Page 6/The Battalion/Friday, September 16,1983
i
O'DC director Estelle s
Eg;
ilresignation confirmed
United Press International
^ 1IOUSTON — Longtime Texas
^Department of Corrections Dire
ctor W.J. Estelle is resigning the
►Cost he has held for the past 11
**£e ars ’ TDC Chairman Boh Gunn
'Jeonfirmed Thursday.
C Gunn said Estelle informed the
;CDC board of his decision Sunday
and agreed to remain in his post
until a successor is named. Estelle
was to make a public announce
ment later today.
“Were naturally shocked,
Gunn said. “We kept it in confi
dence until he had a chance to tell
his wardens.
“He’s going to stay and help us
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find a successor and make a
smooth transition. This is impor
tant in anything as volatile as a
prison system.
Gunn said he would not discuss
Estelle’s reasons for resigning.
"That’s his business,’’ he said.
Estelle has been at the center of
controversy in recent years with
the prison reforms ordered by
U.S. District Judge William
Wayne Justice of Tyler, and has
been criticized. But he is widely
respected in corrections circles.
Estelle, 52, has run the 21-unit
Texas prison system through some
of its most turbulent times. For a
time tbis year, TDC was the na
tion’s most populous prison sys
tem with more than 36,000 in
mates.
Known for wearing his cowboy
hat and boots almost everywhere
and dipping snuff Estelle started
his career as a prison guard in Cali
fornia and moved up to warden in
Montana before becoming TDC
director in 1972.
Estelle had a reputation as a
tough prison master but often ex
pressed fatherly concern for his
inmates.
He had not been in office long
before in 1974 inmate Federico
Gomez Carrasco, known as a
South Texas drug kingpin, led
other inmates in taking hostages in
the Huntsville prison library and
demanding an escort to freedom.
Four people, including Carras
co and a fellow inmate, died in
TDC s aggressive breakup of that
escape attempt.
More recently, Estelle, who as
TDC director was named defen
dant in more than 10,000 lawsuits,
has been a focus of one of the na
tion’s most sweeping attempts at
prison reform.
Congressman against
flood insurance hike
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Rep.
Lindy Boggs, D-La., said
I hursday she fears the National
Flood Insurance program serv
ing 1.86 million Americans in
floodprone communities will be
undermined by continued rate
increases.
Boggs told a House subcom
mittee that rate increases
already have prompted some
policyholders in 17,400 flood-
prone communities to let their
insurance lapse, including sev
eral in her home state recently
devastated by 100-year spring
flooding.
“I question the wisdom of
another substantial rate in
crease when three major pre
mium increases have been im
plemented since January 1981, "
said Boggs. “There had been no
increases at all prior to that
time.
"I question the rate increase
— not because I am opposed to
the government saving money
— but because I support the
federal flood insurance program
and I am deeply concerned ab
out its ability to meet its objec
tives and remain viable if pre
mium rates are not kept afford
able,’ she said.
An average $18 rate increase
is scheduled Oct. 1 in the 15-
year-old National Flood Insur
ance Program, which allows re
sidents in flood-prone areas to
obtain insurance at a reduced
rate if their community enacts
adequate flood plain manage
ment regulations.
That will put average pre
miums at $174 annually for lk
insurance carrying a $500 ik
ductible, officials said,
the House has passed a
ring any rate increases until
next October. The Senate k
not passed such restrictions.
Also appearing before tk
panel was Jeffrey Bragg, admi
nistrator of the program, wk
said he is trying to make tk
program self-supporting k
1988.
“Rates in the program had
never been raised prior In
1981, ” said Bragg, "and in fad
in the early 1970s, rates wert
lowered to encourage participa
tion.
He said the rate increase
scheduled Oct. 1 would genet-
ate $27 million in extra int®
for the program.
Waste of money
called careless
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The failure
to exercise lease options in several
states, including New Mexico,
costing taxpayers more than $30
million in higher rent, was due in
part to human error and/or care
lessness by the regional offices,
the General Accounting Office
said.
Taxpayers in the Southwest will
pay $40,000 in higher rent during
a five-year renewal period be
cause the General Service Admi
nistration failed to exercise an op
tion of a lease for a building in
Cuba, N.M.
GSA officials told the GAO,
Congress’ investigative arm, the
option was not exercised because
“transfer of personnel resulted in
management oversight, a GAO
report said Wednesday.
GSA officials in Fort Worth said
the Cuba oversight occurred in
November 1981 on the lease op
tion for 3,750 square feet to house
offices for the Bureau of Land
Management, Forest Service and
Soil Conservation Service.
The New Mexico case was one
of seven missed options nation
wide that were cited in the report
showing taxpayers could foot the
bill for more than $30 million in
higher rent because of govern
ment mistakes during the past
four years.
However, the GAO said the
Cuba, N.M. case was the only
missed option by the GSA region
involving Arkansas, Louisa
New Mexico, Oklahoma j
Texas. The GSA oversees recoil
supplies and space for go»
ment agencies in the region.
“The management of renw
options has been a continuous!!
for GSA officials," the reportsal
The GAO said it found™
nationwide occurred because i
human error and/or carlessna
erroneous data and a program!
ficieney in the informational s<
tein the GSA uses to keeptradi
leases and non-standard pm
dures.
“GSA officials have made
certed effort to minimize re®
ence of the problem,” the refu
said.
A lease renewal option givesli
government the right toconlin
tenancy for a specified term a
rental at the expiration of the ii
tial lease if the government pa
s ides written notice within
tain period.
"At the time of lease renew
the market rental rate is o!
more costly than the option ralt
the GAO said. "Therefore, it
generally in the governments
terest to exercise the lease opli
and obtain the lower rent n
when it has a continued need
the space.”
As of March 1983, the govt:
ment had 635 leases totaling®
million in the five-state Smt
western region.
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