FOR THE RECORD

The transfer of the city Off- Track Betting corporation to state control last June saved the jobs of 1,500 employees, but it has also created a jurisdictional issue that has prevented the 1,400 of them represented by Local 2021 of District Council 37 from receiving the same 4- percent raise that was given to other DC 37 members.

In the past, OTB covered whatever raises the Mayor's Office negotiated as part of the master DC 37 contract. But the state takeover, and the resulting shift of OTB out of the mayoralty's covered agencies, has led its leadership to contend that it is not obligated to honor the DC 37 deal that was reached on Oct. 30 with the Bloomberg administration and is retroactive to March 1 of last year.

Local 2021 President Lenny Allen said Jan. 13 that two possible arguments could be made because OTB was still under city control when the old pact expired: that it should have to pay the raise for the first year of the two-year pact, or that it should at least be obligated to provide a pro-rated increase for the 3½-month period through mid-June prior to the state takeover.

In conversations with top OTB officials, he contended, "They're saying that they're not responsible for any of it, and they want us to open negotiations with them. Right now, I'm not sure we have a problem." He said the union's lawyers were examining the legislation authorizing the takeover, and he expected to decide sometime this week what his options are.

Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 Secretary Ahmed Shakir called Jan. 13 to deny that it was out of anger that Guild Public Relations Chair Vinnie Sawinski didn't make good on a promise to provide a video of his daughter's funeral that he accused him of failing to perform his union duties.

Mr. Shakir, who said he never received the message left with the Guild seeking a response for a column on the dispute that ran last week, also denied a claim by Local 375 President Claude Fort that his wife had been so angered that she told Mr. Sawinski, "I hope you burn in hell."

"My wife never said that," Mr. Shakir told us, challenging Mr. Fort to produce any of the 150 witnesses he claimed had heard it.

He said Mr. Sawinski had promised to give him a tape of the prayer service at the time, but "I said, 'Look, Vinnie, I don't need the video.' I don't hold it against him" that he never received it, explaining that he hadn't expected to.

"He goes with the video everywhere," Mr. Shakir said. "He says he's taking pictures, but you never see pictures of anybody."

He insisted that his only motive in offering damaging testimony against Mr. Sawinski to District Council 37 Ethical Practices Officer Bruce Maffeo was to tell the truth. "Vinnie never comes to the office," Mr. Shakir said.

Told of his remarks, Mr. Fort's response was, "He's upset, obviously, and this is a very sensitive subject."

Mr. Shakir also took issue with Mr. Fort's claim that before an anonymous complaint about Mr. Sawinski's work habits was sent to DC 37 Associate Director Oliver Gray, no board members had raised the issue with him. "Myself, George Lawrence and David Grant pointed it out to Claude and he just ignored it," he contended.

You can't choose when you are going to suffer a medical emergency, but if you could, you might elect to do so at a Fire Department press conference in the presence of dozens of FDNY responders.

This was the luck one young FDNY communications intern had last week while Mayor Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta announced response-time statistics at a Brooklyn firehouse.

Standing before reporters, Mayor Bloomberg stepped away from the podium to make way for his Commissioner to comment on the drop in response times for 2008. It was then that a commotion in the back of the firehouse turned the cameras towards the intern, whom coworkers helped into a chair as she appeared about to faint. Within seconds, she was escorted away by Emergency Medical Service responders assembled just outside the firehouse.

Mr. Scoppetta continued his address, saying, "The Mayor just said it was an excellent response time."

Last week's item about the Jan. 22 forum, "NYC in Fiscal Crisis: Today and in the 1970s," inadvertently omitted one of the panelists, political consultant George Arzt. The event, which is free, will be held at Local 32BJ's headquarters at 101 Ave. of the Americas at Canal St. from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.