News in Brief

Student Victim of Car Crash Now Recovering at Home

A UC Berkeley sophomore hit by a car in front of Unit 3 earlier this month is recovering from a skull fracture at home, friends said yesterday.

Cathy Madrigal, 20, was hit by a Jeep on May 6 while eating ice cream with her friends and waiting at a bus stop in front of the Unit 3 Beverly Cleary Residence Hall.

The driver, 18-year-old UC Berkeley freshman and Cal water polo player Christopher Talbott, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, driving with an open container and possession of a false ID.

Doctors are still determining Madrigal's long-term injuries, Eric Romero, a member of the Latin American Student Association, wrote in an e-mail. The association is coordinating relief efforts for Madrigal.

Romero said Madrigal was in the emergency room at Highland Hospital in Oakland, where she was taken immediately after the crash, until May 9, and was released from the hospital on May 11.

She is now in her home town of Guadalupe, Calif., where she is attending appointments related to her injuries, Romero said. She had been recovering in Berkeley until Saturday, he said.

The Latin American association is collecting donations to cover the costs of her treatment at www.ocf.berk-eley.edu/~lasa.

"As her medical expenses are rapidly increasing, we are promising to donate all of the money to her recovery, since her parents must also contemplate the legal matters and expenses," Romero wrote. "I don't think this accident could have happened to a less-deserving person."

A little more than $100 has been collected so far, Romero said.

Adeel Iqbal

Research and Technical Employees Poised to Strike

A week after UC wrapped up wage negotiations with a union representing the university's lowest-paid service workers, the University Professional and Technical Employees announced plans to launch a one day campuswide strike next Thursday, UC officials said Tuesday.

The union, which represents 10,000 research and technical employees across UC's nine campuses, said that university officials are engaging in what they called "bad faith" bargaining practices.

"We feel UC's continued bad faith bargaining and violation of labor laws are severely undermining our research standards," said union President Jelger Kalmijn in a statement.

Union officials pointed to the salaries for researchers, which they said lag 25 percent behind their private counterparts, and to a 33 percent turnover rate among research staff.

The university, however, said that suggestions to bring in a third party mediator have been rejected by the union and that in light of ongoing negotiations such a strike would be "unlawful."

UC campuses were last hit with a strike in April, when the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees held a campuswide one-day strike in protest of UC's lack of wage raises for workers. Union officials ratified a tentative contract reached by both parties last week that included a 10 percent wage increase over a three year period.

The union and the university have been in contract negotiations since last May.

City Council Delays Vote on Commission Cuts

Berkeley City Council members remained at a standstill Tuesday night on whether to make cuts to the city's more than 40 commissions, delaying its final decision until June 14.

Some council members have proposed reducing the number of city boards to save costs in the face of a large budget deficit and a possible 10 percent cut in the city's workforce.

Berkeley leads the state with 45 commissions and over 350 unpaid volunteers. Other cities with substantially larger populations have far fewer commissions.

Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio introduced a proposal that would reduce the meeting frequency of 28 commissions, based on importance.

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak supported the plan to cut meeting frequency for commissions in face of budget cuts.

"Some people are saying the commissions shouldn't bear any of that pain and I don't think that's right," he said. "We do have some nonproductive commissions."

Wozniak proposed consolidating some of the current overlapping commissions to save costs and increase effectiveness of the bodies.

"We have a (single) department of parks and recreation and waterfront, yet we've got two separate commissions. Why can't we have one commission that deals with that area?" he asked. "There are many other commissions where there's relatively little input and they would not be hurt at all by having a little broader portfolio that they had to cover."

But other council members adamantly opposed any cuts, saying such a move would lower the city's productivity and limit citizen involvement.

"I kind of look at the commissions as the heart of Berkeley, so it's very painful to start giving it surgery," said Councilmember Dona Spring.

One commissioner is selected by each council member for each commission. Most commissions meet once a month, and city employees are required to attend each meeting to take minutes and must work before the meetings to prepare agendas.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington called the city manager's proposed cuts "draconian" and said the message they were sending is, "Okay, you can keep your little seat on the commission, and call yourself a commissioner,

but we're going to stop you from getting much of anything done."

Bryan Thomas

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