Minority Cut of Lottery Business Urged : Black Church Leader Calls on Panel to Support Guaranteed 30% Plan

The state Lottery Commission was urged Thursday by one of Los Angeles’ most influential black clergymen to support a proposal to ensure minorities and women a 30% role in the lucrative business of setting up and running the lottery.

“We are saying that we want our fair share guaranteed by law,” H. H. Brookins, a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, told commission Chairman William Johnston, the only one of the four-member body present at the second day of a two-day meeting.

A Democrat-sponsored amendment to a bill in the state Assembly would require that large lottery contracts go only to companies that agree to subcontract at least 30% of their lottery business to firms run by minority groups and women. Assembly Republicans have vowed to block the provision.

3 Members Absent

With three Lottery Commission members absent due to illness or family matters, Johnston lacked authority to act on Brookins’ request to put the minority contract issue on a future commission agenda.

“I’m sensitive to the issue,” Johnston told The Times after the meeting in Los Angeles. “The issue has to be addressed by the commission . . . . (But) the mechanics of it are almost impossible. I’m not sure you do it with a precise, exact number.”

Johnston and interim lottery director Howard E. Varner listened to sales presentations by representatives of half a dozen companies, large and small, seeking contracts to provide telecommunications systems and other services to the state lottery.

The companies are among dozens from around the country that have been vying for multimillion-dollar contracts to provide everything from tickets to phone lines to advertising for the California lottery.

During the first year of operation, the state lottery is expected to gross $1 billion. The lottery initiative requires that 50% of gross receipts go to winners, with 34% going to public education and not more than 16% going for operating costs.

Varner estimated that instant “scratch-off” lottery tickets could go on sale in September, followed by installation of the more complex “on-line” computerized games, such as the popular Lotto, some months afterward.

Meanwhile, representatives of Gov. George Deukmejian and members of the Lottery Commission are continuing their search for a permanent lottery director to replace Varner, who temporarily moved from his position as commission chairman to act as interim director.