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Show All the news that's fit to fabricate JLi Park City, Utah 250 Vol. VII, No. 28 Thursday, April 1,1982 Two Sections, 32 Pages Seven-hour hearing Appeals board by Morgan Queal A city appeals board Tuesday voted unanimously to uphold the firing of Jan Sylvester as transportation director. The action came after a marathon 7V'2-hour 7V'2-hour session that covered reams of testimony on the problems surrounding surround-ing the operation of the Mt. Metro bus system. The Employee Transfer and Discharge Appeals Board made up of three municipal employees and two council members voted against Sylvester's reinstatement in the post in spite of concern over "due process of the dismissal." Appeals board chairman Al Allen said, "I worry about the rights of the worker. To me the biggest issue here was due process, but it doesn't excuse the fact that if you're not doing the job, you lose it." Sylvester was on hand, represented by counsel, to argue essentially that in addition to being denied due process, the problems of jhe bus system merely reflect pervasive conflicts within the entire city government. Councilman Tom Shellenberger, also sitting on the board, opened the hearing by explaining the circumstances circum-stances of the initial move to terminate Sylvester as director of the bus system: "The council was unhappy with the transportation system. There were numerous complaints from the public about scheduling and service. It had been a serious problem prior to Jan's employment, but it hadn't changed after she was in the position three years. "The bus system wasn't running the way we wanted," Shellenberger said. "We tried making suggestions, but things didn't change. It was a Police chief offers solution to local parking problems Thanks to large accumulations ot snow this winter, Park City's popuiar-is popuiar-is on the rise. Unfortunately, so is its parking problem. Park City Police Chief Frank Bell said Tuesday that residents and visitors alike have been complaining about the lack of parking spaces on Main Street and in Swede Alley. In response, Bell has suggested a novel approach to solve the problem: vertical parking on surrounding hillsides. hill-sides. "When the streets are filled, the most logical place to look for more parking is on the embankments and hillsides around Main Street," said Bell, pointing up toward Ontario and Dangerous Park City has been visited by "Real People" and "PM Magazine". But excitement in town has reached a fever peak, as TV cameras are trained on Park Avenue for a segment of the hit television program "That's Impassable". Impass-able". Next Tuesday at 12 noon sharp, nationally-known stunt man Mickey "Danger Sucker" Farbman will climb into his specially reinforced Volkswagen Volks-wagen micro-bus and attempt to navigate it through the gullies, ravines, and crevasses of Park Avenue. Said host John Dimpleson, "We've unanimous decision (of the council) to take action, and we directed Arlene (Loble, city manager) to do it." Under detailed questioning by Roger Sandack, Sylvester's attorney, Loble testified that the council's recommendation recommen-dation to remove Sylvester from the post came after four or five lengthy weekly discussions on the bus system's problems, including complaints about rude and unkempt drivers, dirty buses and failure to meet schedules. "The council asked me if I considered con-sidered Jan to be competent, and I said no. They asked me what I could do about it, and I said I would take action to make sure she would not be here next season. "I felt it was my mistake, too, for not taking action earlier," Loble related. "I spoke to Bob Lashier (public works director) and he felt it would be unfair to keep her the rest of the season without letting her know what was going on." On Feb. 19, Loble and Lashier met with Sylvester and asked her to resign with the option of staying on the job through March while she sought other employment. On Feb. 25, Sylvester sent a letter to Lashier asking for further clarification of the reasons behind the action, and asking for a hearing before the City Council. Loble said that as a result of that letter, Sylvester was asked to resign immediately and when she didn't, she was fired effective Feb. 26. The final termination came in a letter to Sylvester in which Loble detailed the charges against her. It was brought out during Loble's testimony that Sylvester was responsible respon-sible for schedules, hiring and supervision super-vision of drivers, record-keeping and Woodside Avenues. "Several drivers have parked there in the past several weeks with great success." Bell said that when looking for a space, drivers should simply veer off the road, keeping the weight on their downhill tire. "It's essential to keep the body facing down the fall line and to keep your speed up," said Bell. "That way you'll plow downhill into a good spot, and the snow piling up under your bumper will stop you ... eventually." Bell said he hopes to work with city attorney Tom Clyde in writing a Hillside Parking Ordinance that can be incorporated into the Land Manage stunt planned for P.C. been to some of the really bad pavements in the country, like Damnation Alley in Hawaii and Thunder Road in Georgia, but nothing beats Park Avenue for sheer unforgiving unforgiv-ing treacherousness." The danger here, he said, is the road's ability to change with lightning speed. "A mildly depressed chuckhole can suddenly widen to form what the Japanese call 'Tsujuro' that is, 'real mother'," said Dimpleson. It's reported that one such hole swallowed up Farbman's younger brother Jimmy, who attempted this feat last fall. "I gotta bone to pick with upholds general operation of the system but was not responsible for mechanical maintenance of the 13 buses in the fleet. Loble admitted that because of the city's poor maintenance program, and because of demands from other city equipment, mechanical problems rendered many of the buses inoperable a good part of the time. But other issues, Loble said, led to the decision to seek a new transportation transpor-tation director. Foremost was the issue of "accountability." "account-ability." Sylvester, the city manager said, was "simply unavailable. It was the most frustrating supervision Ex-Transportation Director Jan to right) Al Allen, Helen Alvarez ment Code currently being revised by the city's planning staff. On Tuesday, City Planning Director Bill Ligetysplit cautioned that the ordinance would have to observe existing zone requirements. In the Estate District, he said, only one Mercedes per three acres will be allowed. And in the Historic District, only cars that pass an architectural review board will be permitted, and then only if the roof line is below 28 feet. "We can lick this parking problem if we just use our available resources," said Bell. "We plan to paint yellow lines on the snow so folks know where to park. After that, it's all downhill." that mile-long hunk of asphalt," he said. Dimpleson, who hosts the show with Tan Farkington and Cathy Lee Crotch had one warning, "You kids at home should not try this. These people are highly-trained professional motorists, and they know how to handle the risks. You little cheesebrains at home don't." In addition, the "That's Impassable" crew will film a stunt with local daredevil Hellion Alvarez, who will parachute blindfolded from the top of Shadow Ridge into rush-hour traffic-pouring traffic-pouring out of the ski resort. Sylvester dismissa problem I have ever had. I felt she took advantage of the job's flexibility." Sylvester also failed to maintain ridership surveys needed to determine the system's budget requirements, Loble charged. "I received unintelligible unin-telligible piles of forms filled out by bus drivers which I returned to her with discussion on the proper format. I am still waiting for reports on rider-ship." rider-ship." Another charge centered on the disposal of $580,000 in federal funds received by the bus system for the purchase of six new buses. The grant, Loble said, was approved in May 1981 Sylvester, (right) states her case and Tom Schellenberger. Grand j ury cites official misconduct Until this week, the Summit County Grand jury deliberations have been kept secret. But The Newspaper has obtained a secret copy of their findings thus far, and now can reveal why the jury has asked for a three-month extension. ex-tension. The jury, which was assembled to probe possible drug trafficking and illegal conflicts of interest in the city last October, has so far compiled 33 pages of findings which deal with dress-code and conduct violations by city officials. The report makes the following accusations ac-cusations against city officials: Mayor Jack Green grows his hair an inch too thick over his collar. City Manager Arlene Loble has been seen wearing pants to work, a clear violation of city code, which calls for dresses worn tastefully below the knee. Loble is also accused of leaving her office during working hours without a pass. Councilman Bob Wells' beard is "disgusting" said the report, and must be shaved off. Tina Lewis is frequently tardy for council meetings, without a written excuse from her daughter. Bill Coleman throws spitballs in council meetings, tries to peek at other council members' notes, and "mouths off" to the city's consultants. Tom Shellenberger walks on the Memorial Building gym floor in his street shoes. Councilwoman Helen Alvarez was the only government official excluded from the report's blasts. "You might have known they wouldn't pick on Little Lit-tle Miss Perfect," groused a council member. The council has been ordered to meet with Principal Jack Dozier to discuss their behavior. "It would be easy to treat them like immature bureaucrats," said Dozier. "But we're dealing with grown men and women here, and I expect them to act like it. "If they don't shape up, they'll find themselves held back a year in council," coun-cil," he added. Dozier also said he will not punish anyone for Park Avenue. "I would ask everyone in town to close their eyes, and I hope the responsible parties will then step forward and repair the damage they've done. " but specifications and bids were not drawn up until December and bids were not opened until January 1982. In the meantime, costs had risen and bids came in 10 percent over the budget. However, a representative from the state Department of Transportation, Lowell Elmer, was on hand Tuesday to testify he worked with Sylvester during all phases of the grant, and that, as far as he was concerned, Sylvester carried out the procedure in a professional manner. Loble had charged in her letter that the new buses should have been bid out and ordered or-dered before last May, but Elmer said to appeals board members (left TE EaMiT Here are the latest snowfall measurements and ski conditions reported by the three Park City-area resort. Deer Park Park Valley City West Thursday, March 25 0 0 0 Friday, March 26 trace trace 0 Saturday. March 27 3" 4" 1" Sunday, March 28 0 0 Monday, March 29 2" 4" 6" Tuesday. March 30 7" 0" 10 Wednesday, March 31 3" 0 5" ClTIlREYr CODITIQS Park City area skiers were faced with mixed bag, weather-wise, during the last week with last week's sunny skies changing to intermittent intermit-tent snow and clouds ever the weekend. Park City Resort's gondola went on a "wind-hold" Sunday, shutting down around ti a.m. for the day. New snow on Monday and Tuesday made for powder and packed-powder skiing throughout the area. The termometer at Parley's Park Elementary School recorded a high : for the week of 40 degrees oo Monday, and a tow of IS degrees Tuesda y. On Wednesday, Deer Valley reported 147 inches at the summit, with ail runs and lifts open. The Park City Ski Area reported a I3$-incli base, with all rum open and alt lifts in operation. ParkWest. which will close for the season Sunday April 4, has a 109-inch 109-inch base and all lifts operating through the weekend. FOUECAST The National Weather Service is predicting a cold and unsettled weekend, with snow showers on Friday, a chance of showers Saturday : and again late Sunday. Low temperatures should be in the 20$ to mid 30$. with highs in the 30s to mid M. Newspaper plans free mailing Publisher Jan Wilking announced Tuesday that, effective today, The Newspaper will be mailed free to every postal customer in the state of Utah. "Even if 90 percent of our papers end up in the trash, at least we can tell our advertisers that we are distributed from Blanding to Tremon-ton," Tremon-ton," Wilking pointed out. "Between that and our new pretty pastels on the front page, who'll be able to turn us down?" Wilking said that, if all goes according to plan, The Newspaper should even be able to generate enough advertising revenue to hire son'e competent com-petent reporters. "Off the Record, we've been getting a lot of complaints about our shoddy writers," he confessed. If his marketing strategy fails, Wilking is prepared to steer the publication in another direction. "I might even consider getting rid of our writers all together," he revealed. "We get enough press releases through the mail to fill a whole paper every week, anyway." it would have been impossible to do it before then because of state requirements that Park City establish a legal transit district first. The red tape prevented the expenditure of the federal funds prior to May 1981, he explained. ex-plained. Elmer said he believed that Sylvester maintained a resonable timetable in conducting the bidding process for the new equipment. Sylvester took the stand to defend her position, stating that she was promoted last December and that she had not received prior warning that her position was in jeopardy. On the issue of accountability, Sylvester said she had been working 18-hour days, and that "when the communications system is working, I'm very reachable. On the buses being consistently late, Sylvester stated, "We try to minimize lateness, but there are so many variables, and we have all of them." She cited bad weather conditions, impassable im-passable roads, patch-up construction work on Park Avenue and traffic jams during peak periods. "You can have 50 buses out there, and if traffic isn't moving, the buses won't move either," she said. Buses often were not washed, she said, because the city's washer was broken down three different times during the season. But the biggest problem, Sylvester testified, has been the lack of mechanical maintenance. "Very often, of-ten, people report for work and there are no buses to send out. We never had back-up capabilities until recently, when we were able to lease additional Appeals to 3 IE liii? |