Page 2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, December 9, 1986 Senators approve tuition plan LANSING (AP) - A Senate committee yesterday approved Gov. James Blanchard's guaranteed tuition plan, but only after stripping it of its aadministration- given nickname. The Senate Finance Committee made several changes to the pre-paid tuition proposal before forwarding it to the full Senate. Most of the changes were negotiated and agreed to by the Blanchard administration. The name change was a surprise. Blanchard had christened his pay- now, educate-later plan Baccalaurate Education System Trust, or BEST. The committee, on a 3-0 vote with Republican members present and the two Democrats absent, changed the name to Michigan Education Trust. The revamped legislation is scheduled for action by the full Senate today. The program would let parents or grandparents pay in advance for the college education of a child still in diapers. Families could give the state a set amount of money in exchange for a ptomise of four years' tuition at a Michigan college or university. Theoretically, the state can invest the money and by the time a child reaches college age, enough interest would have accumulated to cover tuition and fees. Under the plan, the state could not begin the program unless the Internal Revenue Service agreed to make the investment tax-deductible. The trust could only stay in bus - Critics: City housing codes no (Continued from Page 1) up. Housing inspector Ayer is suing the city because of its alleged lack of code enforcement. Ayer, who was hired in 1980, says he consistently pointed out violations of the housing inspection code to Building Department administration. He sent memos to the department urging it to stop granting administrative variances and requesting better training of staff. Ayer said the city is six months behind on inspections and does not send letters with copies of violation notices. He confirmed the violations which the Tenants Union mentioned in its report. "The code is not a bad code," said Ayer, "but we should either enforce the code or change it." "If we enforce the housing code one-tenth as much as we enforce the parking code we would have a much better housing stock in town," Ayer GET INVOLVED! The LSA Student Gov't. needs YOU Available positions include: -LSA Rep. to MSA -Joint Student Faculty Policy Committee Interviews Tues. 12/9 6:00 - 8:00 P.M. Sign up at 4003 Union or for more info call 763-4799 said. CHIEF Housing Inspector Arvil Patton refused to comment on any of the inspection procedures or on how they were enforced. William Yadlosky, supervisor of the Housing Bureau, said the department has not directly responded to any of the claims brought against it. "I'm not meaning to be evasive," Yadlosky said. "There's a point in time when this stuff will be responded to, but it's not going to be right now." Yadlosky said the department is now "enforcing the code pretty much to the letter of it." He also said computers are being programmed to establish a system for inpections which would "avoid properties slipping through the cracks (in procedure)." DI T Z, however, said the department selectively keeps cases on record, and many times files cannot be found. There is no current copy of the rules of the Building Department on file with the city clerk. Councilmembers agreed at the work session that the code would have to be reviewed, but the problem will be for the council to follow up on its own complaints cited at the meeting. Edgren said council will examine the department through the ad hoc housing code revision committe, the Housing Board of Appeals, and through tenant advocates. "One of the goals has been to have all of the decisions and policies of the department to be out in the open. They haven't been that way. They've been made back in the back room," said Edgren. EDGREN feels the department is lax in inspections because past Republican city councils have not emphasized city housing procedure Happy Holidays from DASCOLA STYLISTS Liberty off State 668 9329 Maple Village 7612733 Yo ur i PowerI thy way.)I _ I enforcement. Assistant City Administrator Leigh Chizek agreed that the council plays an important role in pressuring city departments. He said the housing code is being enforced within the city, but "there have been some irregularities that have to be cleaned up. There is no question about it." Chizek said problems with departmental organization have hurt housing code enforcement, making it inefficient. Computerizing the inspection process is helping to organize the department, he said. "The Housing Bureau is literally a paper factory," he said. The new system will help shift the burden to the property owner to comply with notices or to face a punishment. CITY Attorney Bruce Laidlaw said there has been a "never-ending" ad hoc committee which has been discussing revision of the housing code. The committee has completed a first draft of a revised code. Edgren, who formed the committee, said the first, "very preliminary" draft of the housing code includes changes such as improving escrow accounts so tenants have the right to withhold rent in an account held by the city. Laidlaw said the city saw some of Ayer's complaints as illegitimate, such as his suggestion to apply new building standards to buildings more than 50 years old. Individual inspectors are given leeway in interpreting the housing code, which may have led to the extreme case which Ayer faces, Laidlaw said. For example, the housing code says stairwells should be an "adequate height" but does not specify what this height should be. "(Ayer's) problem points to the need for stricter department regulations, so there is not that latitude to be strict or loose (with the code)," he said. CHIZEK agreed with the need for more uniform rules. "Not everybody sees the job the same way everyone else does. We need to be absolutely neutral as to what's right and what's wrong." Ayer says he was forced to file suit against the city in a "whistle- blowers suit" to defend his job, because officials began to place pressure on him in September for his actions. The department took disciplinary action against Ayer by suspending him for five days without pay. They said a home he owned and rented had a hazardous leak and new electrical work which was conducted without a permit. Laidlaw said, "Our folks feel that he pressured a fellow inspector to change the inspection report, taking iness as long as it paid for itself. If interest did not accumulate fast enough to cover the college commitments, the cost of future contracts would be boosted. If that still was not enough, the trust would be dissolved and all the money refunded. If the full Senate approves the plan and the House adds a final OK, the first pre-paid college contracts could be signed in as little as two months or in as much as a year, depending on the IRS, State Treasurer Robert Bowman said. 't upheld out important words, such as that the leak would be dangerous." A Y E R alleges that this discipline was unwarranted, but was a result of his supervisors picking on him because of his criticism of the housing code enforcement. Laidlaw said, "The city's position is that had nothing to do with whether he did or did not blow the whislte." Laidlaw predicts that Ayer's lawsuit against the city will be dismissed on the city's affidavit that Ayer was only being punished for his alleged misconduct. The suit would then be dismissed unless Ayer could prove that the city purposely picked on him. The Housing Bureau has said it is having trouble keeping up with enforcement because it is understaffed, with only four inspectors and needs computer systems. The council, however, has provided money in its budget for the fiscal year starting in July for a fifth housing inspector, additional clerical staff, and a computer system. DONALDSON said the department has not yet hired an additional inspector, although it recognized the need for one. The department wanted to straighten out departmental policies before adding a new person to the staff, Donaldson said. "We accepted applications and screened applicants, some more highly qualified. We'll be interviewing (this) week and they'll start as soon as they are available," Donaldson said. Ayer, however, contested that the department asked for a different inspector, but did not hire a new inspector because it "wanted to muck around with union contracts. They wanted to change the pay rates and hire a less-qualified person." Ayer also said Chizek wants to "pay the inspectors less because the inspectors get more than some of his engineers." Donaldson acknowledged that the city is thinking of restructuring the department, which would include the union contracts, but declined to comment how this would change the department. The department used to be set up with a department head and three middle management positions, people who were professional architectural engineers, Chizek said. Over the years these positions have been eliminated. Chizek said the additional middle management postions would give the department time to figure out strategies for the Building Department. IN BRIEF COMPILED FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS Honduran troops search for remaining Nicaraguan force TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Honduran troops, flown by U. S. helicopters, yesterday hunted for stragglers of a Nicaraguan force that. Honduran officers say crossed the border during the weekend and burned three deserted villages. A military intelligence source said the troops also were acting as a guard against further incursions. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said about 20., Honduran air force planes had bombed and strafed retreating Nicar - aguans, who he said were pursued by three Honduran infantry bat- talions. Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government denied that an incursion, took place and claimed warplanes from the Honduran side of the border{ bombed two villages inside Nicaragua, killing seven soldiers and' wounding 11 people. Honduras said that 18 of its soldiers were wounded in intense fight - ing in the border area over the weekend and that its troops inflicted undisclosed "heavy" casualties on a force of 700 Sandinista raiders. Children jailed in S. Africa JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The government said yesterday that 256 children under 16 were in jail without charge, including one only 11 years old. Anti-apartheid groups reported a huge troop buildup in black townships. Police Commissioner J. P. Coetzee made the announcement about- children detained under the nationwide state of emergency imposed June 12. Monitoring groups estimate the number of black children under 18 being held at 1,300-4,000 and have demanded they be freed before Christmas. Coetzee gave no indication of how many people aged 16-18 were' being held. One monitoring group, the Detainees' Parents Support: Committee, called that omission "the most cynical sleight of hand." "It is clear that the 16, 17 and 18-year-old group are the prime target of state repression," it said. "Whatever the exact number may be, evens one child in detention is too many." Israeli troops shoot youth BETHLEHEM, Occupied West Bank - Israeli troops shot and wounded a Palestinian youth yesterday as protesters pelted soldiers with rocks in a dozen towns and refugee camps, military and Palestinian' sources said. Israeli sodiers have killed three Palestinian youths since Thursday. Violence spread yesterday to four Israeli university campuses, where hundreds of Jewish and Arab students protested in solidarity with Palestinians of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The largest protest was at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, where soldiers used tear gas to quell the demonstration. Five Israeli buses were stoned in Jerusalem and the West Bank, with four Israeli passengers injured, the army said. Palestinian teen-agers blocked main roads with burning tires, threw stones, and waved PLO flags in demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, home for 1.4 million Palestinians and more than 50,000 Jewish settlers. Recession predicted for 1988 WASHINGTON - The nation's economy will be weaker than the Reagan administration predicts next year and a new recession may well be looming in 1988, U.S. business economists said yesterday. Total national output will actually grew a bit faster in 1987 than this year, but not enough to make much of a dent in the nation's 7 percent jobless rate, the economists said. Though they issued no specific economic storm warnings, the forecasters seemed to think such sluggish performancecouldn't go on forever. And a majority thought things would get worse rather than better. "Although only about 30 percent believe we will be in recession by the end of 1987, about 60 percent expect a downturn by the end of 1988, and over 90 percent anticipate a decline before the close of 1989," said Jerry Jordan, president of the National Association of Business Economists and a former member of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers. Perot opposes GM bonuses DETROIT - Billionaire H. Ross Perot said yesterday that he had, planned to vote against a 1986 bonus for General Motors Corp. ex - ecutives and that the GM board, which voted unanimously to buy him out for $750 million, knew it. "You can't build a great organization that way. If you go to war, you feed the troops before you feed the officers. You take care of the guys that do the work and then you take care of the guys that run the place," Perot said at a news conference before addressing an Economic Club of Detroit luncheon. "I was going -to vote against bonuses," he said. "Everyone knew that." GM suffered a $338 million third-quarter operating loss and announced plans to close nine assembly plants and parts of two others, eliminating at least 29,000 jobs in the next few years. 01 he Michligan Udflg Vol. XCVII--No.67 The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967 X) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms. Subscription rates: September through April-$18 in Ann Arbor; $35 outside the city. One term-$10 in town; $20 outside the city. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and subscribes to Pacific News Service and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. 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