The Fresno Bee from Fresno, California • 17

4 Showdown Nears On Fire District Captain's Promotion By Gene Kuhn A simmering dispute over a split decision of North Central Fire Protection District directors to promote a captain to battalion chief without an examination today appeared nearing a showdown The directors voted 3-2 to promote William Lb Burgen at their Dec 20 meeting an action the county office views as legal sanction" because the civil service ordinance was bypassed The board was advised to rescind its action and follow the proper procedure Concurring with the opinion is the attorney retained by Fire Fighters Local 1180 However the attorney John McFeeters Jr was abruptly cut off from delivering his opinion at a Feb 21 meeting by another board also on a 3-2 Fanucchi refused to confirm the action "I discussing nothing with nobody" he said 'Simone said he first learned tbat another attorney had been engaged last at the April 18 meeting Simone said he called on the attorney Saturday but was told: not supposed to say anything to you about want to go to court on this he added want to have the taxpayers say my fault I want to keep myself out of this because not Cottrell reached at his Kerman drug store said he was too busy waiting on customers to discuss the situation He would not return a call made to his home LeRoy Schafer a North Central captain and president of Local 1180 said the directors will he asked to re not to allow a discussion of the matter Burgen who also has engaged an attorney says he cannot discuss the situation 'Another attorney has been engaged but his precise role is unclear Ostensibly he is to advise the three board Donald 1L Cottrell Pete Fanucchi -and Vernon Dettman who voted in favor of promotion Dettman would say only that a majority of the board decided a month or two ago to bring in another attorney The two directors who voted against Pasco Simone and Ray maintain the board took no action to hire private counsel Dettman said Fanucchi the secretary would have a record But open the discussion at a May 13 special meeting to consider the district's preliminary budget A decision on the promotion could be made then "The men of NCFD want the board to recognize that we have a civil service system and that the chief be allowed to do his job of conducting examinations for the filling of positions and rank under civil Schafer commented- Fire district sources trace the problem back to 1968 when one of the captains was designated as safety and training officer in addition to his other duties Prior to that the job had been passed around among the assistant chiefs In June 1970 an examination was held for captain and three men passed Burgen among them On Jan 1 when the budget provided salaries for the promotions two of the cap tains opted for fire suppression duty having Burgen a choice of taking what' had become an unpopular job and the rank of captain or remaining an engineer The sources said that at a hoard executive session Jan 12 1971 Burgen was told that if he did not take the job the directors would seek a safety and training officer from outside the district If on the other hand he took the job he was told it would lead to promotion to battalion chief He also was told he would have to keep the job for a year the sources said Burgen asked for and got a $50 monthly increase over his captain's pay to sweeten the demands In his second year the sources said he received another $50 raise He also was asking when he might expect to be made a cbieL Fire Chief Henry letter to the county office gave this account of the Dec 20 action: "Vernon Dettman moved that Capt Burgen be moved to the rank of battalion chief as per the commitment previously made FFanucchi seconded the motion Carried by majority" -Tanaka also asked if the board could "temporarily set the provisions of the civil service ordinance The reply was that the general rule is that promotions must be made in accordance with civil service provisions they are -Dettman said he was told by Lee Johnson who left the board in November that the directors had made the commitment to Burgen never heard of a promise like Simone said can't make a promise like that" The Fresno Bee Friday April 26 Future AAG-PV Funds Limit Is Declined Debate Looms By Edwin Clough Bet Urban Affairs Writer The Fresno City Council Thursday de dined to put a ceiling on the total of reve- Tue sharing dollars which might be used to continue existing Model Cities Planned Variations (MC-PV) projects' A figure of $400000 had been suggested The council accepted process proposed by City Manager Ralph Hanley for handling continuation requests All such items will go through the regular MC-PV evaluation process with a recommendation to the council by the Fresno Community Development Commission Any proposed new projects will be in- eluded in the regular listing of requests from outside agencies for financial aid from the general fund which is part of each fiscal year's budget It-was clear throughout the council discussion that no project should cease looking diligently for other financing and council action was no guarantee that any project will continue to get support All derisions will be made during bud-get sessions on a one-by-one basis The discussion was prompted by a request from Hanley for policy direction by the council so he can complete budget reo- ommendations which will go to the council Ibext month In the past the council has indicated 80 City Explores MC-PV Citizen Participation Methods Fresno ETV Gets Backing 1974 PageBl per cent of the revenue sharing dollars would be earmarked for capital improvements 10 per cent as a contigency for future capital projects and 10 per cent for social or projects as they are called On the basis of the current estimates the figures then would be $32 million for capital improvements $400000 for contigency and $400000 for soft projects Coundlmen Mare A Stefano opposed assigning any dollar figures at this time think this is said Stefano would rather play it by ear until June 30 (the termination date for most MC-PV projects) and then take a long hard look at the people programs and the proposed capital projects may be ill-advised to allocate so much for capital improvements this year Moreover if we lock ourselves in today many of the projects will cease immediately their search for outside Councilman AI Villa added: "I want to lock myself in to 10 percent or any other figure now People are going to come to the city and ask for continuance and we are going to get a lot of heat think what this council is saying is we have to do something about some of the people projects but not discourage them from looking for other The council voted 6-0 to go along with the procedures outlined by Hanley with distinct understanding there are no dollar ceilings Involved Is complete agreement that a regional effort is necessary -for the development of facilities and and endorses Fresno County by name It further states that the superintendents actively pursue a joint powers agreement for administration operation- and maintenance which will involve tjie public school systems community agencies and representative leaders of participating Poore said the resolution was adopted at a meeting Thursday of the suiierin-tendents following renewed talk last week lie-fore the Joint Committee on Telecom- See ETV Page B2 man said is only a minor point As far as concerned the deal is finalized in The contract is in the process of being written he said District trustees had leased the old high school building and were using it furthc adult school program That use will now continue Councilmen had indicated that if the trade was not possible they would demolish the building and construct the civic center on that parcel of land Trustees had earlier balked at the trade because the district would lose the use of the baseball field for the Clark Intermediate SchooL Goodman said the city intends to maintain the baseball diamonds for public use By Laimy Larson Schools superintendents for Stanislaus Merced Madera Fresno Kings Tulare and Kern Counties have Signed a resolution of support for the Fresno County proposal to activate Channel 18 as the San Joaquin Valley's educational-public television station Fresno County Schools Supt Ernest Poore said today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and tlie US Department of Health Education and Welfare (HEW) may read the Fresno application next week The proposal is to put Channel 18 on the air utilizing a transmitter near Reedley and studio facilities in the Fresno County Department of Education headquarters in Fresno A Tulare County proposal to re-activate Channel 43 a long-dormant commercial station as an educational-public TV station was withdrawn The Fresno support came after complaints from Tulare County officials that Fresno was going ahead on its own without other counties getting involved sufficiently Both plans roly on substantial financial help front the federal $430583 for the Channel 18 plan And the more support that can he demonstrated the better Poore and others close to the proposal agree The resolution says By Wanda Coyle long debate over whether citizens should or should not be involved in affairs which affect them is over Citizen voices influencing the programs and service's designed for their benefit is here to That statement appears in summary on Model Cities-Planned Variations prepared recently by Floyd II Hyde who was mayor at the time the community was chosen for the Model Cities program and who later went on to direct the program as undersecretary of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Hyde's discussion of citizen involvement in local planning for so-rial economic and physical development goes on to say that the mechanisms of such involvement he tailored to unique city Fresno at both citizen and government levels is exploring various mechanisms nf citizen participation now to determine what form it will take once the Model 'Cities -Planned Variations program ends on June 30 Most of the members of the Neighborhood Councils the six area citizen groups formed to guide the two-year Manned Variations program have indicated they favor continuing citizen participation in a similar organizational form Some members of the city government in both deck'd and staff categories have suggested they believe some other form should be devised As an adjunct to Planned Variations Fresno's system of citizen participation won praise from regional HUD officials and some parts were included in HUD guidelines to be used as models for other cities The Neighborhood Councils membership is based on approximately one representative for every 300 residents with the members elected by census tracts The chairman and one other member of each of the six councils serve on the 21-member Fresno Community Development Commission Needs were identified anil projects proposed at the council level artd then studied by the FCIX The proposals then went to the City Council with the FCDC recommendation for action and funding The commission also devised a system of monitoring and evaluating the' projects keeping a close check on goals progress and procedures Variations During the past firs years the federal government has pumped $31 million into Fresno to support citizen-conceived projects under the programs known os Model Cities and Planned Variations This is one of a series of articles outlining the purpose the successes and failures of MC-PV end raising some questions about the future In a recent workshop held jointly by the ad hoc committee studying the transition and the City Council some of the differences of opinions could be glimpsed although discussion at that stage was general A more definite proposal for an organization for citizen participation is to be presented this month One basic change in citizen participation functions will be a shift away detailed planning and supervision of projects since new revenuesharing plans call for the central city government to be responsible for such duties Some FCDC and Neighborhood Council spokesmen believe the switch can be a positive move for the citizen effort Dr Robert Kittredge a Fresno State University faculty member and chairman of Area No 6 Neighborhood Council called the project orientation a The responsibility for overseeing the expenditures of Planned Variations funds he said "interfered with addressing and responding to some questions issues and for which projects never were established As a matter of fact Kittredge declared a lot of those involved "became disillusioned- not with citizen participation but with projects" One reason is that the supervision of projects required so many hours of concentrated work difficult in terms of both time and effort for volunteer laymen to expend As envisioned by new procedures citizens would identify the major needs set up priorities for attacking those problems and advise the City Council on how available funds might best be appropriated for the good of the whole community Details of setting up and running projects woukf be left to the professional staff The Rev Edward Tpng chairman of FCDC also sees a shift to emphasis on issues rather than projects as a good thing but said he hopes the city will continue to make use of the evaluation and monitoring process developed by the Planned Variations citizen groups Contreras Neighborhood Council Area No 2 chairman said keeping the lines of communication open between members of various community segments as well as between the city's residents and government representatives is vital' like myself of Mexican extraction are concerned with the progress to be sure all of are adequately represented in any situation with the policies to be established by the City he said this need for input is not just necessity for minorities but for people at all levels" A different interpretation is made by Dr Noel Smith a physician and former chairman of the Model Cities Board who believes the loss of con--trolby the citizens of the projects will lead to a failure of citizen participa-" tion generally "There wont be anything to rally around he said have taken the bone away Communities will rise to deal with their problems especially if there is a good human catalyst but they have to have some measurable accomplishment the areas or accountability are blurred The project form of endeavor creak's greater accountability and it works Some of those associated with Model Cities-Planned Variations are skeptical about the local government's interest in and desire for citizen participation Stuart Home an attorney who served on the Model Cities Board See Citizen Page B2 Pssstl Our 6 CYLINDER OLDS OMEGA Delivers ECONOMY I (BETTER THAN 20 MILES PER You'll like our Prloetoo! Clovis Civic Center Site Is Decided By Land Swap The Clovis City Council has voted to accept a long-delayed land swap deciding the site of the $1 million civic center and saving the old Clovis High School building City Manager Allen Goodman tpid the city which now owns the high school building will give it back to the district along with five acres of land in exchange for a 569-acre Little League baseball field to the east of the city land District trustees voted Wednesday night to offer the trade along with a request for a $6000 payment by the city However the council did not fed pay-ment of the $6000 is justified and excluded that from the trade "There Is no problem with Good LA-Z-B0Y RECLINERS over 60 styles and colors to choose from immediate delivery on all stockl Reg $22500 NOW $1595 "4V3J SUCKSTONE at SHAW 9m Mr 1 a a bmp DELIGHTFUL DECORATING FANTASTIC FURNITURE OPEN SUNDAY 2266765 NTEWORS 4535NMACKSTOME.