Letter to the editor,
I recently took a mini-vacation to downeast coastal Maine where there are several small towns that have marvelous views, artist shops and small cafes. However, the main streets in these towns don’t compare to our Main Street. The wide variety of restaurants and available parking that we have puts them to shame (got to be able to parallel park if you even find a space); we even can compete in the “view’ category with our river. When we join the Mattabassett District, we will gain more in that category.
However, I returned to politics as usual: the Board of Education again has decided to act independently and totally ignore decisions from the Mayor’s office and compliance with the union contracts regarding the hiring and paying of employees. The details of their actions I’m sure are becoming tiring to those not directly affected but the fact that they are still occurring is very important. The charter for the City of Middletown clearly states that the Mayor is the hiring authority for all classified employees for the whole city; every department. When grievances cannot be settled between the parties, they are heard by the State Labor Board who then rules; the union has just received another unanimous ruling in their favor from the Board awarding back wages to the employees who were harmed. I am predicting that the Board administration will again not abide by the ruling and the union will have to file again with the state. The disturbing issue to me is that we’ve a democratic majority on the Board of Education that is suspiciously silent through all this. As the body that the Board of Education administration answers to and reports to; they could easily instruct the administration to follow the charter and adhere to the union contracts but for some reason, they have chosen not to. Dan Drew is running on a platform proposing cooperation between the City and the Board of Education; however, cooperation could exist NOW if only the Board of Education members instructed the administration to adhere to the rules as they exist.
I am running for a place on the Common Council and I urge you to vote for the re-election of Seb Giuliano as Mayor. I also urge you to vote for ROW B on November 8th; it’s time to break the logjam; time to change the composition of the Board and Council; it’s time stop what’s going on now since those members of the majority party currently sitting on the boards are not requiring the BOE administration to comply with the rules.
Thank you.
Linda Salafia
Republican Candidate for Common Council
The above posted letter is solely the opinion of the author, Linda Salafia, and in no way represents the opinions or views of the Middletown Eye or any of the contributors to the Eye.
Linda can you please share your opinion on the Mayors actions against the water and sewer managers? As someone running for council you must have an opinion on that issue. please share with us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing BOE issues to light, Ms. Salafia! Too few are aware of the many issues related to lack of leadership on BOE. The Superintendent is not being held accountable by BOE and many of us are asking why? New leadership is needed at BOE and the ONLY way that will happen is with Republican majority and that requires the will of the people. Let's pull the plug on Chairman Ted Razcka once and for all!
ReplyDeleteLinda, I completely agree about the BOE. Ted R has been in the back pocket of Frechette since day one. The Board's job is to set the direction of the school district. They are the supervisor of the superintendent and the director of the curriculum of the district. The board we have now does none of this. They rubber stamp anything that comes out of Central Office. Frechette has free reign to do as he pleases. The sad thing is that we pay him $160 K a year for no work. Can he sit in his office more and do nothing? He visited the schools on day 1. That means he will not be there for the rest of the year. Last year, he visited the middle schools less than 3 times each but he was still compensated $6000 for travel expenses. To fix this district, we need to elect BOE members who will remove Ted from the Chair position and will force Frechettte to do something for his pay. Until that day, we are in trouble in Middletown.
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