FOR THE RECORD

As state legislators and Governor Paterson tried to put together a mutually agreeable budget by the start of the state's fiscal year April 1, among the issues being considered was a bill that could make New York City's Off-Track Betting Corporation profitable.

One official at District Council 37, which represents 1,400 of the 1,500 members whose jobs have been at risk since Mayor Bloomberg threatened to shutter the city's legal horse-playing operation, tempered his enthusiasm. "It's a one-house bill," he noted, and until the State Assembly signs on to the measure proposed by a Brooklyn State Senator, nothing will happen.

The head of the Senate's Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, William Larkin, said the bill put forward by Sen. Marty Golden has the strong backing of Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno.

"Senator Bruno's guidance to me was that we don't want to lose any jobs," Mr. Larkin said in a March 27 phone interview from Albany.

The Mayor's appointees to the OTB Board of Directors voted in February to disband operations by mid-June unless the state took steps to prevent OTB from operating at a deficit. A legislative change five years ago in the formula for distributing the money OTB keeps from bets made through its offices proved disastrous when anticipated additional revenue from wagers on thoroughbred racing at night didn't materialize. OTB officials have been joined by Lenny Allen, president of OTB Local 2021 of District Council 37, in protesting that the formula shift has become a windfall for harness-racing tracks at OTB's expense.

The new legislation, Senator Golden said in a phone message March 28, would allow several changes that would return OTB to profitability, increasing by $27 million its share of racing revenue for the coming year. It would distribute money to the affected racing entities based on net, rather than gross revenues, which he said would account for slightly more than half the infusion of cash. Among the other changes that would work to OTB's advantage would be that the state would no longer require that the city betting operation remit the estimated $3.2 million that it is expected to reap because of winning tickets it sold last year that were not cashed by the March 31 deadline.

Senator Larkin said he believed the bill "does everything that is essential to putting OTB on a steady footing."

He was uncertain that it would figure into the final budget deal, but said that there was urgency attached to the measure because OTB had already sent out layoff notices to employees.

"I think it's getting discussed because there's a price-tag if we don't do this, just as there's a price-tag if we do," Senator Larkin said.

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The cancellation last week of a seminar at John Jay College that was to address investigations and legal-defense strategies when high-profile people are the targets of criminal probes proved to be the catalyst for the resignation of one of the school's most prominent Professors, police expert Eugene O'Donnell.

The March 26 event, entitled "Investigating and Defending the Highest-Profile Individuals - Everything You Need to Know About Bank Regulation and Money Laundering," was called off by John Jay's administration two days before it was scheduled to take place.

"It was an institutional issue about the way the college functions," said Mr. O'Donnell, who declined to elaborate about the conflict.

The former New York Police Department official did not want to discuss his decision to resign, which was confirmed by the college.

John Jay Director of Communications Chris Godek asserted that plans for the event were never finalized. But numerous high-profile speakers were listed as part of the program, including Edward McDonald, the former head of the Organized Crime Strike Force in New York's Eastern District; Alan Vinegrad, the former U.S. Attorney in that jurisdiction; and the late John Gotti's lawyer, Gerry Shargel.

"It was a product of a kind of war within the administration and it happened that I was on the losing end of it," said Mr. O'Donnell. "I was definitely not happy about it."