view raw text
Inglis Says Novak Was Acting On His Own in Pass Incident DETROIT, Mich., April 30.— James H. Inglis, Michigan racing commissioner, returned home Friday from the convention of the National Association of Racing Commissioners in Baltimore to find himself unexpectedly under fire in the State legislature. A bill has been reported out of a House committee to abolish Inglis job and convert the race office into a three-man commission. Legislators started pushing the measure as a result of a .controversy over track passes issued by the commissioner. Inglis was completely at a loss to understand why he was in the middle of the controversy. He said that he intended to find out about the difficulties from Mike Novak, a union official who, the lawmakers charged, was supervising the handling of the passes. "Any actions taken or any letters written by Novak, saying that he would handle racing passes this year are completely news to me. I know nothing about them and wasnt consulted. "But it sounds to me as though Novak is simply trying to avoid duplication in the distribution of the 200 passes given the Wayne County xCIO council for its Political Action Committee workers and those given by the legislators. "As you can see, some persons might get more than one. "Novak has no authority from me to take any action in regard to passes other than-to distribute the councils. The legislators have had their passes for a month." Representative Lloyd Gibbs, Portland Republican who is chairman of the Houses State Affairs Committee, said in moving along the three-man commission bill that Inglis had "become an autocrat and the tracks have had to appeal to the courts to escape his edicts." Inglis replied that he1 believed the dissatisfied racing association officials were behind the three-man commission. "I suggest that the legislature look behind their appeals to the courts for the real reasons and. judge for themselves whether the commissioner was correct, rather than changing to a three-man commission. "If the racing associations feel they are being unduly oppressed now, they would find themselves in much more trouble under a three-man commission."
