Commentary
"I'm a pretty easy guy to get ahold of," Board of Education Chairman Ted Raczka said to me directly at a hastily-called press conference yesterday.
He was responding to a question I had about whether he had spoken to the mayor. Indeed, when I called Raczka yesterday morning at his office, he took my call immediately. But for that matter, the mayor took my call too, and Raczka hadn't called him.
"I'm not about to go to them hat in hand," Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said when I asked him a similar question about contacting Raczka. Giuliano said that neither Raczka nor Superintendent Michael Frechette had contacted him directly.
"The mayor never spoke to me," School Superintendent Michael Frechette said at a recent Common Council meeting when questioned about the mayor's proposal to move non-certified employee payroll to the City side.
Someone from the Board of Education spoke with WTNH this weekend about the guard, and provided a copy of an order Giuliano had issued, but no one called Giuliano to ask what was going on.
And while they stood side by side at this weekend's St. Sebastian Festival, apparently neither majority leader Tom Serra nor Mayor Sebastian Giuliano spoke about the police guard the mayor placed at the School Administration building. Buono festa. And BTW, Serra was in the room at the Common Council meeting when his own caucus asked, sincerely, for an investigation and an audit. No one objected.
Beginning to get the picture?
I mentioned the term "dysfunctional family" to Giuliano and he nodded and shrugged.
I've talked to a lot of people - residents, teachers, parents, town leaders - over the past couple of days, and one thing is clear. People are fed up with the political squabbling in town, which has put Middletown at the center of state attention over an allegation of impropriety, and a policeman guarding potential evidence.
Meanwhile, the people at the center of the argument make their case through the press (a big mistake, because as filters, we make our own judgments about what is printed and what is not), and through their attorneys. The mayor is considering a restraining order. The BOE meets tonight to decide on whether to seek a court order, and to sue for an illegal search.
And who's paying for all of this, ladies and gentlemen? That's right, it's you.
My advice is to get in the same room together before the next attorney is called. Mayor, Council, BOE, unions. Close the door, but don't shut the public out. Roll up you sleeves and examine the facts. Leave the politics on the coat-rack. If there's a real problem, it should become evident quickly.
Voters are getting fed up. And while voters have a notoriously short memory, political opponents don't. Time to stop acting like petulant children, and to consider the needs of the real children attending school in city schools which need all the help we can give them.
6 comments:
This voter doesn't have a short memory. I'm still upset that the board of ed closed the Deal program by sticking it under the agenda of redistricting. While everyone was focused on the re districting issue; a vital service was closed to children that have special needs. Now children that the Board of Ed determined to be unsafe in the elementary schools are being returned there. This is AFTER tax dollar money was spent in training and contracting specialists to prepare an environment for these children.
I have a lot more to say on this issue if anyone is interested in hearing..........
-a mom who loves her son with autism.
I was interested to learn that the City Finance Director used to be in charge of reviewing the Board of Ed expenditures but that practice was ended under Mayor Thornton. It seems like that was an important step that should be reinstated.
As a citizen, I wish that the Mayor had pushed for that instead of this combative process. But when all is said and done, I'm glad he is at least doing something to verify that our tax dollars are spent as intended, and with full transparency.
Whats wrong with a search if there is nothing to hide??
Four cheers for the Mayor. The BoE has to be accountable and transparent to the tax payers. The Boe budget is not the superintendents private check book.
I hope the audit is conducted fully and by a very qualified non-BOE affiliated auditor. If there is nothing wrong than all of the investigation will merely make the taxpayers reassured that their money is being spent in the way that they were told it was.
If there is illegal activity, it will show that too.
The reluctance of central office to allow the audit shows that they have something to hide.
The process is strange, but I'm glad they're auditing or investigating or whatever they're calling it these days. Good for them for finally doing something to reign-in the renegade BOE.
It's amazing how all the "board" members think they are not doing anything wrong. If they have nothing to hide, then they should welcome an audit with an open mind. As for the posting of a police officer, I personally think that the Mayor has done the tax payers justice and is looking out for our best interest. He obviously cares about his community, the children and what happens to all. As for Tom Serra, wake up take a look at what's going on. You are just as much a fool as Michael Frechette. The superintendent is a complete fool and I hope he leaves soon so that the community can rebuild what he has destroyed. Our children do not need an idiot like that working to destroy our children.
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