1996-05-29; Central Michigan Life

              ^etvinF
Central I IC C
Michigan LITE
WEDNESDAY,
MAY/ 29,
1996
*TEARS
VOLUME 78, NUMBER 89
MOUNT PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48859
©1996 CM LIFE
~f5T 7)774-3493
8 PAGES
ASFCME, university fail to agree on union bid
By Cindy Trombley
LIFE Edttor	
University officials and representatives of the American
Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees Local 1568
decided after several failed
attempts that an agreement
about the labor portion of food
services could not be reached.
After arbitrator Mark J.
Glaser deemed CMU's Jan. 15
decision to subcontract the labor
portion of Dining Services to
ARAMARK, the national firm
that has managed CMlTs food
service since 1995, "unreasonable,** the university announced
it would reconsider AFSCME's
original proposal.
The arbitrator's decision nullified CMU's prior plans to award
ARAMARK  the contract beginning in 1997.
CMU officials met May 8, 15,
21 and 22, but an agreement
could not be reached by the parties involved.
According to Linda Philo, president of AFSCME Local 1568
and a utility helper in Carey
Dining Commons, the meetings
concluded after James Wood,
manager of Employee Relations
and Staff Personnel Services,
said the university and the
union were too far apart in their
positions.
Philo said AFSCME left the
university with the option of
calling the union if €MU representatives wanted to further discuss the bid proposal.
Wood said he made himself
available to the union and "did
not get a single call" despite providing his home number.
Wood referred all further questions to Rae Goldsmith, associate vice president for Public
Relations and Marketing.
John Fisher, director of
Residences and Auxiliary
Services, referred questions to
Goldsmith as well.
Philo said AFSCME "didn't
close the door" on meeting or
having a ratification vote if the
need arose.
Goldsmith said the union canceled the ratification vote.
The multiple meetings were an
attempt to finalize the unions
two-year   proposal   to   staff  the
university's food service operations.
"There were issues we asked
for them to address in their initial bid that they did not
address," Goldsmith said.
On Nov. 10, ARAMARK submitted a bid projecting the total
annual labor costs for one year to
be $1,636,934. AFSCME's contract rate for that same year was
projected as $3,004,664. The
union offered a two-year concession package to be effective from
Nov. 1, 1996 through Oct. 31,
1998 that was projected to save
CMU approximately $1.95 million.
Paul Kramer, ARAMARK
director of retail operations, said
he wouldn't be able to comment
on the bid situation because "I
haven't been involved closely
enough."
"They wanted to clarify issues
concerning our bid," Philo said.
"I feel we bent over backwards
and we fulfilled our bid about
five different "ways."
Goldsmith said, "There is no
mutual agreement because the
union was unwilling to stand
behind its guaranteed bid to perform the work.
"All we're trying to do is ask
them to commit to the very numbers they submitted.
"We were fully prepared, if we
could reach mutual agreement,
to resolve this with the union,"
Goldsmith said.
"That's    completely    untrue,"
Philo said about the union being
unwillingly to stick by its numbers. "They weren't interested in
considering our bid.
"WeVe worked with them in
good faith . . . and it's still not
good enough," Philo said.
"The union just didn't stand by
its numbers," Goldsmith
responded.
"We were trying to verity how
the union would make the savings. We couldn't get further
because they couldn't support
their numbers," she said.
Philo said the union's bid proposal included 22 layoffs, a $1.50
per hour pay cut and no allowance
for meals or uniforms.
The   22   layoffs   also   were   in
See UNION Page 6	
Charter      Private plane crashes on U.S. 27, killing two
schools to
show off
at Expo in
Lansing
By Cindy Trombley
LlPE Editor	
The diversity of Michigan's 44
public charter schools will be
showcased at the first Charter
School Expo today in Lansing.
The Expo will take place from
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Radisson
Hotel. Each school will have a
booth displaying information on
its educational programs and
work by students.
According to Robert Mills,
director of CMU's Charter
Schools Office, more than 2,000
people from around Michigan,
from other states, and possibly
from foreign countries will be
attending.
The event is sponsored by the
Michigan Resource Center for
Charter Schools at CMU and co-
sponsored by the Michigan
Association of Public School
Academies and the Michigan
Department of Education, Mills
said.
"(Central) is the leading institution in the nation regarding
involvement in charter schools,"
he said. "This Expo is a diamond
for Central Michigan
University."
Mills said there are 275 charter schools across the United
States with 22 states having
schools. He said CMU is considered a national leader in charter
schools.
He said this means other
states look to CMU for guidance
regarding charter schools. He
added that he thinks other
states will contact Central about
hosting expos in the future.
According to Mamie Thorns,
associate director of the Charter
Schools office and organizer of
the event, Michigan's Charter
School Expo is the largest charter school program that has ever
taken place.
CMU President Leonard
Plachta, Gov. John Engler and
other legislators will be speaking at the event. Thorns said
members of CMU's Board of
Trustees, Central faculty members and various administrators
also will be attending.
The theme of the event is
"Making a difference for children" and will feature ongoing
presentations by children from
different schools throughout the
afternoon, Thorns said.
"This is like the Super Bowl.
It's the Super Bowl for children,"
Mills said.
The Charter School Expo also
will provide people with the
chance to meet the founders of
Michigan's 44 charter schools,
Mills said. "We believe this will
See CHARTER Page 8
LIFE Photo/Gabriel Guerrero
Members of the Mount Pleasant Fire Department clean up the remains off the Cessna 150 that crashed near southbound U.S. 27 Sunday
afternoon. Both the pilot and passenger in the plane were killed. No one else was hurt in the accident.
A single-engine private aircraft crashed just north of
Mount Pleasant on U.S. 27
Sunday afternoon, killing both
the pilot and a passenger.
The pilot, Craig A. Livingston
of Romulus, and the passenger,
Michael Bennett Boyle Sr., of
Kingston, died at the scene.
The 1978 Cessna 152 crashed
short of the runway and fell
onto a grassy area next to southbound U.S. 27 around 12:30
p.m. Witnesses reported the
plane was positioning for a landing when the crash occurred.
Traffic on southbound U.S. 27
was rerouted for the investigation. No traveling cars were
involved in the accident.
The bodies were taken to
Central Michigan Community
Hospital where an autopsy was
ordered by Dr. Sam Carson.
CMCH would not release
information regarding the
results of the autopsies.
The plane was leased out of
Pontiac Flight Services of
Waterford.
According to the Michigan
State Police report, John Miller,
a Federal Aviation
Administration investigator, the
FAA is taking over the investigation.
Miller was working on the
investigation and was unavailable for comment.
Tactical expert talks
about investigation
of Waco incident
By Heather N. LaFave
LIFE News Edttor	
A man involved in the investigation of the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms' actions at
the Branch Dividian Compound
near Waco, Texas explained his
findings as part of a three-day
conference last week.
John Kolman, a retired sheriff
for the Los Angeles County
Sheriffs Department, spoke to
officials at the Law Enforcement
Executive Leadership Institute
Update conference in Mount
Pleasant.
Kolman served on the Tactical
Expert Advisory Council
charged by the United States
Department of Treasury to look
into what led to the deaths of
four ATF special agents and the
wounding of 20 other agents at
Waco on Feb. 28, 1993.
Kolman said while most peo-
ple know something about the
ATFs attempt to serve search
and arrest warrants for federal
weapons violations at the
Compound and their ambush by
members of tbe religious sect,
many don't know what led to the
raid's disastrous outcome.
There were three factions
responsible for the tragedy
including net only the Dividians,
but ATF management and the
media as well, he said.
Branch Dividian leader David
Koresh knew about the impend
ing ATF raid 45 minutes before
it occurred and he armed his foi
lowers, Kolman said.
The media, both print and
electronic, also were responsible
because of lack of cooperation
with authorities, he said.
The media knew in advance
about the raid, and a cameraman looking for the compound
actually leaked information to
the Dividians.
He described the media coverage of the FBI-Dividian standoff" as "the most despicable cov
erage of an  on-going event in
this country."
The ATF management had
several options for arresting
Koresh, but the plan called for a
dynamic entry when the
Dividian men were outside
working, away from their guns.
On the morning scheduled for
the raid, Koresh learned what
would happen and armed his
group. An undercover agent
emerged from the compound,
told ATF management the
Dividians were preparing and
the supervisors "decided they
could still go," Kolman said.
The coroner's report on the
bodies extracted from the rubble
See WACO Page 2
Memorial Day observed, honored
By Patti Yarrick
LIFE Staff Writer
LIFE Photo/Bryan Bosch
Many honored loved ones and comrades at this year's Memorial
day service in downtown Mount Pleasant.
Mount Pleasant citizens honored
their veterans with a parade and
numerous services Monday.
The parade began at 10 a.m. at
the corner of Broadway and Arnold
streets and then proceeded downtown. Veterans of Foreign Wars
Post 3033 led the parade, consisting of 16 veterans and five women
from the Ladies Auxiliary. Veteran
Cecil Clare rode in a convertible
and served as the parade's
Marshall.
Other parade highlights included the Mount Pleasant High
School Band, representatives of
the historical society, antique cars,
Boy Scout Troop 3644 and the Beal
City High School cheerleaders,
who carried a sign which read 4<We
salute our veterans."
The parade stopped at the corner
of Kinney Street in front of the
World War I and World War II
monuments for a service. People
stood on all four corners of the
intersection silently listening to
the service, which emphasized the
need to remember those who gave
the ultimate sacrifice for their
country.
According to Dan Nolan, a
Vietnam veteran from Mount
Pleasant, Memorial Day means a
lot to him.
"When you've fought and lost
your comrades, this is a day when
you remember them and pay tribute to them," he said.
See MEMORIAL Page 8