersonville's Board of Ethics made plans last night to investigate whether the campaign of Mayor Rob Waiz vio-lated the city's ethics ordinance when it bought several Internet addresses likely to be used by the campaign of former Mayor Tom Galligan. Both are running in the May Democratic primary.

The investigation would be the first for the Ethics Board, By Keith Williams, The Courier-Journal Laura Hansen Dean leaves the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana for Texas. "Sometimes an organization needs a change agent, to boost it to the next level. I hope that's what I've done." Dean assumed a base of assets fairly stuck and pushed it to a record $30 million. A law-See MOSS, B2, col. 1 Read Indiana news online at: 1 1.