The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 4

IF log 3ngrlf Cimrs Wed, Aug. 13, 1975-Part I 3 Drive Opens Lack of Jobs: State Groping for Answers Ill em I I tg if 7 Voters' OK of Air Pollution Board Sought Senate Panel Amends Bill to Create 4-County Southland Smog Unit BY W.B. ROOD Times Staff Writtr A bill that would create a regional air pollution control district for the South Coast Air Basin has been amended by a state Senate committee to require voter ratification. The amendment was approved late Monday night over strenuous objections from the bill's principal author, Assemblyman Jerry Lewis (R-San Bernardino) who succeeded in forcing reconsideration of a committee vote earlier in the day to kill the bill. The Lewis bill, AB 250, is opposed by county supervisors in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties who recently signed a joint powers agreement forming the Southern California Air Pollution Control District.

Lewis charged that the district was formed in a maneuver by counties to take air pollution regulation out of city hands and also to erode support for his bill. The joint powers district does not include city representation, while AB 250 calls for a 10-member board with membership divided almost equally between city and county appointees and one member appointed by the governor. The district created by the bill would include Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Backers of the bill said Tuesday that the requirement for a voter referendum on AB 250 would almost certainly doom chances for creation of an effective smog district for the South Coast Air Basin. "The idea of a referendum is an abdication of legislative responsibility," said Bill Press, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League.

"It's a payoff to the polluters, because they are the only ones who can afford the kind of money to run an initiative campaign like this and will gladly do so to keep things the way they are." At Monday's local government committee hearing in Sacramento, Lewis argued that the county-formed district would be dominated by Los Angeles County supervisors who control half the votes on the district's board. But spokesmen for the Southern California Air Pollution Control District denied they were dominated by Los Angeles County. "My experience in working with Please Turn to Page 21, Col. 1 WOULD-BE CANDIDATE-Actor Jerry Fogel, star of television series now in reruns, discusses his plans to file suit to force the Federal Communications Commission to change the "equal-time" rule that prevents actors from campaigning on radio or television while their own shows are still running. Fogel wants to run for Congress from the 24th District (Hollywood), but now can not.

With Fogel is Dennis Weaver, president of the Screen Actors Guild. Times photo by BUI Varie POTENTIAL RIVALS OF TUNNEY Bell, Goldvater Among Top House Absentees Thomas W. Cochee Reassignment of Compton Police Chief Stirs Row BY TOM GORMAN Tinws SUH Writer Compton Police Chief Thomas W. Cochee, 43, has been temporarily moved from his post to a "special assignment" by acting City Manager Daniel Lim, setting off a new city administrative controversy, it was learned today. Supporters of Cochee, who is on vacation and was not present when Lim reported the move to the city council late Tuesday, claimed this was the first step toward firing the chief.

Lim denied it. Lim has been acting city manager since James S. Wilson was suspended by the city council in early July. Wilson then was allowed $23,043 of his salary and had misconduct charges dropped in exchange for his resignation. Lim subsequently fired Asst.

City Manager Dave Crompton and two lesser ranking city employes in what Lim said was an effort to put Compton city government on an efficient footing. Only after a spectator asked about Cochee's status did Lim tell the council Tuesday he had reassigned the chief to the city manager's office for a maximum of 90 days to evaluate federal programs pertaining to police. It will be effective next Monday. That triggered three hours of council and public discussion in which Cochee backers charged Lim (of Chinese descent) with blocking promotions for black officers and losing federal grants, which Lim denied. Two councilmen alluded vaguely to charges against the police chief that "are too serious to be brought up here." BY PAUL HOUSTON Times SUII Writer to Stabilize Property Tax Assemblyman to Seek Downward Adjustment as Offset to Inflation BY WILLIAM ENDICOTT Timet Staff Writer SACRAMENTO An effort to stabilize California property taxes by limiting the impact of assessment increases is being mounted in the Legislature by the chairman of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.

In effect, the proposal Tuesday by Assemblyman Dan Boatwright (D-Concord) is to adjust the present 25 assessment ratio downward to offset inflation-caused increases in assessed value of private homes and other residential property. The taxable ratio on the full market value would be reduced each year by the average increase statewide in assessed value. For example, if the average value of homes increased by 10 in a given year, the current 25 assessment ratio would be decreased to a level that would result in the owner of a home that was revalued upward by that 10 paying the same tax bill. If his tax' rate, for instance, was $12.50 per $100 of assessed value, his tax bill of $718 on a $30,000 home would remain the same when the home's market value rose to $33,000. Owners of homes on which assessment increases were higher than the statewide average would have their taxes increased but the increases would be smaller because of the reduced ratio.

Owners of homes on which reassessments were not as high as the average would get an overall tax cut. The assessment ratio on nonresidential property would remain at 25. Boatright's proposal is in the form of a constitutional amendment that he hopes will win legislative approval in time to be placed before voters on next June's primary election ballot. A Boatright staff aide, Barry Bro-kaw, said the measure is "not going to give anybody the world or anything" but will help to offset assessments "which have been skyrocketing due, in large part, to inflation." In some areas of the state, including Los Angeles, he said, "astronomical reassessment increases" of more than 100 actually are forcing senior citizens on low fixed-incomes out of their homes. The impact of the proposal would fall hardest on local governments and school districts, already operating under tax rate limits imposed by a property tax relief-school finance measure passed by the Legislature two years ago.

"In inflationary periods, local governments will not have as much increased property tax revenue as they otherwise would," said Boatright. V. IfjS New Employment Chief Seeks Aid of Private Sector BYTOMGOFF Times Sacramento Bureau Chief SACRAMENTO When Edmund G. Brown Jr. took the oath of office as governor last January the unemployment rate in California was 9.3 and his announced top priority was to put people back to work.

To date he has had no measurable success. The unemployment rate now is over 10. The state unemployment insurance fund is tottering on the brink of bankruptcy. The Administration is in the uncomfortable position of adding to the total number of jobless through elimination of 3,000 jobs in the Department of Transportation. And officials have been told that the loss of these jobs, caused by a decline in state and federal highway construction revenues, will lead to the disappearance of at least 20,000 private sector jobs probably many more in construction and related areas.

Brown is disappointed and he is groping. He came to an abrupt parting of the ways late last month with one of the men he originally had hoped would give him a blueprint for getting the state's job market expanding again. He now has turned the assignment over to his Cabinet and has put his personal chief of staff, Executive Secretary Gray Davis, in charge. James Lorenz, a brilliant poverty lawyer and founder of the California Rural Legal Assistance program, was Brown's first hope as director of the Department of Employment Development. He was summarily fired last month, however, on grounds he could not administer his department.

More basic than that, however, was the fact that the Lorenz approach to creating jobs was "New Deal" rather than "New Spirit." He envisioned massive government spending programs in the manner of the 1930s. Brown had long made it clear that such programs were not his style. So Lorenz is gone and Davis is in charge. And Davis readily concedes he has just begun to look for answers. He wants to find them in the private sector.

He makes it clear that the state's role, while it may be active, will not be large. "We have no desire to be the employer of first resort," Davis told The Times in an interview. "We would like also to be excused from our obligation of being the employer of last resort." Please Turn to Page 20, Col. 1 1,200 on Line as Fire Rages On New Blaze Erupts Near San Bernardino Twelve hundred men were on the lines today at the Angeles National Forest brush and timber fire as the blaze, which has blackened 4,700 acres, went into its fifth day with no containment in sight. Fourteen of the 16 aerial tankers that had been battling the blaze in the Iron Mountain area were diverted this morning to a fast-burgeoning fire north of the city of San Bernardino.

The new fire had by this morning swept across 400 acres in Coldwater Canyon below Arrowhead Peak, near the Arrowhead Springs Hotel. The fire was burning away from the hotel, however. The Angeles National Forest fire today had whipped wjthin a few hundred yards of a carrying electricity to Los Angeles from Hoover Dam. Please Turn to Page 19. Col.

1 Riverside Bus Subsidy to Continue From Times Staff Writer RIVERSIDE A 98 increase in daily ridership has prompted the city to continue its subsidy of 25-cent fares on Southern California Rapid Transit District buses at least until the end of the year. The increase occurred between October, 1973, and March, 1975. The lower fares went into effect in May last year. The county earlier agreed to continue its subsidy, which amounts to $40,000 a year, double the city's cial capacity as whip for the liberal Democrats, has a 99 attendance record, missing only five of 376 votes to date. Ranking with Bell of Marina del Rey and Goldwater of Woodland Hills at the bottom of the California delegation in the House is Republican Andrew J.

Hinshaw of Newport Beach, whose 106 missed votes have given him an attendance record of 73. Many of Hinshaw's absences occurred in May when he was indicted on bribery, grand theft and conspiracy charges in connection with his term as Orange County assessor. Hinshaw's case goes to trial Aug. 18. Three freshman Democrats, John Krebs of Fresno, Jim Lloyd of West Covina and George Miller of Martinez, have compiled the best California records in the House.

Krebs has made every vote while Lloyd has missed two and Miller four. Freshman Democrat Mark Hanna-ford of Lakewood and veteran Democrats Augustus F. Hawkins of Los Angeles and Leo J. Ryan of South San Francisco have had relatively low attendance records 87, 84 and 83 respectively partly because of out-of-town trips on House business. Hannaford missed a large chunk of votes, including all of those on the Pentagon budget, when his international trade subcommittee attended a meeting of the International Development Bank in the Dominican Republic.

Hawkins was in Los Angeles and Detroit conducting hearings on his proposed "full employment" bill when the House was voting on foreign aid and mortgage interest subsidies. Ryan passed up votes on increasing education and veterans funds to at- Please Turn to Page 23, Col. 1 Report Tells of Homes Provided College Heads SACRAMENTO (UPI) State-owned homes with a recorded value of $3.5 million are provided 22 top administrators of the University of California and the State University and Colleges System, it was reported. A report issued by the legislative auditor general Tuesday also said it cost the state about $294,000 to maintain the 22 residences in fiscal 1973-74. The $3.5 million figure included furnishings, it said.

The report said 17 UC administrators are provided housing rent-free while the five administrators of the University and Colleges System paid a total of $7,608 in rent for their housing in fiscal 1973-74. The auditor general said if the 22 residences were rented on the open market, their estimated total annual rental value would be $392,832. WASHINGTON Reps. Alphonzo Bell (R-Calif.) and Barry M. Goldwa-ter Jr.

potential candidates for the Senate seat of John V. Tun-ney (D-Calif.) in 1976, have two of the longest strings of voting absences in the House this year. A Times study shows that Bell missed one-third of the House's 369 recorded votes from Jan. 14 to the August recess while Goldwater was absent for one-fifth of them. Many of the missed votes occurred on such issues as Vietnam aid, housing subsidies, health services and oil pricing while the two congressmen were away making speeches, attending House committee meetings, looking after family problems or spending long weekends in their distant districts.

Bell's voting participation record of 66 and Goldwater's of 80 fell wll below the 91 average compiled by the 43-member California congressional delegation. No figures were available for the entire House but it appears to be at least maintaining the 87 average recorded in 1974, an election year when there was pressure to be on the campaign trail. Tunney, meanwhile, has been present for 89 of the recorded votes in the Senate this year, comfortably above that body's 1974 average of 86. He has missed relatively few key votes, although he was absent during four major attempts to slash the defense budget, and he was not present for a string of votes on emergency jobs and housing bills, having made a trip to California for "personal reasons." Because of a scheduling surprise, Tunney also was caught in California when the Senate passed his energy labeling bill for autos and appliances, 77 toO. Sen.

Alan Cranston who stays close to the floor in his unoffi It said the city of Petaluma was within its rights to preserve "its small-town character, its open spaces and low density of population and to grow at an orderly and deliberate pace." Burke's ruling had been stayed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas pending the appellate court ruling. The plan was ratified by a 4-1 city-wide vote after being drafted by the city council, which said it was devised to ensure that "development in the next five years will take place in a reasonable, orderly, attractive manner, rather than in a completely haphazard and unattractive manner." The plan fixed the housing growth development rate at not more than 500 dwelling units a year for five years. But the appellate court pointed out that this was somewhat misleading because it applies only to housing units that are part of projects involv I COURT UPHOLDS CITY'S 5-YEAR PLAN Petaluma Wins Right to Limit Growth ing five units or more.

The court said the 500-unit figure would not reflect housing or population growth due to construction of single homes or even four-unit apartment buildings not part of any larger project. The plan also called for a 200-foot-wide "green belt" around the city to serve as a boundary for urban expansion for at least five years and, with respect to the east and north sides of the city, for perhaps 10 or 15 years. The city, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, had experienced a steady population growth from in 1950 to 24,870 in 1970. By November, 1972, the population was 30,500 an increase of almost 25 in a little over two years. Alarmed by the accelerated rate of growth and the demand for even more housing and the sprawl of the city eastward, the city adopted a temporary freeze on development in early 1971 and then came up with its Petaluma Plan in 1972.

SAN FRANCISCO UP) The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the constitutionality of the city of Petaluma's controversial five-year plan limiting new housing to 500 units annually. The court reversed a decision by U.S. Dist. Judge Lloyd Burke in 1974 which voided certain aspects of the plan, enacted in 1972, as unconstitutional.

Burke held that the city law violated citizens' constitutional rights to travel or abide and settle as well as rights of equal protection. The appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs, the Construction Industry Assn. of Sonoma County and two landowners, did not have standing to bring their action as people who might be prevented from moving into the city of Petaluma because of the housing laws. The appeals court did consider the due process argument, but ruled that the builders and landowners were not deprived of this right. FOOTSORE-Cesar Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, rubs alcohol on feet in Chowchilla.

He was on way to Fresno on the last leg of a march through California. AP Wlrephoto.