Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/26558
Monday, March 7, 2011 – Daily News – 7A PLAIN Continued from page 1A Stover said. In the event of a flood the roadway could fail to provide protection, allowing floodwaters to flow west into the area north of Antelope Boulevard. For the past two to three years the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been updating its flood maps, and will now include the Antelope area into a higher-risk flood zone known as a special flood hazard area. FEMA will issue a Letter of Final Determination to the Board of Supervisors at the board’s March 29 meeting. If accepted by the board, the county will implement its own Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map, and the map will go into affect six months later, in September. Property owners are encouraged to buy flood insurance now, as rates will increase after the maps are in effect. Those who already have flood insurance may qualify for lower rates through grandfathering. To learn more about changes to local flood hazard maps and the risk zones behind levees, visit www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/fhm/lv_home.shtm. Soon, information will be available at the county’s website at www.co.tehama.ca.us/. FEMA representatives will be at the meetings Wednes- day to provide information on the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps and answer questions. They will discuss options available for buying flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program. Property owners should have already received letters in the mail from the county Building Department regarding the meetings. For information, visit the department at 444 Oak St, Room H, second floor, Court House Annex Building or call 527-7002. Stover can be reached at jstover@co.tehama.ca.us. ——— Tang Lor can be reached at 527-2153, Ext.110 or by e- mail at tlor@redbluffdailynews.com. FIGHT Continued from page 1A hispanic men had come to her aid, the release said. The woman, whose name was not released, said she was playing pool in the bar with all four men and, upon leaving the bar, one of the men began harassing her, so she sprayed him with pepper spray. The man then tackled the woman to the ground, she said, but she was able to free herself and run from the area. Later she noticed SIKH Continued from page 1A critical condition. her hand had been cut. All three were transport- ed to St. Elizabeth Com- munity Hospital for treat- ment of non-life-threaten- ing injuries, the release said. During interviews with each subject, it was noted all were under the influ- ence of alcohol. The white and hispanic men had not been identified as of Satur- day night. Anyone with informa- tion regarding this incident is asked to call Red Bluff Police Department at 527- 3131. Singh was a truck dri- ver who had worked in both India and Libya before moving to the Unit- ed States about five years ago, his son Harvinder UNION Continued from page 1A “It’s not about what anyone deserves,” Bel- geri said. Belgeri, a representa- tive for the International Union of Operating Engineers, Stationary Engineers, Local 39, and Service Employees International Union, referred to shared sacri- fices that all the govern- ment employees should have to make. “It’s clear there’s no shared sacrifice, at least at the executive level,” he said. Belgeri handed out a list of to-be-approved concessions in the con- tracts as proof of the alleged unfairness. In those handouts, the union representatives concluded that Goodwin will be getting an overall increase in salary of $2,788 per month; Fillmer, $4,678; and Muench, $4,639. Goodwin has since disputed those numbers, saying they include paid time off that would only be granted upon termi- nation of employment. In fact, the contract means his net salary will decrease by nearly $10,000 over the term of the agreement. District 2 Supervisor George Russell respond- ed by objecting to the claim of unequal shares of economic burden. “We tried to make sure all the groups have the same benefits,” he said. Higgs, who said that she had been laid-off from the assessor’s office due to budget cuts, said that officials should look first to elim- Singh, told the Sacramen- to Bee. He had recently survived his fourth heart attack. Atwal moved to the U.S. from India in 2001, inate “fat at the top.” “You still have a duty to prove to me to do due diligence and look at the administrative excess- es,” Higgs said. “Shouldn’t administra- tion take a cut too?” Russell responded that budget reductions were done differently in each department, but that changes were made to be fair to all members of each group, uniformly not discriminatory. After some debate back and forth, Goodwin stepped forward. “The net difference of my contract will be a negative,” he said. Points of contention that were addressed include a $100 per month stipend, a man- agement time off allot- ment, personal holiday time, paid time off and employee contributions to the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS. District 3 Supervisor Dennis Garton, who began his first term as supervisor in January, was the sole vote against approving the three employees’ contracts. “It’s absolutely con- fusing to try to figure out,” Garton said. In the 4 to 1 vote, contracts were renewed for Goodwin, Fillmer and Muench as written. In a later interview, Goodwin was disap- pointed that the group’s representatives were opposing his contract, he said. He had volunteered concessions that were nearly identical to the ones imposed on the miscellaneous bargain- ing unit’s employees. “We purposely fixed it so there would be no perception of conflict of and the family settled two years later in Elk Grove, according to his son, Kamaljit Atwal. ‘‘He is quite a gentle man,’’ he said. Dale Avenue home burns Friday interest,” Goodwin said. He will be paying into CalPERS employee con- tributions of 3 percent for the first year and an additional 3 percent the following year. He has also accepted a salary freeze and is locked into the same rate for at least the next three years. The board recognized the fiscal realities and made the right conces- sions, he said. There has been no cost of living adjust- ments for any bargaining unit for some time, he said. A classifications and compensation study was completed that adjusted wages over a three-year period to appropriate levels. Now, the only way a public employee earns a wage increase is by time spent in a position through a stepped wage schedule. They have tried as a whole to be conservative because the next few years will be even worse, Goodwin said. Revenues will be down, although no one can know the dollar amounts. The changes accepted now are intended to reduce the impacts and avoid lay-offs, he said. There will be impacts, either way. What the contracts approved Tuesday reflected was an attempt to bring Goodwin’s and Fillmer’s benefits to the same standards as other management staff, Goodwin said. Because salary fig- ures that the union rep- resentatives presented counted a 60-hour paid time off per month that would only be given upon termination of employment and 40 hours of personal/man- agement time off per month, the perception was that there was an overall net increase in pay, Goodwin said. In fact, the net change would result in a $9,452 net loss in salary over the three years of Good- win’s contract, and $4,919 net loss in Fillmer’s contract, he said. Muench’s contract falls under the public safety contracts and has different stipulations. Goodwin had hoped that the labor negotiators and the community in general would appreci- ate the voluntary pay concessions, he said. Compared to his counterparts in other California counties, Goodwin is on the lower end of the pay scale. Siskiyou, Butte and Shasta counties pay more to their administra- tors than Tehama County pays. “I realize my salary is appropriate compensa- tion for Tehama Coun- ty,” Goodwin said. Goodwin’s contract, which will take effect April 15, will include $11,875 a month salary. Fillmer’s will be $7,841 per month and Muench’s, $8,336. ——— Andrea Wagner can be reached at 527-2153, extension 114 or awagner@redbluffdailyn ews.com. Supporters rally for Muslim students in Orange County ANAHEIM (AP) — More than 200 people rallied Saturday in support of 11 Muslim students facing crim- inal charges for disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador at the University of California, Irvine. Supporters of the so-called “Irvine 11” packed a meeting room at the Islamic Institute of Orange Coun- ty, arguing that the students were exercising their free- speech rights and should be protected, the Orange County Register reported Sunday. The 11 students, some of whom belonged to the Mus- lim Student Union, were arrested Feb. 8, 2010, after shout- ing and protesting during a speech on U.S.-Israeli securi- ty by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren. The disruption forced him to stop his remarks for about 20 minutes. They are scheduled to be arraigned Friday on charges of disturbing an assembly and conspiring to disturb an assembly. The Register said speakers Saturday questioned whether the students would have been prosecuted if they weren’t Muslim, but said the case raises concerns beyond religion. ‘‘The reality is that protest and expressing dissent makes up the very fabric of American democracy,’’ said attorney Reem Salahi, who is helping to defend the 11 students. Daily News photo by Ross Palubeski A structure around 6:30 p.m. Friday at Dale Avenue off Antelope Boulevard damaged this home. No further information was available over the weekend. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has said the stu- dents broke the law and would be prosecuted regardless of their religion or any other affiliation. The 11 students ‘‘meant to stop this speech and stop anyone else from hearing (the ambassador’s) ideas,’’ he said when he filed the charges in February. Speakers at Saturday’s meeting vowed to hold future demonstrations in support of the students. They plan to gather outside the courthouse Friday, dressed in black, with tape over their mouths. The university revoked the Muslim Student Union’s charter for one year and placed it on probation for another year after doing its own investigation. In Sep- tember, the school softened the sanctions by restoring the group’s charter effective Dec. 31, but it added a year of probation and 100 hours of community service. Officials with the university have said the school completed its disciplinary process and has no connec- tion to the district attorney’s investigation. 21 airlines fined for fixing passenger, cargo fees WASHINGTON (AP) — When the airline industry took a nose dive a decade ago, executives at global carriers scrambled to find a quick fix to avoid financial ruin. What they came up with, according to federal prosecutors, was a massive price-fixing scheme among airlines that artifi- cially inflated passenger and cargo fuel surcharges between 2000 and 2006 to make up for lost profits. The airlines’ crimes cost U.S. consumers and businesses — mostly international passengers and cargo shippers — hundreds of millions of dollars, prosecutors say. But the airlines caught by the Justice Department have paid a hefty price in the five years since the government’s widespread investigation became public. To date, 19 executives have been charged with wrongdoing — four have gone to prison — and 21 airlines have coughed up more than $1.7 billion in fines in one of the largest criminal antitrust inves- tigations in U.S. history. The court cases reveal a com- plex web of schemes between mostly international carriers will- ing to fix fees in lockstep with competitors for flights to and from the United States. Convicted airlines include British Airways, Korean Air, and Air France-KLM. No major U.S. carriers have been charged. The price-fixing unraveled largely because two airlines decid- ed to come clean and turn in their co-conspirators. In late 2005, officials with Ger- man-based Lufthansa notified the Justice Department that the airline had been conspiring to set cargo surcharges. By Valentine’s Day 2006, FBI agents and their coun- terparts in Europe made the inves- tigation public by raiding airline offices. After those raids, British- based Virgin Atlantic came for- ward about its role in a similar scheme to set fuel surcharges for passengers. Investigators eventually found a detailed paper trail laying out agreements, stretching back to 2000, to set passenger and cargo fuel surcharges The probe expand- ed to airlines doing business between the U.S. and Europe, Asia, South America, and Aus- tralia. The Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic mea culpas allowed them to take advantage of a Justice Department leniency program because they helped crack the conspiracies. Former Associate Attorney General Kevin J. O’Connor, who oversaw Justice’s antitrust division in the late 2000s, said he doesn’t know why they confessed, but the result “demonstrates the effective- ness of that amnesty program.” Now in private practice, O’Connor said companies that confess for amnesty may be wise- ly trying to limit liabilities from illegal conduct. “Generally speaking, if they have an inkling they might get caught, they come in,” O’Connor said. “The theory might be that eventually these things will be exposed and why risk continuing.” Federal prosecutors and inves- tigators declined to discuss details of the cases because they are still investigating. “Lufthansa Cargo fully cooper- ated with the investigation launched by DOJ,” Martin Rieck- en, Lufthansa’s director of corpo- rate communications for the Americas said. Virgin Atlantic referred all questions to the Justice Department. Airlines and executives who didn’t come forward were charged with violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Two former airline executives were sentenced to six months in prison; two others were ordered to prison for eight months.