Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 1

I Ukia Daily ournal 1993, Donrey Madia Group Wednesday, November 10,1993 High school volleyball Ukiah comes back to beat Rancho in season 6 14 pages MeNDOClNO COUNTY'S LARGEST NEWSPAPER Volume 133 Number 177 25 Cents tax included DAILY SPOTLIGHT Steven Moses Coloring contest Halloween winner Steven Moses won a Halloween coloring contest at a local grocery store and was awarded a $25 gift certificate. He also just finished his first season of soccer with the Valley Paving Rollers, and scored a team high 10 goals. Steven, a 6-year-old kindergartner at Deep Valley Christian School, lives in Redwood Valley and has an older brother, Robby, and a younger sister, Lauren, as well as two cats, a guinea pig, and a turtle. He enjoys playing video games and with his G.I. Joe figures, in fact, he was his favorite "Joe," "Storm Shadow," for Halloween.

Steven was submitted as a Spotlite nominee by his mother, Donna Moses. BRIEFLY Ukiah High School Principal Phil Gary reminds parents and students that the new high school truancy policy started Monday. Students who have five truancies in a semester may receive a failing grade. All Mendocino County offices will be closed Thursday and Friday in observance of Veterans Day, followed by a second furlough day for all county employees. The Sheriff's Office will have deputies on duty both days for emergencies.

Mendocino County has received its quarterly distribution of state lottery funds, according to the Office of State Controller, Gray Davis. The distribution was based on a student average daily attendance for full-time students. Mendocino County received $304,548 for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and $48,094 for community colleges. DAILY 3: 6, 7. DECCO: clubs, diamonds, spades, jack.

FANTASY 5: 15, 28, 19, 30. CORRECTION The Ukiah Dally Journal this aptco lo correct errora or make clarification, to newt artlclea. Significant In or to rlh will result In reprinting of the entire Item. may be reported to the editorial department, 468-3500. WEATHER Outlook: Showers Temperatures Yesterday's high Overnight low Last year's high Last year's low Rainfall As.

of 8 a.m. today Season to Last year to 60 49 61 29 .08 .52 4.03 The Dally Journal is made from al least 40 percent recycled newsprint. Rub-free Ink Is also used'to keep the Ink on the paper Instead of your hands. Complete the loop and recycle your paper. iff gets OK to add to staff; Yorkville group wants more By GLENDA ANDERSON Journal staff writer County supervisors gave the sheriff's department permission to hire seven new people Tuesday.

But that's not good enough for some people. A small but adamant group showed up at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday to insist that all of the money gained from the passage of Proposition 172 an anticipated $1 million to $1.4 million between January and June go to public safety, which includes the sheriff's department, probation and the District Attorneys Office. Sheriff Jim Tuso has said he alone needs around $1 million to bring his department, which includes the jail, up to snuff. Proposition 172 made perma- Emergency expert loses job over fires By K.C. MEADOWS Journal staff writer The county's emergency services director, Gregg Smith, was fired Nov.

3 after he took two days vacation to fight fires in Southern California, but has heard the county now wants him back. Smith, who has worked for the county since late 1986, went to Ventura County Oct. 28 with a strike team of 17 area firefighters, including units from Hopland, Brooktrails and Willits. The group spent four days, Thursday through Sunday, battling the "Green Meadows" fire near Thousand Oaks. Smith said the following Tuesday evening, he received a call at home from an employee of the county administrative office asking him to report to County Administrative Officer Mike Scannell the next morning.

When he arrived at Scannell's office at 9:30 a.m., Smith said Scannell handed him a letter and told him he was fired. "He said I violated policy by taking the strike team without his permission," Smith said. But Smith added that as the volunteer fire chief of the Hopland Volunteer Fire Department, he had gone to fight fires in other areas of the state before, and he always took vacation time to do so. "I've had strike teams out over the years," he said. Neither Scannell, nor County Counsel Peter Klein would discuss the matter and it is unknown what the county's policy is, whether Smith actually violated it, or why the county action was taken.

Apparently, however, the county wants to take it back. Smith said he got a call Monday night from his lawyer that the county was offering to reinstate him. But Smith hasn't decided what he'll do. "I don't know. Now that it's happened I suddenly feel relaxed.

nent a half-cent sales tax that would have otherwise expired in December. The measure failed in Mendocino County but passed by a narrow margin statewide. It was largely promoted as a way to add money to public safety, but that's not guaranteed. The sales tax income will go into a public safety fund, but nothing in the legislation prevents supervisors from reducing the money that the county already puts into those departments. Four of the five supervisors have indicated they want to spend part of the money elsewhere in the financially ailing county, such as deteriorating roads and closing landfills.

And that has angered some people. John Baird, a Republican Centr- al Committee member from Brook- trails, said he believes the people who passed the proposition intended for the money to go to law enforcement. And "if we have to hold your feet to the fire, that we will do," he said. Second District Supervisor Frank McMichael agreed. "I am going to support the 172 monies to go totally to public safety," he said.

Ironically, neither man voted for Proposition 172. In fact, both Baird and McMichael actively opposed the legislation because it didn't guarantee the money would be added to public safety budgets. Likewise motel owner Ken See SHERIFF, Back Page Barbara Daily Journal ho llves on Flsh Rock Road th area two marijuana-related murders recently occurred pervls rs Tuesda she work to unseat any SI Who votes for endln 9 Proposition 172 sales tax revenue on anything besides law enforcement OUNCE OF PREVENTION Smith Helicopter crew members from the California Department of ForesIrTsT acres of the Ford Ranch between Redwood Valley andPotter' vStov In a cont burn Monday. The burn Is designed to eliminate vegetationi that Sd blcomefirp hazard In the 1994 fire season and Improve grass production The JS drop a flammable substance onto thS property The burn Is Sart of a a program In cooperation with private landowners to help wMdland Appeals court won't hear judges' suit Wells Fargo, Yokayo exonerated in accident By LOIS O'ROURKE Journal staff writer A Mendocino County jury last week awarded more than 5600,000 to a boy severely injured by a drunken driver two and a half years ago in a bank parking lot on South State Street. Scaturro See SMITH, Back Page County request also nixed By GLENDA ANDERSON Journal staff writer Without saying why, an appeals court Monday refused to take on the county and Superior Court's battle over furloughs.

The county Superior Court judges filed a lawsuit against the county Oct. 29 demanding it pay court employees for working Oct. 8 a county mandated furlough day something the Board of Supervisors has refused to do, saying the court wasn't authorized to stay open that day. Before filing the lawsuit, the. court sent an order to the supervisors to pay the employees.

The supervisors rejected the order and, in response to the lawsuit, their attorneys filed a request with the appellate court to be relieved of the judges' demand that the court employees be paid for that day. Both the supervisors' and the judges' requests to the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco were denied. But no one quite knows why because the court gave no reason. "It could mean 101 different See APPEAL, Back Page Mother forming group to put parents on patrol Bv LOIS O'ROURKE By LOIS O'ROURKE Journal staff writer A parent concerned about the violence between students at Ukiah High School wants to start a parent group to monitor the campus during breaks and lunch. Mona Adams, of Ukiah, said her daughter was attacked by two female students recently at Ukiah High School during a break.

Adams said her daughter is not alone. Physical violence has been taking place at the high school on a daily basis, she said. "Students are staying home because they are afraid to go to school," Adams said, who added she was furious when her daughter was attacked on school grounds. Adams said Ukiah High School Principal Phil Gary has given her permission to form a parent group able to patrol the school. She wants at least 15 parents to patrol the campus from 8:15 to 8:40 a.m., the 20-minute morning break, the two lunch periods and after school.

"I'm fired up because now it's happened to my daughter," Adams said, adding that her daughter's attackers were arrested. According to records kept by Ukiah High School officials, there were 30 assaults and fights reported in September and October 1992, compared to 31 assaults and fights reported in the first two months of school this year. Statistics on arrests are not kept by school officials, but Ukiah police report they've responded to several calls of fights at the high school and that girls seemed to be involved in the majority of the incidents. They have also made some arrests for assault. Gary said while student fights and assaults are not increasing at the school, he welcomes the idea of additional adults patrolling the school and watching the kids.

"We don't have enough adults to be everywhere," Gary said. "If an additional adult is standing around, I think (it would be) helpful." If students are involved in a fight, Gary said, both are suspended. If one student hits another student, Gary added, school officials might encourage police to arrest the culprit for assault. Gary said school officials are doing a lot more than they used to when students became involved in a fight. "There's more media'ion now, more kids who are asking for help." The principal also said the school has seen more girls involved in fights than boys, and most often the girls are fighting over boys.

Adams added that high school should be fun for kids. "It's a nice high school, they have good teachers and programs and the people there are being helpful," she said. The jury also ruled two codefendants, James C. Lee, owner of the Yokayo Shopping Center, and the Wells Fargo Bank, were not liable for the accident. But the judgment against Henry Plymire, the intoxicated driver of the car, is a non-collectable judgment, according to Thomas R.

Kenney, attorney for Nicholas Scaturro and the Scaturro family. Kenney said because Plymire has no assets, the Scaturros settled with Plymire's insurance company for $50,000 before the trial began Oct. 18. Kenney said only one juror out of 12 felt the owners of the parking lot were at least partially responsible for the accident. "Jurors tend to point the finger at the intoxicated driver whether there's a dangerous parking lot or not," Kenney said.

Plymire injured Nicholas Scaturro, then 5 years old, on May 3, 1991 when he rammed Nicholas' parents' van twice with his Cadillac Coupe de Ville in the Wells Fargo Bank parking lot, pinning the boy underneath the wheel of the van. Plymire fled the scene of the accident and was arrested by police after witnesses followed him to a North State Street restaurant nearly three miles from the scene of the accident. Ten men who had witnessed the accident joined forces and lifted the van off Nicholas and pulled emeath The accident and Nicholas' subsequent surgery caused an outpouring of generosity from the Ukiah community Nicholas nearly lost his foot in the accident. Plymire later pleaded guilty to felony drunken driving and served time in jail as part of a five-year probation term. Kenney said it was the Scatur- ros' position that the space where Nicholas' mother, Kristen Scaturro, parked that day should have been painted red or marked in some fashion so no one would park there.

During the trial, he claimed there was inadequate backing space from that parking slot. Kenney said he was disappointed with the verdict. "Whenever you represent somebody seriously injured and can't achieve a result that helps them financially, it's disappointing," Kenney said. Kenney added that Nicholas is doing well but since he is growing he will need two prosthetic devices every six months until he is 18, a substantial expense. He said Nicholas' family is receiving some See JUDGMENT, Back Page.