Color Fades at Top Spots

By Graham Rayman, NY Newsday

New York, NY — Blacks are drastically under-represented in the top ranks of the Department of Transportation and seven other city agencies, according to a report to be released recently. There are only two blacks who make more than $85,000 in the Transportation Department, compared to 61 whites — a ratio that is similar in the other agencies examined, says the study by blacks in Government, an advocacy group. In another finding, the report said blacks make up 28 percent of the department’s 4,316 workers, yet only 9 percent of it’s management. The study asserts that a lack of management opportunities for African Americans is further reflected by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s own cabinet, a situation the report calls largely unchanged from the Giuliani years.

“In many respects, while the overt hostilities of the previous administration have been replaced with a smile and handshake, the administration has failed to seize unique opportunities to demonstrate the leadership required to confront and aggressively promote racial diversity in every area of city government,” said Brandon Ward, a DOT engineer and president of the 300-member New York City municipal chapter of Blacks in Government. A mayoral spokesman defended Bloomberg’s diversity record, but he did not provide statistics to refute the study’s claims.

“Mayor Bloomberg has assembled the most talented and diverse administration in the city’s history,” spokesman Jordan Barowitz said Friday. “He is committed to increasing diversity and attracting the most qualified people to serve New York City.”

The report found that eight in 10 managers at the eight city agencies are whites, mirroring the pattern under Rudolph Giuliani. The study was based on figures obtained from the city under the Freedom of Information Act. At the city Department of Environmental Protection, 77 percent of managers are white, compared with 9 percent who are black. Just two DEP managers who earn more than $85,000 are black, while 99 are white.

At the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, 76 percent of managers are white, compared with 9 percent who are black. Blacks occupy just three top salary posts, while whites occupy 61.

At the Buildings Department, whites occupy 27 top-earning posts; blacks just one. In the Department of Design and Construction, whites occupy 36 top-earning posts, while blacks occupy five.

The study focused largely on the Transportation Department. One recent scandal at the DOT, cited in the report, was sparked by a lazy pothole crew last May, prompting Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall to remove three units from under the control of the agency’s top-ranking black official, Deputy Commissioner Leon Heyward.

Heyward, the only black on the senior staff, kept his title and his $128,005 salary but found himself banished to Long Island City, running the sidewalk management division there. Weinshall then promoted white managers to take over the units she removed from Heyward’s direction, agency insiders said.

Some critics of Weinshall contrast Heyward’s fate with that of Deputy Commissioner Robert Grotell, who is white. Grotell continues to oversee the Staten Island Ferry amid multiple probes of the Oct. 15 crash that killed 11 people and exposed a legacy of lax management.

“There hasn’t been an even-handed response from the agency in correcting problems,” Ward said.

Bloomberg told reporters recently, “This administration has never looked at race as a criteria to get a job, and it never will.” The remark was a response to a reporter’s query about whether Bloomberg intended to hire more people of color as part of a planned increase in Staten Island Ferry staff. Aides to Weinshall, meanwhile, defended her diversity record.

“As the first female commissioner in the history of the DOT, Commissioner Weinshall takes the issue of diversity very seriously,” spokesman Tom Cocola said. “The excerpts from this upcoming report are wrong and do not present an accurate picture of the department’s staffing.”

As for Heyward, aides to Weinshall said he was not demoted, but the division under his control was restructured. Heyward referred calls to the department’s press office.

Ward said his group focused heavily on the Transportation Department because of a concern that the constant turnover among commissioners made it tougher for blacks to enter the senior ranks. Each new commissioner, he said, arrived with political appointees, preventing career employees from rising into the upper ranks.

Shortly after he took the agency helm in 1998, then-Commissioner Wilbur Chapman said he found an agency loaded with political appointees.
“My first year, all I got was ‘I’m connected to so-and-so,’” he said.
It is an unwritten rule that every new commissioner brings in a circle of loyalists. Weinshall, for example, brought a number of top aides with her from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. Among those appointments: top aide David Woloch, top lawyer Philip Damashek and chief of staff Judith Bergtraum. All are white.

Heyward, on the other hand, is a long-time, career department employee who was credited with organizing a trucking operation out of Ground Zero.
Under Heyward’s tenure, the number of potholes repaired actually jumped from fiscal 2002 to fiscal 2003, and a higher percentage were filled within 30 days than in the prior year, according to the Mayor’s Management report.

Thus, some in the agency believe Heyward lost responsibilities not because of a need to restructure the division, but because he upset the unions by shaking up the unit. For example, he appointed the first black female supervisory highway repairer, Deidre Pullins. Her new bosses took those responsibilities away from her in September.

Weinshall’s critics in the agency say she has passed up an opportunity to elevate blacks. In October 2002, for example, she made 10 high-level personnel changes. None of those changes, insiders said, resulted in additional responsibility for minorities. All of the promotions went to whites.

Cocola said of 17 management positions added since Weinshall took over in September 2000, seven were filled by minorities, including four black women.
Ward and other department insiders said those promotions did not come with added responsibility, however.

And they claim several qualified blacks have been passed over. They cite the case of Charles Ukegbu, the $76,773-a-year director of policy. Ukegbu holds two master’s degrees in transportation planning from Brooklyn Polytechnic and worked as a manager at the state Department of Transportation before he was hired by the city. In 2001, he also filled in as Manhattan Borough Commissioner.

Ukegbu declined to comment when contacted by Newsday, and he referred calls to the department’s press office. •