News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 48

HB Fort Myers News-Press, Friday, March 17, 1978 Committee recommends charter vote be split into 1 0 separate proposals State News Friend of family TALLAHASSEE (UPI) A Constitution Revision Commission committee recommended Thursday that a proposed new charter be submitted to the voters as 10 separate proposals and Gov. Rubin Askew said he will campaign vigorously for some and against others. The Style and Drafting Committee made its recommendation, to be voted on by the full commission April 3, while Askew was discussing its work at a news conference. He said he was "very pleased" with most of the commission's product, especially the proposed elimination of the "outmoded cabinet system." The committee recommended that the people be given a chance to cast 10 separate votes on the revision, to keep the entire document from falling under an avalanche of opposition to a half dozen controversial provisions. Singled out for separate votes were: The state Equal Rights Amendment.

Abolition of the Cabinet. Making the Public Service Commission appointed rather than elected. The judicial article, including elimination of contested elections of county and circuit judges. The bill of rights article, except for the ERA provision. A change in the makeup, method of selection and duties of the board of education and board of regents.

Increased homestead exemption. Tax breaks, abatement and housing. Adjustment of the corporate profits tax and exemption of businesses renting government- owned facilities from property taxes for the life of existing leases. The rest of the document. "Unless we properly break out these issues, we're going to ensure the defeat of the whole project, including many things the people want," said Commissioner Dexter Douglass.

Chief Justice Ben Overton, a committee member, opposed forcing the people to accept or reject the entire 12-article revision with one vote. He was instrumental in making the PSC reform a separate issue while Douglass got the anti-sex discrimination provision and merit retention of trial judges included for separate votes. Making it possible to vote on all the provisions of Article one, except for ERA, puts a batch of controversial basic "rights" into one package. Askew opposes split vote on constitution TALLAHASSEE (UPI) Gov. Reubin Askew says he is opposed to submitting a new state charter to the voters in a batch of separate amendments as recommended by a committee of the Constitution Revision Commission.

But if the full commission agrees to put 10 separate amendments on the ballot, Askew said, he will campaign just as vigorously against those he opposes as he does for those he favors. The idea of 10 separate votes was adopted by the commission's style and drafting committee Thursday to keep the entire document from being defeated by the "no" votes of groups opposed to a half dozen of the provisions. "Unless we properly break out these issues, we're going to ensure the defeat of the whole project, including many things the people want," Commissioner Dexter Douglass said. The recommendation will be acted on by the commission next month. At a news conference Thursday, ing the elected cabinet officials, he said.

He said if the public decides later it wants to restore all or part of the system, it can, but he predicts it will like the change with the governor appointing the people who run the government. He also is opposed to a provision to put a cap on the state budget, but that would be included in the basic document which it is unlikely he would recommend rejecting in total. Askew said he opposes transactional immunity and an attorney in the grand jury room for anyone but the target of a grand jury investigation. He said they would hinder investigation of organized crime. He said he also will try to defeat tax exemptions for leaseholds from government and for corporation profits from increases in value of property prior to 1971 when the tax was enacted.

I But he will knock on doors to try to win voter approval of eliminat is charged in death of Ocaa schoolgirl OCALA (AP) An intimate friend of the family was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the slaying of a pretty, brunette third-grader missing since late January. The remains of 8-year-old Trisa Gail Thornley were found Wednesday in a wooded area near the Ocala airport by three boys hunting for gopher turtles. Aubrey Dennis Adams 20, a guard at Marion Correctional Institution at Lowell, was brought in for questioning Wednesday night and charged with murder early Thursday, police said. Trisa's mother, Ann Thornley, expressed shock at Adams' arrest and said, "She would have gone anywhere with Dennis," as he was known by the family. "It's hard to believe," Mrs.

Thornley added in tears. Adams and his now-estranged wife had lived a few blocks from the Thornleys until shortly before the youngster's disappearance Jan. 23. Adams earlier had been brought in for questioning following an obscene telephone call made to the Thornley home, police spokesman Morrey Dean said. Police discounted any connection between the Thornley case and that of 12-year-old Dorothy "Dee" Scofield, who disappeared from an Ocala shopping plaza more than 18 months ago and has not been seen since.

Trisa Thornley disappeared on her way home from a downtown grade school. Her body was found more than eight miles away. Adams' father, Aubrey Dennis Adams was shocked at his son's arrest and told newsmen from his home in Oklawaha, "My God, there ain't no word for it." Traci Thornley, the victim's 15-year-old sister, described their relationship with the arrested man as "super-close." Her mother had refused to believe that Trisa could be dead and had even made an Easter dress for her in hopes she would turn up and wear it to church. Adams and his wife, Michelle, had visited the Thornley home often, family members said. Michelle Adams had been Trisa's first grade teacher.

Mrs. Adams and her husband were separated in December, police said. The Thornleys had posted reward money and distributed posters with Trisa's picture on it throughout the area. Concentrated searches by dozens of police officers and several hundred volunteers turned up no trace of the schoolgirl. Jack and Ann Thornley met with the parents of Dorothy Scofield shortly after their daughter's disappearance and discussed the similarities of the two cases.

State prostitution law ruled legal berg, "that due to the frequency with which individuals in our contemporary society engage in illicit sexual intercourse which amounts to violation of the law proscribing fornication, it is unreasonable for the state to label that same conduct prostitution." But, he added, there is no prohibition to the state classifying the same type of conduct as constituting more than one offense. had intercourse a few hours before their wedding guilty of prostitution. "Surely the Legislature never intended such a construction of the statute," Boyd said. The court majority ruled the law valid and upheld the Hillsborough County Court conviction of Denise Tatzel, an admitted Tampa prostitute, under its terms. "It has been forcefully argued," tne court said in an opinion written by Justice Alan Sund- TALLAHASSEE (UPI) A law making it illegal to enter a building for the purpose of committing prostitution was ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court Thursday.

The court said money need not be promised or paid in order for a person to be convicted under the prostitution statute which, in Florida, covers "licentious sexual intercourse without hire." Disagreeing with the 5-1 ruling, Justice Joseph Boyd warned it could make a couple who Chiles endorses bill to speed up state interstate work that would target dollars for completing "essential gaps" in the interstate system, saying that would help speed up completion of Florida's Interstate-75. In his testimony, Chiles also supported Stone's bill which he co-sponsored to allow states to issue bonds to pay for immediate interstate construction, with the principal and interest to be paid by the federal government from the states' future federal highway apportionments. Stone's bill, he said, could save everyone money in the long run because construction costs continue to escalate. The sooner the nation's interstate system is completed, the less it will cost, he said. In his testimony, Chiles urged the subcommittee to include "this attractive option" Stone's bill in its 1978 legislative package.

But Chiles was less assertive about the need for the bonding alternative when sub BY CHRIS COLLINS Gannett News Service WASHINGTON Sen. Lawton Chiles, has endorsed a Carter administration bill that could speed up completion of Florida's interstate system and has offered less enthusiastic support for a bill introduced by Sen. Richard Stone, that would give the state another option for funding an accelerated highway construction program. The administration's bill, which would committee members asked if it was tair to give some states financial breaks that others that have completed their interstate systems did not have. "While I would like to have the provision, I'm not sure that Florida would use that," he said.

"If I could have my druthers, I'd like to have that option. I'm not sure that it's he added, his voice trailing off. increase Florida's 1980 fiscal year interstate apportionment by about $50 million to $148.7 million and allow states to borrow on the coming year's funds, is "an effective, responsible, cost-efficient way of directing interstate dollars to the states that are ready to put them to work," Chiles told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's transportation subcommittee Thursday. Chiles especially favored a bill section NEW 1978 ASPEN 4 DOOR SEDAN NEW 1970 ASPEN WAGON SiP QBE) (333037 IH'ilH: (503 20 UNITS IN STOCK GO 20 UNITS IN STOCK SAVE UP TO 89600 NEW 1978 ASPEN S.E. WAGON SAVE UP TO $82900 NEW 1970 ASPEN 2 DOOR COUPE 33E03J) 10 UNITS IN STOCK 1 5 UNITS IN STOCK SAVE UP TO 880 SAVE UP TO $880 mm ACROSS FROM EQISON MALL, FORT MYERS, FLA.

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