December 12, 1974

Manhattan Dist Atty Richard Kuh announces that NYC's chief construction inspector Lawrence Clarke and 2 of his subordinates have been indicted on charges that they took total of $4,000 in bribes and unlawful gratuities to overlook bldg violations and expedite documents; more indictments are expected as result of 2-yr investigation of corruption in NYC construction indus; indicted men are Lawrence Clarke, Frank March and Milton H Schaffner; Bldgs Comr Jeremiah Walsh says 3 will be suspended without pay; same 3 men figure in investigation of collapse of old Broadway Central Hotel 16 mos ago in which 4 persons were killed; indictments did not name parties who made payments (M)

SCRANTON, Pa., Dec. 11—Joseph M. McCrane Jr., a former New Jersey State Treasurer, was convicted here today on four counts of assisting corporations to file fraudulent income‐tax returns.

Speech, UN Assembly, rejecting US Amb Scali charge Assembly is shackled by 'tyranny of majority'

Govt and diplomatic sources say Atty Gen W B Saxbe is expected to be named US Amb to India, to succeed D P Moynihan; Saxbe career sketch (M)

Mayor Beame announces dismissal of 3,725 NYC munic employes-- including policemen, firemen, sanitationmen and teachers--and forced retirement of 2,700 elderly employes to help reduce city's budget deficit to $135.4-million; notes that 3,725 permanent and provisional employes will receive dismissal notices by next wk; 2,700 elderly employes, both permanent and provisional, will be forced to retire by June 30, end of current fiscal yr; included in dismissals are 900 in uniformed forces, including 400 policemen, 235 sanitationmen and 150 firefighters; of those dismissed, 2,200 are career civil servants, including 1,100 teachers and educ researchers, and 200 librarians and employes of city's cultural insts; in addition, 1,525 apptd provisional employes, including 400 of Beame's pol appointees and 125 appointees in $25,000 to $35,000 salary bracket, are being let go; number of layoffs far exceeds earlier estimates; new layoffs, added to 1,510 announced by Beame almost 3 wks ago, raise to 7,935 number of city employes ordered discharged or forced to retire, more than 2% of city's total work force of 338,524; layoffs and series of economies have reduced by almost 3/4 fiscal '75 deficit from its estimated peak of $430-million; Beame describes himself as 'terribly saddened' at layoffs; declares 'I don't want to hurt anybody'; layoffs mark severest round of budget cutting in city history; asserts that in all cases he had consulted with heads of unions representing city workers and had worked out cuts with them; in gen, cuts will be made on seniority basis; Beame notes that Corp Counsel Adrian P Burke is studying possibility of considering productivity along with length of service; union leaders score layoffs; Munic Employes Union head Victor Gotbaum charges Beame is putting econ 'completely on the backs of the workers'; UFT pres Albert Shanker calls proposed cuts 'intolerable'; Uniformed Sanitationmen's Assn pres John J DeLury holds procedure being followed is wrong; Uniformed Firefighters Assn pres Richard J Vizzini warns that city is 'proceeding headlong in the directions of potential loss of life and injuries from fire'; Higher Educ Bd spokesman Robert Moulthrop holds 200 dismissals there are 'of a different order of magnitude than that presented to us originally'; Repr Herman Badillo, Bronx Dem, urges Beame to forgo personnel cuts and temporarily suspend layoffs pending Cong approval of $2-billion Fed Emergency Employment Act, which Badillo says is 'imminent'; table shows breakdown of new dismissals of permanent and provisional employes by dept; illustrations of Beame, Budget Dir Melvin N Lechner, First Deputy Mayor James A Cavanagh, City Councilmen Matthew J Troy Jr and Howard Golden and Council Pres Paul O'Dwyer (L)