Queen Bess by Preston Jennifer;

Queen Bess by Preston Jennifer;

Author:Preston, Jennifer;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media


26

“Tough Love”

From the moment she took office at the Department of Cultural Affairs, Bess encountered hostility from some members of the senior staff. For one thing, the acting commissioner, Randall Bourscheidt, was bitterly disappointed that he had not been made commissioner. Bourscheidt, a tall, blond, cool-headed administrator, had been at the agency for some time as the former commissioner’s top deputy. According to other high-ranking agency officials, he had a difficult time hiding his disdain for Bess’s cultural credentials.

To many people in the arts community and within the agency, Bess was not considered to be “of the arts.” As one former senior staff member explained, “Maybe she sat on the stage and played the piano at Carnegie Hall, but she wasn’t of the arts. She was of politics.”

Bess’s “tough love” management style also did not endear her to the staff. She shocked some employees when she announced during her first staff meeting that she “knew all about city employees” and that they didn’t like to work. According to one staff member, Bess told of her decision while commissioner of consumer affairs to send an employee to the basement and that that employee was never heard from again.

Soon after she arrived at the agency on April 24, 1983, senior staff members inquired as to whether she intended to hire a special assistant. Bess told them she felt that her secretary could take care of whatever a special assistant might do and that she didn’t need or want an amanuensis. So when Bess announced later that summer that she planned to hire Sukhreet Gabel as a special assistant, some members of her staff were surprised that she had changed her mind. At first no one knew that Sukhreet’s mother was Judge Gabel. “Nobody had a clue about any connection at all,” a senior staff member said.

Sukhreet, however, was not as discreet about her family connections as Bess might have liked her to be. Shortly after she was put on the payroll she mentioned to Judith Gray, a friend of Bess’s who had recently been hired as a publicity director for the agency, that her mother was presiding over the Capasso divorce.

Gray was stunned. She later told investigators that she confronted Bess and asked her how she could hire Sukhreet in light of Judge Gabel’s role in the divorce case. Gray said Bess told her it was not a “big deal” because Sukhreet would fill a role in the agency. She also said that she felt sorry for Sukhreet because she had a difficult relationship with her mother.

“What am I going to do with you?” Sukhreet said Bess asked her when she found out that Sukhreet was telling people in the office that her mother was ruling on the Capasso divorce.

Soon afterward she found herself spending less time in Bess’s company either as her friend or as her special assistant. Bess did not ask her to accompany her to evening performances and board meetings as frequently as she had in the past.

Sukhreet was



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