The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 14

2- THE TAMPA TRIBUNE, Wednesday, January 10. 1979 1 Governments) 1 Plan Transfer late On Computers Of Customers Cri eac sis Haggle lies By TOM I'GLIS Tribune Staff Writer i -vj. I I i I- i i 1 tea i JjY I -i i A staff agreement under which Tampa and Hillsborough County would trade more than 3,000 water and sewer customers will be placed before the Hillsborough County Commission for approval today. The pact also still faces a test in City Hall before it takes effect; Although the interlocal agreement between Tampa and the county has taken almost six months to iron out, spokesmen for Temple Terrace have expressed concern that the pact ignores other past agreements between Tampa, Hillsborough County and Temple Terrace. Most immediatly affected by the pact are residents of the Town 'N Country area and the Bayport Colony subdivision.

Under terms of the staff agreement between Dale Twachtmann, city water resources administrator, and Pickens C. Talley, the county's utilities director, 2,400 county utilities customers in the Town 'N Country area would be transferred from county service to city service. About 900 city customers in the Bayport Colony subdivision would be transferred from city to county service. The transfer of utility systems will require payment of $627,000 by the city to the county during a five-year period. By THOMAS E.

SLAUGHTER Associated Press Writer TALLAHASSEE Law enforcement officers seeking current vehicle registration information remain hindered by outdated data while three computer companies haggle with the state in contract negotiations. Meeting Tuesday, the governor and Cabinet accepted a recommendation from the Department of General Services that the controversy, characterized as a morass that has reached the crisis stage, be referred to an administrative hearing officer for resolution. At stake is a contract to install a $5 million computer system intended to update the state's vehicle registration records. Officials of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said that about half of the 10 million vehicle registrations entered in their computer are outdated. That means that the state's highway Ii1 Cvl tli patrolmen, police officers, sheriffs deputies and other authorities can get accurate and up-to-date vehicle registration information on only 5 million cars and trucks.

House Transportation Committee Chairman C. Fred Jones, D-Auburn-dale, told the Cabinet: "Law enforcement pulls up behind a suspected vehicle, radios in a tag number, and lo and behold, it can't be found. "It's my opinion that we've reached an emergency situation, and you should do whatever you can to resolve that." Jones suggested that the seven-member body invoke special emergency powers enumerated in the Constitution to suspend normal state bidding procedures and immediately award a contract for the computer system. However, Attorney General Jim Smith said it is doubtful whether the situation meets the constitutional definition of a crisis, leaving the governor and Cabinet no recourse but to handle the contract procedures through the normal state bidding mechanism. That mechanism, a state appeals court recently has held, requires the state to grant an administrative hearing under the Administrative Procedures Act when a dispute arises about the terms or conditions of a proposed contract with the state.

That effectively left the governor and Cabinet no option but to send the issue to a hearing officer. The governor and Cabinet reluctantly agreed to grant an administrative hearing on the issue, saying the hearing procedure, and the possibility that one of the companies might appeal the hearing officer's decision, could result in additional delays. "What we're talking about is stretching this thing out for a year and that distresses me," said Insurance Commissioner Bill Gunter. Only three firms submitted bids for the computer system, but each of those bids was slightly different from the specifications outlined by the Department of Highway Safety. Talley said he feels the agreement will provide "better efficiency in the long run and better service in the short run." But Temnle Tpr mr Citr Minn nor Tol VntnrA v.v iiiuiiutvi MVW A pressed concern that the pending agreement does not take into consideration past agreements between the county, Tampa and Temple Terrace.

Agreements in 1962, 1967 and 1977 set forth an area to the north and east of Temple Terrace where UHU U1IU1 UVC1 ments in water and sewer service, Koford said. Temple Terrace has an interest in Temple Park and Meadowood, and construction is now in progress in the Orangewood area, Koford said. Boats. From Page IB in front of your house," Councilman Lee Duncan said, pointing toward Kot-vas. "I have received numerous complaints of people parking these campers some of them 25 or 30 feet long and obstructing the view for those backing out of their driveways," Duncan said.

"We've got traffic laws to take care of that situation," Kotvas said. "I think the law ought to be changed." Spicola said his community development committee would review the law and might suggest some changes, but most council members indicated they thought the law should remain. And, city building officials said that when residents complain, inspectors will continue to issue citations to those who park their boats and campers in the front yard. we have expended funds, replaced mains, and put in hydrants. The question now is, will Tampa ghd Hillsborough recognize this," Koford said.

Only about a month ago, the Temple Terrace man- ager said, Temple Terrace met with the commission- 7 ers and received a pledge that the county Adrift In Seddon Channel ers wouia nor ao anyming to jeopardize the utility service interests of Temple Terrace. The interlocal agreement on water and sewer ser-' vice was mandated bv a bill sponsored hv Sen. Guv z. Wayne Hull opened up to public schools for building. "We had a lot more money to plan and work with," he said.

Board Chairman Marion Rodgers said she was worried that most of the construction money has been concentrated in certain areas of the county. Some smaller projects have been overshadowed by larger ones which used up most of the money, she said. I Drifting along in Seddon Channel, off Davis was good or poor, they Islands, three fishermen crowd a small boat, good way to spend the hoping to hook a big one. Whether the fishing Photo by Fred Fox surely had found a afternoon. Tribune opiuuia in klahoma $5.2 Million Is Committed For County School Projects layings Compared for airconditioning whose financing was included in a recent bond issue.

Some of the projects have been on paper for several years, school officials said, and costs have risen in the meantime. The project at Leto had been approved as a priority project in 1976. "With escalating construction costs, the projects we had already bidded used up all of the money," according to Wayne Hull, assistant superintendent for business and research. "We do not have enough money to finish all of the projects," Hull termed the situation a The School Board also gave the staff the authority to negotiate a loan for the $5.2 million expected from the state. But, according to Hull, the loan would not be made but would only be assurance that money was available for construction.

The money from the state By SHERRY HOWARD Tribune Staff Writer In what one school administrator termed a "semi-crisis," the Hillsborough County school system will use up all of its construction money up to 1980 just to complete current projects, the School Board learned Tuesday. The board gave the school staff the go-ahead to commit an expected $5.2 million in state construction money for the 1979-80 school year to seven projects already started. The projects are additions and renovations at Dale Mabry, Wimauma, Pinecrest and Temple Terrace elementary schools, Young Junior High and Chamberlain and Leto high schools. The total expected cost of the projects is more than $14.4 million, but the board budgeted $9.3 million. The $9.3 million includes more than $1 million Bypass Tests For High School Courses Are Proposed me iasi legislative session.

And Largo Stebbins said the matter "deserves looking into," he said. One reason, he said, is because Kennedy was known to be living in Pinellas County at the time of the Brunton slaying and working not more than five minutes away from her home. Pierce said that while the hair samples were similar in color and texture, they could not be considered conclusive evidence that Kennedy, was present when both crimes were committed. Further hair analysis is needed to be conclusive, he said. An Oklahoma City judge signed a search warrant Tuesday permitting hair samples to be taken from Kennedy's scalp.

The samples have been sent to Pinellas County detectives and they will be analyzed at an FBI laboratory. Pierce said that in May, when the 15-year-old was murdered, Kennedy had returned to Oklahoma and was enrolled in an electronics school. He had grown up in Midwest City, and lived there until the early part of 1976 when he moved to Florida. Kennedy was described at his trial as an intelligent man with an IQ of between 1 15 and 125, with a cool calculating mentality, Pierce said. Brunton was killed on Aug.

23, 1976. She was found in the living room of her home where she had gone home for lunch. Police said there was no sign of a struggle and they were never able to establish a motive for the killing. "I just don't understand the reasoning here," Moses said as he left the council chambers shaking his head. "I've been in business here 30 years.

If you didn't have a good reputation, you couldn't stay in business that long," he said. "It just doesn't make sense for the city to pay more money for something than it has to. "That's taxpayers' money," Moses said. "That's my money. It's just not fair." 3 Face Sexual Ballcry Charges Three members of one Hillsborough County family have been charged with involuntary sexual battery by the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Departmenty-officials said Tuesday.

Charged were William Edward Anderson 22, William Edward Anderson 43, and Mayme Lu Anderson, 42, all of 8601 Harney Road. Investigators said Mrs. Anderson is accused of aiding in a sexual batteiyaj. legedly committed by her husband and son. By KIM I.

EISLER Tribune Staff Writer Betty Brunton, a 52-year-old Pinellas Park mother of four, was found brutally slain more than two years ago. She was mutilated with a butcher knife and was nude from the waist down. Pinellas County Sheriff Bill Roberts warned at the time that her killer, if not apprehended, "may kill someone else." And the killer has not been caught. But Pinellas County investigators have had their interest in the Brunton case renewed recently because of deve-lopments in the murder conviction in Oklahoma last month of 23-year-old John Benjamin Kennedy Jr. Kennedy has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the slaying of a 15-year-old runaway from Texas.

According to Oklahoma investigators, the girl was found nude from the waist down in a bathtub. She had been mutilated with a butcher knife. In addition, said Oklahoma County Assistant District Attorney Stanley Pierce, hair samples taken from the Oklahoma City crime scene are "similar in all measurable aspects," to hairs found in the living room of Betty Brunton. The combination of the hair, the knife and the nude body "tends to show a pattern," Pierce said. Pinellas Sheriffs spokesman Merrill Decorator.

From Page IB Councilman Joe Kotvas. "That's the reason we've got such a cost override on that building now." The new office building is running about a year behind schedule and a million dollars over the original estimated construction cost The city has ordered several changes in the design of the building that increased the price and delayed its completion. "The city has to bid out its contract and it looks to me like contractors should have to take bids from their subs if they are going to do work for the city," Councilman Lee Duncan said. "We want to get the best price we can and it doesn't look like we did it here," he said. With that, the council approved a resolution making it city policy that when a contractor is given an allowance to have a subcontractor do work for the city, the contractor must follow the city's bidding procedures in assigning that work.

However, the council told Moses there was nothing it could do about the bid that already had been awarded because it was done legally. would then be substituted for the loan, he said. If the full amount is not received from the state, Hull said, the full loan or a portion of it could be made. Exhausting its supply of construction money until 1980 will leave the system without any construction money, unless money becomes available from some other source, noted School Board member Ben Hill. Superintendent Raymond Shelton said, however, that the board can float a bond issue locally.

He said he hopes the state Legislature will consider pumping more money into the public schools for construction projects. Hull noted that the system has had a sufficient construction budget during the past few years with a $19 million bond issue in 1969, $24 million in construction money from the state in subsequent years, and new taxes that toll revenue studies had been based on the Interstate bypass east of Brandon not being completed until 1988. The new federal highway act has speeded that to a completion in 1982-83, which should greatly boost tolls, he said. He supported the use of state road money for maintenance on the expressway. The motorists using it are paying twice through their gas taxes and their tolls, he said.

"I'd be lying if I said there was no risk," Bertossa commented, and there was some muttering among the legislators about building two white elephants instead of one. That's the derisive tag applied to the little-used link that connects downtown Tampa with the southern parts of town. John Dobbins, executive director of room for the Students according after a student He said March, August school students A student graduation a single test. But Horton would actually highly skilled svstem of 100 will drop about eight other language arts courses, Horton said. would get a pass or fail grade on their records, to Horton, and no test can be taken has attempted a regular class.

the test would be given on Saturdays in and October to public and private who have made application. could meet all of the requirements for in a subject area, Horton said, and not attend class. All he would have to do is pass a predicted that only a few students pass the test, which is aimed at the student. In the Duval County school about 55,000 high schoolers, he noted, between and 180 students took the test. The number to about 90 on subsequent tests and only will pass, he said.

Sam Horton, and "we're just trying to meet the requirements of the law. "For a small number of kids, the test will provide an opportunity for them to accelerate through high school," said Horton, Hillsborough's general director for secondary education. "I have a lot of concerns about acceleration of kids through high school. "Some of the learning associated with school is not measured by a particular test. A test can only measure a minute amount of what the course is all about." Under the "credit by examination" program, as it is called, students would pay a $5 fee for each test, which would be offered in social studies, physical education, language arts and math.

Students passing the test would get from one-half to a full credit, depending on the test taken. Most tests give one full credit, with those in language arts offering one-half. A student would have to go into a structured class By SHERRY HOWARD Tribune Staff Writer Want to skip your high school world history class? Take the Cooperative Social Studies Test in world history. How about that writing course? Take the Test of Academic Progress in Composition for 11th grade. And what about a math class? There's the Iowa Test of Educational Development in math.

Take a test to bypass a class? Sounds unreal, but it isn't. The Hillsborough County secondary education staff will present a proposal to the School Board next week to allow high school students in grades eight to 12 to be exempted from a course by taking a test. The first test would be given in March. The program was mandated last year by the Florida Legislature, according to school administrator Road. From Page IB neer associate working on the expressway plans, said the Coast Guard Monday finally agreed to "sign off in approval of the environmental impact statement and he estimated it would be delivered to the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency within a week. "The Coast Guard asked that we perform very elaborate excavation," of two potential historic sites, a Indian village site and another one linked to the original Fort Brooke, he said. Any artifacts discovered will be registered and turned over to the state for preservation, he said. The environmental permits should be lined up within about five weeks, he estimated. Every month construction is de-A the expressway authority, said several factors contributed to the failure of the Interbay link to generate money.

Current estimates show it would never generate enough tolls to pay for itself and would continue to drain $2 million a year from" other Hillsborough County road projects. Dobbins said the oil embargo in 1973 and subsequent revolution in the price of energy drove construction costs up. And, he said, the planners were counting on Gandy Boulevard as a limited access highway to shovel traffic from Pinellas County onto the first link. That idea never got far. Public outcries against making Gandy limited access were so intense that the road department dropped the idea.

layed, Bertossa said, inflation eats $550,000 away from construction funds. But by cutting the amount of contingency funds set aside, reducing the paving thickness nearly in half and making other economic moves, the expressway authority should have enough without a cost overrun to complete the link to the Interstate bypass, he said. Tom Drawdy, state estimates engineer, disagreed. He figures the cost of the addition at $10 million more than Bertossa. He also uses a higher inflationary rate and said it looks more like a $5 million overrun.

Bertossa uses an 8 percent inflation factor. Drawdy said, "It was 20 percent last year; we think 10 percent is more realistic for this year and next." Webb argued philosophically on behalf of the tollroad and noted that the.