News Scrapbook 1982-1984

9 i3 ccom1

SENTINEL

APR 2 , 1 USD nursing school holds open house An open house will be university. l.,SD

rl

•

cur- rt-ntly otfcrs post-bac· calaureate nursing pro- grams in advanced 'psy- chiatric nursing, family health nursing, school health practitioner and nursing administration. Admissions, eligibil- ity, and financial aid in- formation will be avail· able at the April 28 open house.

held at the Ph1hp Y. Hahn School of Nursmg at the l.: nivers1ty of San Diego this Thursday, from 4 to 6 p.m. i-·or information contact Phoebe Lee at 29:J-4548. l.iSD faculty, students and alumni will be on hand to meet open house visitors and discuss the graduate nursing pro- grams offered at the

SD BUSINESS NEWS APR X 5 1983

I

f

"Effective f'eiony Defense," an e ucational program for lawyers, is being offereo by USD Law Center, May 12 to June 9 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the campus. For registration call 91-64Rfl____________ ___J

Sc111i11cl BS USD public forum examines 'right to Kllow' stimulating d•batc.·· Wednesday, April 27, 1983

Stephanie Donovan, KFMB Radio; Steve Lal{ue, San Diego L'nion; Alison DaRosa, the Tribune; Dawn Garcia, Blade Tribune. Al Jacoby. San Diego Lnion; and John Beatty, KGTV. Dr. Jerry Rosander, Superintendent of Schools, County Department of tducaliun, will give welcoming remarks and James Granby, President of the San Diego County Bar Association, will in· troducc Fnedman and the panel members The panel discussion is one o[ the events offered as a public service dur/ng Law Week, May 1-6. Additional information on the forum can be ob- tainc.-d by calling Wl-3753.

.Friedman, protessor of law at USD and president of the State Board of Education, begins at 7 p.m. at Grace Courtroom, at USD'sSchoolof Law. There is no charge for the r :ssion. The general public and particularly sti.:ucnts of journalism and law arc encouraged to attend .Friedman and the Committee for Law Education in the Community selected the panel members for their familiarity with environmental and im, issues, and their role in determimng their respective media's policy of co\·eragc. "The discussion should be hard-hitting and in· volving," Friedman said. ··There are strong opi- nions going into this forum on both sides o( this hypothetical disaster. I'm expecting an aggrcssi\'e

"The public's right to know" will be examined May 2 at the University of San Diego in a panel dis- cussion which brings together leaders in the field of law, law enforcement and media 'fue panel discussion "Law and the Media in Commumt) Crisis" will focus on a hypothetical confrontation, the take-over of a nuclear power plant, "San Hanafi •. about 40 miles north of "Santa Donna" the second largest city in the state of "Golden " The event. organized by Evonne Schulze and Bruce Braciszew::;ki. is sponsored by the Center for Community Education, USD. and the San Diego Countv and American Bar Associations. The· discussion, to be moderated by C. Hugh

Participating in the panel will be judges lUchard Hanscom, ;'liorbcrl Ehrcnfrcund, c;orclon Cologne and Earl Cilliam. llcprc!:>enting law cnlorecmi•nt ag<•ncics c,n the panel \1 ill be Bill Kolcndcr, San Dic•go Chief of Police and l\Iclinda Lasater. Deputy District ltomey. Ed McIntyre. media attoniey with Gray. Cary, Ames & Frye 11111 be joined by editor Neil Morgan of the Tribune and c;ary Shaw of the Daily Trans- cript. Additional media· participants will feature

EVENING TRIBUNE APR 2 8 1983

Nei hbor troubles? Center wants to help

USD set job fair for the unemployed Jobless San Diegans can pick up useful mformation - and perhaps a job lead at unemployment fair Sahu- day at the Umver ity of San Diego. Thev will have the opportumt} w unsult with ·ocial worke·rs, career counselors, legal-aid profe sionals and potential employers. Workshops will focus on debt man- agement, re ume wnting interview techniques and ,tress

police or the courts if they had been able to take advantage of the Golden Hill Mediation Center. The privately financed center opened Monday to resolve argu- ments among Golden Hill neighbors, family members, youths and adults, landlords and tenants, merchants and consumers, employees and em- ployers. The center is in a peach-col- ored office in a Victorian building at 1004 24th St. Please see MEDIATE, B-13

By Sue Edelman Tribune St3.II Writer The petty disagreement bad raged way out of proportion. Finally, the f>B-year-old Golden Hill landlady evicted the young man and impounded his motorcycle. A few days later last November, she was stabbed to death 10 her rooming house; the former tenant was arrest- ed on suspicion of murder. Neighbors say the emotions might have cooled and the two might have reached an ae

•

B-13

(2)

THE TRIBUNE

San Diego, Thursday, April 28, 1983

Board of Supervisors has granted the San Diego Law Center $70,000 to establish a similar center in another community, which Hallstrom is selecting.

and more substandard hous- ing; and a higher crime rate. Since planning for the Golden Hill Mediation Cen- ter started, the county

citizen involvement. Also, she said, the com- munity of 13,000 is rife with urban friction that media- tion might easily solve. When compared with the city average, based on 1980 Census data describing San Diego, Golden Hill has a richer ethnic mix; higher - unemployment and more ·

lion or "neighborhood jus- tice centers" recently have been established throughout the country, several in Cali- fc)roia. Hallstrom chose Golden Hill for San Diego's first mediation center because she found it has an "enor- mous sense of community pride" and unusually great

verty; fewer adults with a high school education; more single-parent families; more rental units and a greater transient popula- tion; lower property value

who is right or wrong - and assist the parties to come to some agreement, which is put in writing. "While people may not emerge as best friends," Hallstrom said, "a workable compromise acceptable to both parties can often be worked out." About 180 similar media-

* Mediate Continued From 8-1 In typical cases, residents can wrangle over barking dogs and parking spots be- fore a neutral third person, who also is a member of their community. The mediation is confi- dential, scheduled at the convenience of the combat- ants, and free of charge. Sponsored by the Univer- sity of San Diego School of Law and the San Diego County Bar Association, the center is designed as a peo- ple's alternative to the courts - civil, criminal and even small claims. "We've become a very li- tigious society," said Carol Rogoff Hallstrom, an attor- ney hired by the San Diego Law Center, which repre- sents both legal groups. Hallstrom won a $62,000 grant from the Weingart Foundation in Los Angeles to establish the mediation center.

tive to calling the police when tempers flare during disputes. The police, in turn, can refer disputes to the center. "This is the pioneer spir- it," said police spokesman Dennis Johnson. "Instead of 'What is government going to do for us?' which you al- ways hear, this is a neigh- borhood attempting to solve its own problems." The program was planned by Hallstrom and a 17-member board compris- ing Golden Hill residents and business owners, a ju- venile court judge and rep- resentatives of social agen- cies, the police, the city at- torney's office and the probation department. Dick Boss, a fonner San Francisco youth program director, was hired mainly to encourage people to use the center. Matt Leidle was hired as case coordinator. Sixteen community vol- unteers were chosen to serve as the mediators. They underwent 20 hours of training with a professional mediator. Mediators listen to both sides - without deciding

, .

..

,..J

BLADE TRIBUNE APR 2 9 1983

.,_

..,

Already has shown its muscle USD law center fights for the consumer·

"People say ·Hey,,J'iiun·t want to be pushed around by big governineht, but I also don't want to be pushed around by the big corporations,"' Fellmeth said. San Diego County figures to be fertile terrain for the effort. Some SDG&E employees have insisted on using unmarked company cars to avoid verbal abuse about rates from irate customers. "We are really anticipatmg more of the active support we've been receiv- ing," Shames said. "When this thing was announced back in February, we started getting checks in the mail from people who heard we were planning to complain to the PUC." "This is not an anti-utility pro- posal," cautioned Robert Simmons a member of the staff at the center. ,',A strong, profit-making utility is in the best interest of the customer. What we propose to do is to make an effective

··The purpose of the center is to start the idea," said Fellmeth. "This organization (UCAN) has two functions.' ' said Shames. "One is to provide information to the rate- payers, information that has been gathered by experts who really un- derstand the issues and who explain the issues in (plain) English, which is unusual. And second. to play a repre- sentational role before the PUC." The center began solicitmg funds and members for UCAN as soon as the PUC ruled that s;iace in SDG&E envelopes weighing less than one ounce is public property and may be devoted to literature from public groups. Before any envelopes are stuffed, howeyer, UCAN mus\ go from the " drawmg board to reality. The center will pick a board of directors to organize UCAN and then will step back and let it work on its own, Fellmeth said the center appeals to populism, which he said is as pre- valent in. San Diego County as is Fellmeth said.

they are talking about to come before the PUC to advocate consumer inter- ests. " Helping provide the expert input that will guide rate-payers through the maze of legalese that leaves most laymen in the dust at rate hike request hearings is what The Center for Public Interest Law hopes to ac- complish. The center was formed in 1980 to give USD law students a chance to test their wits in the jungle of regula- tory law by keeping an eye on the operations of state regulatory' agen- cies and to organize groups like UCAN. Astaff of four, headed by Robert C. Fellmeth, a law professor at USD, runs the center from a small suite on the USD campus with the help of 60 USD graduate and law students. The center also banks on USD's pre- stigious law faculty for advice. Fellmeth called the formation of UCA'.11, "a lesson in 9th grade civics." in which people with no money or titles came up with a new idea that gained acceptance.

SAN DIEGO !UPI) - The Universi- ty of San Diego's new Center for Public Interest Law burst onto the consumer-advocacy scene this month. The vehicle was the center's victory in a battle to wrest space for con- sumer messages in autility compan. ·s billing envelopes. The consumer organization bas yet to be fot ed. but the center - draw- ing on tJi Ca olic-oriented universi- ty's law aculty as a brain trust- has already shown its muscle. When the California Public Utilities Commission agreed to allow the Utili- ty Consumer Action Network to share the envelopes containing San Diego Gas &Electric Co. bills. the commis- sioners seemed to endorse the philos- ophy behind the University of San Diego's Center for Public Interest Law. "In their decision,'' said Michael Shames, a member of the center's staff and one of the founders of tbe UCAN concept, "the PUC made It very clear that they really are trying to encourage public interest groups who are articulate and know what

"People have developed the mentality that when they're angry, they go into court," Hallstrom said "We're trying to build an understanding that there -----~

can be ways to reach a more satisfactory resolu- tion, in many cases without the cost, delays and aggra- vation of havmg to go through the Judicial sys- tem." The mediation center of- fers residents an alterna-

•

rate-

to SDG&E

voice available

payers."

"The whole idea is to get students involved in advocacy," said Fellmeth.

conservatism.