South Tucson's El Independiente, 1982-10-15

              Other communities face insurance problems
By NANCY MONTGOMERY
Staff Writer
II misery loves company, then South Tucson, Paw,
Paw, W. Va., Wapanucka, Okia. and Troy, Mich. ought
to get together.
All have been hit with large liability judgments that
have left their continued existence as cities in question.
All, it might be argued, were underinsured.
When Julian Roy Garcia accidently was shot by a
South Tucson policeman in October 1978, the city had
liability coverage of $100,000.
Garcia, who was paralyzed from the waist down, was
awarded $3.67 million by a Pima County Superior Court
jury in 1980. With interest, the debt owed to Garcia has
escalated to $4.4 million.
More coverage might have made a difference, Tucson
Risk Manager Terry W. Anderson said. "The big
problem in settling these cases is the upfront money," he
said.
When asked why South Tucson did not have more
insurance, City Clerk William L. Ponder said,"That's all
they could get. There were several incidents so that
insurance carriers were not willing to underwrite South
Tucson."
BY JULIE A. AMPARANO
Staff Writer
In an effort to pinpoint the yearnings and
improve the contributions of Hispanics in
the Tucson area, local authorities spon-sored
a forum dedicated to seeking im-provement
in key areas.
Tucson City Manager Joel D. Valdez, the
keynote speaker, said the forum, Accion
'80s, which took place on Oct. 7 and 8, was
a "symbol of action, effort and change."
Accion '805 assessed areas believed to
need improvement to serve properly the
area's Hispanic population.
Gerald Garcia, editor and publisher of
the Tucson Citizen and the chairman of the
forum, said it sought a greater un-derstanding
of how Hispanics can con-tribute
to and enrich the community.
"We seek greater participation and a
greater influence in the decision-making
process," Garcia said.
Areas researched and evaluated by local
authorities since organization of the Ac-cion
'80s committee in April include:
education, media, judicial system,
transportation, housing, employment and
health.
The forum's primary objective was to
seek recommendations in the various
sectors and to implement them into the
community.
South Tucson's
EI
Photo by Nancy Niero
I LOVE SOUTH TUCSONSouth Tucson firefighters Jeff lsely, left, and Mike Black-burn,
stand in front of a fire engine emblazoned with a new decoration.
Hispanic forum targets better life
One such incident was the July 1q77 fatal shooting of
Jose H. Sinohui Jr. by a South Tucson policeman and
the subsequent $200,000 judgment against the city and
officer. Before that, and since 1979, the city has had a $1
million policy, Ponder said.
But UA finance professor Nestor R. Roos said he
recommends small cities have at least $5 million in-surance.
With the shift away from "sovereign im-munity"
of cities, handed down from the colonial rule
that "the king can do no wrong," munincipalities are
increasingly vulnerable to lawsuits because of the
potentially bigger awards, he said.
"You go after whoever has the most money," Nestor
said. "It's the deep-pocket theory."
To complicate the matter further, insurance in-creasingly
is harder to obtain and more expensive, he
said.
Pima County Risk Manager Canton D. Schoolcraft
agreed a small city is hardpressed to afford adequate
insurance coverage. He said Pima County is self-insured
for $100,000 per occurrence, to cover the smaller claims,
"false arrests, slips and falls," and carries a $50 million
excess policy.
"We insure against the big loss," he said.
Independiente
The more a munincipality can spend on self-insurance,
or the deductible, the less will be its excess
rates, which is the sum the insurance company is
responsible for, Schoolcraft said."It makes a lot of
difference in the amount you pay out in premiums," he
said.
A solution for adequate coverage for small cities may
be a pooling arrangement with other cities, where cities
combine assets so they can take a larger deductible,
Anderson said.
Generally, poo1 members share each other's losses up
to the predetermined deductible, he said. "The first
deductible would be the amount a city would self-insure
for, and the pool would set another deductible. The pool
then would buy excess insurance," Anderson said.
"It's very much like a credit union. The problem is
keeping the withdrawls on an even basis," he said.
"This would be designed for the smaller entities. They
could enter the pooling arrangement more cheaply, or if
they couldn't get their own insurance. " he said.
Anderson said a statewide meeting of risk managers
has been scheduled for late October to establish some
pooling guidelines. "It's still very much in the planning
stages," he said.
Firefighters encourage effort to keep city alive
It was sponsored by the University of
Arizona Mexican-American Studies and
Research Center, the United Way of
Greater Tucson and the Tucson Citizen.
Recommendations in some of the areas
of concern were:
- Employment: The committee
suggested that a task force be created in
the Tucson Chamber of Commerce to
address employment concerns of
Health : The board recommended that
the United Way coordinate public and
private efforts to fund agencies that can
determine the needs and utilization pat-terns
of health care.
Education: Districts were en-couraged
to hire personnel at the
elementary level who display and support
the development of a multilingual,
multiculture society.
Another speaker for the forum, Manuel
D. Moreno, the bishop of the Diocese of
Tucson, said Accion '805 will be building
bridges in the community that will be a
move for the future.
"La cosa no esta bien cuando pueda
estar mejor." Things are not right when
they can be better, Moreno said.
The forum, planned to be an annual
event, will meet in 1983 to review its
recommendations and follow up on their
implementation.
By SIMON FISHER
Staff Writer
City firefighters are attempting to ignite
community spirit with "I love South
Tucson" bumper stickers.
Efforts are being made to disin-corporate
the city, and Fire Department
employees are finding their jobs depend on
the city's survival, firefighters said last
week.
' 'We have a backbone of people who care
about South Tucson, have a strong identity
with the area and prefer to work here,"
said Michael F. Blackburn, a department
public information officer and organizer of
a drive against disincoporation.
Some former city firefighters said they
left South Tucson to work for Tucson Fire
Department or Tucson International
Airport's fire brigade because disin-corporation
efforts threatened their job
security.
Walter A. York, a 12-year veteran of the
South Tucson department, said several
employees had left in the last year.
"Generally, it's because the city might
fold up," he said.
York and Blackburn also said the
firefighters who left were younger than the
veterans and had their careers and
families in mind when making the decision
to leave.
The Tucson and airport departments
have larger budgets, pay higher salaries
and offer more chances for advancement,
Blackburn said. South Tucson has alotted
$305,000 for fire protection this year, about
10 percent of the city budget, he said.
John Miller, who recently moved to the
Tucson department, said his new job pays
"several hundred dollars more a month,"
and there is more opportunity for him to
advance..
Miller said he transferred to Tucson for
a more secure position.
Of the South Tucson department he said,
' 'They do have a very good service.
There's a lot of very dedicated people
down there."
Miller said he was not surprised Black-burn
has started the drive against disin-corporation.
' 'He's trying to save his job. I
don't blame him."
Firefighters said another reason
veterans of the South Tucson brigade want
to keep their department intact is it has
grown during the last five years from a
small, mainly volunteer force to a staff of
10 paid, full-time employees. The
department offers emergency medical
services and comprehensive fire
protection to residents and businesses in
the city.
Former South Tucson firefighter Jeffrey
Bates left this year to work for the airport
fire department. "I rally didn't want to
leave," he said. But the airport brigade
offered a $400 increase in monthly salary,
employer-paid medical insurance, and
added job security, he said.
Blackburn s id an expansion program
Continued on page 2
Photo by Ron Rodgers
HAVING A TEAR-IBLE TIME - More than 2,400 aficionados attended the
opening of the greyhound dog racing season on Oct. 1. See racing story on page 7.
VoI.VII No.4 Published by the Department of Journalism The University of Arizona Oct. 15,1982