The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 33

1 AT mnPTTb Ok LocalNews Editorial Pages Thursday, August 28, 1980 Cos AtUjeles Slimes CCtPart II Deadline for City Clerks' Strike Delayed Talks Postponed but Progress Results in Return to Work Voters in Eight Areas Approve Garbage Levy Balloting by Mail, County Residents OK Special Users Tax VOLUNTEERS TO HELP PAY FOR RETURN OF BODY By LARRY STAMMER Times Staff Writer Moved by reports that the parents of a young French tourist slain here Sunday night could not afford to have their son's body returned to France, Los Angeles residents, a city councilman and an airline Wednesday volunteered to help. Flying Tiger Airlines offered to fly the body of Jean Louis Verneuil, 19, home without cost if that is the wish of his parents, whom authorities still have not been able to reach with the tragic news. Verneuil's parents, who run a small shoe store in an older section of Paris, were reported vacationing in Normandy. Verneuil was one of four persons killed in three separate attacks during a 20-minute murder and robbery rampage Sunday night in West Los Angeles. Please Turn to Page 3, Col.

4 zJLij WxLA I lifer 1 outside Paramount Studios. Meanwhile, others staged a demonstration against actors' strike. Associated Press photo PICTURE THIS Unidentified man, photo of actor Charlton Heston STORY IN PART II PAGE right, snaps a on picket line Some Officers Draw Guns Too Quickly, Need More Training, Grand Jury Says with policemen around the county "to observe the problems confronting them on the streets." Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Cmdr. William Booth, in response to the recommendations, said, "We have been, we are now, and we will continue in the future to do the type of things the grand jury has recommended." Program Praised The grand jury report contained laudatory comments about LAPD's academy training program called Development and Evaluation of Firearms Training (DEFT). The DEFT program uses videotape enactments of real-life situations to force police recruits to make split-second decisions on whether to draw andor fire their weapons.

The report suggested the DEFT program be adopted by the Los An By ERIC MALNIC Times Staff Writer Negotiations between city officials and representatives for 4,700 municipal clerks ended about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday with a strike deadline of midnight delayed as union employees were told to report for work today. Negotiations had apparently reached a point close enough to avert the strike, at least until after the three -day Labor Day weekend. Although no spokesman was available for comment late Wednesday, a call to the union's office resulted in instructions that employees report for work and talk with their representatives today. While neither side would reveal details of the proposals being discussed, it was reported that talks centered around terms similar to those accepted earlier this week by clerks and other employees of the city's Department of Water and Power.

DWP workers ended their strike Monday when they accepted a pay hike of 10, plus 3 in fringe benefits. Negotiators for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3090, which represents clerical personnel in all city departments except the DWP, already have rejected a city offer of a raise of 9 or $100 a month, whichever is greater. Employee Relations The union, which had asked for a pay increase of as much as 15, set Wednesday's midnight strike deadline during a membership meeting earlier this month. However, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie, whose employee relations personnel were handling negotiations for the city, said Wedneaday evening that the threatened strike probably could be averted because the two sides no longer seemed that far apart. Comrie also said that even if there is a strike, it probably would have little immediate effect on city government or municipal business.

"Other employees and supervisors can fill in," he said. "The backlog can build up for a while." Union spokesmen predicted that any strike would be large-scale and hard-felt. 'A Virtual Halt' "Comrie's statement is an indication that the city tends to undervalue the skill and importance of clerical work," said Judy Baston, public affairs coordinator for the union. "There is no way that a handful of supervisors or management personnel, many of whom are unfamiliar with the intricacies of actual clerical jobs, could keep the city from grinding to a virtual halt." The off-and-on negotiating sessions continued for several hours Wednesday morning, recessed for most of the afternoon while both sides assessed various proposals and then resumed again at dusk to continue into the night. By SID BERNSTEIN Times Staff Writer In Los Angeles County's first election by mail, voters in eight garbage districts approved the levying of a special users tax for future garbage pickup.

More than 30,000 of 96,166 registered voters returned ballots, overwhelmingly approving the users fee to replace charges collected as part of their property tax before statewide voter approval of Proposition 13, the tax reform measure. The new tax limitations forced a shift to user fees, county officials said. The registrar-recorder's office reported 22,269 voters approved of the special users tax, 7,273 opposed it and the remaining 689 ballots returned were invalidated because they were improperly marked or not marked at all. The more than 3-1 favorable vote was hailed Wednesday by Supervisor Kenneth Hahn as not only the proper solution to garbage collection in one-third of unincorporated county territory, but as a cheaper and faster method of holding elections in smaller areas. "Registrar-Recorder Leonard Panish needed only 31 minutes to count this mail ballot," Hahn said.

"The cost was only about $100,000 or about 50 less than the cost of a traditional non-county wide ballot." Panish said the cost of just under $1 for each ballot mailed could be repeated easily in elections where 100,000 and 200,000 voters cast ballots. The cost of a county wide election, he added, is much more costly because of the necessity of setting up polling places and staffing them. Hahn said he favors the vote-by-mail process for elections to decide Ts is an excellent way to get more people to participate school board races, incorporations, tax increases, recalls and single-district city council vacancies. "This is also an excellent way to get more people to participate," Hahn said. "It is very important to get more people involved.

The people are getting turned off. There is a serious decline in voter interest in electing people to public office." Hahn said the Board of Supervisors will now hold hearings Sept. 18 to set fees for about 300,000 residents living in eight garbage districts covering Athens-Woodcrest-Olivita, Belvedere, Clifton Heights, Firestone, Malibu, Mesa Heights, Walnut Park and West Hollywood-Sherman areas. The garbage generated by the 1 million residents of unincorporated territory is collected by private firms. Prices for the service to about 700,000 residents in more heavily populated areas is set by negotiations between residents and the private firms.

Residents of more isolated areas formed garbage districts, some as early as the 1920s, the assure pickup service. Hahn predicted the current price of about $2 to $5 a month in the eight districts should remain about the same when the board finally sets fees, rules and regulations. Firm Sued Over Illegal Mixing of Gasoline Grades By TIM WATERS Tlnwt Staff Writer The district attorney's office filed suit Wednesday seeking more than $1 million in civil penalties from a Downey-based service station chain that it claims illegally mixed different grades and brands of gasoline and sold them to unsuspecting motorists. The Los Angeles Superior Court suit also asked that California Target Enterprises refund an unspecified amount of money to consumers who may have been cheated by the practice. Target operates about 60 stations in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

They include Texaco, Union 76, Arco, Mobil and Shell stations as well as others doing business as In-N-Out, Target, Look, Automated, Tops and $-Wise. According to Assistant Dist. Atty. Robert Berger, who participated in a 4-month investigation of the firm, stations owned by Target sell more than 60 million gallons of gasoline a year to nearly four million drivers. Berger said it was unknown at this time just how much motorists may have been overcharged by the Target-owned stations.

"What we're going to have to do is sit down and look at all of the delivery and pumping figures," Berger said. "At this time all we can really do is guess, but we do feel the figure collectively will be in excess of the $1 -million figure." "Cross-Dumping" Gasoline Prosecutors said that Target "cross -dumped" millions of gallons of lower grade regular or unleaded gasoline into high octane premium grade storage tanks at its stations from May, 1979 to April, 1980. In addition, the suit contends that the company mixed brands of gasoline from various suppliers and sold it under a particular brand name. Named as co-defendant in the suit was Petro-Haul a Los Angeles-based petroleum carrier that delivers gasoline to the various stations operated by Target. It is alleged that several employees were aware of and participated in the mixing practice, which not only duped customers but also gave Target an unfair competitive advantage over other stations.

In documents filed with the court, Please Turn to Page 4, Col. 5 geles County Sheriffs Department. "The reactions of police recruits during the simulations are precisely recorded on videotape," the report said. "Wax bullets are used to allow measurement of the accuracy of the officers in those situations where shots are fired. "This training device not only creates a true-life situation but also permits detailed critiques after performance, thereby, enhancing its value in training officers." A sheriffs spokesman said there would be no immediate comment on the report, but that a formal reply would be made to the grand jury within the next two weeks.

The report complimented the sheriff's training program for new deputies, saying it offers "a complete curriculum with extensive use Please Turn to Page 9, Col. 4 KERBY By BILL FARR Times Staff Writer Contending that some policemen use their guns "too quickly," the Los Angeles County Grand jury called Wednesday for more intensive training "to discourage the premature drawing and shooting of firearms." Alice M. McCormick, head of the grand jury's criminal justice committee, said the report was not aimed at any particular police department but was intended to recommend a policy that all law enforcement agencies should follow. The grand jury report, also recommended that police departments throughout the county continue to experiment with the development of nonlethal weapons such as leg grabbers, electric-stun guns, nets and chemical sprays to subdue violent suspects. Another recommendation in the report called for policemen on patrol to be required to wear bulletproof vests to protect themselves.

Conceding that some policemen resist wearing the vests, claiming they are too cumbersome, the report stated: "All officers should be required to wear bulletproof vests when working in the community on patrol. The inconvenience of such protective devices is outweighed by the safety provided." Visited Academies In conducting its study, the grand jury's criminal justice committee spent considerable time talking to instructors and observing training sessions at the Los Angeles Police Academy and the sheriff's academy. They also conferred with the sheriff's units that investigate officer-involved shootings, and met with Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert Garcetti, who heads the district attorney's staff that reviews such incidents.

McCormick said the committee made a special study of the controversial Eulia Love shooting by two Los Angeles Police Department officers, and went on several rides Bilingual OFFICIALS VOTE THEMSELVES PENSION THAT ECLIPSES PAY By GORDON GRANT and JERRT HICKS Times Staff Writers Directors of the Dana Point Sanitary District have voted themselves a pension plan that should pay them 10 times as much as they make now. The action has aroused the interest of other sanitary districts in Orange County. Angus Smith, treasurer and member of the Dana Point district's board, said that when word of the plan, adopted last April, got around, "directors of other districts began calling me, wanting to know how we did it." The plan provides for $500 monthly pensions for directors who, when they reach 65, have had at least eight consecutive years of service and have annually attended a minimum of 10 of the monthly meetings. The directors make about $50 a month now. Two of the five board members are eligible now.

Two others are into their second four-year terms and could qualify after that. Smith was defensive about the board's giving itself such a financial package. "There's always going to be a burst of indignation from someone," he said. "We get criticized when we do something, criticized when we don't. I've seen men age on this board.

People are always on our backs. We've got it the pension coming to us." The idea behind the pension is to give qualified people some incentive for Please Turn to Page 2, Col. 1 PHIL Education: A Partial Solution of Issue effects of successive waves of immigrants. In many of the reactions against the use of "foreign" languages, prejudice was explicit. A famous editor in the 1890s printed a poem called "Unguarded Gates," which read: In street and alley what strange tongues are These, accents of menace alien to our air, Voices that once the Tower of Babel knew! 0 liberty, white Goddess! is it well To leave the gates unguarded? But those people of strange tongues and their descendants defended those same gates on many battlefields, and time has wrought a shift in sentiment over the years.

Today, both state and federal governments have enacted laws that require the use of languages other than English. This move toward bilingualism is seen by its critics as a new source of divisiveness. One critic at the USC conference phrased his concern this way: "One of the great achievements of the United States has been the creation of a single nation, a single political system, a single economic market, a single culture, whatever the fruitful variations produced by the diversity of region and ethnic origin." Can this unity be sustained, he asked, against the development of bilingualism and biculturalism? Probably not to the complete satisfaction of everybody, but probably yes to the partial satisfaction of most Partial solutions the best resolution of problems that can be expected in this world have always been the genius of our Non-English-speaking pupils who enter primary schools in this country face a severe handicap. The problem is especially acute in cities of diverse population like Los Angeles, where about 80 languages are spoken. Spanish, as it is in the nation, is by far the principal minority language in Los Angeles.

Students of Spanish-speaking families comprise 45 of the city's school population. Some educators believe the remedy is first to teach these youngsters English. The official view, reaffirmed by new guidelines issued by the Department of Education, supports the bilingual approach, that is, teaching children in their native language until they become proficient in English. That approach has a significant advantage. It prevents these children from falling behind their peers and becoming discouraged just at a critical time when their young minds should be eagerly open to all knowledge.

The guidelines would require students to leave bilingual programs at the end of five years, regardless of their proficiency in English. But what if most, or many, do not have a working grasp of English at the end of five years? Would that prospect create irresistible support for a continuation of their education in Spanish? Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, calls the new guidelines an "unmitigated disaster." He accuses the Education Department, without any empirical evidence to support its choice, of mandating one program that is still experimental and whose superiority has not been demonstrated. It would make more sense, he says, to allow "widespread experimentation so that better programs can be developed." He then jumped into the rising argument that is usually phrased much more indirectly because it touches upon the sensibilities of all groups regardless of their origins: "The biggest issue of all is the question of bi-lingualism One of the major purposes of the American public school has been to 'Americanize' waves of immigrants That meant teaching them English. Ethnic groups had their foreign language newspapers and neighborhoods where their language was spoken, their culture preserved. But in the schools, as in public life in general, English was used.

The policy worked. It brought many together to forge a nation. The new policy is a radical change. It is bad for the child. It will do harm to the nation.

But the controversy over language in this country is not new. It dates back to the beginning of the nation, as Stephen T. Wagner, a Harvard University graduate student in education, emphasized at a recent conference on bilingual-ism and biculturalism at the University of Southern California. Before the revolution, Benjamin Franklin asked, "Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who shortly will be so numerous as to germanize us instead of our anglifying them?" Similar concerns were expressed over the years about the INDIAN LOSES TRIBAL LAND-GETS $862,500 By CHARLES MAHER Tlnwt Legal Affairs Wrtttr The jet age caught up with an Agua Caliente Indian Wednesday. Larry Norman Olinger lost his ancestral land to the city of Palm Springs, which will use it for an airport expansion.

But the white man can no longer take Indian land as he once did. In this case, the city must pay Olinger $862,500. That was the value established by U.S. Dist. Judge Irving Hill in an eminent-domain suit brought by the city.

The case was unusual in that it was a state condemnation action tried in a federal court. The reason was that the federal government had an interest in the land. It held the property as trustee for Olinger. It was decided, however, that the government's interest was only nominal, that Olinger was the real owner and that the city had power to take the land under state eminent-domain law. dinger's attorney, Jerrold O.

Fadem of Santa Monica, said the Agua Caliente Indian band is a subgroup of the Cahuilla Tribe, which once had a reservation in the Palm Springs area. The reservation eventually was divided into individual allotments. Olinger got a 20-acre allotment in 1965. The property is north of the present city airport Fadem said his client did not wish to give up the land because it had been part of a tribal holding. Once it became apparent he could not keep it, he asked $1 million for it.

The city offered $708,000. Judge Hill split the difference..