Banner Graphic, Volume 13, Number 120, Greencastle, Putnam County, 27 January 1983 — Page 3

Pease's open records bill ready for final House vote

INDIANAPOLIS ( AP) —An “open records” bill which spells out what government information is off limits to the public and what must be disclosed was eligible for a final vote today in the Indiana House. . A similar measure cleared the Senate 46-1 Wednesday. Under both bills, an agency would have the burden of proving why a record should be kept confidential instead of requiring the person seeking the information to prove why it should be released. The House version is sponsored by Reps. Richard M. Dellinger. R-Noblesville; Stephen Moberly. R-Shelbyville; Dan Stephan, R-Huntington; and Robert J. Bischoff, DLaw r renceburg. The House voted 52-43 Wednesday against an amendment proposed Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville, to apply the open records law to license branches, which are politically controlled The Senate version includes an amendment removing the legal requirement for cities, school corporations, counties and townships to pay newspapers to publish their annual reports. The House measure does not contain that provision. “The bill which you have before you is a series of compromises,” said Sen. Edward Pease, R-Brazil, one of five Senate sponsors of the bill.

Givan campaigning to end judicial campaigning

INDIANAPOLIS (AP> - Chief Justice Richard M. Givan says Hoosiers are better served when the judges of Indiana’s highest courts don’t have to run around the state chasing votes. Givan made a veiled appeal In his “State of the Judiciary” message for the Legislature to resist efforts to return to the old System of electing members of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. ‘ At least two proposed constitutional amendments introduced this session would require appellate-level judges to run for office, a practice abandoned 12 years ago when the judicial amendment to the Indiana Constitution took effect. Givan recalled that before the amendment was approved by the voters in November 1970, candidates for appellate-level judgeships were chosen at political party conventions. “Often, judgeships were traded off in political deals by

Firemen found out bv chance

Company didn't report acid cloud

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Chemical distribution company officials did not notify authorities when sulfuric acid leaked from a broken valve, forcing evacuation of 2,000 people and critically injuring the plant foreman, a township fire chief says. Instead, the crew of a passing fire truck noticed the cloud that rose at least 400 feet in the air on the city’s east side Wednesday and decided to investigate, Warren Township Fire Chief Gerald Humphries said. “I am concerned that they did not notify anyone immediately following the spill,” Humphries said. Officials of Ulrich Chemical Inc. were not immediately available for comment. Ulrich plant foreman Kim Davis, 30, of Martinsville, was repairing a valve on a pipe that supplies sulfuric acid to a tank when it ruptured at about 11:45 a.m., Ulrich vice president Steve Hiatt said.

Burrous denies taking payoffs

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Former House Speaker Kermit 0. Burrous has testified in federal court he never demanded, accepted or ordered his aides to request campaign contributions or payoffs from people seeking legislative favors. Burrous was called Wednesday as a defense witness for Thomas .V. McComb of Fort Wayne, a former state senator turned lobbyist. McComb is charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a grand jury investigating allegations of legislative payoffs. ' "I deny it because it didn’t happen,” Burrous told jurors. The Peru Republican denied asking McComb to make a political contribution to his unsuccessful 1980 campaign for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor in return for assigning a bill to a favorable committee. He denied authorizing his “friend and adviser,” In-

those with much larger personal stakes in high state or federal offices,” he said. “By this process, some incompetent judges remained in office. On the other hand, some of our most outstanding judges were dealt out of office for some extraneous political reason having no relationship to their competence as a judge." As a result of the amendment, the governor appoints members of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals from nominees picked by the Judicial Nominating Commission. Judges appointed in this manner serve for two years and then go before the voters in a general election for a yes-no retention vote for a 10-year term. In his speech Wednesday, the chief justice reported that both the caseload and the output of the Supreme Court and the appeals court have grown dramatically in recent years. “I honestly believe the burdens could not have been met

Davis was treated at Wishard Hospital for burns over 40 percent of his body, authorities said. He suffered acid burns on his back, legs, face, buttocks and arms. Ten other people treated in area hospitals and released. ‘‘This accident displaced about 2,000 people roughly in a square-mile area,” Mayor William H. Hudnutsaid. About 450 were residents of the area and were allowed to go home around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday after the danger was declared over. The rest were workers and students in the area. The valve rupture caused an outdoor storage tank containing 12,000 gallons of sulfuric acid to leak, possibly corroding another tank of the same size containing muriatic acid. About 5,000 gallons from both acid tanks spilled, Ulrich officials said. The sulfuric acid poured into a safety dike built around the tank. The liquid acid quickly

KERMITBURROUS 'lt didn't happen'

dianapolis lawyer H. Kent Howard, to ask for contributions from a group to obtain a legislative favor. “No sir, I did not do that. I am very adverse to that type of thing," Burrous, now a Miami County grain farmer, testified.

“It establishes a policy that all records unless specifically excepted are open for public inspection and copying." Pease said Pease said the bill balances the public’s right to know, individual rights to privacy, and the functioning of government. The bill exempts records from inspection that are declared confidential under state or federal law, or by public agency rule. “Those items which are now confidential by statute or regulation will remain so,” Pease said. The bill defines 18 discretionary areas, where records may be kept confidential. Those areas include trade secrets, certain law enforcement records, test questions, inter-office memos and personal diaries, medical records, computer programs, and the identity of a donor to a public agency who w'ants to remain anonymous. Under the bill, a citizen could go to court to challenge whether a record should be kept confidential. The judge could order the individual to pay attorneys fees if the challenge was deemed frivolous or vexatious, and the agency could be ordered to pay attorneys fees if it knowingly or intentionally withheld information that should have been made public. “It would be an understatement to say this is a complex piece of legislation,” said Senate President Pro Tern Robert D. Garton, R-Columbus. Carton said the bill was “good puulic policy."

had the appellate judiciary been subjected to the shifting political tides we have all witnessed over the last years,” The 1970 amendment gave the Judicial Qualifications Commission the power to police judges around the state. “No matter how a system chooses its judges or whether they have a term of years or serve for life, the most important factor of control is the ability to discipline or remove,” Givan said. “The election process is weak at best in this regard, at times leaving incompetents in office and at other times removing excellent judges because they happen to belong to the losing political party in the fall,” he added. Givan said that before the constitution was amended, “some counties suffered for years under senile or alcoholic judges who in spite of their incompetence were continued in office by the voters.”

turned to vapor when it mixed with cold air and water sprayed by firefighters to cool the storage tank, authorities said. Top city officials huddled a safe distance from the plant and for a short time contemplated calling a citywide emergency, fearing the vapors would seep into nearby houses, apartment complexes, businesses and elementary schools. But it became apparent the cloud would dissipate, and special crews were able to neutralize acid on the ground. “We didn’t call a citywide emergency, but it was touch and go there for a while and depended on wind and the safety of the people in the immediate area,” Public Safety Director Richard I. Blankenbaker said. Air samples were analyzed Wednesday afternoon before determining it was safe for peopie to return home, Humphries said. “The first report was that it was only about five gallons

McComb lobbied for Construction Managers Association of Indiana. He is charged with trying to influence the testimony of witnesses and with lying to a grand jury concerning Senate Bill 245 in the 1979 The bill, which did not pass, would have prevented architects and engineers from serving as construction managers on public projects they had designed. T Association officials have testified McComb arranged a meeting Feb. 14, 1979, in a Statehouse hallway with Howard, and he demanded a $5,000 contribution to Burrous’ campaign in return for a pledge to assign SB 245 to a committee that would kill it. Under questioning by McComb’s lawyer, Philip R. Melangton Jr. and Richard L. Darst, first assistant U.S. attorney, Burrous denied repeatedly he demanded contributions or payoffs for

JUSTICE RICHARD GIVAN: No vote-chaser

spilled,” said Humphries. “But when I got there, I realized it was more. I saw a vapor cloud and realized we had to evacuate the area.” Humphries said the wind acted "like a big fan” in blowing the vapor throughout the area. The vapor went nearly straight up, and easterly winds sent the cloud west toward the downtown area about five miles away. It did not reach downtown. Another Ulrich employee, James Cottrell, 50, of Indianapolis, suffered a burn on an elbow but was treated and released, authorities said. Cottrell said he pulled Davis from the area and helped flush his burns with water. Also injured were two Warren Township firefighters, a Marion County sheriff’s deputy and area residents. Community Hospital treated them for slight burns or vapor inhalation and released them Wednesday night, a hospital spokeswoman said.

legislative favors. Burrous testified Howard had no official legislative job in 1979. He said Howard had access to the House floor while it was in session on his personal invitation. The former speaker denied soliciting campaign contributions, adding that his campaign committee members, including Howard and John Forbes, took care of that. He maintained he did not even know who donated funds to the campaign. Howard was chief counsel to the House. Forbes, treasurer of Burrous’ campaign, was the chief counsel and parlimentarian for the House in 1979. Burrous testified he obtained a $60,000 loan from Merchants National Bank to cover the committee’s campaign debt. He said he will pay the sum off by farming. He added that his wife pledged to get a job and said he would sell all his possessions to pay the note.

“We live in an age when government requires a lot of information from each of us,” he said. Carton said the bill struck “a very delicate balance” between the public’s right to know and the individual’s right to privacy. Carton said individuals may have some valid reason for voting against the bill, such as fears that it would cost too much and create inconvenience, but he endorsed the measure. “The more open government is, the better all of us are able to live with it,” as long as the right to personal privacy is protected, Garton said. “I’m satisfied that it’s a good bill and it deserves your support,” Pease said. "This bill is not going to invite more inquiry than already exists.” Sen. Lillian Parent, R-Danville, asked whether agencies could charge for the time it takes to research and find a record. Pease said that is not currently covered in the bill, because “access could be denied by being priced out of the market.” Pease said if the bill posed a problem, it could be changed later. Sens. Frank L. O’Bannon, D-Corydon; Michael Rogers, RNew Castle; William C. Dunbar, R-Terre Haute; and John Bushemi, D-Gary, cosponsored the Senate measure. Sen. V. Richard Miller, R-Plymouth, who chairs the Republican Senate caucus, cast the lone dissenting vote,

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Amendments to confirm all PSC members are introduced

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana legislators couldn’t serve life terms in the General Assembly but could review appointments to the Public Service Commission under proposed constitutional amendments introduced in the Indiana House. The measures were among the last 22 suggested constitutional amendments assigned to committee by House Speaker J. Roberts Dailey, R-Muncie. The measures were made public Wednesday after being filed in time for Monday’s deadline for introduction of House bills. Constitutional amendments must be passed by two separately elected Legislatures and then approved by public referendum. One measure would limit legislators to 12 years in the House or Senate. The amendment, proposed by Rep. Dan Stephan, R-Huntington. would not count years of service

January 27,1983. The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

although he didn’t head for the microphone to speak on the bill. “It wasn’t going to make any difference anyway,” he said. Miller said the bill takes “a huge philosophical jump” in placing the burden of proof on the agency. “I felt it was moving awful fast,” Miller said. “I m not sure that the people had true input into this thing, ” he said. Meanwhile, the Senate voted 45-0 for a bill that raises the penalty for selling alcoholic beverages to a minor. Currently, violators risk a fine of up to SSOO. The bill sponsored by Sens. Thomas Hession, R-Shelbyville, and Ralph Potesta, R Hammond, would raise that penalty to a misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of a SSOO fine and 60 days in jail. Notary publics would be prevented from certifying affidavits if the person signing the document didn’t personally appear and take an oath about the truth of the affadavits under a bill sent to the House on a 44-5 vote. The measure, sponsored by Potesta, allows the secretary of state to investigate possible violations by notaries and revoke the commission of a notary who does not comply. The Senate voted 48-0 for a bill which gives credit union customers three years to challenge actions of a credit union. A bill which gives Indiana courts jurisdiction over child custody cases involving a naturalized citizen born abroad w r as sent to the House on a 47-0 vote.

before the 1984 General Assembly. Four representatives are sponsoring a measure to add tw'o years to House members current two-year term. Reps. G. Edward Cook. DPlvmouth; Richard W. Mangus, R-Lakeville; Paul J. Robertson, D-Corydon: and Richard A. Thompson, R-North Salem, want House members to be elected to four-year terms, the same as state senators. Four Democrats are sponsoring a measure to eliminate multi-member legislative districts. Reps. Peter Katie of Hammond. Earline S. Rogers of Gary, Sheila J. Klinker of Lafayette and Baron P. Hill of Seymour want to require single member House and Senate districts. Each Senate district would include two House districts. Other suggested constitutional amendments deal with reforming the utilityregulating PSC. Currently, the governor ap-

points PSC members. Reps. Dean R Mock. R-Elkhart. Norman L. Gerig, R-Auburn, Lee Clingan, D-Covington, and Katie want to allow’ the House or Senate or both to review' the governor’s appointees. Other proposed constitutional amendments would: —Elect governors and lieutenant governors in years when there is no presidential election. The governor elected in 1988 would serve until 1994. —Repeal the constitutional ban on lotteries and the sale of lottery tickets. —Require pension funds for state and local governmental employees to be fully funded so retirees can be paid benefits they have been promised after July 31.1987. —Allow the General Assembly to give a property tax exemption to business inventory held for sale. the requirement that fines for violations of criminal laws be deposited in the Common School Fund.

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