The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 26

1 26; THE ATLANTA CON'STITTTION Tuesday, January 28, 1086 JJ til UNDER TIiS I'M GOLD DOME Legislators respond in a low-key fashion to AIDS legislation 41 senators support I kwo-times-a-loser insurance measure i 9 By Duane Riner Staff Writer EVrtu-AnA nt iha tfi mamhorfl fit tho Senate, including Majority Leader Tom Alleood and several other lawyers, have 1 -ct ') By Jim Galloway Staff Writer Last week, the House and Senate committees had a chance to pose any question they wanted on a recommended 1439,581 appropriation for AIDS treatment and testing. No one spoke, and the subject was quickly switched to funding for victims of Alzheimer's disease. State budget director Clark Stevens said the line item for AIDS is one of the few topics about which he has not been asked, either by legislators or by the public. Given the summer hysteria over 'AIDS, health officials and gay rights activists have spent months dreading this session of the General Assembly, out of a fear that it would become an irresistible occasion for "gay-bashing." Instead, they are finding that acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a political issue best left alone. The House leadership, for instance, has indicated that the governor's funding request, which includes money for an AIDS clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital, will pass quietly with only slight modifications.

House leaders and members of the state AIDS task force hope the same calm will extend to a House subcommittee Tuesday, which will take a look at the first pieces of AIDS legislation introduced in Georgia since the outbreak of the national epidemic. Chaired by Rep. George Hooks (D-Americus), the subcommittee will take on three bills, two of them introduced by Rep. Billy McKinney (D-Atlanta) and one by Rep. Vinson Wall (R-Lawrence-ville).

Wall's bill would require AIDS-expo-sure testing before a marriage license is issued. However, the legislation is not expected to leave the Health and Ecology Committee. The state's AIDS task force opposes it, arguing that the high number of false readings given by current testing would ruin many marital engagements. In addition, the people most at risk homosexual men and intravenous drug users are the least likely no marry, the task force says. Of McKinney 's bills, one is aimed it outlawing any bathhouse where sexual activity is permitted.

The other, written by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Frank Eldrldge, would strengthen requirements for reporting of AIDS cases to state agencies and allow for those suspected of having AIDS to be "examined, tested, treated or quarantined," through closed court hearings. It would also allow the compulsory testing of any "special risk group pregnant women" in order to address spreading of AIDS to infants. The state AIDS task force considers the bathhouse bill redundant and has riot had time to reach a consensus on the second McKinney bill. House leaders predict that at least some strenthening of AIDS reporting requirements will be approved, although substantial changes in McKinney's bill are expected to restrict its McKinney said legislators he has approached on the topic have not been interested in the issue it makes them nervous, he said, and many of them regard it as an "Atlanta issue," since most of the state's gay men live in Atlanta. 2 "All I get out of them are jokes about Rock Hudson and snickers," said.

"It deals with a lifestyle that lis foreign to them." Rep. Jim Martin (D-Atlanta), also a member of the task force, said muchof the arms-length treatment is due to tie fact that the state AIDS task foroe, which was established in September, hits kept the disease a public health matter, not a social issue. i signed on as co-sponsors of Lt. Gov. Zell Miller's answer to the skyrocketing cost of liability insurance, otherwise known as 5 the "two-times-a-loser" bill.

I Under Miller's bill, the loser in a law- siit would pay all court costs and attor-, treys' fees. The aim is to discourage the burgeoning number of suits, which some-f times result in fat jury awards the insur-f'ance companies have to pay. The bottom line is soaring premiums for businesses i' and professionals. Miller's approach also has won the en-i, dorsement of Attorney General Mike Bow- ers, Which might carry some weight in the Senate but could be a liability with the House leadership. I Not only is Bowers' name anathema I to House Speaker Tom Murphy, but Bow-I ers' backing for Miller's bill means the at- torney general doesn't care much for the; speaker's solution to the problem a bill I granting state judges the same right as! federal judges to reduce excessive jury awards.

Miller says the Murphy plan won't i work because, unlike federal judges, state judges are elected, and an elected official would be reluctant to alter a jury's ver- diet. Bowers sees Miller's bill as the best chance to "inject some discipline into our legal system" and says it could have the added benefit of unclogging court calen- dars. House vs. court, Round 2 CHERYL BRAYStatt Back to business as usual State Rep. Roger Byrd (D-Hazle- Most representatives do not have of-hurst) makes a telephone call from a fice space in the Capitol, and must booth in the state Capitol Monday as use phone booths for private business, the General Assembly reconvened fol- Waiting for Byrd is his colleague Rep.

lowing a week of budget hearings. Terry D. Lawler (D-CIarkdale). Senate passes measure allowing blood alcohol tests for boaters, skiers The speaker insists it isn't his legislation but admits it has a good ring to What it is is Round 2 in the power struggle between the House and the Georgia Supreme Court over the high court's authority to make rules for lower courts. Last year, it was the speaker's bill to ban cameras from the courtroom, despite the Supreme Court's rule making it permissible.

It died in committee. This year, it's a constitutional amendment declaring that the General Assembly shall be "paramount to a court rule and that no court rule shall become effective until approved by a joint resolution of the General Assembly." i The Supreme Court's rulemaking authority is found in the state's new Constitution, but Murphy said the court is ignoring limitations contained in the same document The authors of the sweeping amendment include Rep. Denmark Groover (D-Macon), who has come to be known as "the speaker's lawyer." 1 Light House, no controversy Monday's ice-covered roads and bone-chilling temperatures kept a substantial number of legislators from their appointed rounds. The highest number of votes by a show of hands in the 180-member House was 127. i 4 said the requirements are not strong enough.

Child abuse victim protection OK'd The House Judiciary Committee Monday approved all but one of a handful of bills aimed at protecting children from abuse and sexual molestation. Included in legislation passed out of committee is a bill that would allow the introduction in court of a child's testimony on videotape, as well as second-hand testimony from an adult in whom a child has confided. Two other bills approved by the committee would set up a statewide missing children's information center and give the Department of Human Resources emergency powers to install monitors in day care centers under investigation for child abuse. The committee decided to hold a bill that would permit employers to criminal records checks of any employee working with children. Panel passes election rules changei The House Rules Committee Monday approved a bill that would put General Assembly candidates under the same financtol diclosure requirements as candidates for statewide office.

Legislative candidates would havelo list any business or stock interests woflth more than 10 percent or more than $20,000, and any direct ownership of real estate valued at more than $20,000. The candidate would not be required to specify the value of such holdings. 1 The Rules Committee also approved measures allowing for. the suspension ota state official indicted on federal felony charges. Joint 'no-pass, no-play' committee The Senate Education Committee Monday unanimously passed a "no-pass, no-play" resolution that would create a joint committee to conduct a year-long study of statewide academic standards for high school athletes.

Under the resolution, introduced by committee chairman John Foster, the 14-member study panel would consist of the governor's floor leaders in the House and Senate, six Senate members appointed by the lieutenant governor and six House members appointed by the House speaker. Last week, the Georgia High School Association adopted standards raising the number of courses a student athlete must1 pass from four to five. But the standards apply only to school systems that voluntarily join the association, and some legislators From Staff Reports A bill aimed at cracking down on intoxicated boaters was unanimously passed -by the Senate Monday. The bill, which now goes to the House, would allow state game and fish wardens to administer blood alcohol tests to anyone suspected of operating a boat, water skis, aquaplane or surfboard while under the influence. A blood alcohol content of .10 percent would constitute drunkenness, and violators would be subject to, the same penalties as those found guilty of driving a motor vehicle under the influence.

Joel Brown, assistant chief of law enforcement for the state Game and Fish Division said Georgia has had 367 boat accidents, 71 deaths and 177 injuries related to water activities in the last three years. He said the National Council on Alcoholism estimates that two-thirds of all drownings in the nation are caused by drinking. Calls Klaker makes first court appearance, declines to seek bond From Page 26-A messages sought by the caller, such as time and temperature services. Several businesses complained bitterly about the proposal when it was heard in a House subcommit-tefi An official with Dial-It a Marietta tele-marketing firm, called the bill "unconstitutional and unenforceable" and threatened to go to court to overturn it. A slightly different bill on the same issue was passed out of the House Rules Committee Monday.

That measure would require a com- to get written permission be-ore telephoning someone with a recorded message. ByAnnWoolner Staff Writer A heavily guarded Lawrence B. Klaker, accused of kidnapping, escape and attempted murder, sat silently during his first court appearance in Atlanta Monday while his lawyer told a magistrate that Klaker would not even try for a release on bond. Escorted by three federal marshals, Klaker walked into the court Dougherty said, however, that a detention hearing is required because the magistrate must specify reasons for continued detention without bond. Kish then asked for more time, and Dougherty set a detention hearing for Thursday.

Klaker is being held in the Douglas County Jail on a criminal complaint charging him with kidnaping William F. Lawrence Jr. on Jan. 18 in Mobile, and forcing Lawrence to drive Klaker to Atlan room at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building with his wrists cuffed behind him and his ankles in leg irons.

During a brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate John Dougherty, public defender Paul Kish said Klaker wanted to waive his right to a hearing on whether his continued detention is justified. That meant Klaker will not seek release on bond. ta. Klaker, 28, had been on the run since he escaped from police custody Jan.

16 in New Orleans, wheje he is wanted for attempted murder. Between the time of his escape in Louisiana and his capture in Atlanta nine days later, authorities believe Klaker kidnapped three people, broke Into two East Point homes, attempted several armed robberies, and stole at least four cars, usually at gunpoint. room during surgery," she said. Police departments in metro Atlanta have complained about recorded sales messages tying up their emergency phone lines, she said, and one company had its phone system tied by an automated call that rang its sequential numbers one by one. The bill would not prohibit recorded telephone messages by non-profit organizations.

Nor would it prohibit recordedl i I I Uen Ponf A Sart Roebuck Co. fl 5 11. of old Ford factory of the industrial South to becoming the darling of Atlanta real estate. The story begins in 1907, in the mind of Henry Ford himself. It was he, according to Ford Motor Co.

archives, who thought Southerners might like someday to drive cars, and decided to open the South's first automobile dealership at the corner of Ivy and Edgewood streets. Within five years, the South wanted so many ''Tin Lizzies" that Ford decided to make them right here. The company built the factory in 1914 for $350,000, slightly more than Ford sold it for 28 years later. The building is so big and so solid that freight cars used to pull right inside on the second floor. In the same cavernous rooms where young stockbrokers may someday sip white wine and operate Cuisinarts, furnaces roared, sparks flew and spindly black automobiles were born at the amazing rate of 100 a day.

In 1942, the Army needed it to fight World War II, and the 3rd Army Air Force bought it for $320,000. It was during the time the Defense Department owned it that the distinctive "War Assets Display Room" sign was painted on its side. liams. Bradfield said they paid Williams "a substantial sum of money" to get him out of the protect. Jeff Williams, David Williams' brother, has said the Ford Factory Square project into which David never paid a dime was his brother's first big success, and it let him buy an airplane, a red Mercedes, and a house in Buckhead.

Once free of Williams and the shopping center idea, Singer and Bradfield set out to turn the building into an apartment complex. Bradfield got the building listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, qualifying the renovation for a 25 percent tax credit. But bankers, who have plenty of real estate lending opportunity in the lucrative growth areas of north-side Atlanta, weren't interested in lending the project money. "Ponce is still a little dicey," said Jack Hartman, senior vice president for commercial real estate at Trust Company Bank, which hadn't been approached for a loan. Said one local developer, "Only three things are important in real estate: location, location and location.

And that location is a loser." Grand Union owner of Big Brandywine, brothers run a "surplus auto parts" business a junkyard, in other words that is so big it has an incoming WATS line. They spotted the building in a GSA publication and bought it in 1979 for $210,000 with a vague idea that someday it might make a good shopping center. David Williams, 31 at the time, spotted the building and had a similar idea. Lacking the money to buy it himself, he paid a "cold call" visit on Atlanta developer Marvin L. Singer, who initially was impressed with Williams' confidence and drive.

Singer said he called his friend Bradfield, and Williams introduced the two of them to the Meinhardts. With Williams' connection and Singer's and Bradfield's money, the three formed Ford Factory Square Associates and bought the old factory for $868,000. The three men set out to turn the useless hulk into a three-story shopping center. But after a year of very expensive design work, market research, and some well-publicized false starts, Singer and Bradfield knew the idea wouldn't fly. Williams, though, was adamant about the idea, they said.

Singer and Bradfield just roll their eyes when asked about Wil Star supermarkets, doesn't think-so. It just invested $5 million iru opening a store not far from th Ford factory, said Don Vaillan court, vice president of Grand Un ion. And Kroger another sui permarket chain, bought from! Ford Factory Square Associates patch of land next to the factory; for $900,000, and now is building -Ann Lacombe didn't think? Ponce de Leon was a loser, She works for Industrial Develop-; ment Bond Insurance Co. of New-York, and took her first trip tot Atlanta last fall to look the pro-' ject over. After three days, she; decided it would work, and on her advice a complicated package oC development bonds was put to- gether by a string of New York' and Atlanta financial institutions.

A $5.9 million bond issue was sold to back up a bank loan, and! on Wednesday First National Bank? of Atlanta signed over a check to; Bradfield and Singer for $4.5 mil-; lion. The $1.4 million difference is! what it costs to issue and insure! the bonds, Bradfield said. "It all came down to whether. IDBI (the bond insurer) would! back the bond," he said. "When! the call came that they would, Ij just cried." jj Factory From Page 25-A crashed with 16 other sky divers and the pilot in rural Butts County.

Now Bradfield, Singer and their new partner, Jim Beeson, have embarked on the biggest project of their lives. They are gambling more than $7 million that they can pull off in Atlanta the kind of major industrial-to-residential renovation that is already commonplace in other big cities. And they are praying that Ponce de Leon will undergo a meteoric property boom similar to that under way in Midtown and Virginia-Highland. They plan to put in 122 one-and two-bedroom apartments that will rent for $400 to a month, Bradfield said. Downstairs there will be room for about 12 stores, which he hopes will provide goods and services to complement those available in the Kroger supermarket under construction next door.

If the plan works, the old Ford factory will have traveled a long, strange route from being a pillar The building served various military purposes through the years, and was an induction center for those entering the service during the Korean and Vietnam wars. The federal General Services Administration is in many ways the nation's attic. Among other duties, it gathers and keeps all of the government's surplus junk. In recent years, the old Ford factory was government junk. Junk is Walter and Alvin Meinhardt's business.

The two 5 4 i.