FOR THE RECORD

Transport Workers Union Local 100 Acting President Curtis Tate, who will run as President Roger Toussaint's endorsed candidate in the local's June election, made his first public dispatch to members in the union's latest newsletter, encouraging them to leaflet riders about proposed transit cutbacks and join in lobbying efforts, saying, "Politics is not a spectator sport. Politics is a full contact sport."

Mr. Tate has become the public face of Local 100—presiding over a number of ceremonies at the union's Upper West Side headquarters—since Mr. Toussaint took on a full-time position at TWU of America while still retaining his local leadership status and the duty of negotiating a new contract, which is now in arbitration. Mr. Toussaint's chief role locally now is as the union-appointed panelist in those proceedings. Mr. Tate has been left with the day-to-day duties of the local, Mr. Toussaint has told members.

Yet, Mr. Toussaint is doing more than guiding the outcome of the arbitration award. This month he wrote to Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bus officials advising them not to recognize Pete Rosconi as the Westchester vice chairman for the union's Private Lines Division. He also co-signed a letter with TWU of America President Jim Little denouncing British transit union leader Bob Crow's endorsement of John Samuelsen's run for Local 100 president.

Several members gathered at a fundraiser for the dissident Take Back Our Union slate in Brooklyn last week alleged that Mr. Toussaint still has final say in the administration of the union, including union bylaw charges against members and officers. Mr. Toussaint's spokesmen did not reply to an e-mail inquiring which payroll he was currently on—the local, the international, or both.

But with Mr. Toussaint still executing Local 100 duties besides the arbitration, it begs the question: Is it Mr. Toussaint or Mr. Tate, whom TBOU says would represent a continuation of Mr. Toussaint's administration, who is really "acting" as the local's president?

Our condolences to the family of Salvatore Colangelo, described by city Labor Relations Commissioner Jim Hanley as "one of the founding fathers of this office," who died March 18 of heart failure at age 91.

Mr. Colangelo, who was also the father of Daily News civil service columnist Lisa Colangelo, spent more than 40 years in city government, serving seven Mayors from Fiorello La Guardia to Ed Koch. He began as a Weigh Station Clerk in the Department of Sanitation while still in his teens and had his career interrupted by four years' service in the Army, where he was a surveyor, in the European Theater of Operations during World War II.

While working in the old Welfare Department after returning home, he met his future wife of 58 years, Gemma. Mr. Colangelo distinguished himself as a Personnel Examiner in what was then known as the Personnel Department, and his skills in that area led to his being chosen to be among the first employees at the Mayor's Office of Labor Relations when it was created in 1967. He soon became the office's Chief of Research, a position he occupied until his retirement in 1981. (The holder of a master's degree in public administration from New York University, he spent more than two decades working as an accountant after that.)

"He was my early mentor and a really nice, smart, funny guy," said Mr. Hanley, who has worked at OLR since 1972. "He was a consummate professional and civil servant."

Funeral services for Mr. Colangelo, a native of Greenwich Village, were held March 23 at St. Stephens of Hungary Church on Manhattan's Upper East Side, with interment at Long Island National Cemetery.

In addition to his wife and daughter Lisa, he is survived by two other daughters, Susan Colangelo and Joan Allen, and four grandchildren.

State Labor Commissioner Patricia Smith has been nominated by the Obama Administration to serve as the U.S. Labor Department's Solicitor.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Ms. Smith would be the third-ranking official in the agency, serving as counsel to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

She is popular among unions because of her efforts to ensure that employers are living up to minimum wage and overtime pay regulations.

Ms. Smith headed the Labor Bureau of the State Attorney General's Office before becoming Labor Commissioner.