Board of Education Chairman Ted Raczka called for a hasty adjournment to the Special Board of Education meeting held in executive session Tuesday night, and marched down the hallway of the building followed by Board of Education members. He confronted the officer on duty, assigned by Mayor Sebastian Giuliano to guard the building against possible tampering with evidence, and asked the officer to leave the building immediately.
Prompted by Attorney Christine Chinni, Raczka continued to try to convince the officer to leave. He told the officer that the building was not city property, but under the "dominion and control" of the Board of Education and that the police officer was not welcome, and that he had to leave.
"Do you know if the Middletown Police Deparment has a warrant," Raczka asked.
"No," the officer answered.
Raczka demanded that the officer call his superiors and within minutes four Middletown Police Officers were in the building.
Sergeant James Prokop arrived and told Raczka that his request was denied, and that the police would continue to have a presence in the building.
When asked whether Razcka was acting with the approval of the Board of Education in asking the officers to leave, or whether he was acting unilaterally, he answered the question twice in exactly the same way.
"I acted because I'm the Board of Education, and this is Board of Education property."
Upon hearing this, Attorney Chinni advised the Board members to remove all personnel materials in unlocked cabinets in a hallway and place them in a locked room.
Sgt. Prokop and Lieutenant Lozefski advised the attorney, Raczka and the Board members that the room was not to be locked. At which point several Board members and administration employees began moving boxes of material into the room.
When asked why the boxes were being removed, Superintendent of Schools Michael Frechette said that an officer on duty had "gotten into the lockers yesterday."
At this point there were eight police officers at the administration building.
The standoff ended with Captain Bill McKenna arrived and went behind closed doors with Attorney Chinni, Raczka and Superintendent of Schools Michael Frechette and all parties agreed that the doors could be locked, but that an officer would stay on duty.
18 comments:
More video! This is better than day time soaps! Pull up the pop corn bucket its starting to get interesting
I ask you Mr Raczka, "whose building is it, really?" Our building-the tax payers, no one needs your permission to enter, or the permisison of the BOE....come on, play nice. Let the cops do their job.
That is not your building, but the taxpayers of the City of Middletown. Let me remind you Mr. Racka. You are an elected official period. You are not in charge, we the taxpayers of Middletown are and you answer to us.
This is unreal. We have our police officers tied up for this drama? Mr. Raczka, since when did you become the God of BOE? Why dont you focus on the real issues, like how to prevent crime in our schools, or how to better our education system? Instead you are drawing attention to yourself through this soap opera behavior. You should be ashamed of yourself! Or is it that you are concerned about the investigation and what will be found????
They are there without legal grounds. No warrant, no court order of any kind. A mayor does not have the authority to put a building under siege, only the courts. What will be realized rather soon is that State laws trump city ordinances. This excerpt might help clarify: "Municipalities and other formal governmental entities lower that the State level may legally pass an ordinance where state law does not preempt the ordinance, where the ordinance is not in conflict or attempts to supersede any state law, or where state law does not occupy that particular area of regulation. Education is a sovereign power of the States under amendment X of the United States Constitution." Good luck Mr. Mayor. Thanks for wasting more of our money.
What is the process to impeach the mayor?
whether its the mayors fault or the BoE; this is insane.
Think about the example you are setting for the children of this town; zero tolerance for violance?
you are all hypocrites if you tell the children to talk out their problems appropriately!
this is about more than just our tax dollars;
SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!
I thought all of the clowns in Middletown were trained at the Odd Fellows! Looks like they have some serious competition among the elected leaders (leaders?).
Why was the meeting held in executive session? Isn't that illegal in this case? Are we to believe it was about "security?" Or "Pending claims and litigation?" What is the pending claim? If it's just something that might happen, is it really pending?
Just one more misstep for the BOE.
From the Freedom of Information website:
EXECUTIVE SESSIONS
I. AN AGENCY MAY CLOSE CERTAIN PORTIONS OF ITS MEETINGS BY A VOTE OF 2/3 OF THE MEMBERS PRESENT AND VOTING. THIS VOTE MUST BE CONDUCTED AT A PUBLIC SESSION.
Meetings to discuss the following matters may be closed: specific employees (unless the employee concerned requests that the discussions be open to the public); strategy and negotiations regarding pending claims and litigation; security matters; real estate acquisition (if openness might increase price); or any matter that would result in the disclosure of a public record exempted from the disclosure requirements for public records.
Any business or discussion in a closed session must be limited to the above areas.
http://www.state.ct.us/foi/FOIC_Highlights/English/FOIC_HighLightsEng.htm
The best is the video of Sgt. Prokop, (not Brokop) telling the Board that the PD is not leaving, stating this several times. At the end the camera is on the Board members/staff that were hiding in the hallway, and the women with the dark hair in front snickering with her colleagues. I guess they really do just think it's a joke, and really don't care if the police leave or not, and are just there for entertainment purposes. Time for everyone to get serious about this, and realize that people will see your true actions, especially if you are on videa. Children.
They should be using tasers.
i hope they are securing the computers too
Mr. Raczka, who do think you are? You made yourself look like a complete fool. The police were just doing what they were instructed to do. I'm glad that someone is down there protecting things in that building. You had no right ask the officer to leave. By doing this, it shows that you have even more to hide than anyone thought!!! Not a smart move on your part. The taxpayers of the City of Middletown own that building. If anyone should be asked to leave it should be you and the superintendent!
The Mayor, or the Chief of Police may, by statute, shut a building down.
Because the State receives Federal funding for education, it is not "sovereign."
What ordinance was passed?
Everything in that building, including the building, belongs to the City. No warrant is needed. The fourth amendment does not apply.
Hmmm, the mayor eliminates the traditional city fireworks and proposes a 7% city tax increase. This whole Board of Ed fiasco is coming at a very opportune time for him... a very convenient distraction from the incompetent job he is doing as mayor, particularly given his "got your tax bill?" campaign platform. Something tells me that this will all blow up in his face once he has to answer for his politics in a court of law.
How is it that we had plenty money to give raises to the superintendant and special ed. administrators and also to remodel the superintendants office. Yet not enough to have for our children, cutting staff, not giving raises to the paraprofessional. Lets remember they are the ones who sit side by side with our children and teach them as well as the teachers..
They don't make much, yet take such good care of our children....
Let's take a good look at who got raises and who squanders our money????????? hmmmmmm any guesses?
Why was this meeting held in an executive session?
Great videos.... showing our incompetent BOE chair at his "best". I love the way he keeps looking at the camera.
"I acted because I'm the Board of Education, and this is Board of Education property."
Last time I checked you are not the only person on the BOE. I can only hope that the people in Middletown smarten up and vote him out along with the other people who do not advocate for our children.
You may not agree with or like the mayor and his decisions but it is about time that someone look into the administration at the BOE offices.
Ed,
Thanks for the video. It would have been hard to believe without it!
Doesn't anyone wonder how the Chairman thinks he answers to no-one. Something is definitely wrong in the BOE BUDGET Come on TWO MILLION DOLLARS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS IS WHERE?? Lots of things suggest MONKEY BUSINESS WITH OUR MONEY for our children's education. Maybe we need the FBI INVOLVED HERE IN MIDDLETOWN.
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