University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
The University Daily KANSAN
Wednesday, March 3, 1982 Vol.92, No.108 USPS 650-640
Senate committee backs 7.5% faculty pay raise
By COLLEEN CACY Staff Reporter
TOPEKA—Despite opposition from the Senate President, the Senate Ways and Means Committee yesterday approved a 7.5 percent salary increase for Board of Regents faculty. The Regents had requested a 13 percent salary increase.
The committee voted down a proposal by Senate President Ross Doyen, R-Concordia, to establish $1.2 million enrichment fund to boost salaries for faculty in subject areas that are
The committee approved an 8.75 percent student salary increase that followed Gov. John McCain's decision to end the term.
The Regents had asked for a 10 percent student salary increase.
WAYS AND MEANS Committee Chairman Paul Hess, R-Wichita, said the committee did not pay Doyen's proposal because it wanted to stay with the group to pay the increase recommended by Garlin.
However, Hess said he thought the committee
should consider such a fund at the end of the session if there were enough left over funds.
"I'm not disagreeing with the President of the Senate in terms of the need or even of the dollars," Hess said. "I just want to preserve our flexibility. This would be the only major exception to what the governor has recommended."
Doyen said under his proposal, the enrichment fund would be divided between the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita State University—the three largest Board of Regents schools and the only ones with schools of engineering. Engineering faculty have increasingly left the universities for higher paying private sector jobs.
KU would receive 33.8 percent of the enrichment fund, $50,700, to be split among 260 faculty
"I TINK THIS IS one way we can take care of the problem without confusing the issue."
He said each school would be free to distribute the funds in any way they chose, but that said all three schools had indicated that about 75 percent of the enrichment money would be allocated to
engineering, business administration and computer science faculty.
Hess said at the end of the session they could "take the temperature of the state treasury," and if enough funds remained, they would make extra salary money the highest priority.
"If we put in an enrichment fund now, that's going to pass in the Senate," he said. "We will not have that flexibility at the end of the session."
The committee completed its recommendations yesterday on issues that apply to all the Regents schools. Ways and Means subcommittees for individual Regents institutions will consider capital improvements and other special requests this week and make their recommendations to the full committee in the next two weeks.
AFTER THE subcommittee recommendations, the Regents budget will pass to the Senate floor for discussion. It will then go to the House Ways and Means Committee for hearings.
The Senate Ways and Means committee's salary recommendations matched Carlin's allocations, but distributed the dollars differently.
Carlin recommended an 8.75 percent increase in all faculty, and an extra 1.25 percent for graduate students.
"I just think it makes more sense to have this kind of enrichment program instead of an extra 1.25 percent," Doyen said. "But if the consensus of the committee is to wait, I can abide by that."
KU subcommittee Chairman Ron Hein, R-Topeka, said he voted against the proposed enrichment fund, but said it could be approved at the end of the session if funds were available.
"I WOULD BE willing to take a look at it somewhere down the line if the money is there," he said. "It certainly helps if the President of the Senate is behind it."
The committee's recommendations for all the system-wide Regents issues stayed within the 12 month window.
it's more increase recommended by Carlin.
"It's a good sign that they stayed within the dollars the governor recommended." State Sen. Jane Eldredge, R-Lawrence, said. "I'm pleased to see the Senate recommendation isn't any lower."
The committee, however, shifted the money around by adjusting Carlin's recommendations to allow for a more balanced approach.
method of increasing funds for changes in enrollment.
Shrinkage is the amount of funds withheld from a school's annual budget to allow for faculty salaries.
Carlin recommended increasing shrinkage from 2 percent to 3.5 percent—a change that would cost KU an extra $15,000 for every $1 million of salary funds.
THE COMMITTEE followed the Regents request to keep shrinkage to 2 percent.
request correspondence. The committee also recommended staying with a method of enrollment adjustment adopted last year called the "corridor concept."
Under this method, an institution must absorb an increase or decrease in enrollment of less than 1.5 percent. The same base year is used to measure changes for the next three years. Such a system would allow large changes in funds and faculty every three years.
Carlin proposed using a method of enrollment adjustment based on full-time enrollment. It would add or subtract the number of faculty numbers based on enrollment changes every fall.
JOHN HANKAMMER/Kansan Staff
One of two women firefighters in Lawrence, Denise Clemens pulls a water line off a pumper truck.
Job-seeking women enlist with Lawrence firefighters
Staff Reporter
By BECKY ROBERTS
Once inside, he knows he will be able to see nothing until he sees the orange glow and the light of it.
He faces the flaring building and prepares to enter.
a firefighter trudges through the cold, wearing 40 pounds of firefighters' gear, carrying his oxygen supply on his back, his heart pounding.
His first response something atypical about the firefighters in Lawrence. They are women.
Both women read about the job opening in the want ads.
LAWRENCE, THE BIGGEST city in Kansas to employ women firefighters, last June hired two women, Lexie Engleman, 30, and Denise Clemens, 35.
Englaner said she had been looking in the
village to find a good job.
"I saw it in the paper and I just knew I was the person for that job." Clemens said
"I just had a baby. He was four months old. I missed the physical test and then use
In order to get ready for the physical test, Clemens said she trained four or five times a week for two and one-half months, running, weightlifting and jumping rope.
"I thought 'shoot, that sounds like an interesting gratification.' she said.
"I was kinsa surprised when they called me because all along I just thought 'I'd try it.'
"AT THE PHYSICAL test they were all watching, I knew I could do it, so I just did."
"I was hired because I was number one on the list, and I was."
Both women applied for the job at Lawrence City Hall and began the selection process necessary to becoming a firefighter. During among 50 other people that applied for the jobs.
Engleman said, "We had to take the same tests the men did. They weren't going to lower their standards."
Two areas of the test were determined on a pass-fail basis. If an applicant didn't pass either of these two areas, he couldn't pass the physical testing.
Physical capacity testing, which tests endurance, strength and agility, was the next step.
The last step in the hiring process was an interview with the fire chief, personnel director, a female police officer and several other who were chosen to help pick a firefighter
The first step was to pass a written exam. The next step was to practice listening, listening ability and mechanical aptitude.
Weather
THE APPLICANT had to be able to carry a 125-bound bag of sand 100 feet without stopping. The second test was to climb an aerial ladder extended at a 75-degree angle.
According to Fire Chief Jim McSwain, the interviewers ranked the applicants. Ap-
Today will be cloudy and cold with a 70 percent chance of snow, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka. The high will be in the teens to low 28s. Winds will be from the northeast at 10 to 20 mph.
See FIREFIGHTERS page 5
Snow also is likely for tonight. Night's low will be in the teens. The high tomorrow will be in the 30s.
Possible recall election could thwart democratic process. ex-mavor says
By STEPHEN BLAIR Staff Reporter
If Lawrence holds its first-ever recall election against a city commissioner, his successor would be appointed by the four remaining commissioners rather than be elected, and the democratic process could be undermined, Jack Raney, former mayor, said last night.
Sound the four remaining commissioners reach a two-to-two tie vote in picking a successor to Commissioner Tone Gleason, who may face a challenge from a potential candidate casts the deciding vote," according to James Postma, a member of the Lawrence Committee. The committee is sponsoring the recall drive.
Raney said, "Personalities aside, I don't know if the democratic process is served if a nonelected attorney, who serves at the pleasure not of the city commission, but of the city manager, is casting the deciding vote. We're testing the system to the bloody edge.
"A city manager might even fire a city attorney if he didn't like the replacement that he in mind. That won't happen here, but it onens up all kinds of possibilities."
two date has been set for the recall election, which will be held if the county clerk validates 3,760 of the more than 4,000 signatures collected on petitions circulated by the Lawrence Com
There will not be opposing candidates on the ballet, Postma said.
"It'd be 'yes' or 'no' on Mr. Gleasson, and it'd be up to the city commission to appoint a sit out
"I assume that if a simple majority votes recall," that it's.
The petition drive was prompted by Gleason's Feb. 4 letter to City Manager Buford Watson suggesting that Watson resign or face the possibility of being fired.
However, in closed sessions Feb. 18 and 20,
Gleason did not move to fire Watson.
and Barkely Clark said they would vote to retain Watson if such a motion were made.
Before the sessions, Commissioners Don Binns
However, Mayor Mayor Francisco and Commissioner Nancy Schatz had refused to say
Given the present commission, Raney said, it was possible that the commission could split evenly on the issue of replacing the commissioner.
Another negative result of a recall election is that developers might be reluctant to build a downtown project in a divided community, Raney said. Lawrence would still be able to attract a downtown developer, but the divided community makes the city less attractive, he added.
Barnie Armergian, former mayor and member of the Lawrence Committee, disagreed.
But one Gleason campaign worker said he welcomed the recall election.
"I think it could turn to a referendum on the city manager as much as anything," said Richard Kersenbaum, Gleason campaign manager for the East Lawrence Improvement Association.
"I think the real issue is who controls the town and whether the city management really works for it."
Kershenbaum emphasized that the problem was not one of conflict between businessmen and neighborhood groups. Rather, it was an issue of competition among private privileges for the city manager, he said.
Arsinger disagued.
"That crowd that thinks they got Mr. Gleason
'Personalities aside, I don't know if the democratic process is served if a non-elected attorney, who serves at the pleasure not of the city commission, but of the city manager, is casting the deciding vote. We're testing the system to the bloody edge.'
—Jack Raney, former Lawrence mayor
"I don't see it makes it makes any difference whether there is a recall election or whether we just have to keep going."
"A developer might look on it as a wide-a-wake town where people don't allow commissioners to take over."
Although he failed to prevent the coming recall election, Raney said, the political divisions in California have been growing.
"I personally felt that either of those two extreme actions of firing the city manager without due cause or recalling a city commissioner would be unfortunate." Raney said.
Raney also said Gleason's letter was not grounds for recalling a commissioner.
"That was a dumb, stupid mistake and apparently he's recanted on that," Raney said.
elected is paranoid," she said. "Pence, Binns, and Mibec were all on the commission and from east Lawrence in 1975, and they still said they never got any representation."
Carl Mibke is a former city commissioner. "They are just literally paranoid. I don't know what they think the real issues are," Argersinger said.
"Here we are taking a vote back to the people and Mr. Gleason says we are 'subverting the rule'."
The recall election may set a precedent by encouraging commissioners to put issues up for referendum rather than voting on them in the during session of the commission, Raney said.
That would politicize the community even further, he said.
Amendments fail
House passes mineral severance tax
From Staff and Wire Reports
TOPEKA—The Kansas House wrangled for nearly five hours yesterday before narrowly endorsing a severance tax proposal that opponents claim was rigged to further political careers and supporters said would help keep the state solvent.
Although enemies of the severance tax promised to stall the bill, their debate fizzled out late in the afternoon and a roll call vote fell in favor of the tax. 70-55.
The bill would impose a 3.5 percent increase on oil and natural gas production and a 2.5 percent tax increase on natural gas liquids. Most of its projected $163 million in tax revenues has been assigned to the state general fund for property tax relief.
Opponents angrily denounced the bill for taking revenue from the oil- and gas-rich western half of the state and spending it on the more populated eastern half of the state.
Senate President Roy Doyen, R-Concordia, an adamant opponent of the bill, yesterday expressed displeasure with the House's tentative approval. He predicted that the bill would fall in favor.
But State Rep. Jess Branson, D-Lawrence, said, "There is talk that they're beginning to
Branson, who co-sponsored the severance tax bill, said, "I'm very happy I was passed 1 million dollars." The Justice Department has not publicly confirmed the truth.
State Repa, John Solbach and Betty Jo Charlton, both D-Lawrence, also co-sponsored the bill, and Charlton agreed that the tax would benefit the University of Kansas.
"Any severance tax is going to free up money
But Richard von Ende, executive secretary to the University, said a secession law would make
in the general fund, which frees up money for the University," she said.
"We have no position on it," Ende said. And "I'd say the same thing about pop bottle
Proponents of the bill, led by its author, House Speaker Wendell Lady, R-Overland Park, said it would raise money to pay for highway improvements and increased spending on public roads.
But those opposing the bill intimated that Lady was using the issue to further his guerritorial interests.
In an emotion-filled voice, Lady denied those allegations and said she favored the bill because it was about her safety.
Lady said his support of the bill had caused him to lose the friendship and support of many of his friends.
The speech earned Lady a round of applause from the floor.
"But I'm not complaining. I'm at peace with myself because I've done what I think is good."
"Yes, I've been chastised and estracized by members of my own party, and if anyone thinks I've enjoyed taking this position, they'd better think again." Lady said.
"We're going to have a parade of amendments here and we're all against the bill," he said, as several lawmakers stalled.
During the first three hours of the debate, opponents filed to the microphone one after the other to offer unsuccessful amendments that said they were designed to halt passage of the bill.
"Let's don't be deluding ourselves into thinking these amendments were offered to help this bill."
One amendment, submitted by State Rep. Rex Crowwell, R-Longton, would have officially labeled the bill "The Great Shawnee, Johnson Act of 1827," the Tax Welfare Act of 1827). His amended failure.
Only one of 10 proposed amendments won approval, that one being largely technical. House Majority Leader Robert Frey, R-Liberal, was of attempt to stily change in the bill.
"It if would fail because of these amendments,
it's a pretty fragile bill," Frey said. "I don't think all these should be considered as frivolous
things that are necessary and equity—that's not going to kill the bill."
Attempts to take the tax off natural gas liquids, to send most of the money back to the counties to make up for property valuation loss and to exempt farm machinery from property taxation were voted down along with other proposed changes.
Other amendments questioned the constitutionality of the tax, charging that it broke Kansas "Uniform and Equal" tax laws. One amendment would have rendered the entire bill unconstitutional should even one part be deemed illegal.
But State Rep. Robert Vancrum, R-Overland Park, a sponsor of the bill, said an attorney general's opinion had shown "crystally clear" that the bill was constitutional.
Vancrum also told opponents that if they succeeded in defeating the bill, they would be putting "the thumbscrews down tight on the teachers of the state."