ie Battalion
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Vol.89 No.70 USPS 045360 12 Pages
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, December 13,1989
enate finally OKs workers’ comp reform bill
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AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas Sen-
jkte voted 18-13 to approve a busi-
Biess-backed workers’ compensation
preform bill, ending more than 11
jnonths of legislative gridlock over
|he issue.
Both the House and Senate then
djourned the year’s second special
legislative session on workers’ comp.
It ended a day before the 30-day ses
sion deadline was to run out.
“We have adopted a bill that gives
vorkers a better break and business
It brighter future,” said Lt. Gov. Bill
■lobby, who presides over the Sen-
Ipte.
“This is a real milestone for us,”
aid Gov. Bill Clements, promising
lo sign the bill into law.
After the Senate vote, Rep. Rich-
rd Smith, R-Bryan, House sponsor
)f workers’ comp reform, said, “If a
man could experience having a
baby, I think I just felt like that.”
Lawmakers began fighting in Jan
ary over the insurance system of
! compensating workers injured on
he job, which was criticized for hav-
ng high rates and offering low ben-
iefits.
Legislative leaders acknowledged
hat the bill passed Tuesday likely
would have no immediate impact on
A year of volatile negotiations ends with success
AUSTIN (AF) ~~ Tuesday’s final Senate vote
to approve a workers’ compensation reform bill
ended more than a year of work on the issue that
divided labor and business.
Here is a brief rundown of events leading to
the bill's passage:
• Dec. 9, I98S: A special House-Senate study
committee adopts a 900-page report outlining
problems in the Texas system of compensating
workers For on-the-job injuries.
» March 7: House passes its first workers’
comp
• Ma>
proposal
tuitions.
• May 50: The regular session ends. The ne
gotiating committee never recommended a com
promise bill.
• June 20: Legislature returns to Austin for a
special session on workers’ comp.
•June 23: Senate passes a bill.
• July 5: House passes its bill. Conference
committee begins negotiations.
• July 19: Special session ends. Again, nego
tiators have failed to find a suitable compromise.
Gov. Bill Clements says he’ll allow lawmakers to
return home and hear from voters before calling
them back for another special session.
• Nov. 14: The second workers’comp special
session opens. Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby throws his
weight behind a business-backed plan and writes
his own bill.
• Nov. 16: State Board of Insurance approves
a 22 percent increase in workers’ corap premi
ums.
• Nov. 20: Senate guts Hobby’s bill on a 17-14
vote.
• Nov. 30: Senate rejects, 17-14, a House bill
similar to Hobby’s plan. Hobby, presiding officer
of the Senate, stacks a conference committee with
supporters of his bill.
• Dec. 8: Senate says “no” to the conference
committee bill, 17-14. House, which has passed
the bill, adjourns.
• Dec. 9: Secret negotiations continue.
• Dec. 10: Lawmakers announce break
through agreement after three senators who ear
lier opposed the bill promise to support it if
seven amendments are added.
• Dec. 11: House returns to session. House
and Senate appoint new negotiating teams,
which send back a revised workers’ comp bill in
less than 90 minutes. House adopts it,
• Dec. 12: The Senate accepts, on an 18-13
vote, the final comp bill and adjourns. The gov
ernor says he will sign it into law.
employer-paid insurance premiums,
which have soared 149 percent over
the past four years.
But House Speaker Gib Lev, is, D-
Fort Worth, said that over the long
haul the changes would improve the
system. “This system did not deterio
rate overnight, and it’s not going to
be repaired overnight,” he said.
“It’s going to take some time for
those rates to come down. You’ll see
the stabilization of those rates right
away. In two or three years you’ll see
those rates going down,” Lewis said.
The Senate vote followed a six-
hour debate and ended a tough and
often acrimonious legislative battle
that pitted business groups, seeking
rate relief, against trial lawyers and
organized labor.
Opponents of the measure said it
would strip rights, including a jury
trial, from injured workers who feel
they are being cheated in benefits.
Sen. Chet Brooks, D-Pasadena,
said the compromise bill, which was
approved by the House on Monday,
would “get us at least started on the
road to improving the system.”
He acknowledged, however, the
bill wasn’t perfect. “We’re going to
have to be ready to make additional
changes,” he said.
Brooks said Texas employers cur
rently pay the highest workers’ com
pensation premiums of any industri
alized state and reform is needed
now.
Sen. Carl Parker, D-Port Arthur,
leading the opposition, said the bill
would prevent many injured work
ers from securing fair benefits and
deny a meaningful jury trial in most
cases.
“We’ve put pearl earrings on the
sow and now we have elected her
Miss America,” Parker said.
Other opponents said the bill
would establish a number of hurdles
for injured workers to get benefits
and at the same time create a disin
centive for lawyers to help them.
“This is the greatest quagmire
with administrative traps for the
people that has ever been created,”
Sen. Temple Dickson, D-Sweetwa-
ter,said.
“It will be evil, wicked and mean if
it becomes law,” Sen. Kent Caper-
ton, D-Bryan, said.
But Sen. Bob Glasgow, D-Ste-
phenville, said that without the bill
more workers would be unprotected
because of businesses dropping
comp coverage because of increased
rates.
tnii
Jilt ID!
Body gloves
Photo by Phelan XI. Ebenhack
John Whitson, a graduate student, tries to keep warm Tuesday
afternoon outside of the MSC after taking his last final.
Lewis: A&M needs absentee voting
By PAM MOOMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
The Brazos County Commissioners Court will
hold a meeting Monday night to gauge public
opinion, but most of those affected Won’t be
there.
The Monday meeting will be a vote by the
commissioners on whether or not the Texas
A&M campus will get absentee voting. But many
A&M students and faculty will be out of town,
said Rodger Lewis, program director of educa
tional broadcast services at A&M and county
chairman of the Republican Party of Brazos
County.
“The whole purpose of a public hearing is to
hear from the people who will be affected,” Le
wis said.
The Republican Party has been working for an
on-campus absentee voting poll for years, he
said.
Lewis said Commissioners Sims and Norton
have been helpful in trying to get the on-campus
poll established.
“They’ve had to overcome all these excuses
that have been thrown at them by the County
Judge and the Democrats,” Lewis said. “While I
commend them on the hard work they’ve done,
their timing is terrible.”
Lewis said the Democratic Party strongly op
poses on-campus absentee voting.
Opponents of the plan have several reasons,
Lewis said. They say the College Station Commu
nity Center branch is convenient enough, voters
who are not A&M employees or students
couldn’t use an on-campus poll, a new branch
would cost too much and students shouldn’t vote
in Brazos County.
The most widely offered protest given is that
on-campus absentee voting would discriminate
against minorities.
Lewis disagrees.
“Texas A&M employs more minorities than
anyone else in this area,” Lewis said. On-campus
absentee voting would be just as convenient for
them as anyone else, he said.
Scot Kibb, College Republicans president,
agreed with Lewis.
“I don’t think it’s discrimimatory,” Kibb said.
“If more people voted Democratic, we would be
getting more help from the Democratic Party.
They’ve framed the issue in partisanship.”
An on-campus absentee voting poll would
solve an upcoming problem, Lewis said.
In 1990, Super Tuesday, a day when Ameri
cans vote in primaries nationwide, will be in
March during Spring Break.
“The best way to deal with (this problem) is to
give you an absentee poll here on campus,” Lewis
said.
Kibb said on-campus absentee voting polls are
the best way to get A&M students to vote.
“Having primaries during Spring Break — it’s
going to be hard to get A&M students to vote that
way,” he said. “(College students) have the lowest
voting percentage of any age group.”
“The'whole purpose was to encourage more
voter participation,” he said. “To do that, you
need to put the poll where the people are.
“If (people) work at A&M and it would help
them to have the (on-campus) poll, they need to
contact their commissioner.”
A&M grad disputes losing bid to move oaks
By MONIQUE THREADGILL
and PAM MOOMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
A Texas A&M graduate brought a
60,000 pound oak tree with him
Monday from Dallas to a meeting he
requested with finance officials after
he found out he had lost the bid to
move the Rudder oaks.
John Hqelzel, a 1983 horticulture
graduate, said he brought the tree
because he was upset that A&M had
chosen another company to do the
job even though his company, Yau-
pon John Tree Company, could save
the University $25,000 and give a
100-percent guarantee for the trees.
University officials have not an
nounced when the transplantation
of the trees will begin or who will do
the job, but Hoelzel said he was told
Instant Shade of Houston will start
the project Dec. 18, when students
are gone for the Christmas holidays.
A&M President William Mobley
and Robert Smith, vice president for
finance and administration at A&M,
were unavailable for comment.
Hoelzel said Instant Shade is
charging about $115,000 to do the
job and offering a 50 percent guar
antee. Hoelzel’s bid was for $89,728,
and he said he guaranteed to refund
the full cost of moving any tree that
subsequently dies.
Hoelzel said he was not given the
bid because the officials thought his
method of moving trees, the ball-
and-burlap method, was not as ad
equate as the box method. HoWever,
the ball-and-burlap method is the
method taught in A&M’s horticul
ture department.
Steve Hodge, MSC manager, con
firmed that there were three bidders
for the job and that one of the bids
had been eliminated because it pro-
f »osed using a method different
rom the one A&M wanted to use.
Hodge said the Texas A&M Pur
chasing Department advertised for
bidders and then chose the bidder
who best met the requirements, one
of which was to move the trees using
the box method.
Hoelzel, who earned the nick
name “Yaupon John” for transfer
ring large yaupon trees while still a
student at A&M, brought the oak
along on the back of a 18-wheeled
flatbed truck to show officials that
the ball-and-burlap method works.
But Hoelzel’s demonstration was
not effective.
“I sure wish they would have put
on their jackets and come down off
the 8th floor so they could see proof
that my method works,” he said.
The ball-and-burlap method con-
See Trees/Page 7
Faculty Senate seeks
bigger role in policy,
University decisions
By CHRIS VAUGHN
Of The Battalion Staff
I The Faculty Senate approved a
lesolution Monday asking the Texas
|A&M administration to consult the
©enate more in future decisions
Bbout the management and growth
p the University.
1 The current method of policy-
■naking leaves the faculty represen-
patives out of too many decisions, the
itesolution stated.
1 According to the Faculty Senate
■Constitution, one function of the
penate is to advise on “policies af
fecting University development and
litilization of resources” and other
Itatters relating to the welfare of the
University.
S The resolution, sponsored by the
panning Committee, asks the ad-
Ininistration to work with the Senate,
■hrough the committee, to “insure
Rhat the Faculty Senate shall func-
pon in an ongoing advisory role dur
ing the formulation and devel
opment of policy and plans for the
■nanagement and growth of the Uni
versity.”
I The senators also unanimously
japproved a resolution supporting a
Request by the Texas Association of
Kollege Teachers to address the li
brary funding crisis.
According to the resolution, pre
sented by the Ad Hoc Committee on
Libraries, the A&M libraries rank at
or near the bottom in total mono
graph holdings, current serials, sub
scriptions, acquisition budgets and
total library expenditures.
An increase in permanent materi
als and staff is “essential if Texas
A&M is to build and maintain a col
lection commensurate with the mis
sion of a major university,” the reso
lution states.
During the Committee of the
Whole, Dr. Woodrow Jones, a politi
cal science professor and associate
dean in the College of Liberal Arts,
said he objected to the next Faculty
Senate meeting on January 15,
which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The spring semester is also sched
uled to begin on the national holi
day.
“I am appalled that there would
be a meeting scheduled on Dr. Mar
tin Luther King’s day of recogni
tion,” Jones said. “I know I won’t be
here, and I would hope that others
would join me in this protest.”
Committee of the Whole is a time
when the entire senate forms a com-
See Senate/Page 6
Residents tell company: ‘Clean up’
Company submits proposal to control contamination
By DEAN SUELTENFUSS
Of The Battalion Staff
Amid lawsuits and complaints from area
residents, officials of the Pennsylvania-based
Pennwalt Corporation say they are confident
that arsenic contamination caused by the com
pany’s Bryan plant will be cleaned up soon.
Some residents who live near the Bryan ag
ricultural chemical plant, however, think it
may never be cleaned up.
“I don’t think the problem has been solved,
and I don’t think it ever will,” said Sam Alva
rado, who has lived near the plant for about
20 years.
More than 15 years have passed since the
state of Texas filed a lawsuit against the com
pany to force it to clean up lakes that were
contaminated with arsenic through the com
pany’s production of arsenic-based agricultu
ral chemicals.
Although the contamination persists at Fin-
feather Lake and Bryan Municipal Lake, Pen
nwalt spokesman Debra Moore said the com
pany has submitted a clean-up proposal to the
Texas Water Commission and that, if ap
proved, the proposal will successfully deal
with the contamination.
The 1973 lawsuit resulted in a judgment re
quiring Pennwalt to drain the lakes and re
move sediment, which contains arsenic, from
the lake bottoms. The sediment was buried in
a landfill near the plant. This was accom
plished in the early 1980s, and the lakes were
refilled.
But arsenic levels in the lakes began to rise
again. Further investigation revealed that con
taminated groundwater was migrating into
the lake water. The proposal submitted to the
water commission is intended to clean up the
contamination.
Ernest Clark, Bryan’s city manager, said
Pennwalt has done an outstanding job thus far
in dealing with the contamination.
“They spent probably close to $3 million
dollars,” he said. “Over the course of the year
they monitor it very closely and when they
“I
I don’t think the problem has
been solved, and I don’t think it
ever will.”
— Sam Alvarado,
resident
have changes in the arsenic level they notify
us.” «
Bryan Mayor 'Marvin Tate, however, was
not quite as pleased.
“I think we’ve got a problem and the thing
needs to be resolved,” he said. “We’ve been
fighting a battle, and at one point in time I
thought it had been squared away.”
Bill Colbert, spokesman for the water com
mission, said the clean-up proposal, which is
being evaluated by the commission, consists of
three plans that address separate areas:
groundwater contamination, surface w'ater
contamination and soil contamination. Col
bert said the water commission will finish re
viewing the plans before the end of this
month.
“We should have some type of response
back to the company about whether they’re
satisfactory or whether they need to make
changes in them to address the concerns we
have with regard to those three situations,” he
said.
Colbert said the water commission is con
sidering proposed changes to the plant’s wast
ewater discharge permit. He also said a public
hearing concerning the permit is required if
anybody requests one. Although approval of
the clean-up plans requires no public hearing,
Colbert said that if the water commission de
cides to evaluate the plans and the permit to
gether, the entire process could become open
to the public.
The company’s groundwater remediation
plan, if approved by the water commission,
would provide for the removal and treatment
of the contaminated groundwater. After ob
taining the necessary permit, the company
then would discharge the treated water into
Bryan’s sewer system. The surface water re
mediation plan, which is also being evaluated
by the water commission, contains provisions
for draining and dredging the lakes again.
Meanwhile, some area residents are con
cerned about the quality of the lake water.
Jennifer Walker, who has lived near the
plant for more than two years, said she be
came concerned about the water contami
nation when helping a high school student
with a water-quality project. She said she
See Pennwalt/Page 6