A.c. Union Official Will Quit Post

By George Anastasia, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: April 03, 1991
TRENTON — One official with the Atlantic City bartenders' union has agreed to step down and several others are negotiating settlements that would remove them from office, federal authorities said yesterday as they continued to press a civil racketeering suit that charges the union is mob-controlled.

Anthony Staino Jr., a business agent and member of the executive board of Local 54 of the Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees International Union, has signed a consent decree in which he has agreed to give up his union posts, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerome L. Merin. Another board member, Karlos LaSane, has agreed to do so, Merin said.

Merin made the announcements in U.S. District Court after a hearing into charges against Local 54 was delayed until Friday. In seeking the delay, Merin told Judge Garrett E. Brown Jr. that lawyers for the local and the government were in the midst of "serious talks as to the resolution" of the case.

Neither Merin nor attorneys for the defendants would comment publicly on those talks. Privately, however, several said agreements with all Local 54's officers - which would avert a hearing - were likely.

U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoff would not discuss the particulars of the proposed agreements but said the government would continue to press for a court-appointed monitor to temporarily oversee the operations of the 22,000- member local. New union elections are scheduled for June.

Local 54 president Roy Silbert could not be reached for comment yesterday. Federal authorities have charged that he became president in 1984 only after he was approved by mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo.

Staino, authorities said, also had Scarfo's blessing. In the civil suit, authorities charged that Scarfo crime family soldier Ralph "Junior" Staino arranged his nephew's appointment.

Scarfo and Ralph Staino are in prison on racketeering convictions.

If Silbert agreed to step down, he would give up an annual salary of about $92,000. In 1989, he also collected expense reimbursements of more than $11,000. Staino's salary was about $47,000, according to the union's latest annual filing, and he received an additional $8,000 in expenses and allowances.

Under terms of the consent decrees being worked out, sources say, union officials will step down and will be enjoined from participating "in any way, directly or indirectly, in the management and/or control of the affairs of Local 54." They will not, however, have to admit to any of the charges in the 66-page civil complaint suit and will be permitted to remain members of the union.