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FOR THE
RECORD
For the
second time in a two-week span, a veteran Correction Department official with
close ties to former Commissioner Bernie Kerik resigned his job, fueling
speculation that Mr. Kerik may be indicted soon.
Tom Antenen, who was a department spokesman for nearly 20 years, except for the 16-month period when he served in that same role at the NYPD while Mr. Kerik was Police Commissioner, quit his Correction post April 13.
Michael Saucier, a spokesman for agency head Martin Horn, said, "Tom has stepped down at the request of the Commissioner." He offered no further explanation for the departure.
The Daily News reported that a wiretap on Mr. Kerik's cell phone had picked up a conversation in which Mr. Antenen discussed what he might say to a grand jury investigating his ex-boss.
Thirteen days earlier, longtime Correction Department Inspector General Michael Caruso - who was among those cited by Mr. Kerik for helping him prepare for the interview with Mayor Rudy Giuliani that led to his being appointed Police Commissioner in August 2000 - retired after 28 years in his post.
A spokeswoman for Investigations Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn, asked if there was any connection between the two departures, said, "We don't have any comment."
One Correction insider said Mr. Antenen's leaving under pressure was viewed as another sign that investigators were tying up loose ends before acting against Mr. Kerik. He is the subject of a criminal probe initiated by DOI that also involves the Bronx District Attorney's Office concerning whether two brothers with alleged organized crime ties paid more than $200,000 of the cost of renovating and expanding Mr. Kerik's Riverdale apartment in 1999, while he was Correction Commissioner.
Mr. Kerik's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, has insisted that his client paid for the entire job and that the cost was much cheaper than has been reported.
There have been published reports that Mr. Kerik invoked the Fifth Amendment on nine occasions during testimony before a New Jersey gambling regulator who was investigating the DiTomasso brothers, who had sought casino construction contracts. Mr. Kerik has admitted intervening on their behalf while he was Correction Commissioner to persuade the head of the city's Trade Waste Commission to allow them to bid on city contracts.
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Two veteran union officials and two City Council Members whose committee work has made them go-to people for municipal labor are being honored April 27 by the Civil Service Merit Council.
Ed Ott, the director of public policy and worker education for the AFL-CIO New York City Central Labor Council, and Communications Workers of America Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes are among those who have "dedicated themselves to maintaining the 'merit status' of the civil service," according to Merit Council President Kim Vann.
Also being cited in that regard are Council Members Joseph Addabbo Jr. and Yvette Clarke, and this newspaper's editor, Richard Steier.
The Merit Council's annual dinner is being held at La Maganette Restaurant, 855 Third Ave. (East 50th St.), beginning at 6 p.m. For further information, call (212) 226-6603. * * *
Communications Workers of America Local 1180, whose offices are in Tribeca, is celebrating the Tribeca Film Festival by offering its own free weekend at the movies starting May 5.
Beginning at 5 p.m. that afternoon, the union will hold an open reception and poster exhibit. At 6 p.m., it will screen "Matewan," John Sayles's gripping 1987 film based on the struggle of West Virginia coal miners to unionize during the 1920s that is arguably the best pro-labor movie ever made.
The following morning, Local 1180 will resume the poster
exhibit at 11 a.m., and at noon will offer a double feature. "Salt of the
Earth," directed in 1954 by Herbert Biberman, deals with a strike against the
Empire Zinc Mine in New Mexico by Mexican-American workers who were seeking wage
parity with their white colleagues. At 2 p.m. the union will screen "Bread and
Roses," Ken Loach's 2000 film about the successful Justice for Janitors campaign
in Los Angeles.
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