Contra Costa Times from Walnut Creek, California • 1

tf 0 Mt DUblo Hospital patients can expect to pay $10 to $20 cer day more for care after Wednesday meeting of the hospital Inis Trustees are expected to approve She rate increase to help offset inflation and sharp Increases in malpractice insurance wages and fringe benefits Hospital Administrator Lee Diet-schweiler revealed Monday that the xoom rate increase could raise an estimated $540000 but would still fall short of the $800000 the hospital expects to pay out in Increased wages and benefits to more than 800 employes during the next 11 months Hospital trustees are scheduled to meet publicly in the hospital auditorium at 8pm The rate increase will affect both patients who pay taxes in the hospital district and those who live outside the hospital district Patients who live in the district will pay from $118 per day for care in a ward with more than two pa- tients and as much as $240 per day for care in the cardiac care unit Patients who live outside the district can expect to pay $128 per day for ward care and $260 per day for cardiac care The increase in daily medical care costs at the 300-bed medical facility will only partly offset the employe wage increases Other economy moves will be needed to make up the difference The hospital is faced with a 67 per cent increase in its medical mal practice insurance premium -Dietschweiler told the hospitalvs Budget and Finance Committee Monday that the premium for 1076 totals $468000 could go up to 70 £er cent higher in February or Dletschwiler told the Times just have no protection against the increases It seem to be the insurance fault They report they are losing money It seems the populous in California is Thirteen months ago Mt Diablo premium was only $90000 a year Dietschweiler said he is Investigating hospital costs on such items as supplies and x-rays to determine if the hospital is charging as much as It Is paying At Monday's Budget and Finance Committee meeting it was also revealed that: hospital was in the red during December with revenue of $146 million and expenditures of $165 million hospital continues to run in the red this fiscal year pushing the facility even deeper into debt The deficit this year to date is $358614 compared to $220744 for the previous fiscal year In the plus column Dietschweiler noted that the number of days it takes to produce a patient bill has been reduced from 30 to 60 days to 16 days The goal is five days he said The accuracy of computer input for patient accounts has improved ipiftoinil'- IA TIMES 28 PAGES VOL 61 NO 44 WALNUT CREEK CALIFORNIA TUESDAY JANUARY 27 1976 Ford predicts I Banks begins more tax cuts couraged about our economy The trends are all right and are all moving in the right But Sen Hubert Humphrey chairman of the Joint Economic Committee said Monday that Congress not Ford is responsible for tne recovery of the economy in 1975 Dakota for sentencing on a riot and assault charge A fugitive for six months before his capture Saturday in El Cerrito at the home of a Contra Costa College (CCC) instructor Banks 38 appeared before US Magistrate Richard Goldsmith and learned that he must first face a federal firearms charge in Oregon before South Dakota has a chanee to try to get him back One of Bank's attorneys last Saturday said that it might mean the activist's death if he is forced to return to South Dakota She gave no further explanation Lehman Leonard Brightman a director of the Native American studies program at CCC was arraigned Monday on a charge of harboring a fugitive Brightman 45 was released Saturday on his own recon gizance and faces a Feb 13 preliminary hearing A federal grand jury in Portland on Dec 22 indicted Banks on charges of possessing and transporting de-structived device or firearms stemming from an incidcent in the Ontario area 400 miles east of Portland Bail was set at $100000 on those charges A federal unlawful flight warrant also had been issued for him after he failed to show up at Custer SD for sentencing on his July 1975 conviction resulting from a 1973 melee in WASHINGTON (API Declaring that future should be encouraging for all President Ford told Congress on Monday another major tax cut will be possible by 1979 if federal spending is held in check The reduction would be in addition to the $28 billion in permanent tax reductions Ford already has proposed for this year and next He did not indicate how large a new tax cut could be In his annual economic report to Congress Ford said he is en- Palestine measure is vetoed UNITED NATIONS NY (AP) -The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution Monday that favored creation of a Palestinian state and called for an Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territory The veto which was expected was the 13th cast by the US and the fourth dealing with the Middle East US Ambassador Daniel Moyni-han argued that the resolution would undermine Mideast peace efforts The vote in the 15-member council was 9 to 1 with three abstentions and China and Libya not participating The balloting climaxed a twoweek debate that was boycotted by Israel 'after the council invited the Palestine Liberation Organization to films may go fight front of the courthouse there He faced a maximum 15-year sentence Brightman said in an interview before his arraignment that Banks wrote his life story and jogged daily while hiding out 1 0 CCC instructor Lehman Brightman The rent is unpaid for December and January says Philip Steoerm-er an attorney working with attorneys Robert Burnsteln and James Gallagher on the case Lippert says he wants to take over the business as soon as possible and renovate the inside ana outside of the theater If Weldon balks at moving out Lippert says he wants to get the townspeople behind his cause According to Martin Snyder deputy district attorney the change In ownership shouldn't have an effect on the trial beginning today More shocks OROYILLE (AP) Two more aftershocks from the Aag 1 Oro-vllle earthquake were felt Sunday night and Monday morning In this Sierra foothills community officials said No damages or Injuries were reported from the temblors The most rerent of literally hundreds of aftershocks from the big 61-magallude quake came at 11:30 am Monday It had a preliminary Richter Scale reading of 32 undersherifrs job he quit to become Clayton police chief Whether the effort to oust Ruddick was orchestrated is unclear Rut Lorimor was in Clayton for the City Council's clandestine Sunday meeting to discuss action against Ruddick Lorimor also was the one who fired officer Gary Kuvalchik stirring another controversy Kuvalchik was reinstated after the City Council admitted there were no grounds for his dismissal The council then negotiated a secret agreement that forced Kuvalchik to resign this year Some of Ruddick's friends are talking about suing the city fur Us action involving Ruddick's forced resignation while others are waiting for the upcoming election in which three incumbent council men are running for re election Despite what happens in coming months Ruddick and Kuvalchik agree nothing the council does now can rhtige things trial begins today SAN FRANCISCO (AP) As more than 100 grim-faced supporters looked on American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks be- his fight in federal court Mon-y to stave off extradition to South jr I -T i 9 i 5 Us Sty I Donnis Banks (AP Lasorphota) Porno WALNUT CREEK Mike Weldon will have 30 days to vacate his El Rey Theater says Robert Lippert Lippert announced Monday that he has purchased the lease to the theater building at 1649 Main St on the eve of a trial charging Weldon with showing obscene fifms At 9 am today a jury trial begins in Walnut CreekDanvllle Municipal San Mateo County jail of tape recording Miss Hearsf private talks not only with visitors out with also with other jail inmates The FBI he said picked up the tapes every day He called the practice The judge postponing ruling on whether Miss rights were violated asked that San Mateo County Sheriff John McDonald who oversees Miss jail give a sworn affidavit about the bugging Patty smiled and chatted briefly with her parents and younger sister Vicki who had frontrow courtroom seats Carter looking fit after undergoing minor surgery last week accepted voluminous lists of questions which both sides proposed that he ask of prospective jurors neously learned that Ruddick had been says Linda Ruddick the former chiefs wife City Council has dune all the things that Lew tried to get them to do when he was When he became police chief in 1972 he asked the City Council to keep the traditional blue police uniforms Late last year at the request of Bill Lorimor the new police chief the western style uniforms and shoulder patches were replaced with traditional blue uniforms Much of the Clayton citizenry protested Ruddick advised the City Council that implementation of an ordinance restricting quarry truck traffic in the city was illrgalThe City Council ignored the advise lost the case in court spent thousands of tax dollars and then recinded the illegal ordinance several months later IludiVk sought new police cars Food cost goes up The retail cost of food produced by US farmers averaged $126 more for a typical family last year than in 1974 with larger middleman charges accounting for nearly three-fourths of the Jump the Agriculture Department said Page 5 Cease-fire toured Beirut on Monday using bullhorns to urge rival gunmen to clear streets Despite tne aura of Impending peace Christian concern mounted over the growing Palestinian role In Lebanon Page 5 Budget realistic A pending United States trade treaty with the United Kingdom could cost California $128 million a year Legislative Analyst A Alan Post said Monday Page 28 Bill against dam California would demand that the federal government halt New Melones Dam construction and scrap completion plans under legislation Introduced Monday in the state Senate Page 28 Court holts trial The US District Court of Appeals has put a temporary halt to a murder trial in Contra Costa County page 6 Busing struggle Detroit began the first stage of a court-ordered school integration program without trouble Monday but the struggle over busing continued in Boston with new disturbances at two high schools Page 2 Forums on busses Two discussions of a regional transportation plan which emphasizes bus sytems for Contra Costa are set Friday and Feb 9 Page 7 New lunch rules New eligibility requirements make hot lunches available at reduced prices to more Contra Costa school children Page 7 Major victory A federal judge ruled Monday In a major victory for organized labor that the legal-aid arm of the National Right to Work Committee operates as a front for employers who are trying to weaken unions Page 2 County jail County supervisors should immediately order the redesign of a proposed new county jsTl and construction on a new site says a group Page 2 m- Variable high cloudiness and late night and early morning fog today and Wednesday Twmperaturei will range from 30 to 60 degrees Light winds See weather map page 2 Business Classified Comics Crossword Editorial BwAoefoiLeMAnt nnvnvmnwin1 15 15 eeeeaesseeeseseseseseeeeeese People Sports Stocks He also said the is very fragile" and that Ford's proposed 1977 budget of $3942 billion is inade- Jiuate to meet the needs for obs and social programs while al-owing too much for defense Humphrey testified on the first day of hearings before the House Budget Committee optimistic assessment of the economy did not extend to unemployment which almost surely remain distressingly high this his economic advisers wrote in the report under the best of circumstances the return to full employment cannot realistically be accomplished this year or they said They forecast an unemployment rate of about 73 per cent by the end of 1976 down from 83 per cent in December of 1975 But the report also contained an upward change in the peak unem- filoyment rate during the recession nstead of a high of 92 per cent in May unemployment reached a recession high of 89 per cent in May Chairman Alan Greenspan of the President's Council of Economic Advisers said the jobless figures were changed as part of the regular revision or adjustment that is done every year by the Labor Department Greenspan also told newsmen that although a return to high inflation would jeopardize the recovery from recession there is no evidence this is about to happen SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Patricia judge cleared the way Monday for her bank robbery trial to begin today but left hanging complaints that her jail conversations were bugged US District Court udge Oliver Carter adjourned a final stormy pretrial nearing by declaring: select a Jury tomorrow The session ended with US Atty James Browning shouting angrily demanding that the judge gag defense attorneys from making statements to the press The judge cutting Browning off in mid-sentence declared not going to make a gag rule put an end to this The motion is denied Earlier' defense attorney Albert Johnson accused authorities at the to give him an official reason morale problem?" Ruddick demanded But Brazill had no answer Ruddick fought back A few days later members of the regular police force as well as the reserves signed a letter of support saying there were no morale problems in the police department Ruddick still doesn't know why he was forced to resign and recalls that he was denied a personnel session to face those who engineered his ouster constant attempts to upgrade the department his comments about the quarry truck controversy and his seeking other employment prompted the City Council to seek his resignation'' a confidential report reveals The report is one of several background investigations initiated by cities considering Ruddick for jobs One similar investigation was endiM when the investigator erro V-fl g5r Patty exits hearing Court Weldon Willard Ricord and Harold Spencer face charges of a conspiracy to exhibit obscene films Lippert founder of a Walnut Creek ice cream parlor and owner of a Pleasant Hill motor movie says he served Weldon Monday with a three-day notice to pay back rent and a 30-day notice to vacate the building (Weldon's) lease ran out a year Lippert says Lippert says Weldon has been on a month-by-month lease Lippert bought the theater equipment and lease from Cinerama Cor- oration Elwood Laws of Walnut reek Is owner of the property if he (Weldon) comes up with the money (to pay tne rent) he has a 30-day notice to get out because he doesn't have a Lippert says According to Lippert Weldon never exercised his option to renew his lease with Cinerama Creek shouldn't have a theater of that Lippert says He says no pornography will be shown in the theater and he plans to change the name to the Cinema of Walnut Creek He expects Weldon will take the lease to court to stay at the North Main Street location haven't been served with any Weldon said Monday afternoon News of a change in his lease came as a surprise to him rent is all he said and was denied Instead he had to contend with high-mileage near-ly-wom-out discards of the California Highway Patrol The City Council last year ap- roved the purchase of new cars at orimor's request Ruddick requested permission to move the police deparmtment into larger quarters to accommodate the (rowing department He noted the ack of privacy to interview suspects the lack of space fur evidence storage and limited holding facilities fur prisoners Later the council approved Lori-mor's request to move the department to give the officers more space Lorimor has become a central figure in controversies involving the police department Lorimor was Chief Ruddick's sergeant for two yean until he resigned on Dec 31 1974 to become under-sheriff of Tuolumne County Sixtsrse da) after accepting the How top cop was fired By BRUCE LEWIS Times Staff Writer -City Council members hired a new police chief last year 24 hours before City Engineer Ron Brazill asked Chief Lewis Rud-dick to resign In its investigation of the firing The Times has learned from various sources the sequence of events leading to the forced resignation of Chief Ruddick Neither Councilman Chuck Levine nor City Administrator MF Ohman were notified of the council action Instead the council authorized Brazill to carry out its order to rid the city of Ruddick The morning of March 6 1975 Brazill warned Ruddick that unless he resigned he would be fired at the March 19 City Council meeting Ruddick demanded a reason for his resignation" and Brazill reportedly mumbled something about a in the polindepartment but was unable -s ocM.