Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 17

Insldo Eyes on Texas B3 Deaths B4 Neighbor B14, B15 Best Bets B16 Weather B16 Today's an Ozono Action Pay Smog levels in Austin today could cause a variety of respiratory ailments. To help keep ozone levels low, people should avoid using gasoline-powered lawn equipment, buying gas and driving. Residents also are encouraged to carpool, bike or take Capital Metro buses, which are free on Ozone Action Days. Thursday; October 12, 1995 Mstiii officers sue city over sick days 'Officers have been questioning this policy for years, and there has been no resolution of it Joe Colbert, attorney worked the 10-hour shifts." Colbert said the lawsuit is not connected to any political disagreements the Austin Police Association has with Police Chief Elizabeth Watson. Jim Everett was police chief in 1990 when the alleged miscalculations began.

In August, Sheffield, a member of the association board, was among officers who criticized Watson's reorganization of department management. Sheffield said reducing the number of captains-weakened leadership over officers in the field. been no resolution of it," Colbert said Wednesday "We are saying that the city has knowingly withheld pay from these plaintiffs since 1990." He said the miscalculation also lowers the amount of lump-sum payment officers who have worked 10-hour shifts get when they retire. Officers are paid a lump sum upon retirement based on their amount of unused sick and vacation leave. Colbert said he could not determine how much compensation is due the plaintiffs "because the pity has all the records of who has ministrators had not received a copy of the lawsuit and had no comment.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday by police Lt. John Ross, patrol officer Michael T. Sheffield and 364 other officers contends the city has violated state laws that govern how vacation and sick pay should be accrued. Colbert said all the plaintiffs are working or have worked shifts in which they are on duty for four 10-hour days a week. According to the lawsuit, state law requires officers to get 15 work- ing days of sick leave with pay a year.

Since the plaintiffs' working day is 10 hours long, they should get 150 hours a year in paid sick leave, the suit says. Instead, the city credits them with 120 hours of sick leave as if they worked eight hours a day. Because the plaintiffs work 10-hour days, they receive only 12 days of sick leave annually, according to the suit. "Officers have been questioning this policy for years, and there has r- 1 'm I ill I i J- 1 i :.) a if-, rmmi-m 1 Selena planned to fire Saldivar, amity testifies Singer's relatives say defendant was embezzling from fan club By James E. Garcia American-Statesman Staff HOUSTON Relatives of slain Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla Perez testified Wednesday that she was about to fire her longtime friend and confidant Yolanda Saldivar because Saldivar was embezzling money from the singer's fan club.

That, prosecutors say, was Saldivar's motive for killing Selena, who was shot to death in a Corpus iA ft By Bob Banta American-Statesman Staff More than 300 police officers have sued the City, of Austin for money they say they are owed because of a miscalculation of sick and vacation pay for officers who work 10-hour-a-day shifts. "I have no idea how much the compensation would total if we win," their attorney, Joe Colbert, said Wednesday. "But I know it would be substantial." Austin Police Department spokesman Mike Burgess said ad- Insurers want hike for risky drivers Under plan, worst 2 of drivers would see 33 price jump for liability coverage By Stuart Eskenazi American-Statesman Capitol Staff Insurers think Texas' worst drivers need to pay 33 percent more for minimum liability auto insurance even though the price of that coverage jumped the same amount only four months ago. The increase would affect those insured by the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan Association, a state-regulated insurance plan for drivers unable to obtain insurance in the open marketplace. About 2 percent of Texas drivers are covered by the plan, known as TAIPA, industry representatives say The association's plan assigns high-risk drivers to insurance companies, which are required by law to offer coverage at the regulated rate.

Insurers have long argued that the rate was too low to cover their payout of claims, estimating losses of about $250 million a year. The Office of Public Insurance Counsel, which represents insurance consumers, is recommending that rates under the plan should stay essentially the same Public Insurance Counsel Rod Bordelon said he is recommending a range between a 1.9 percent decrease and a 4.2 percent increase. New rates would go into effect in mid-1996. Insurance Commissioner Elton Bomer is the final arbiter. The number of people insured under the plan has decreased in the past few months, insurance officials say.

The state passed rules to ensure that only those with poor driving records are assigned to the insurance pool Consumer groups in the past maintained that some people with good driving records particularly low-income Texans were relegated to the high-risk pool and therefore unfairly paying the plan's higher rates. "Before the commissioner grants See Insurers, B13 "1 it In At I Christi motel March 31. Saldivar, who pleaded not guilty to the charge of first-degree murder, has admitted to shooting Selena but says it was an accident. Selena's father, husband and sister were the first witnesses called by prosecutors in the trial of Saldivar, a former nurse who founded the Selena Fan Club. "She was taking money from the fan club," said Abraham Quintanilla Selena's father and manager, who was prevented from Tom LankesAA-S photos Students at Blackshear Elementary School inspect a trea- Maine's coast.

The Blackshear students had sent their new sure trove of items sent by students on Monhegan Island off friends in Maine a package of Texas plants and artifacts. Quintanilla DOS llMtfll mmmm 1 FTMI i i miini. "CM Yr- providing details about the alleged financial improprieties when defense attorneys complained that they have not been allowed to review fan club records. Quintanilla has accused Saldivar of stealing more than $30,000 from his daughter's fan club and her boutiques in Corpus Christi and San Antonio. Saldivar has not been charged in the alleged theft.

Chris Perez, Selena's husband, said the couple discussed firing Saldivar but put it off until they could recover some of the missing fan club documents. "Selena and I didn't trust her, because there were a lot of things coming up unaccounted for," he said. During their testimony, Selena's father and her sister, Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga, described a meeting in early March in which they confronted Saldivar about the accounting problems. Abraham Quintanilla said Saldivar wouldn't answer their questions, so he threatened to call the police. "I got up close to her, and I pointed at her and told her she was a liar to her face and a thief," said Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga, who manages the boutiques.

Quintanilla Arriaga added that Selena told her on March 25, six days before the slaying, that she was about to fire Saldivar. "She said she was going to fire Saldivar because she thought she was embezzling from our company." Prosecutors also called two San Antonio men to testify about a handgun they sold to Saldivar in March. Police said at the time of Selena's death that she was shot with a handgun that they recovered from Saldivar. Michael McDonald, an employee at A Place To Shoot, a gun shop and firing range in San Antonio, said Sal-See Selena, B7 Blackshear 6th-graders share artifacts of home with island-dwelling pals By Sharon Jayson American-Statesman Staff Blackshear Elementary School students had waited weeks for this moment. A cardboard box filled with native Texas plants and artifacts had made the trip from Austin to a one-room school on a tiny island 10 miles off the Maine coast.

Now Blackshear students were ready to see what the Maine students had sent back. "I was anxious," said 11-year-old Candy Reynosa. "I didn't know what would be in the box." On Wednesday eager hands tore through the treasure, and the sixth-graders "oohed and aahed" while pulling out zip-pered plastic bags labeled with their contents. "Lobster claw," said one. "Sea urchin skeletons," said another.

There were also "pricklebush," "sea shells" and "sea glass," along with photographs of Monhegan Island's only school and its four students, who had written to their new friends. "I thought it was neat because we are like two friends," said 12-year-old Chris Limoa "It was kind of interesting that A photograph of Monhegan island's only school and artifacts of coastal Maine were part of a package received by students at Blackshear Elementary School on Wednesday. they had different things that we don't have here in Texas. We sent different kinds of things that they might not have seen before." What librarian Carol Howard called a "great outreach" See Students, B2 Melatonin gains ground fighting variety of illnesses Cemetery vandals hit nerve in Bastrop jeX I fc which is not FDA-regulated but has no known toxicity or side effects, is "poised to be the hottest pill of the decade." Renowned endocrinologist Russel J. Reit-er of UT's Health Science Center in San Antonio has written a com prehensive, nuts-and-bolts consumer guide to melatonin, titled "Melatonin: Your Body's Natural Wonder Drug," published by Bantam and due in bookstores Nov.

IK By John Bryant American-Statesman Staff BASTROP Retired mason A. Schmitz surveyed a hilltop of toppled tombstones in Bastrop's Fairview Cemetery and wondered aloud how the larger white Italian-marble markers could be placed back on their pedestals. "That'll take some muscle," said Schmitz, 70. "More than I've got." Two young Bastrop County residents standing next to Schmitz answered his concern. "We've got the muscle," said Jason Westfall, 18, who lives in Paige Schmitz, who worked for 47 years as a bricklayer and mason in Austin, has voluntered to help restore broken monuments that were vandalized last weekend.

Westfall's friend, Trevor Roberts, said other youths are outraged about the destruction and want to help. "It's despicable," said Roberts, also 18. "People vandalizing rest-hig places like that" Bastrop police investigator David Board said about 30 tombstones and markers were broken or shattered. Another 50 monuments, some weighing up to 1,000 pounds, were pushed off their bases but not Board said he is following some "promising leads," but police have no suspects in custody. "We have been developing some information, but we don't have enough solid evidence to make any arrests," Board said Wednesday.

S6me of the damaged tombstones date to the early 1830s. Board said a stream of visitors has come to the cemetery off Texas 95 to see whether relatives' tombstones were damaged. Many of the graves are so old that there are no family members left, he said. Larry Ripper, a 48-year-old Lower Colorado River Authority employ-, ee who lives in La Grange, drove to the cemetery on Wednesday and See Volunteers, B2 By Leigh Hopper American-Statesman Staff Leigh and Bob Mezzetti's 10-year-old son Robert, who is autistic, couldn't get to sleep before 11 or 12 at night. Sleeping pills only made his mind race faster.

Then the Austin couple heard about melatonin, a little-known hormone manufactured in the brain and sold in a synthesized form over the counter. "It's' nothing short of a miracle," says Leigh MezzettL Robert began taking it a month ago, with immediate results. He falls asleep by 8:30 p.m. now. The rest leaves him ready for school the next day and has restored a measure of normalcy to the family's life.

"It's so wonderful now, so perfect. You can be a person and not be always caring for somebody else," she says. "Most medicine he doesn't like to take. But when I mentioned changing his medication, he said, 'Oh, don't take away my sleeping "Melatonin" is the buzzword among parents of autistic children, but it's also gaining ground as a natural way to fight everything from cancer to jet lag. Newsweek magazine recently declared that jhe substance, ij The researcher says ii he wants people to know i I what he's learned in Reiter more than 30 years studying the hormone, t' A which is manufactured in the brain's pineal "gland.

"Many, many people (are) taking melatonin, and there's very little factual information for them to examine," Reiter says. "This book is not meant to tell people, Take Once they read the book, they'll have a working knowledge of it and discuss Tom LankesAA-S Retired mason A.W. Schmitz looks over damage at the Bastrop cemetery, where vandals struck last weekend. He plans to help repair the broken markers. See Melatonin, B6.