One Wrong Equals Two Rights

One Wrong Equals Two Rights


'Why a Board of Education Vote Can Be Split 7-2 and All 9 Are Right'
A Follow Up of the 'New Year...' Blog

Sunday morning I awoke bright and early to attend the Emergency Meeting of the Board of Education. (Please see previous blog for full details.) As you may recall, late Thursday afternoon the Middletown Township Committee sent a notice to their Board of Education  informing them of their intent to pass a resolution changing School Board Elections from November to April. The BOE responded with this emergency meeting to preempt the TC's vote and pass their own resolution first, maintaining November elections. All this was done with the belief that whichever was passed first superceeded the other legally, which it turns out may not necessarily be the case. The legalities are not my expertise, nor the focus of this piece.

After an article from Russ Zimmer at the APP, a letter from the SuperIntendent's Office as well as the previous Keeping Middletown Informed blog and much later a piece written by the Deputy Mayor defending April elections, were shared on social media, extensive and sometimes heated discussions and debates popped up on varying Middletown Facebook pages. It turns out, when people are actually informed of issues occurring before decisions are finalized, they actually like to have input. Who knew? (Insert eye roll here)

There were many voices for the move to April and many voices against, but the one thing people seemed to agree on was they did not like the way this whole thing was going down. The race to see whose resolution got passed first, precipitated by the Township Committee's notice of intent to vote on a Sunday morning with no public input, was not well received. And the BOE's response to beat them to the punch by one hour (although I find it understandable) just seemed to add to the public frustration.

In the midst of the social media back and forth, many residents opined on their desire to be included in the conversation. One Middletown resident took it upon herself to reach out to Tony Fiori, the Deputy Mayor and Pam Rogers, the BOE President and broker a meeting to discuss both entities tabling their respective resolutions, thereby giving the public time for input. She posted on social media that she believed they were both open to the idea, and she was in fact correct. As an aside, it never ceases to amaze me what this one particular resident can get accomplished. One woman said she should broker deals in the Middle East.

Sunday morning, before the public meeting, the Deputy Mayor and the BOE President met and discussed the possibility of tabling their resolutions. Next came the BOE Public Meeting, where the Deputy Mayor was invited to speak. He claimed it was not his intention to prevent dialogue, although I'm not sure what dialogue would have happened had the BOE not had their meeting first. To drive home this point, the Board attorney read aloud the letter from the Township attorney informing the BOE of the Committee's intent to adopt their resolution. The Deputy Mayor insisted the TC wanted to work with the BOE in the future and the best way for that to be productive was for them to table their motion. In return, he assured the BOE of his committment to have theirs tabled as well.

I'm going to digress here for a second. During the social media discussions, I had requested the Deputy Mayor find a way to work with the BOE. If I'm being honest, I really didn't think he would, even with the BOE having the hour advantage and the public pressure. If you haven't caught on, there is no love lost between the Deputy Mayor and I. Without getting too personal, I openly admit my bias, as my past experiences lead me to find him less than forthcoming and rather abrasive towards those with differing opinions. I would venture to say I'm not on his best friends list either.  I think we're both okay with that.

So even with his offer of an olive branch to the BOE, an offer I myself had wanted and asked for publicly, I just wasn't ready to trust it was in good faith. Maybe it was his tone. Maybe it was my past experiences with him and the Township Committee. The more I thought about it, the more I kept coming back to this. When he and the committee sent their notice of intent to the BOE, it was the equivalent to lighting a fire. By excluding the public from such a major decision, they were adding gasoline. And now, here the Deputy Mayor stood, in front of the fire he started, looking for the BOE to reward him for offering to put out the fire. See to me, you don't get to set the fire and then get rewarded for grabbing the hose and putting it out. It's great you put out the fire. I sure am glad you did, but all things considered, I'd rather you never set the fire in the first place.

So when it came time for public comment, I asked the Board Attorney "If the board chooses to adopt the resolution today, does it preclude them from withdrawing it anytime in the future?' He responded that the board could in fact withdraw it at any time. So, I than addressed the board and I asked them to pass the resolution as a safeguard, and make a statement that they are certainly willing to have a more in depth discussion with the TC and the public and that they remain open and hopeful to work together going forward. (I'm paraphrasing) In my mind, by passing the resolution, they were not only protecting themselves, they were leaving the door open for further discussion at a future meeting to include public input. The BOE Members clearly didn't want to be in this position, but now that they were, they had to step up and protect their stake in the process. From the looks on their faces I thought they had really heard me and maybe even agreed with me. I was wrong. Mostly.

Now, remember that superwoman resident? The one who brokered the meeting with Tony and Pam? Well, she is Rachael Kanapka and she spoke before me in public comment. And her perspective was a bit different than mine. She wanted the BOE to trust the Deputy Mayor's word. She felt that by taking this first step, the BOE would be serving the best interests of the public. She didn't reference the past issues between the entities. She was focused on having the public heard on this issue and she felt strongly that if the BOE passed this resolution it would be 'planting a flag in the sand.' And although I still believed in my argument, I understood hers too. And let's face it, anyone who's met Rachael knows she comes prepared and with the best interest of her neighbors in mind.

After closed session, the BOE returned and voted to table the resolution 7-2, with Deborah Wright and Tom Giaimo voting against tabling the motion. The resolution has now been added to the original January 15th Meeting Agenda, with the possibility of its removal pending a shared services meeting with the TC and the BOE. The Township Committee and the Deputy Mayor kept their promise and tabled their resolution as well.

The moral of the story? One wrong can equal two rights. I think what the Township Committee tried to do here was wrong. And I think both the vote to table and not to table by the BOE were right. To be honest, with past being prologue, I would have voted with Deborah Wright and Tom Giaimo. For the reasons above, I believe they were right. That said, I am hopeful that the other BOE members are right. In some ways, by Rachael's definition, they already are. And that, my friends, is transparency. Rachael and I rarely disagree on larger issues, but on this one we do. And that's ok. That's how good work gets done, respectful discourse.

And that leads my to my last point, One of the reasons the Deputy Mayor suggests we move the School Board Elections to April is because they've become too political. I take real issue with that. The Board of Education is a bi-partisan body, unlike the TC. I cant remember a vote where they were split solely on party lines, even antidotally. There have certainly been voting blocks, but they weren't based on party lines and even they had an occasional dissent. My closest allies as a BOE member have voted differently than me and often. That's a healthy, transparent democracy and I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would want to disrupt or undermine that for the sake of some false perceived political bias. Now if your argument is budget related, than that's a valid discussion and one worth having.

And I assure you that the irony is not lost on me that this is coming from the Middletown Township Committee whom has not had a dissenting vote in over 10 years, coincidentally the last time they had a member of a different political affiliation. So maybe we should consider moving their elections, because it seems to me they might be too political. Or maybe, I will take a page from Rachael's book and give this year's Township Committee a chance. They have three newly elected members, who have all the potential to show us they are capable of respectful discourse with members of their own party. I honestly hope they do because not only would it be good for the community but I think I'd like to live in the world where Rachael Kanapka's right far more than the one where I am.

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