TODAY Cold and partly sunny; High: 29, Low: I8. TOMORROW Chance of flurries; High: 35, Low: 26. 1£d 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 I