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One hundred and one years of editorial freedom
wiNSlDE..
Webber scores 25
in victory over
Wisconsin.
See SPORTSMonday.
Vol. CII, No. 64
Ann Arbor, Michigan - Monday, January 27, 1992
Copyright ©1 992
The Michigan Daily
Regents to consider
appeal of court case
by Melissa Peerless
Daily Administration Reporter
The University Board of Regents
has called a special meeting for 6
p.m. tonight to discuss a recent deci-
sion by the State Court of Appeals
which found that it violated the
Michigan Open Meetings Act when
the regents conducted their presi-
dential search in 1988.
According to a memo sent by
Vice President for Government
Relations and Secretary of the
University Richard Kennedy, the re-
gents will publicly convene their
meeting in the Regents Room in the
Fleming Administration Building.
They are then expected to close the
meeting and reconvene privately in
the President's Conference Room.
This non-public meeting is per-
mitted through a clause in the Open
Meetings Act which exempts legal
matters pertaining to specific pend-
ing litigation from being discussed
openly.'
During the meeting, the regents
will decide whether or not to appeal
the decision to the Michigan
Supreme Court.
However, they will not actually
vote on the issue. They will give
their official decision to Chief
Financial Officer Farris Womack
who will then deliver the decision
to University President James
Duderstadt. The Open Meetings Act
prohibits voting in closed session.
Executive Director of
University Relations Walter
Harrison said that the regents felt
that adhering to the Open Meetings
Act would have impeded their
search.
"This was their way of looking
for a president. There is so much
suspicion of government entities -
it's going to be hard to have any can-
didates if they are public at early
stages of the selection process," he
said.
Harrison said the regents could
avoid conducting all of their future
business in public if they make a di-
verse committee to search for per-
sonnel instead of acting as a regental
body.
"They could have a selection
committee made up of regents, fac-
ulty and students who would
conduct the search until they had ...
a small number of candidates. At
that point, the list could be given to
the regents and the proceedings
would be public," he said.
See APPEAL, Page 2
Mail-order man HEA'"E L"~M
First-year computer science student Ken Thomas peeks through mailboxes at the Art and Architecture
Building Friday.
Computerized tickets
save city time, money
by Merav Barr
Finding a parking place in Ann
Arbor has never been easy. But new
ticketing techniques adopted by the
Ann Arbor Police Department may
make the experience far worse than
it already is.
Last July, the Parking Enforce-
ment division of the AAPD insti-
tuted the use of computerized,
hand-held devices in issuing park-
ing violations to replace hand-
written tickets.
The battery-run device is con-
nected to the mainframe computer
in City Hall. When an officer types
in a license plate number, a beep
sounds if six or more unpaid park-
ing tickets are on record. Once the
officer confirms the warning with
the dispatcher, the car will be
towed.
The Hand-held Computerized
Issuance Parking Citation System
cost the police department $30,000.
Assistant Parking Manager in
Charge of Parking Enforcement
Jim Stein said the investment has
paid off. "The system paid for it-
self in outstanding tows after the
first one and a half months," he
said.
As compared to last year, the
city towed 148 more cars in the
first two months of implementa-
tion for a gross increase of $33,000.
Stein said the benefits of the
new system are numerous. "You
save time and money by eliminat-
ing manual data entry. The process
also becomes more efficient when
errors are minimized and files are
kept up to date," he said.
The computerized system saves
a significant amount of time. The
old manual process required three
data-entry people six hours to pro-
cess 1,800 tickets. Now one person
can do the job in 20 minutes, Stein
said.
"This will definitely affect
drivers who collect unpaid parking
tickets," Stein said.
But LSA senior Laura Freedman
cannot guarantee the new plan will
reform her bad parking habits. "It's
gonna make me pay most of my
parking tickets promptly but it's
certainly not going to avoid some
tickets going unpaid," she said.
.AN" T"M." 'ROI'" ly^""
Ann Arbor Police Officer Henderson uses the department's new computerized ticketing machine to penalize an
unsuspecting vehicle on E. University.
Boundaries for April 6 election to be determined this week
" T 1 t"
by Erin Einhorn
Daily City Reporter
Some Ann Arbor voters still don't know
which city ward they will be voting in for
the April 6 City Council election.
But Circuit Court Judge Donald Shelton
is expected to release a ruling early this
week which will give them a sense of direc-
tion, at least for this year.
Councilmember Kurt Zimmer (D-4th
Ward) filed a suit against the city last
month which questioned the constitutional-
ity of the plan and accused the rest of the
Settlement
issue slows,
Mideast LA
conference
JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir said
yesterday the United States should
"forget about" a freeze on Israeli
settlements but predicted a
compromise with Washington on $10
billion in U.S. housing loan
guarantees.
The dispute is complicating
Middle East peace talks, and another
snag developed Sunday. A senior
PLO official said the Palestinians
would boycott tomorrow's round in
Moscow unless the Palestinian
delegation included representatives
from Arab east Jerusalem and abroad.
Shamir's remarks were his first
reaction to Secretary of State James
Baker's reported proposal Friday that
Israel stop building new homes in the
occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
Democratic caucus of gerrymandering - re-
districting for the purpose of a partisan ad-
vantage.
No court date has yet been scheduled to
decide whether Zimmer's claims are accu-
rate, but Zimmer asked Shelton to extend
the 1980 boundaries for another election,
pending a final decision, during Friday
morniig's hearing at the county courthouse.
The trial brief submitted by Zimmer's
attorney Kurt Berggren presented pages of
bar graphs, tables, maps, statistics and
lengthy numbers.
Zimmer claims these figures prove that
the Democratic caucus will win a majority
of council seats in each of the next ten elec-
tions under the newly reapportioned city
ward boundaries.
"Given a 50 percent probability of a
Democrat winning the mayor's seat," read
the brief, "the probability of a Democratic
control of Council is 64.28 percent."
This, Zimmer said, "pulls the choice out
of the hands of the voters and puts them in
the hand of the parties ... It violates the
rights of the people of Ann Arbor."
But acting City Attorney Mel Laracey
argued that Zimmer's facts are unsubstanti-
ated.
"If this were the trial," agreed Judge
Shelton, "Mr. Zimmer's opinion would not
be admissible without further foundation,
but because of the nature of these proce-
dures, I will allow it."
Zimmer based his projections on the vot-
ing records of precincts over the past decade.
Certain communities, he said, have con-
sistently voted for a particular party. Zim-
mer contends that traditionally Republican-
voting wards have become more Republican
and traditionally Democratic wards have
become more Democratic, decreasing compe-
tition.
Wards one, three and five, said Zimmer,
will most likely always elect a Democrat.
But Laracey suggested that Zimmer's
limited experience may have led him to ex-
clude details that should have been figured
into the equation.
Zimmer's projections were based primar-
ily on voters' party affiliations and do not
See ZIMMER, Page 2
Pro-choicers, Operation
(""E ,,, Rescue clash at clinic
by Gwen Shaffer
Daily Women's Issues Reporter
HIGHLAND PARK - Ob-
servers walking past the Midwest
Gynecologists' Pregnancy Clinic
Saturday morning see two battling
factions waging war, but each with a
different strategy.
Operation Rescue has set up
picket lines and barricaded the front
and side doors when Ann Arbor
Committee to Defend Abortion and
Reproductive Rights (AACDARR)
members arrive. Muffled chants of
"Praise Jesus" can be heard from the
pro-life demonstrators, many of
whom carry Bibles and song books.
Some of the picketers look too
young to understand what they are
protesting. Within minutes, the pro-
choice demonstrators line up, begin
their incessant barrage of slogans,
and attempt to remove the pro-lif-
ers from the doorways.
Earlier that morning, while
some University students are still
trbain a thea;r w av, Inmp afrnm rn t Aa,
running high as people anxiously
talk about positioning. Who will
serve as "escorts" to ensure that
women seeking abortions'may enter
safely? Who wants to picket outside
the clinic? Who feels brave enough
to physically hold back the pro-life
demonstrators as they blockade the
clinic door? Posts appointed, the
carloads of people zoom off toward
1-96.
Once the stream of cars reach a
Detroit medical center, organizers
derly-looking man from Operation
Rescue is told to step away from the
door. He refuses. Screaming, "My
heart, my heart!" he is instantly
handcuffed. Cheers erupt from, the
pro-choice activists. By mid-morn-
ing, seven right-to-life advocates
have been arrested on charges of
trespassing.
"The cops are upset anyway, so it
doesn't take much to tick them off,"
says pro-life activist Paul Quinn.
"Things can get pretty wild."
'Women need to know there is a way out. I
never met a woman who regretted continuing
her pregnancy.'
- Katherine Marshall
Right-to-Life member
go in to find out which clinic Opera-
tion Rescue will be targeting that
day. Word quickly spreads that
Highland Park is to be the day's des-
tination, and the motorcade takes
nff nran
A rumor spreads that the doctors
have decided to close the clinic in
order to avoid being the center of
conflict. Momentarily, it appears
that Operation Rescue has won this
rr . mA
e
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