Star Tribune du lieu suivant : Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 15

tiro news Minneapolis Star and Tribune Monday February 211983 1B Marketplace section inside JMlllillH. JIM.I II1UIH IIM 1H Cost of new state appeals court could exceed estimates by 3 1 v. I i I "inn ii mai fv By Robert Whereatt Staff Writer A new intermediate court of appeals could cost Mlnnesotans 31 percent more over the next two years than was estimated last year, when proponents urged voters to approve it. And although the 12 new judges have not been named, the court's supporters and some legislators are talking about a permanent home, possibly a new building in the Capitol complex, for the additional level in Minnesota's judicial system. Last year, when a $100,000 campaign was mounted to gain support for a constitutional amendment allowing for the court's creation, the cost was estimated at $2.7 million for a bien-nium in addition to an initial cost of about $180,000.

But Gov. Rudy Perpich's budget recommends that the court receive $3.78 million for the next two fiscal years. (The budget basically reflects the amount requested by the state supreme court, which calculated the fiscal needs of the new court. Since the court is in a separate branch of government, the governor's office does not question the level of the budget requests.) The cost undoubtedly will rise in the future, said Chief Justice Douglas Amdahl, the new court's leading ad- L- ii (H iti'mm, a wv s'SJ. A'y' JU Staff Photo by Darlene Pfister "Tower of God, created by Aldo Moroni, left, and Scott Seeking, is on display In the Lumber Exchange, 5th St.

and Hennepin Av. Obelisk's message: Artists need work cities need works of art and the governor will appoint the other six judges in January. Despite that, some lawyers continue to have reservations. Harold a lawyer and former Republican governor, opposed the amendment before it was approved in November and said he has not changed his mind. 1 He remains critical of the appointing process, the quality of justice he suspects the court will dispense, some of the cases that will bypass the court and the cost taxpayers will have to shoulder.

No governor should be allowed to appoint an entire court that could be a political and ideological carbon copy of the chief executive, LeVander said, adding: "I think it's going to be all Democrats." 1 He said that the enabling legislation, which was approved with passage of the should have required that no more than 60 percent of the new judges be from one party. Judges should reflect the social and political diversity of the state's population, LeVander said. "You don't shed your political background or ideas just because you get on the court." Amdahl said he had shared that concern. But he said his concern vanished when he saw who Perpich named earlier this month to vacant judgeships In lower courts. "I want good people on the bench, somebody with a good track record regardless of their political faith," Amdahl said.

LeVander said he Is not convinced. Some of Perpich's judicial appointees are too young and too inexperienced, he said, and that will carry over to the new court. "It's not going to have the balance, the experience or the wisdom that we would expect from an intermediate court of appeals that will be handling 85 percent of our appeals," LeVander said. He also criticized legislation that says workers' compensation appeals will bypass the new court and go directly to the supreme court Amdahl acknowledged last week that "we agreed to do that to get labor's support for the court of appeals." But he said workers' compensation cases take only a small part of the court's time. Finally, LeVander criticized the active role Amdahl and other justices played in promoting the amendment.

Amdahl was Instrumental in raising money to promote the amendment. "1 don't think it's in the province of the court to influence legislation. It embarrasses every lawyer," LeVander said. Amdahl said his role troubled him somewhat, but said he is convinced of the need for the new court. The high court's backlog continues to grow, he said; many cases are decided without oral arguments, and many are decided by a panel of justices rather than by the full court.

Thirty-three states have Intermediate appellate courts; Minnesota is the most populous state without one. "Who was going to spearhead it if I didn't?" Amdahl said last week. "I hope nobody got pressured (to contribute money). I don't think they did." A committee supporting the amendment raised about $100,000 last year. A spending report Indicated that contributions came primarily from lawyers and law firms.

The largest single contribution $3,000 was from the Minneapolis-based firm of Dor-sey Whitney. Jack Mason, a partner in that firm, said the firm's attorneys are split over the need for the appellate court. "I think the need for raises in judges' salaries is tar greater (than the need for the court)," he said last week. Amdahl said that both are needed. "If I had to make a hard choice," he said, "I'd take the appeals The Legislature must act on the bud-Court continued on page 2B A Judge Douglas Amdahl vocate.

The size of the court also may increase, he said. Despite the additional cost to taxpayers, Amdahl said, the appeals court will be worth it. "It's something I felt was an absolute necessity if our people were going to have appeals in the true sense of the word in this state," he said in an interview last week. Amdahl and about 25 organizations had stressed that another appellate court was needed because the supreme court's caseload had grown to Project-to Improve Student Attendance." An officer has been assigned to each high school and to the Work Opportunity Center. Since October, the eight officers have "made contact" with 822 students, according to -a report last month.

So, if you're lingering in the parking lot at Washburn in the morning, Stallings is likely to send you into the building. If you're strolling down W. 50th St. instead of trudging the road to Canterbury in your fourth-period English class, he may stop and question you as he makes his thrice-daily car cruises of the neighborhood. If you've been hanging around at the bowling alley on Nicollet Av.

in the middle of the day, you might be reported to the school. That hasn't happened yet, but it may; Stallings said he has been asking for help from local business people. You're not even safe at home. Stallings makes house calls. Last Thursday, he said, he went to the home of a student who had once In the shorthand we use to Identify people in a newspaper stpry, the man who saved a stricken motorist's-' life on the freeway last week was l-' called a "cabbie." v.

It was accurate enough. The taxi driver, Jim Hanson, has no objection to being called a cabbie because he has been called a lot worse. In the court dossiers and by his own blunt testimony he was a thief, convict, bookie and hustler. A former Stillwater Prison Inmate portrayed him as "one tough dude" who hated stoolies and a sizable part of the world, a hostile guy who Staff Photo by Steve Schluter Richard Stalllngs is one of eight truant officers trying to improve attendance at Minneapolis public schools. New truant officers putting school skippers back on track Harold LeVander almost seven times more than It can properly handle.

He said the quality of justice at the appeals level was being strained. The court earned the blessing of more than 77 percent of Mlnnesotans who voted on the issue. By comparison, slightly less than 64 percent approved the parimutuel horse racing amendment. Perpich will name the first six appeals judges by July. New members will start hearing cases in August again failed to show up for his second-period class.

The boy was there, and so was his mother, who did not seem to have an explanation as to why the boy was not in school. She nevertheless told the boy to pack up and go back to school with Stallings. One day, he said, he went to the home of a girl who had been missing a lot of classes, and found the girl at home alone. She came to the door and said she was sick. "1 didn't really buy It," said Stallings.

"But that's where we left it. So I came back and called the parent at work. She (the girl) came back to school real quick." For Stallings, this kind of work is new. He has been a salesman and a teacher, but never a police officer or bill collector or anything along that line. He was working as a substitute teacher last fall when the truant officer jobs opened up, and he applied.

He also tiad been working as assistant football coach at Washburn, Truancy continued on page 2B sometimes got into fights and needed no guided tour of the solitary confinement cells by his second or third terms In the penitentiary. Such a man stood in a hospital anteroom a few days ago and prayed for the life of a stranger he found struggling to breathe in a car beside the freeway. The man was 65, suffering from a heart condition. Because there wasn't time to remove him to his cab, the taxi driver got behind the wheel of the victim's car and drove him to Minneapolis Veterans Administration Hospital. Winning crowds back to downtown Hennepin Av.

hasn't been easy, but creative people keep trying and I'm grateful. I At the moment, two of our bestj known artists, Aldo Moroni and Scott Seekins, are working at it; Today their 20-foot-tall obelisk, Tower of God, will go on public view in the elegantly restored lobby of the Lumber Exchange at 5th St. and Hennepin Av. It will be there through March while an exhibit of their individual works is at the Barry-Richard Gallery in the building. Moroni and Seekins, graduates of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, told me they felt somewhat compelled to attempt the tower.

They even put their own money into it. "No art patrons said. Moroni One reason was obviously that the idea of the tower has been nagging at them. Another, though, is that they believe that some kind of civic effort is needed to establish works of good art in important public places. So do I.

The Seekins-Moroni collaboration is a gesture to point out that good artists live here and that they need work. To continue their "message," private firms that commission works of art keep artists busy and enhance the cityscape ail in one swoop. The tower, which Barry-Richard Gallery is offering for sale at $10,000 or so, is ideal for a building lobby. Moroni and Seekins also believe, however, that Minneapolis needs move works ot art outdoors. We have a few.

In recent years the Dayton family gave an Alexander Calder sculpture to the city. It was on the Nicollet Mall, but was moved to Walker Art Center when the Mall skyway into Dayton's store was built. Northwestern National Bank commissioned a Mark di Suvero By Gregor W. Pinney Staff Writer It's getting tougher for boys and girls who want to skip school in Minneapolis. People like Richard Stalllngs are out looking for them.

Stallings is a truant officer, a reincarnation, of the legendary catchers of youth who once prowled the city but who faded away at about the time Stallings himself was in first grade, thirty years ago. He doesn't fit the caricature of the old truant officer who hauled students to school by the ear. He doesn't even look mean. And he spends not a little of his time trying to appeal to the human side of students, according to his boss, principal Wayne Nelson of Washburn High School. "He is more than someone who just beats the bushes," Nelson said.

But Stallings does do that part of the time. He is one of eight truant officers hired by the school district in October with a $100,000 federal block grant under a program called "The Barbara Flanagan sculpture for the plaza of its new operations center at 3rd St. and 2nd Av. S. The Croshy family presented a sculpture by Paul Granlund to Westminster Presbyterian Church to enhance its Mall facade.

The Federal Reserve Bank commissioned three sculptures for Its plaza. And Oxford Development Corp. sponsored a contest for artists to design seven new manhole covers for the sidewalks around its new City Center. Coming up soon, I hope, will be a chance to create more lively new outdoor sculptures for the rejuvenated Hennepin. Business signs there could be works of art by established artists such us the new neon riverboat sculpture that Brad Jlrka did for builder Bob Boisclair's Riverplace Condominiums.

As for the Tower of God by Seekins and Moroni, (t is a marvel of sculptured and painted wax on wood tracing the history of the world. The intricate molded relief work includes the Great Wall of China, a Viking ship, Egyptian pyramids and, at the lop, the space Rhuttie. In Hie "vignette" of the Byzantine period they even used dyed wax to create a mosaic. The artists hope the public will stop by and look at the tower once or twice. I think I'll need several visits to see all of it.

Flanagan continued on page 2B car door of a stranger who happened to be dying? He was a thief by age 9. "I don't know why. My parents were solid people who loved me. I started taking things that didn't belong to me In the south Minneapolis neighborhood where I lived. When I got older I stole In the way some teen-agers do when they're looking for excitement.

Guys who know the score. I had the ability to learn in school, but although I finished Central High School in 1952 I never Klobuchar continued on page 2B Not long ago they called this Samaritan a thief and a hustler Rig I well, Jim Hanson, are excessive and dimly tedious. But when you put all of those stickers on one picture you are looking at the man who saved Gerald Hill's life on the freeway Wednesday. And if you have a moment this morning you might want to ask yourself a question after discovering more about the convoluted life of Jim Hanson, 48: Was it a coincidence that this particular man, who lived much of his life as a thief and a convict, would stop chasing his business where others had not, and open the We tend to put stickers of convenience on people, which give us a quick picture we can conjure to save us the time and burden of understanding and learning. Somebody says cabbie.

We think of a guy who is weathered and maybe a little battered, who knows the world but has to grub hard to pay the phone bill. We say convict and we think of somebody with hard metal eyes. Then we look at somebody else and say One of the Jesus People. If we are honest about It, most of us get squirmy at about that point. Faith and Christianity are things most people do on Sunday morning if they do them.

People who believe like, Jim Klobuchar.