Racing Chairman Sees Limited Role for State Agency

The chairman of the California Horse Racing Board said Tuesday that the agency should not take a proactive role to investigate reports of poor labor and living conditions in the stables of the state’s racetracks.

At a board meeting at Hollywood Park, Robert Tourtelot, a prominent Los Angeles defense attorney and Pete Wilson appointee, said a recent Times story detailing problems in the so-called backstretches of California’s 15 racing venues was “filled with inaccuracies.”

When another board member, Marie Moretti, suggested that the board form a committee and look into the report, Tourtelot said such action was not needed.

“I think we should let this run its course,” he said. “I don’t know that it’s our jurisdiction but the staff should keep an eye on what’s going on.”

The horse racing board licenses all parties in the sport and oversees most aspects of its operation. Moretti urged the board to “participate in the process and not just view it.”

“If we’re going to license organizations, and people are living there, and they’re living in substandard conditions, that should come under the purview” of the board, Moretti said.

The Times reported that 4,000 stable workers statewide lack some of the most basic employee protections for housing and wages. In response, the state labor commissioner on Monday launched an investigation into backstretch pay, which some employees say is below minimum wage. Three Assembly committees have scheduled a joint hearing on matters raised in the newspaper report.

The Los Angeles County Health Department has found substandard and unsanitary conditions at Santa Anita in Arcadia and the Fairplex in Pomona. An estimated 2,200 workers live in small rooms on-site at all California tracks.

Meanwhile, the state Industrial Welfare Commission and the U.S. Labor Department has found that the industry’s overtime exemption--which permits employees to work seven days a week, without collecting time and a half--is invalid in the face of federal law.

Tourtelot said The Times story failed to mention that he and other board members secured an agreement last year from the new owner of Golden Gate Fields to spend $5 million on improvements in the backstretch. He did not elaborate about alleged inaccuracies in the article, but added: “We do not need the publicity that some of the legislators seem to want.”