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The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, May 9, 1979-Page 9
Gas crunch
State gas stations won't Odd-even plan for buying
participate in shut-down gas begins in California

GRAND RAPIDS (UPI)-Members
of the Service Stations Dealers
Association of Michigan voted yester-
day not to participate in a four-day
shutdown of gasoline stations called by
other dealer groups across the country.
Charles Shipley, association
executive director, said that although
members are concerned about the
Department of Energy's refusal to
allow dealers to pass their operating
costs to consumers,a shutdown would
have an adverse effect on the public.
AATA votes
on executive
director job
By JOHN GOYER
The Ann Arbor Transportation
Authority (AATA) voted 4-2 yesterday
to offer the job of executive director of
the AATA to Richard Simonetta, who
currently is Deputy General Manager
of Transit Operations in the Regional
Transit District in Denver, Colo.
Simonetta has a "strong
management background," according
to Edwin Pear, chairman of the AATA
board of directors. Pear also said the
32-year-old Simonetta scored the
highest of all applicants on tests given
by Plante and Moran, Inc., the con-
sulting firm that conducted the search
for a new executive director.
"EXPERIENCE IS a key factor,"
Pear said. "He's done very well in the
systems he's been in."
Although the board voted to offer the
job to Simonetta, Pear said three mem-
bers of the board again will interview
Simonetta as soon as possible. Pear
said the board would like to ratify a
contract at its next regular meeting
May 16.
The AATA has been without an
executive director since last Septem-
ber, when Karl Guenther resigned
amidst controversy over policy
changes in the AATA. Guenther ad-
vocated a policy of emphasizing the
Dial-A-Ride system over fixed bus
routes, while board members favored a
shift in the emphasis of the system to
fixed route bus lines.
BACKERS OF the fixed route system
point to the expense of operating Dial-
A-Ride, which Pear said costs over $6
per passenger ride as opposed to $1.27
per ride using buses with fixed routes.
Its backers also say a fixed route bus
system is more reliable than the Dial-A-
Ride, and that the town has outgrown
the need for a system emphasizing
Dial-A-Ride.
The AATA board approved a long-
range plan last January that gradually
will reduce the role of Dial-A-Ride in
the city's transportation system. By
1990, the system will only offer the Dial-
A-Ride service to the general public
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Full daytime ser-
vice will however be continued for the
elderly and the handicapped.
In addition to implementing long-
range changes in the AATA, if Simonet-
ta accepts the job, he will face trying to
reduce the AATA's deficit, which last
year totalled some$490,000. -

Shipley said dealers hoped the Depar-
tment of Energy would move to correct
the problem.
"GAS RETAILERS are the only
small businessmen in the country being
regulated by the federal government,"
he told reporters following a meeting of
association members in Grand Rapids.
"Dealers can increase the price only as
much as wholesale prices increase.
"They cannot pass along costs for
workmen's compensation, social
security increases, minimum wage in-
creases or the general cost of doing
business."
Shilpey said dealers- have been
operating under these restrictions since
March 1974 and that since that time,
operating costs have increased by 3.4
cents a gallon.
See STATE, Page 13

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Gov.
Edmund Brown, Jr. signed an
emergency order yesterday restricting
gasoline sales in most of California's
biggest cities after midnight last night.
Anticipating the order, some people
had hired stand-ins to wait in the long
service station lines yesterday, while
others bicycled or even roller-skated to
work.
THE GOVERNOR'S proclamation
signaled the startup of odd-even sales
beginning at 12:01 a.m. today in at least
nine counties, areas including such
major cities as Los Angeles, San Diego,
San Jose, and Oakland. County super-
visors in those areas requested the
restrictions.
About 9.9 million of California's 15
million motorists live in those nine
counties, accounting for nearly two-

thirds of the state's drivers.
So far, supervisors in seven rural
counties have voted to reject the odd-
even sales plan, and action has been
delayed until next week in three other
counties, including San Francisco.
A SPOKESMAN for Brown said the
Democratic governor would sign ad-
ditional proclamations expanding the
area covered by odd-even sales restric-
tions if local officials requested it.
Under the plan, similar to one im-
posed in California for one month
during the 1974 Arab oil embargo,
motorists with odd-numbered license
plates could buy gasoline only on odd-
numbered days, and those with even-
numbered plates do so only on even-
numbered days. Motorists with all-
letter licenses, or 'vanity" plates, were
See ODD, Page 13

AP Photo
CARS PLAY "ring around the station" as they patiently wait for gas outside this statiop in San Diego. This aerial photo was
taken Monday, but similar scenes were reported yesterday after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed an emergency order
restricting-gasoline sales in-mostof California's major cities.-