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The Battalion
STATE & LOCAL
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Wednesday, June 21,1989
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Clements says lawmakers will stay
until workers’ comp bill is passed
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AUST IN (AP) — Gov. Bill Clem
ents, who summoned the Legislature
back for the special session that
opened Tuesday, said lawmakers
would stay in town until they pass a
workers’ compensation reform bill.
Arriving at his Capitol office, the
governor said the system of paying
benefits to injured workers is se
riously flawed and that lawmakers
must take action.
“I want these (lawmakers) to do
what the people demand, what the
business climate demands, and that
is pass a proper workers’ compensa
tion bill,” Clements said. “We’re
going to stay here until we get it.”
The Legislature’s 140-day regular
session ended just three weeks ago.
But Clements immediately sum
moned lawmakers back for a 30-day
special session because of their fail
ure to pass a workers’ compensation
bill.
As lawmakers returned to the Ca
pitol, Clements worked in his office,
lire governor did not speak at the
opening day, aides said, because he
didn’t think it was necessary.
“The focus is on workers’ com
pensation reform,” Reggie Bashur,
the governor’s press secretary said.
“Everyone in the state knows what
this session is about.”
“All the focus and energy is on
trying to get a bill through the
House and Senate,” Bashur said.
“The governor wants the Legis
lature to hit the ground running, to
roll up their sleeves and get to
work.”
Clements said he gave lawmakers
a three-week break so they could re
turn home to their districts and hear
from the voters about the workers’
comp issue.
“What I wanted them to do was go
home and hear what the public at
home says about workers’ compensa
tion,” he said.
The governor spent part of Tues
day deciding on a replacement for
his chief of staff, George Bayoud,
who on Monday took the oath of of
fice as secretary of state.
Bashur said Clements also
planned a Wednesday meeting with
House Speaker Gib Lewis and Lt.
Gov. Bill Hobby to discuss the work
ers’ compensation efforts, and the
spokesman said several individual
lawmakers were seeking meetings
with the governor.
Some of those meetings likely will
be about other issues legislators
would like to see added to the ses
sion’s agenda.
Under the Texas Constitution,
the governor has the power to deter
mine what issues a special session
can consider.
Tuesday, Clements reiterated that
he has only one subject in mind for
now — workers compensation re
form.
“I’m not really considering other
issues until we get this one settled,”
Clements said.
Legislators attempt
to increase legislation
during special session
Hobby blasts groups desiring to end
trial by jury for workers’ comp cases
AUSTIN (AP) — Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby on Tuesday
blasted business groups wanting to eliminate jury trials
in disputed workers’ compensation cases as the special
legislative session began on a divisive note.
“We have idiots who represent the business commu
nity who say we don’t want a trial by jury. You know this
is really kind of silly,” Hobby said.
But House Speaker Gib Lewis said he wants jury tri
als eliminated from the system.
States that have eliminated jury trials “are eating our
lunch as far as competitiveness and industrial devel
opment,” Lewis, U-Fort Worth, said.
When Lewis heard of Hobby’s remark, he said,
“That’s totally out of character for (Hobby) to make
that statement.”
Legislators returned to the Capitol for a special ses
sion and immediately began work on workers’ comp,
the system of compensating employees who are injured
or killed in on-the-job accidents.
Gov. Bill Clements called the special session after
lawmakers failed to reach a compromise on the issue
during the 140-day regular session that ended May 29.
The House Business and Commerce Committee be
gan considering a workers’ comp bill Tuesday, with a
House debate possible as early as Thursday. Lewis said
he expected a House and Senate conference committee
on workers’ comp to begin work this weekend.
Hobby said the Senate State Affairs Committee
would hold its workers’ comp hearing on Wednesday,
adding, “Perhaps a bill will be reported to the Senate”
by day’s end.
Labor groups were angered over the workers’ comp
bill filed by state Rep. Richard Smith, R-Bryan, which
was being considered by the Business and Commerce
panel.
Joe Gunn, chairman of the United Labor Legislative
Committee, said the bill diminished workers’ rights to
secure benefits for on-the-job injuries.
“This gives us workers’ poverty instead of workers’
dignity,” Gunn said.
In the halls of the Capitol, teamster members visited
the offices of state lawmakers asking for support of the
labor position.
“We’re trying to get the Senate to hang with us,” Carl
Dudensing, a member of Local 988 in Houston, said.
He said he feared that Clements would try to wear
out lawmakers on the issue. “That damned idiot gover
nor will call special sessions as long as he needs to,” he
said.
AUSTIN (AP) — Although the
only item of business officially be
fore lawmakers in the special session
is workers’ compensation reform,
dozens of bills had been filed by
Tuesday with hopes that the agenda
will be expanded.
Among the 31 bills filed in the
House by mid-afternoon was a pro
posal to ask Texas voters whether
the state should run a lottery. The
bill was bulldozed in the regular ses
sion with a 58-83 vote, but the spon
sor of the measure said he is not giv
ing up on it.
“Never say never in the process,”
Rep. Ron Wilson, D-Houston, said.
“It takes a while to pass a measure
that controversial.
“It may not pass during the spe
cial session. It may not pass during
the next one. But at some point in
time, a lottery’s going to be law in
Texas, and the only way you can get
it done is to keep pushing it.”
But a leading opponent of the
measure predicted it would die, and
he said it should. A bill can be sum
marily killed through a lawmaker’s
objection after it is referred to com
mittee, if it has not been added to
the special session by the governor,
who controls the agenda.
“I think that the wise thing for the
governor to do would be to keep this
out of the call so that members of the
House and Senate don’t have to deal
with trivial issues,” Rep. David Hud
son, D-Tyler, said.
“We’re down here to work on the
economic development of the state
of Texas through workers’ comp
and not to deal with these other is
sues,” he said.
Measures were referred to com
mittees in the House and Senate,
where 16 bills and six resolutions
had been filed by mid-afternoon.
There were 17 resolutions filed in
the House.
Clements had not decided
whether to add more items to the
agenda but was reviewing requests,
Reggie Bashur, his press secretary,
said.
“The governor feels it’s very im
portant that the focus be strong and
direct on the workers’ compensation
reform measure, and that once pro
gress is made on that very important
issue, then serious consideration will
be given to other issues,” Bashur
said.
Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby said he would
ask the governor to include on the
session agenda a bill by Sen. Chet
Brooks, D-Pasadena, that passed the
Senate in the regular session but
failed in the House.
Hobby said the bill did not attract
much attention because of other
high-profile issues but that it could
“alleviate suffering from pain by a
lot of people.”
The bill would clarify the law that
says a doctor can lose his license for
prescribing drugs to a known nar
cotics user, he said.
“Because the law reads as it now
does, many doctors understandably
will not prescribe narcotics . . . be
cause it imperils their livelihood, so
they will not prescribe narcotics to
people who really need them,”
Hobby said.
Police locate suspect
in oak tree poisoning
AUSTIN (AP) — There is a
suspect in the poisoning of the
historic Treaty Oak and police
hope to solve the case soon, an of
ficer involved in the investigation
said Tuesday.
People have been calling with
tips about the poisoning of the
live oak tree, which is estimated to
be more than 500 years old, Sgt.
John Jones, said. He declined to
give details about the suspect,
who has not been taken into cus
tody.
“One of the rumors we had
gotten was that it might have
been a disgruntled city of Austin
employee,” Jones said. “I think
we’ve been able to eliminate that
one.”
The tree was poisoned when
Velpar, a Du Pont-made herbi
cide, was poured around its base
several months ago.
“The city never has bought any
of that stuff and doesn’t have it in
stock,” Jones said. The chemical
costs $80 to $100 a gallon, he
said.
Du Pont has offered a $10,000
reward for information leading
to the conviction of the poisoner,
and the Texas Forestry Associa
tion this week offered an additio
nal $ 1,000 reward.
Value of the .tree has been es
tablished at about $47,000 by us
ing a “legally accepted formula,”
Jones said, and the case is being
investigated as a second-degree
felony criminal mischief.
John Giedraitis, city forester,
has said the formula includes
such items as size and type of
tree. It does not take into account
the oak’s historical value.
A local legend says Stephen F.
Austin signed a treaty with the
Indians under the tree, although
there is not much foundation for
the tale, the Handbook of Texas,
says.
The Treaty Oak — which is
about 45 to 50 feet tall, has a 127-
foot limb spread and is 52.5
inches in diameter at breast
height — was admitted to the
American Forestry Association’s
Hall of Fame in 1927.
The Austin Police Department
is conducting the investigation
into the poisoning with the Texas
Department of Agriculture,
which regulates Velpar, Jones
said.
Du Pont has provided a list of
primary distributors of Velpar,
and the agriculture agency is au
diting the inventories , of retail
outlets, Jones said. Tips to the po
lice Crime Stoppers telephone
number also are being evaluated.
Sun spokesman says 3-mile-long oil slick
in Liberty will take months to clean up
LIBERTY (AP) — A three-mile-long oil slick
that has contaminated part of a bayou and dam
aged some vegetation could take three months to
remove, a Sun Pipeline Co. spokesman said.
A four-inch elevated line crossing Gum Slough
in the South Liberty Oil Field ruptured about a
week ago, spilling an estimated 3,500 barrels of
crude, Sun spokesman Forrest Brooks said.
The oil spill south of Liberty is believed to be
the largest ever in Liberty County.
“We will have more than a month of active
cleanup and then monitor it for two months, ev
ery time it rains, to see what washes off the
shore,” Brooks said Monday. “It will be expen
sive to clean up due to the rugged terrain.”
Brooks said company officials suspect the line
was ruptured after being hit by a tree loosened in
the recent flooding. The break h^s been re
paired, he said. : .Uiii ».
Employees shut off the line after noting a sud
den pressure drop June 11.
Sixty-two contract workers hired for the
cleanup are using boats and vacuum trucks in a
round-the-clock effort, Brooks said. An 8,200-
foot boom has contained the crude mostly in
Gum Slough with only a small amount leaking
into Clayton Bayou, which empties into the Trin
ity River.
The contaminated area is a mile wide.
Barring a bad storm or other unusual circum
stances, officials believe they can keep the crude
confined to the backwater marsh areas.
i .1 i .
“We’ve been lucky so far,” Danny Diaz, a state
game warden monitoring the cleanup, said.
“Only the cypress trees, water lilies and vegeta
tion have been affected so far. We haven’t seen
any fish kills or bird life hurt yet.
“The oil is choking out the vegetation, but it’s
not smothering the whole area,” he said.
“There’s still open areas that aren’t smothered by
oil.”
Committee approves funding for collider;
member predicts battle for OK of House
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
House Appropriations Committee
on Tuesday authorized $200 million
to begin construction of the super
collider next year, but Rep. Jim
Chapman predicted full House ap
proval of the bill may be a tough bat
tle.
“The bottom line is that at each
step of the process we become a
larger target for those who oppose
the project,” Chapman said. “We’re
out of the committee process, no
longer in the back rooms of Con
gress; now we’re on the floor of the
House, where C-SPAN watches ev
erything we do.”
The Appropriations Subcommit
tee on Energy and Water Devel
opment voted last week in favor of
the collider appropriation as part of
a spending package for Energy De
partment and U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers projects.
Under the bill, $110 million could
be used to initiate construction of
the $4.4 billion particle accelerator
at a site south of Dallas. The balance
would be for research and devel
opment of what would be the largest
scientific instrument ever built.
“I think it could be a tough battle
(in the full House),” Chapman, a
member of the Appropriations
Committee, said. “I have asked the
committee chairman to move it
quickly. He promised we’ll have our
bill on the floor by next week.”
The Sulphur Springs Democrat
said opponents of the super collider
may be well organized by the time
the bill is on the House floor, but
that moving the legislation quickly
may be a way to end such opposition
efforts.
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