ipage 4-Saturday, February 4, 1978-The Michigan Daily [4 Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 EmyavXXXVMI, No. 104 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan I And the real Mayor is .. . O) fr a I, , : j j1 f ' ,r t 1I- C LO4K ROOM L NJtilamlg ~ortrai#, 1977-78 ___ c8I.785I ipo t G I ' I~- M F The end of t . , i+ il Q Although many Ann Arborites are still bathing in the glow of last week's Michigan Supreme Court decision which said that-20 town- ship residents will not have to re- veal how they voted in last spring's disputed mayoral elec- tion, their elation may still be a little premature for one very basic reason. We're still not sure who won the election or who the rightful mayor of Ann Arbor really is. TO BACK UP a minute for those of you who have been hi- bernating for the last 10 months, last April 4th an election was held in which incumbent Democrat Al- bert Wheeler defeated Republi- can 5th Ward Councilman Louis Belcher by one vote; 10,560 to 10,559. Socialist Human Rights Party (SHRP) candidate Diana Slaughter received 356 votes. The one vote victory held up through two recounts, but in May Belcher filed suit against Wheel- er, charging that he was holding the mayor's office illegally be- cause of a number of disputed ballots, including a number of pa- per (absentee) ballots and an al- legedly malfunctioning voting machines. Then, in late June, the city is- sued a report done by a student intern which admitted that, be- cause some city registrars used faulty street guides, over 150 peo- ple were registered to vote in the city who actually lived in some of the township islands - pieces of land which jut into the city but are not actually part of the city. Of these people, 20 actually voted. THE VOTERS, who later be- came known as "the township 20," along with three other people who were city residents but incor- rectly registered, were all incor- porated into Belcher's suit and City Clerk Jerome Weiss was named as a co-defendant along with Wheeler. By August, when subpeonas for the 20 were issued, three of the voters had left the state. When the trial resumed in , early Oc- tober, Robert Henry, Belcher's lawyer, asked visiting Judge James Kelley to be allowed to ask the 17 to tell how they voted. After some consideration of both sides of the argument, Kelly consented, and Susan VanHat- tum, a 21-year-old University junior was called to the stand. She balked, however, at saying how she cast her vote, claiming she had a constitutional right to keep it a secret. KELLEY ORDERED her handcuffed, and she was held in his chambers while the next three witnesses were called, two of whom said they voted for Wheel- er, and one for Belcher. Graduate student Diane Lazin- sky, the next witness, also re- fused to tell, and the trial was re- cessed while lawyers for VanHat- tum and Lazinsky took the case to the Court of Appeals. By Julie Rovner In November, the Court handed down a ruling stating that the voters, since they had cast their votes illegally, had no right to the privacy of the ballot. THE LAWYERS immediately went to the State Supreme Court, which ruled last week that th'e Constitution provides a right to a secret ballot which cannot be ab- rogated without evidence of fraud. So justice has prevailed, but we still don't know who the mayor is. Judge Kelley is now faced with one less alternative, but he still must decide the fate of Belcher's suit. Several proposals have been suggested, but only one, the void- ing of the election, really makes sense. THE OTHER PROPOSALS - including one which would have the 17 go into a room and. re-vote, and another which would sub- tract illegal votes from the can- didates' tallies on a proportionate basis - are basically flawed in that they still allow 17 non-resi- dents to determine the outcome of an election. The proportion idea obviously involves nothing more than some educated guesswork. For ex- ample, if in Ward A, ten of 100 votes cast were illegal, with Belcher receiving 60 and Wheeler 40, six would be subtracted from Belcher's total and four from Wheeler's. This assumes that the illegal votes were cast in the exact same proportion as the legal ones. THE IDEA OF sending the 17 into a room and having them drop a piece of paper containing the name of the person they voted for in April is a popular one. It too, is flawed, though, because there would be no way ever to prove which person voted for who. This would amount to anonymous se- cret testimony, something which is not generally admissible in the American system of justice. The other major fault with both proposals is that even if we could determine how the 17 voted, we will never know how the three who have since left town voted, and hence, can never really know who won. The main complaint with void- ing the current election results and holding a new election is the expense such an act might incur. It is estimated that a new election could cost as much as $30,000. This, however,. is nothing more' than a weak excuse, since the city has elections coming up in April anyway. While the cost of adding Wheeler's and Belcher's names to the ballot would not be insig- nificant, it seems a small price to pay for 100,000 people to know, finally, who their mayor really is. Julie Rovner covers City Af- fairs for the Daily, and has closely followed the 1977 mayoral election and its after- math. he boycott Ii r ' t a 4 7 s A g .s IN 1970, THE FIELDS of California became the ground on which a' young migrant workers union, strug- gling for survival, began fighting or- ganized labor. The Teamsters Union was threatening to overrun a small but spirited-army of field hands who had organized into a group called the United Farm Workers (UFW). Teamsters were using their vast re- sources to muscle in on lettuce and grape farm workers in California and sign them away from the UFW. The Farm Workers union was having enough difficulties just trying to get growers to allow the formation of field hand unions, and the new competition required bold new tactics. So Cesar Chavez, the UFW leader, organized a nationwide boycott of Cali- fornia wines, as well as table grapes and lettuce. And the struggle spread. Earlier this week, announcing that the UFW had achieved many of its goals for the California farm workers, Chavez called for an end to the boycott. Chavez and fellow UFW members termed the boycott successful, and said that nationwide efforts had led to the creation of a law which gave harvesters the right to secretly vote for member- ship in the union of their choice, and the right to engage in collective bargain- ing. The law, called the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, is now "alive and functioning," Chavez said. It l i a ., ,.. i is ensuring the rights that migrant workers were never entitled to eight years ago. But a number of farm workers and organizers believe that ending the boy- cott at this time. is premature. They argue that the Labor Relations Act does not solve all of the migrant workers organizing difficulties. Some farm worker supporters have even charged the UFW with corruption within its ranks and growing disregard for its members. It is a fact that farm workers in California have a long way to go before organizing completely. While the union has signed 100 contracts since 1975, and is now working toward signing, 177 more, it still takes an average of 16 months between the union election and the signing of a contract with growers. Chavez has said that, when n'ces- sary, the UFW will conduct label boy- cotts against companies "who refuse to bargain in good faith." That this one boycott has ended does not mean boycotts are no longer an op- tional tool toward unionization. For the present though - as long as migrant workers are slowly but surely realizing their rights - it is good that the UFW is trying to work without the aid of eco- nomic embargoes. Perhaps, to everyone's surprise, the new tactics will speed up cooperation with California growers, instead of. slowing it down. It's apartment-hunting season already, and if you've started looking for a place in town to rent for next year, you've probably -noticed that the prices are getting higher, and the quality is as bad as ever. You may be wondering how in hell the housing situation is ever going to improve. And if you've been waiting to learn of some small thing you can do to help make it im- prove, your chance has come. You can help by registering to vote in Ann Arbor; so that you may cast your ballot for the two tenants' rights proposals which will come before the voters in the April city election. THE PROPOSALS, called "Truth in Rent- ing" and "Fair Rental Information," are aimed at getting information to tenants about their legal rights, and at preventing landlords from misleading tenants about their rights. When tenants as a group become generally aware of their rights, they will have at their disposal a powerful tool to use in dem'anding a fair shake in the housing market. If the two proposals pass, they will make it possible for many tenants who are now unin- formed to take advantage of the protection granted them by the law. The proposals would also pave the way for other progressive legis- lation in the future to fight the local housing crisis. The more momentum the tenants' movement builds, the greater the progress it will be able to score. THE "TRUTH IN RENTING" act would make it illegal for landlords to put misin- formation about tenants' rights in their leases. The law would also obligate landlords to give their tenants written notice of certain basic information about tenants' rights. Leases containing misleading clauses are very common in Ann Arbor. This was proven by a recent study of Michigan leases con- ducted by PIRGIM - the Public Interest Re- search Group in Michigan. Of the Michigan leases studied by PIRGIM, including a repre- sentative sampling from Ann Arbor, over 95 per cent were found to contain illegal, un- enforceable or abusive clauses. What do these misleading clauses say? SOme of them tell tenants that upon signing the lease, they waive the right to a jury trial in the event they have to go to court with their Gutting the A2 housing glut By Stephen Hersh tenant advocates. To maintain a balanced view, the booklet would also contain a section written by landlord advocates, and a section written by impartial authors selected by the mayor. (Because the vaious sections would contain legal advice, the advocate sections would be written by or under the supervision of attorneys.) The booklet would give tenants easy ac- cess to information about their rights. There is an urgent need for such information among local tenants - this was illustrated by last year's $39,000 study of Ann Arbor housing, conducted by the University's Institute for Social Research (ISR). The ISR survey show- ed that over 60 per cent of the city's tenants could not give correct answers to five basic questions on landlord-tenant law. Some of the questions which the tenants could not answer were: * Can a court order a landlord to give a tenant a rent reduction if the dwelling is in need of repairs, and the repairs have not been done within a reasonable time? (The answer is yes; 63 per cent of the tenants surveyed responded, "I don't know," and four per cent thought the answer is no.) + Can a court order a landlord to give a tenant a rent reduction if the dwelling has had no heat for several days? (The answer is yes; 69 per cent of the tenants surveyed responded, "I don't know," and six per cent thought the answer is no.) * Can a court ever order a landlord to give a tenant a rent reduction? (The answer is yes; 70 per cent of the tenants surveyed re- sponded, "I don't know," and one per cent thought the answer is no.) The Coalition for Better Housing (CB H), the 'group sponsoring the proposals, has drawn the backing of various individuals and groups concerned with tenants' rights. Mayor Albert Wheeler promised CBH "full support" in its drive to "amend the Charter as a last resort to eliminate illegal and misleading pro- visions from all leases." AND ANN ARBOR Tenants Union (TU) Coordinator Susan Van Hattum said "Ten- ants in Ann Arbor need to know more about their rights, and need to be protected from un- fair landlord practices - and the two laws proposed by CBH would help a lot in those areas. The TU backs them completely." Local residents and students should reg- ister to vote in Ann Arbor, so that they may be eligible to sign the petitions which will put the two laws on the ballot, and so that they may vote for the laws in the April election. Some local voter registration sites are: City Hall (at the corner of Huron and Fifth), and the Tenants Union (on the fourth floor of the Michigan Union, in Room 4109). s Stephen Hersh is community educa- tion director for the MSA Housing Re- form Project and a frequent contributor to the Daily's Editorial page. .y f' FV, f L 14 X fV E r 44o ink -z ~ ~}~;v~ A\ WHERE TO REGISTER.0. March 3, 1978 is the last day to register in order to vote in Ann Arbor's April 3 city elections. Below is a listing of places where you can register: * * *C**a* CITY HALL - corner of 5th and Huron St.