•»«»*•»•* *•*>1
NEWS
THE BATTALION
Public defenders want higher pay
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Once
David O'Neil uses up a few weeks of
extra vacation and compensatory
time, he no longer will be the top pub
lic defender for indigent Texas prison
inmates.
Yet he still could owe 30 more days
to the state: in jail on a contempt charge
in a dispute over working conditions
in his department.
O'Neil, head of the trial division at
the State Counsel for Offenders, says
low salaries for his 10 staff attorneys
promotes attrition and erodes prison
ers' chance of justice when they are
charged with crimes behind bars.
Lawyers who defend inmates
make less than those who prosecute
them, and they also work for the
agency that brings charges against
the inmates in the first place.
■ "I can't work under these condi
tions," said O'Neil, who technically re
mains chief of the trial division until he
begins teaching at Sam Houston State
University in September. "With the
turnover we have. I'm forced to make
ethical decisions that A, I shouldn't
have to face and; B, are situations our
clients shouldn't have to be put into."
Two of O'Neil's crusades have
borne fruit — lawyer salaries have in
creased and the state counsel is
poised to win independence from the
“They wanted
not just a pay in
crease, but a
whole pay struc
ture for their of
fice that, to some
extent, TDCJpeo
ple thought was
stupid”
— Carl Reynolds
general counsel for the prison
system and board
prison system in a board vote later
this month.
But it is too little, too late for O'Neil
and seven of his staff attorneys, who
have either left or have announced
their resignations.
"Someone else is going to have to
do it now," said O'Neil, a former Ma
rine lawyer. "I've spent five years
fighting this."
A yearlong salary dispute came to a
head last summer, when O'Neil said the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
refused to approve increased salaries
for new attorneys to defend convicted
sex offenders against civil commitment
cases brought under a new law.
"They said to hire them at
$37,000," O'Neil said, referring to the
approximate figure made by all state
counsel trial lawyers. "My point was
that it was going to set up constitu
tional problems. It's clearly ineffective
assistance of counsel."
Lawyers for the Special Prosecutors
Office, which represents the state in in
mate cases, make between $48,000 and
$62,000 and have use of a vehicle, an
imbalance that O'Neil says is not fair
to inmates. Prosecutors, who are paid
from a gubernatorial grant and work
for individual counties, counter that
prison defenders have superior state
benefits and can do private-practice
work using generous comp time.
O'Neil considered the TDCJ's in
terference to be a conflict of clients' in
terest "inasmuch as our office was be
ing run by TDCJ," so he immediately
withdrew from two unrelated cases
last fall. A judge in one case was sym
pathetic, but gave the prison board
time to rectify the pay flap.
The solution was the appointment
of a legal-issues liaison. That led to a
salary reclassification in October that
proposed a $5,000 pay increase to
about $42,000 a year.
Critics say O'Neil wanted his office
to be treated differently than any oth
er group of attorneys in Texas.
"They wanted not just a pay in
crease, but a whole pay structure for
their office that, to some extent, TDCJ
people thought was stupid," said Carl
Reynolds, general counsel for both
the prison system and the board that
oversees it. "It's just not good man
agement."
O'Neil announced his resignation
in January.
It’s time to give your
home phone a vacation.
Make i/our wireless phone your only phone with
Houston Cellular’s new ISOO-minute local calling plan.
1500
750 anytime minutes/
750 weekend minutes
$50*per month
NOKIA
Connecting People
Summer is definitely here. You've got places to go
and people to see. So why tie yourself down with
the ol’ home phone? Well, now you don’t have to.
With Houston Cellular's new calling plan, you’ll get
a whopping 1500 minutes a month for only $50.
That includes 750 anytime minutes and 750
weekend minutes. That’s plenty of time to make
your wireless phone your only phone. We’ll even
throw in Caller ID and Voice Mail. What else are
you waiting for? Cur the cord this summer and go
wireless with Houston Cellular.
f Houston cellular)
Coming through again and again.
1-800-826-7626
HOUSTON CELLULAR STORES
www.houstoncellular.com • Corporate customers call 1-888-389-0331
AUTHORIZED DEALERS
Bryan
1801 Briarcrest Dr.
(Corner of Briarcrest & 29th)
979/777-7000
College Station
Post Oak Mall
(Foley’s Court-Kiosk)
979/229-7000
ij Bryan
AGjSolar Guard
3410 S. Texas Ave.
979/846-5091
College Station
Audio Video
524 E. University Ave.
979/696-5719
College Station
Discount Paging
2418 D-l Texas Ave.
979/764-5900
"Credit approval, one year contract and digital activation required. Price does not include raxes, long distance, roaming charge* outside of local calling plan, third parti/ charges and related fees, reimbursement for governmental surcharges and initial credit processing fee. Roaming
charges are $.49/minure in Texas and $.99/minure in the United States. 750 weekend minutes good from midnight Friday JQ.miiMgfH Sundai/ CST on local calls onh/. Other terms and conditions apply. Limited time offer. See store for details and local calling plan boundaries.
7/VL
Wednesday, July 5,;t
fednesday. July 5.2()()()
Sports in Brief
Sports info, office Tennis signee
receives awards loses match at
from CoSIDA
The Texas A&M sports infor
mation office walked away from
the annual College Sports Infor
mation Directors of America
(CoSIDA) Workshop in St. Louis,
Missouri, with 13 regional and
national honors.
A&M received three Best in
the Nation awards for the Cross
Country Media Guide (multi-sport
division), the Cross Country Me
dia Guide Cover and the Volley
ball Media Guide Cover.
The women’s soccer, women’s
volleyball, cross country and
track and field media guides all
finished second in the nation.
The football media guide finished
fifth nationally, and the men’s
basketball media guide finished
seventh.
The overall number of awards
placed the A&M office fourth na
tionally, while assistant athletic
director for media relations Alan
Cannon was named the second
vice-president by his peers in the
CoSIDA organization.
Junior Wimbledoi
Texas A&M’s men’s tem
signee Tres Davis lost his secor
round singles match inthejun
portion of The Championship:
Wimbledon on Tuesday at The
England Lawn Tennis and Cn
Club in Wimbledon, England.
Davis, the United States'lit
2 singles player in thejuniorpj
tion, dropped a straighl-st
match to Slovakia's AndrejKra
man, the tournament’s I
seed, 6-2, 6-1.
Davis won his opening rout
singles match against Zimbal
we’s Dumiso Khumalo in
sets (4-6, 6-4, 6-4). He was on
of four Americans to play in as
gles field of 64 and oneofot
two Americans to advance toi
second round.
res
r Drwe e
N/i
Sti
The Wimbledon experience >int.
not yet over for Davis, the Uni
States’ No. 1 doubles player.r m oking, he wond
will team up with Austral
Adam Kennedy in the 27-te?
doubles draw on Wednesday.?!
fifth-seeded duo received afiti
round bye.
John has just sp
: e in college stuc
ired for his drean
ass one more exai
As he drops his
ample, John's mir
one week ago \
artaking of an i
While he did nr
moke will be enov
loyment line.
These are comrr
iced with undergr
re drug testing te<
fter someone fills
Teachers reconsida
bonus salary system
Dr. Jack Zaun, t
onsfor One Sourc
)eer Park, Texas, s;
egin a drug evalu
iirough an iminui
3 determine whet
he sample.
CHICAGO (AP) — What if a
teacher got docked every time a child
brought home a "D," or perhaps the
principal's favorite received a $2,000
bonus? Such possibilities make teach
ers wary of linking their pay to per
formance instead of seniority.
But as a teachers' union meeting
in Chicago began reconsidering
longtime resistance to bonus sys
tems, another union reported Tues
day from Philadelphia that teachers
still get paid much less than other
professionals.
"The teaching profession often is
n't even in the horse race," said San
dra Feldman, president of the Amer
ican Federation of Teachers, at a news
conference in Philadelphia.
In the 1998-99 school year, the av
erage teacher made $40,574, the AFT
said in its annual salary report.
New Jersey teachers had the high
est average pay, $51,692, while South
Dakota had the lowest, $28,386. In
New York, the average pay was
$49,686, up 4.7 percent from 1997-98;
California averaged $46,326, up 3.9
percent; Texas, $34,448, up 2.5 percent.
The union contrasted teachers' pay
with that of other white-collar jobs in
cluding engineers at $68,294 on aver
age and computer systems analysts,
$66,782. The AFT represents less than
half of the nation's 3.1 million teach
ers, but surveyed state departments of
education for its report released at its
biennial meeting. The union also on
Tuesday backed a proposal for
mandatory testing of teachers.
The pay disparity between teach
ers and other professions has fueled
the debate over linking teacher pay
to performance. In Chicago at the
annual meeting of the AFT's larger
rival, the National Education Associ
ation is slated to vote Wednesday on
how to handle bonus plans when its
members bargain with school dis
tricts. The NEA, historically against
pay for performance, examined its
policy — concluding it may at least
help local units do the research need
ed to decide whether to accept a plan
in a contract.
A handful of states offer rewards
used for computers or training, not
teacher pay. But recent demand:
business leaders and politicians
higher standards often are accoi
nied by calls for teacher cashim
tives. Some have even been
posed by the two leai
presidential candidates.
Such plans mean teachers
higher salaries or bonuses if they
judged to be good at what they
accept extra or difficult assignmi
mentor others on how to becor
more effective, or more conJfft.
sially, have students whowedif
er on tests.
Performance pay st
blame salary gaps with otherproff
sions on unions — which usually
gotiate members' salaries basedk
many years they've spent
classroom or whether they
master's degree.
"Engineers and computer soil
tists who cannot do the job are us:
ly let go while the successful oi
earn high salaries," said Lissf
Bishins, a spokesperson fortheO
ter for Education Reform. "Thisis-
the case for teachers."
John McDonald, a Dearbo
Mich., college professor and lo
president of organized higher-et
tion faculty there, said contracts!
designed to help workers, noth
schools: "Tenure does not grand
protection for the incompetent'
do want people to have a fairsha
You ought to be able to have your:
in court."
Some local chapters of h
unions have abandoned or seal
down pay based on seniority in of
like Denver. Cincinnati made hist
last month when it became thefi
public district to replace its pay-1
seniority scale with pay based onp
formance. That system is far (#
simple. Teachers would be rated is
different areas, every five years,!!
principal and an advanced teach
then placed into five categoriesi’
paid accordingly, from $30,005
$62,500.
But the national organizatb
have yet to embrace the idea. NM
members oppose the change oy
right, saying it is unfair to teach/
Tftww a*M Uni
We sell
• Graduatic
' Thank Yoi
Order
Aggieland P
enrol
VARSITY FORD
SUPER SUMMER SAVINGS AT
WWW.VARSITYFORDCSTX.COM
WE ARE OVERSTOCKED WITH
COME CHECK OUT OUR SPECIALS
DOWNLOAD COUPONS FOR SERVICE SPECIALS
PRE-OWNED SPECIALS ARE CHANGED WEEKLY
Questions? e-mail us at newcar@Varsityfordcstx.com ask for rate and rebate
information, run credit checks, and get price and payment information hassle Id