Daily News from New York, New York • 964

rPr? 1 it 150G settles bias claim By JOEL S1EGEL Daly Nes Cy Kai Bureau One The Giuliani administration quietly has paid $150,000 to a former employe of the city's Off-Track Betting Corp. who charged she was fired because she was a white woman on maternity leave, the Daily News has learned. It is the first settlement of counsel with the Tri bo rough 4 15 discrimination lawsuits filed by white OTB managers who charged they were wrongly dismissed during the tenure of former President Hazel Dukes. The city made the payment May 23 to Diane Cucchi, OTB's former inspector general, under a tentative deal reached after she lost the first phase of her case allegations that she was fired because she was a whistle-blower, officials said. The city admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement.

Corporation Counsel Paul Crotty said. But the administration settled after weighing the city's "likelihood of success" and its potential liability, Crotty said. The risk included paying Cucchi's legal bill because she sued under federal discrimination law, which allows plaintiffs to recoup their legal costs. Of the other cases, "some are going to be tried, some are going to be settled," Crotty said. Asked why some will go to trial, he said, "because we have a better chance in them, or maybe the settlement demands are too high." Cucchi, now an associate Bridge and Tunnel Authority, declined to comment yesterday on the case.

She charged she was a victim of sex discrimination because she was fired while on maternity leave. According to court papers, Cucchi was dismissed from her OTB job Oct 4, 1990, after working two years with the agency. She was one of 30 OTB employes all but two of them white who were fired in an OTB "reorganization" in the early months of the Dinkins administration, the suit charged. The duties of most of them, the suit said, were assigned to minorities. Cucchi's firing also came after she had probed allegations that OTB resources were used to print a get-out-the-vote brochure connected to the NAACP, of which Dukes was an official.

The allegations were incorrect The brochure was printed within the city's Human Resources Administration. Dukes yesterday denied any discrimination, saying OTB's executives had the right to assemble their own management team. as T3 PIZZA MAN Jerry Totonno kept the tradition at Coney Island pizzena opened by his dad in the 1920s. Is GSouanS pbuerei long as two hours. "He used to tell them to wait even if he knew that he wasn't going to make any more pies," Bencivenga said.

"I told him: 'Jerry, you're gonna get killed doing that' He didn't care. And the people kept coming back." Totonno's had both style and history. PeroV father; Anthony, learned the trade from Gennaro Lombardi the man who opened New York's first pizzeria on Spring St in Little Italy in 1905. Totonno Pizzeria Napole-tana opened in Coney Island in the 1920s, making it -the borough's first pizza -shop. "Mom and pop stores like that are the foundation of Brooklyn," Boroirgh -President Howard Golden said "Judging from the lines outside; it must be good pizza.

And since it was made in Brook lyn, it must be great" Pero prided himself on keeping the family recipe a secret "At first he wouldn't even tell me," said his niece. "He used to say, 'Are you writing a book? Then leave this chapter out" Pero worked the ovens from childhood until 1992, when he semi-retired and turned the business over to niece Louise Ciminieri and her husband, Joel. "But he was still upstairs, giving orders," Bencivenga said. "He cooked pizza with passion," she said. "He always said" Let those other people rush; we do it nice and easy.

Pero's wake will be held today and tomorrow at La Bella-Graaiano funeral home on Harway Brooklyn. Services are Friday at 9 a.m. at Our Lady of Solace Church on 17th St. Brooklyn: By LARRY SUTTON Daly News Staff Writer There are those who say Jerry Pero made the best pizza this side of Naples. But that was only part of the reason people crowded his Coney Island shop, To-tonno's.

The other part? Attitude. "How do you make the pizza this good?" a college professor once asked him. "You stick to teaching, and I'll stick to pizza," Pero replied. Pero died at the age of 69 yesterday morning, taking a little bit of Brooklyn with him. "He really had a style of his recalled his niece, Antoinette Benci-venga.

"He was a character, a true character." On weekend nights, people lined up along Neptune Ave. for a chance to buy one of his pies. Some waited as Heeeee's back. Howard Stern is returning to cable's TVs entertainment channel, in a show culled from his syndicated morning radio program. said yesterday it reached a deal with the radio mouth and possible candidate for governor who last year hosted a one-on-one interview program for the cable network to televise portions of his radio show in a half-hour format Under the deal, six robotic cameras will capture the entire morning show for later use.

That means, aside from Howard Stern prettying himself up, Stern gets a new TV show without having to exert any additional energy. The new show is tentatively titled Stern on. Air." According to an press release, it will consist of best interviews and comedy the radio show, will start afring the series sometime this month. It'll air three times a night 8 p.m., 11 p.m.. and 2 a.m Monday itWrHW FMdav.

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