OCR Text |
Show DAVIS REFLEX JOURNAL, SEPTEMBER 12, 1984 Laytoffii Clearfield Ponders OK For Mental Health Unit Mayor mestaoris eaps Continued from pg. 1 responsibility of attorneys. provides very specific elected and appointed on maintaining proper internal control and establishing purchasing procedures. Oveson said that from the information he received it looked like many of the problems would not have occured had the city been following the procedures defined by state law. funds. That the State law guidance to city officials city-coun- MAYOR SHIELDS explained it g was a practice of long-standin- Layton's to conduct job audits. The last one was taken seven years ago. Layton City paid over $9,000 for the information. don't know what the state auditor could offer Layton City that hasn't already been covered in this PA audit.-- ' the Mayor stated. Mike Swallow, local go eminent coordinator and senior personnel analyist with the IPA. a division of the Utah State Division of Personnel Management office of state government, explained the audit conducted by his office was. strictly looking at the work place, the nature of jobs and how they compared with competitive employers. This information was used to varify that Layton is a competitive employer in the open job market. 1 I STATE AUDITOR W. Val Ove-so- n announced today that his office will take action to be sure problems identified with Layton City's financial operations are corrected. "We hav been contacted by the Davis County Attorneys office but at this point, we have not had a request from Layton City to become involved. However, we will become involved whether requested or not since the state auditor is charged with the responsibility to insure local governments comply with state laws defining the financial operations of cities. OVESON MADE clear that his involvement would not be to look into allegations of misuse of public is the - FARMINGTON The Clearfield City Council was expected to decide if a mental health convalescent center could be opened there, to serve county residents Tuesday night. and Logan. IN ADDITION, to making sure they comply with the city fiscal procedures act, Oveson said that one of the best things the city could do would be to get input from other cities. He suggested three northern Utah cities roughly the size as Layton City that appear to have very effective financial operations even though they have different forms of government and organizational structure. Oveson said his office has talked with these cities and they have offered to provide any input Layton City may request. He suggested that Layton City contact THE FACILITY would be located in an old home at 904 S. State, adjoining the Addiction Recovery Center, also in a former residence. It would serve mental health and alcohol clients as a residential care facility that Mental Health Director Russell Williams says would include nine beds for adults on one 8 level and a like number for youth on another. Average treatment will last six months but could range from a month to a year, with similar facilities operating in Ogden and Salt Lake City. The Clearfield Planning Commission recommended denial of a conditional use permit request to initiate the facility, and Dr. Williams said last week legally theres no way they can turn down an okay to purchase the property. three-year-ol- ty THIS DOES not eliminate any individual responsibility for any wrong doing. But it does point out that if the various allegations are correct, the elected council and mayor have not met their responsibilities for the financial operations of the city. The state auditor expressed concern over talk of the city changing its form of government to correct the problems. He suggested that problems are generally not corrected by changes in forms of government and that the city first correct their problems and then look to see if the form of government should be changed. MR. MARTINS press release stated, Administrative policy and practice has been dictated by an unwritten informal substructure which is so well established that it has become difficult to penetrate and almost impossible to control by the elected officials, causing them to be almost hopelessly di- i vided. The informal substructure within the City of Layton appears to have developed around and is by a struggle for power, control and the maintenance of vested personal benefits sometimes reflected in evidence of what appears to be unusually high departmental budgets and salaries. This internal corruption of city operations has noa led to a failure of the formal legislative organizational structure. COUNCILWOMAN Ann Harris replied to this statement by saying, The substructure idea is nonsense. It is not true. It does noti exist. In the past sonethings have been done right. We have made some mistakes. We plan to correct the mistakes and go on with city city. If the council says they want to run the day to day operations--s- o be it, he continued. the He referred to packing special city council meetings with employees, referring to comments that three city council members were looked on as their enemies by city employees and had reportedly threatened to walk out-i- f certain action was taken. THE INFORMAL substruc The attorneys office doesnt have authority to take broad ranging administrative corrective action, he said further. Stevenson in a telephone interview Monday evening said, What was I going to say? The County Attor- neys office did the investigation. This is his job. No decision was By DONETA GATHERUM is an intelligent LAYTON when she sits She best works girl. near the front of the room. Jim is shy. He needs praise to build confidence. Dick suffers from allergies. Sue must wear her glasses. Tim tends to interrupt the class but he will cooperate if he is kept busy. CLUES TO pupil personalities like the hypothetical examples mentioned above are helpful to any public school teacher. The sooner information about each child is gathered, the quicker a teacher-pupworking relationship can be established. The best source of information about a child is the parents. il USING THE assumption that education is really an E.T. (equal-togethepartnership between the home and the school, Lynn F. Stoddard, principal at Whitesides Elementary School in Layton, has r) abandoned the traditional Night meeting. Replacing this early in the year Back-To-Scho- parent-teach- introduction is a ol er indi- vidualized partnership conference. Mr. Stoddard has used this approach to establishing a working relationship between home and school for the past 10 years at Hill Field Elementary and Whitesides Elementary. SURVEYS sent home indicate at least 96 percent of the parents sup- port partnership conferences. Teachers claim this approach sets a good tone for cooperation early in the year, makes everyone aware of the child's special gifts and needs and stresses the dual responsibility for education shared by parents and teachers. Mr. Stoddard, an innovative educator who has pioneered many widely accepted programs including The Great Brain, combines several philosophies into the Partnership Conferences. First, the role of the parent in education is ex- plained. Mr. Stoddard quotes from an article in The Gifted Children newsletter, Asian children are embued with the importance of schooling. It becomes a focal point of family life... parents as well as students write questions about school assignments, maintaining ongoing communication with calTHE PROPOSED district led the Davis County Solid Waste Management and Energy Recovery District - was spearheaded by the Davis County Commission in an attempt to get all communities within the county united into one waste disposal and energy recov- MANY questions asked by porters will have to await court proceedings to be answerred, Marre- -- tin said, including how much money Mr. Heaps allegedly misappropriated, with the attorney agreeing only it was above the $ 150 previously noted by Mayor Lewis ery district. Bountiful City Council voted 0 Wednesday night to deny the resolution. Centerville, which had opposed the construction of a G. Shields. Further information about auditing proceedures and what can be conducted by various state agencies, is contained in an article by Doneta Gatherum that also reports Monday nights special city council meeting. 4-- y garbage burn plant earlier, changed their minds and voted 0 in favor of the district. 5-- CLEARFIELD and Layton councils debated the issue a final time on Thursday and their votes came within minutes of each other. to deny the Both councils voted resolution and continue using a landfill for disposal of their garbage. However, all other (12) com 4-- teachers. ..Americans tend to overlook the importance of family relationships in academic achievement and to budgets and administration. over-emphasi- THE SECOND philosophical concept behind the Partnership Conferences is explained in a by Mr. copyrighted article written Stoddard. The meeting of parents and teacher becomes a joint effort to develop every childs three innate powers powers of identity, inquiry and interaction (love). The implamentation of E.T, partnerships starts early in the school year. On Sept. 13 students will be dismissed so conferences can be held. Each conference lasts between 15 and 30 minutes. PRIOR TO the conference parents are asked to come prepared to give information about three questions, What do you hope the, school can do for your child this year? What special needs, interests, talents, gifts etc. does this child have? How can we work together to build this child? Parents REFERRING to the July 18 hearing, Mr. Cravens writes, In our opinion, current law allows for such a facility, and the planning commission was approached to determine what conditions had to be met. In our opinion., no reasons or justifications for denial were offered, either during or subsequent to the hearing. In a related matter, the advisory board approved purchase of a half acre north of the proposed new facility for parking or future program expansion, costing more than $40,000. munities within the county voted in favor of the district thus leaving the Davis County Commission with a difficult decision to make within the next two weeks. THE COMMISSION must wait until Sept. 24 to decide whether or not a special service district should be formed. Until then, the Commission will receive written protests against the formation of the district. The three larger communities that denied the district proposal combine for nearly the countys population, thus would provide about half the garbage needed for the operation of the proposed bum plant - if a bum plant is finally approved by the districts board of directors. one-ha- lf -- waste-to-energ- . Blem. Whitesides At Night area. Clearfield, Layton Join With Bountiful In Nyet For Burn Plant going to be made this evening (Monday). There was no reason to attend another meeting. Baek-ToSchoo- HE SAID he didnt know that the members had formed any opinion either way. In an Aug. 30 letter signed by Kenneth F. Cravens, mental health advisory board chairman, it said the site was chosen after considerable research as the most appropriate available site and that it would be an asset and meet not only the needs of those experiencing health problems, but also would not intrude on those who currently reside in the immediate often-express- materialize. Councilman Bob Partnership Confirmees V Replace osal. THAT AREA will become more commercial and the mental health center will try to establish so they (clients) can live in a residential area, he continued. If they (council) will objectively listen to the proposal he commented further, noting the opinion everywhere that its a very needed service--bu- t put it over there (somewhere else). business. Questions were asked about why four of the five council members choose not to attend the press conference that developed after the open city council meeting did not - 1 and said he noted some dissatisfaction in the attitude the county has taken in seeking the conditional use but said that has not necessarily swayed or soured feelings of councilmembers toward the prop- NOTING SOME apparent fear property values would be devalued, he stressed the need for such a facility and said research indicated there would not be any property devaluation--i- t likely will go up. That was substantiated by County Com. Harry Gerlach, who said the normal supply and demand response means increases in value coupled with inflation. Its zoned in between commercial and residential, Dr. Williams said, adding, these people deserve to make their home in a residential area but their zoning disallows residential. The Supreme Court has ruled that illegal. Clearfield and Layton city councils joined Bountiful last Thursday night in denying a resolution to participate in a solid waste special service district. Continued from pg. ANY YOUTH entering the facility would free thats a condition have to be drug-abus- e of participation, he said, adding those in the program couldn't be committing crimes on the street, for example, referring to another voiced concern. It cuts down on crime, that s why the Legislature is funding it, he emphasized. Clearfield City Manager Don Wally Baird said hed discussed the issue with all city coun-cilme- n d 12-1- By GARY R. BLODGETT Clipper News Editor ture within the city appears to have developed around and is supported by a struggle for power, control and the maintenance of vested personal benefits, Mr. Martin said further, while noting a couple members of the city council refuse to recognize major problems and are able to block attempts to reach any compromise that will place the council in control of the situation. For some reason, Clearfield feels theyre Dr. being dumped on I dont see it as that, conWilliams emphasized, noting previous cerns expressed at the July meeting about negative impact on the program from North Davis Junior High School students due to alleged drug trafficing there. By TOM BUSSELBERG 0 may be invited to prioritize goals for their child. Once concrete goals for greatare established, parents, teachers and the child can proceed unitedly. ness PARENTS NOW feel comfort- able in visiting the school, calling teachers, assisting a child with school assignments and questioning the worth of a particular assignment. When the end of the term conferences are held, additional goals can be set and progress can be noted. Reporting is done by parents and teachers on their successes and failures in educating the child. Even without prior training or experience the great majority of parents and teachers build a teamwork relationship as they build trust and make plans to help each other. MR. STODDARD believes goals love of learnsuch as ing and getting along with others are as much a part of school curriculum as knowing the multiplication facts, reciting a Robert Frost poem or underlining parts of speech. He believes Platos statement, Knowledge acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. self-estee- CAN the population of Davis County support a y bum plant, even at a reduced size of 400 tons per day or less? If so, Bountiful will continue to use the Bay Area Refuse Disposal (BARD) landfill but what will happen to the North Area Refuse Disposal (NARD) landfill? Will it still be available to Layton and ClearONE-HAL- F waste-to-energ- field? CLEARFIELD council members expressed concern about future use of NARD, but in the end felt that Bountiful and Laytons denial to participate in the district could, with Clearfields vote, would stop the district from being formed. ' Councilman Ivan Anderson said he felt Davis County had every intention of having a bum plant, and this is the issue we have voted against several times before. COUNCILWOMAN Shirley Reed noted that the equal vote of one vote per city , regardless of size COUNCILMAN Wayne War- nock said he was concerned about the lopsided voting power of the board and the problems the city would face if it decided later to withdraw from the district. See separate story for reactida of Layton City Council. secretarial courses, each repeated six times in Four short-tera one-yeperiod, are to be taught by instructors from Utah Technical College at Salt Lake for Hill Air Force Base. THE MILITARY base is constructing a new program called the Secretarial School in which 20 employees at a time are placed in formal and informal training for seven weeks prior to permanent placement on base. Utah Tech faculty from the School of Continuing Education will be providing instruction for a Secretarial Dynamics y shop, and other classes in Building, and Personal Proofreading, Productivity. m ar English-Vocabular- Rape Class Slated A conference focused on rape awareness will be held at Hospital Center Saturday, Sept. 15 from 9 a.m. to p.m. in the Green Auditorium. There is no charge to attend. THE CONFERENCE is sponsored by the Womens Center at Pat Jones, the rape crisis coordinator at the YWCA McKay-Dein Ogden will direct the conference. Women of all ages are invited to attend. Discussions will be held on topics ranging from rape prevention to common myths surrounding rape. MOTHERS AND teenaged daughters are especially urged to attend the conference, says Ms. Jones. Some of the material presented will be directed toward teens and problems they may encounter regarding rape in their social lives. Interested persons may come tp the conference without e. f ' or population, could create a stacked deck. Also, she said, well have the same players (mayors) we have encountered before who are in favor of a bum plant and we are not. Councilman Cummings said He would place the city between a rock and a hard place but it appears the best solution would be to deny the resolution and look for better alternatives. Secretarial Classes Set McKay-De- e i 1 ' |