SI
Page 8-Saturday, Februry 2, 1980-The Michigan Daily
Miller says Textron
payments 'improper
WASHINGTON (AP) - Treasury
Secretary William Miller said yester-
day he will not resign, although he ad-
mitted that Textron Corp. made
"questionable and improper paymen-
ts" to foreign officials while he was
chairman of the conglomerate. He
reiterated he did not know about the.
payments.
"I do not intend to resign," Miller
said at a news conference: "There has
been no communication from the
president suggesting such a thing."
THE SECURITIES and Exchange
Commission"said Thursday in a com-
plaint against Textron that the com-
pany made $5.4 million in payments to
foreign government officials to help
secure contracts to sell military,
equipment, much of it while Miller was
chairman.
The complaint also said Miller knew
that Textron had spent $600,000 between
1971 and 1q78 to wine and dine Pentagon
officials in violation of Defense Depar-
tment regulations and failed to
properly account for these expenses in
its financial statements.
Miller, who was chairman of Textron
from 1974 to 1978 and its chief executive
officer for six years before that, said
the entertainment expenses were not
improper, that they did not exceed $100
a guest and that they were primarily
for meals in connection with contract
negotiations.
"THIS WAS normal courtesy and
hospitality," he said.
Miller alsosaid he was unaware Tex-
tron was making improper payments
and indicated he was misled by dther
officials of the corporation.
"It is true I was not aware of any such
payments . . . I believed I could
reasonably rely on assurances given to
me by senior people that we had not
made such payments. It turns out I was
incorrect," he said.
"It turns out there were some tran-
sactions hidden from me that did, in
fact, involve illegal - perhaps not
illegal - but at least questionable and
improper payments," he added.
SEN. WILLIAM Proxmire (D-Wis.),
who cast the only vote against. Miller
when the Senate confirmed his
nomination as secretary of the treasury
last August, said he felt the SEC com-
plaint was "an extremely serious mat-
ter."
"It appears there was a cover-up by
Textron, when Mr. Miller was chair-
man, of~a pattern of bribery, the SEC
has now disclosed," Proxmire said.
"There was clearly a thought-out
calculated policy of bribery."
Referring to Miller, he said,
"whether he knew about those bribes,
we don't know, but he should have
known.'
THE SENATE Banking Committee,
which Proxmire heads, initially
disclosed the alleged improper
payments during hearings into Miller's
appointment as chairman of the
Federal Reserve Board in 1978.
Proxmire said the committee would
decide within a few days whether to
conduct a follow-up investigation. But
he stopped short of calling for Milleris
resignation, saying; "That's entirely up
to the president."
Treasury sources said President Car-
ter apparently had not been in touch
with Miller about the Textron matter,
even though it could be potentially em-
barrassing in an election year,
especially since one of Carter's closest
advisers, budget director Bert Lance,
resigned under a cloud early in his ad-
ministration.
Carter named Miller chairman of the
Federal Reserve Board in 1978 and then
appointed him secretary of the
Treasury last year to succeed Michael
Blumenthal. Carter fired Blumenthal
from the treasury post as part of a
Cabinet shake-up.
01
l
AP Photo
and ic~e
in a ten-story hotel. The water sprayed on the fire quickly covered the street
and the fire-with an eerie layer of ice.
Temperatures in the low teens and 30-mile-per-hour winds helped firefighters
in Brooklyn Heights, New York fight fire with ice yesterday during a blaze
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CHICAGO (AP) - America's second-
largest city, beset by related financial
and union troubles, is becoming less
and less "The City That Works..
Chicago, which picked up the
nickname in an advertising campaign,
has a cash-flow problem, its teachers
are off the job and its newly lowered
bond rating will make it harder to
borrow money.
ANID YESTERDAY, the city's
firefighters joined the action when their
union's executive board voted over-
whelmingly to call the first firefighters'
strike in the city's history. However,
the board said a strike would not begin
before 10 a.m. today, when it hopes to
meet with Fire Commissioner Richard
Albrecht to work out a plan for
emergency fire and ambulance service.
Albrecht said while a strike would be
a "grave situation," there would be
enough officers and non-strikers to
protect the city.
Chicago has escaped one problem of
years past - major snowfalls. Last
year's snow-removal crisis helped
Mayor Jane Byrne upset incumbent
Michael Bilandic.
" 'THE CITY That Works' was for 20
years the city that juggled its books,"
was Alderman Edward Vrdolyak's
comment this week. And there is no in-
dication of a quick solution for the city's
woes.
Chicago Firefighters Union President
Frank Muscare met yesterday with
other union officials to discuss a
possible walkout. Negotiations on a
written contract broke down Thursday.
The union has operated in the past on
the basis of a handshake agreement
with the city, but now wants its contract
written down - and more pay as well.
In a private meeting yesterday the
executive board voted 11-1 to call the
strike which had been authorized by a
vote of union members in December.
"IF I COULD, I wouldn't give the city
10 minutes warning" before calling a
strike, Muscare said.
Earlier yesterday, Albrecht said
that a walkout would. be illegal and
strikers could bg punished. He said that
the city's 4,350 firefighters are the
highest paid of those in any major city
and that "their demands are pie in the
sky."
Byrne said before the strike was'
called that "We have attempted every
means to work with the firefighters. In
our view and according to law, if the ac-
tion takes place, it is an illegal strike."
EFFORTS ALSO were under way to
get teachers back to work - now that
the money is finally on hand to pay
them.'
Chicago Teachers Union President
Robert Healey met yesterday with
school board officials. Healey called
teachers to a meeting Sunday "to make
the most important decision of your
careers" - whether or not to continue
the job action.
The teachers have been off the job
since Monday, demanding full pay for
the school system's 48,600 employees.
Few teachers and students went to
school this week.
PAV FOR three weeks' work was due
yesterday, and officials scrambled to
complete paperwork to get checks to
employees. Board 'officials said th
were considering opening district o
fices during the weekend so workers
could pick up checks.
Healey also has demanded the school
board's decision to eliminate 683
teaching jobs be rescinded before
teachers return to work. The board cut
the jobs in reducing its budget by the
$60 million required by the Chicago
School Finance Authority as part of a
plan to bail out the financially strapp4
school system.
The city suffered another blow when
Moody's lowered its ratings on bonds
and sport-term notes on Thursday,
saying said the school crisis con-
tributed to its decision. The rating
dropped from AA to A for long-term
notes, the third highest rating. For
short-term notes, the rating dropped
from MIG-1 to MIG-2, the second
highest of four possible ratings.
f Aw
AATA pushes new city-wide ride sharing
(Continued from Page1 )
assistance needed to establish a
program,'.said Hackley,"but would let
the employers run them." Hackley ex-
plained that this could include helping
the employer rearrange work
schedules so interested employees
could ride together or trying to find
funding for administrative costs.
THE CITY of Ann Arbor started a
carpool program last August using city-
owned vehicles. Currently 12 cars and
about 40 people are involved, according
PA
to the program's coordinator, Tom
Pendalton.
He said the city's program "costs
very little to run" since the pool cars
are the same ones already owned by the
city for use by employees 'during
business hours. In addition, the city
charges from 13-15 cents per mile
depending on the car's size, with the
cost shared by the driver and riders.
One restriction in the city's program
prohibits the car's driver from using
the car evenings and weekends. But a
recent rule change, said Pendalton,
allows immediate fafnily members of
the pooling city employees to ride
along.+
THE UNIVERSITY has the largest
ride sharing program, which includes
both cars and vans. Employees in-
terested in forming a car pool can apply
for a special parking sticker and, if
there are at least three people in the
pool, they can request a reserved
parking place in one of the University's
lots or structures.
Each member of the pool pays the-
appropriate fraction of a parking
sticker's cost (currently $41.25 through
August 31) and then receives a per-
manent sticker for his or her car and a
transferable placard to hang on the.
mirror of the vehicle used on that day.
A two-person pool can split the cost of
the parking sticker but will not get
preferential parking privileges.
The vanpool program involves 11
vans, owned by the University, and
about 120 people. In this case, the
drivers qre responsible for van upkeep
and collecting fares'from riders.
The largest park-and-ride lot is also
University-sponsored. During the
week, the Crisler Arena parking i.
serves as a terminal of the University '
Commuter Bus, which is free and runs
through Central Campus to the Medical
Center. Recently, another 250-space lot
was established on North Campus, also
serviced by a free commuter bus.
One problem that AATA could en-
counter is defection of bus riders to ride
sharing. However, Hackley said that
isn't likely. He said that most of the
early interest in ride sharing will
probably come from people who li
outside the city limits, which is als
beyond the reach of AATA buses.
"People are rather attached to their
cars," noted Hackley. "Ride sharing is
an attempt to break down the privacy
barrier and' stereotypes people have
about mass transit."
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(Continued from Page 1)
the jobless report provided a "puz-
zling" picture of how weak the economy
might be.
"YOU HAVE a picture where women
continue to troop into the labor market
and get jobs in service industries, while
men are being laid off in certain
manufacturing sectors, largely autos,"
Cox said. "Whether they (layoffs)
spread to other sectors remains to be
seen."
Treasury Secretary G. William
Miller said the administr1tion will
move cautiously and not consider anti-
rec.ession measures, such as tax cuts
Vooor-m
for individuals or business, unless it
sees the economy going into a steep
decline.
"We should hold our powder dry and
we should act only if we see
deterioration actually taking place,"
Miller said.
IN WASHINGTON, the Labor
Depa'rtment said Michigan's unem-
ployment rate for January was by far
the highest among the 10 largest states.
New York was second at 7.7 per cent
and Pennsylvania third at 7.2 per cent.
During the past 12 months, according
to the Labor Department, unem-
ployment has risen by 610,000 people,
while employment has increased by 1.7