| Notes |
New York at Work; At OTB, a Battler of Waste And Champion of Rights
By Suzanne Daley
April 16, 1991
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
April 16, 1991, Section B, Page 1Buy Reprints
VIEW ON TIMESMACHINE
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Since she took office as president of the New York City Offtrack Betting Corporation last summer, Hazel N. Dukes says she has been tripping over "unbelievable things" going on at the agency.
Take the OTB teletheater near Wall Street. In the world of smoky, dingy OTB parlors, it stood out. Brass rails, marble walls, elegant service, high-rollers. It was the city's most profitable parlor.
But in February, the city sheriff raided the place, ending its restaurant and bar service. It seems the concessionaire had not paid the OTB rent in more than four years and owed the agency hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ms. Dukes, best known for her work as a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and for her Democratic Party politicking, said she could pull her "hair out over that sucker."
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
After a recent visit to the now-foodless, liquorless, financially ailing Skyward Select Club, at 165 Water Street, she called an OTB lawyer on her car phone.
Gift Subscriptions to The Times, Cooking and Games.
Starting at $25.
"I want that goddamn place up and running before April 1," she snapped. "We need to know what this man can do and what we can do. And then we need to get just as dirty and ground-hole as he is."
Ms. Dukes was still breathing hard when she hung up.
By most accounts, she is tackling her new job with just that kind of fierce energy, aiming to clean up a troubled agency. But critics fear that Ms. Dukes -- remembered by some for swinging her shoe at a fellow delegate during the 1980 Democratic National Convention, by others for hitting Roy Innis, the civil rights advocate, with her purse during a disagreement over N.A.A.C.P. policy -- may be in over her head. 'A Breath of Fresh Air'
They point to several missteps in her brief tenure, including her failure last summer to campaign against state legislation that some believe will ultimately undermine her agency and a series of insensitive remarks last fall that touched off a fury among Hispanic New Yorkers.
Still, her supporters say that in trying to root out waste and tighten management control, she is shedding light into the corners of an agency that has long offered cozy resting places for patronage appointees.
Editors’ Picks
Can We Talk About the Mom in ‘A Christmas Story’?
Carey Mulligan Won’t Let Hollywood Off the Hook
George Clooney on ‘The Midnight Sky’ and Donald Trump
Continue reading the main story
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
"To me, she is a breath of fresh air," said Nicholas Cirillo, the city OTB's vice president for racing and operations. "She certainly has shaken some of the cobwebs that were around."
COOKING: Daily inspiration, delicious recipes and other updates from Sam Sifton and NYT Cooking.
Sign Up
There is a bit of paradox to Ms. Duke's position. Before Mayor David N. Dinkins, an old friend, chose her as OTB president last June, she had worked at the city's OTB for 20 years. She makes no secret that a former Nassau County Democratic chairman helped her get her first OTB job, training betting clerks.
Before her new appointment, she had worked her way up to senior director of administrative services.
The 59-year-old Ms. Dukes is now in charge of 2,300 employees and nearly 100 betting parlors across the city. She is faced with dealing with the horse racing industry and the State Legislature, often at cross-purposes. Her annual salary is $104,500. Struggling With Costs
And the agency she heads is facing problems. Created in 1971 to produce money for local government by allowing legal offtrack betting on horse races, the OTB has struggled recently with costs -- including payments to the racing industry -- that are rising faster than revenue. In 1977, the agency took in more than $780 million in bets and gave the city $65 million in profits. Last year, with $959 million in bets, the agency handed over only $40.7 million.
But Ms. Dukes does not shrink from a challenge.
"Before me, there wasn't anybody sitting behind this desk who kicked butts like me," she said recently from her corner office overlooking Times Square with a view of midtown. "I say: 'O.K., guys, I won't have this.' "
She seems appalled by the "fat in the place." Already, she said, she has eliminated 13 of 75 executive jobs, saying that in many cases three people were doing essentially the same job, and this has saved more than $1 million a year in salaries. She has also replaced eight other executives, most of whom have since filed race- and age-discrimination complaints.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Furious about costly leases OTB is stuck with, Mrs. Dukes has created strict new rules and reviews. One old lease, she said, even had the agency paying air-conditioning costs for a carpet store next to the OTB parlor. 'Took Us for a Ride'
"People took us for a ride," she said. "I did not know how careless we had been all these years."
Mrs. Dukes's predecessor at the agency objects to such a charecterization. Howard P. Giordano, who headed the city OTB from 1988 to 1990 said the agency, like all government bureaucracies, probably had a layer of people that "could be pared down." But he said that under his leadership, betting increased and the agency was "as profitable as it could be."
Ms. Dukes has caused a stir several times since taking office. She had been president less than a week when, in the Albany legislative session's closing hours, she backed a bill that her critics say may ultimately cripple OTB's ability to make any money.
The bill allowed Yonkers Raceway -- close enough to New York City to draw bettors from Bronx OTB parlors -- to function as a competitor, accepting not only bets on its own races but also on races at other tracks. It also cleared the way for the New York Racing Association, which operates racing tracks in the area, to eventually open betting parlors that could directly compete with OTB parlors in certain circumstances.
"There is no question that this bill threatens the survival of OTB in New York State," said Donald J. Groth, who heads the Catskill regional OTB.
Ms. Dukes said that the bill would have passed regardless of her efforts and that, thrown in at the last minute, she did the best she could. Remarks Draw Criticism
A controversy that may have have brought her even more attention stemmed from some remarks last fall. On a radio show, she criticized black leaders for not encouraging young blacks to take even low-paying menial jobs. "Why let foreigners, newcomers, have these jobs while blacks, who have been here for hundreds of years, can't support themselves or their families?" she said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Then, in an interview, she said she was tired of being waited on by people who could not speak English. And she referred to Ecuadoreans in a way that indicated she did not think they were Hispanic. That prompted the newspaper El Diario to run a huge front-page map of Latin America pointing out Ecuador for Ms. Dukes. She later apologized.
Longtime friends describe her as warm, unfailingly loyal, quick to laugh and a gifted mimic.
Her most obvious trait may be her plain talk. Asked about allegations that she had spent $20,000 renovating the bathroom adjoining her office, she said it was $7,500 and a legitimate expense: the shower did not work and the bathroom was equipped with a urinal. "What can I do?" she said. "I'm a lady. I sit down." Daughter of Pullman Porter
An only child, Hazel Nell Dukes was born in Montgomery, Ala., on March 17, 1932.
In 1957, when her father, a Pullman porter, worked briefly on Long Island before returning South, Ms. Dukes stayed behind, working as a maid for a Roslyn, L.I., family. The church she joined helped pique her interest in civil rights, and after some odd jobs, she focused on political advocacy, eventually becoming the protegee of Jack English, a former Nassau County Democratic chairman.
Along the way she earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Adelphi University and became active in the N.A.A.C.P. In 1977, she became president of the New York State Conference of the group. In 1990, she was elected president of the national board of the N.A.A.C.P.
Until her appointment at OTB, when she moved to Manhattan, Ms. Dukes, who is divorced, lived in Roslyn, where she raised her son Ronald, a 39-year-old computer analyst who now lives in Montgomery. A Familiar Figure
To New Yorkers she has become a familiar figure in parades and marches. And she has been arrested in protests several times.
Perhaps Ms. Dukes's most ambitious idea for the OTB is to persuade the Legislature to allow sports betting, a project that even she believes will be a long uphill battle.
In the short run, she plans to focus on new work rules for the agency, including an end to paying employees time and a half when they work on Saturday and double time for Sunday, even if those are the only two days the employees work all week. "Ain't that something?" she says of the practice.
A version of this article appears in print on April 16, 1991, Section B, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: New York at Work; At OTB, a Battler of Waste And Champion of Rights. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
|