North-Voorhees School Board: Why don’t you record public meetings?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by admin

This is an open letter sent to the North Hunterdon Voorhees School Board today, regarding the August 15 “special meeting” to be held at 7:00 pm at the District Office. (See Hunterdon Democrat, North Hunterdon-Voorhees Superintendent Shaddow could face calls for his resignation.)

 

Dear NHVSD School Board Members:

I’m sharing with you an e-mail thread between me and your communications coordinator. I am just totally mystified at what I’m being told.

Twice I asked Ms. Smagala why the district does not use this mailing list [the “parent e-mail distribution list” used by NHVSD to communicate almost daily with parents] to announce board meetings, since the list includes some of the district’s most important stakeholders — parents. Ms. Smagala has not answered my question.

Especially because the district is in the middle of an important communications controversy to be covered at tomorrow night’s special meeting, I cannot fathom why the district would not use this important channel of communication to announce the meeting, to encourage people to attend. In the current climate, no one can be faulted for drawing the conclusion that the district prefers to keep quiet about this meeting. Posting notice on your website and in newspapers is a “pull” sort of notice. Sending the notice to this list is a “push” notice. Ask anyone on the board who knows about the Internet what that distinction means. It means you’re not using the best methods to announce the meeting.

It’s bad enough that a meeting like this is being held in the middle of August when so many people are away — but it’s even worse when the district does not use every means at its disposal to announce such a meeting to as many people as possible as efficiently as possible.

Ms. Smagala notified Superintendent Shaddow about my question to her. He called me on the phone about it. We had quite a discussion. But he did not answer the question, either.

So, I ask that the board discuss this at the meeting: Why is this list not being used to announce board meetings, especially THIS meeting?

I would like an answer.

I cannot attend the meeting tomorrow night. Like many people, I will be away on vacation, but I would like to attend. Since I cannot, I would like to ask that this important meeting be recorded and the audio file be posted to the board’s web site — and that this e-mail list of Ms. Smagala’s be used to distribute a link to the file. I’d like answers to the questions that will be covered tomorrow night — and since I can’t be there, I think it is reasonable to ask that the board do what my town council and what my own local school board both do — RECORD THE MEETING! Dr. Shaddow says he wants the public to know the truth. I cannot imagine a better way for the district’s own explanation of the facts to be communicated firsthand.

NHVSD has an enormous investment in technology — media, audio, video, communications. Get some recorders out of the school and use them so taxpayers, parents and the public can hear this important meeting. With all due respect, it is ludicrous that in this day and age, with the taxes we pay, that Dr. Shaddow tells me “It’s up to the board to record the meetings” and that “it’s in committee,” and that the decision has not been made to operate transparently by publishing this audio. That this silly debate has been going on for so long makes it look an awful lot like the board does not want its public business on the public record. (I’ve read some of your “minutes.” I’ll take recordings, please.)

Let’s get with it. It’s no surprise that the press is covering the district’s failures of communications almost every day now. I expect the August 15 meeting to be recorded and the audio to be published promptly.

(Why are the e-mail addresses of board members Jobson and Costa not on the board’s website? Will someone please forward this e-mail to them promptly? Thank you.)

Sincerely,

 

 

Since this mail was sent, school board president Beverly Thorne wrote to say she had instructed District Communications Coordinator Maren Smagala to distribute a notice of the special meeting to parents. The notice went out at 9:00PM Wednesday, August 14 — less than 24 hours before the meeting.

Thorne would not commit to recording the meeting. Maybe the problem is they don’t want to spend the money on technology?

News item in the March 22, 2013 Hunterdon Democrat:

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Posted in Hunterdon County, Schools, State | Leave a comment

Tom Borkowski: Who wants big taxes, big bonding, patronage jobs & dysfunctional leadership for Hunterdon County?

Posted on May 20, 2013 by admin

The problem with Tom Borkowski running for Hunterdon County Freeholder with Will Mennen is Borkowski’s public record.

Big Taxes

During 6 years as mayor of Clinton Township, Tom Borkowski raised the municipal tax levy 39.4%. (Did Mennen do his due diligence?)

Borkowski talks about lowering the “tax rate,” but that’s political hocus pocus. The tax bills Clinton Township residents paid went up 39.4%.

In 2004 alone, Borkowski raised tax bills 11.7%, the biggest soaking of Clinton Township taxpayers in 15 years. But his campaign flyers claim he’s a “champion of the taxpayer.”

Take a look at the tax levy increases in other mayoral terms after Borkowski’s (above right). Why did Borkowski stick it to taxpayers so hard for 6 years?

Big Bonding, More Debt

Between 2000-2005, Mayor Borkowski issued a staggering 21 bond ordinances totalling almost $16 million without once asking voters for their approval.

Yet freedholder candidate Will Mennen claims running-mate Borkowski is a “fiscal conservative.” (Not even close, Will!) In 2006, right after Borkowski left office, millions in unspent bond funds turned up in Borkowski’s budget — money that belonged in unsuspecting taxpayers’ pockets.

Borkowski swings both ways

But wait a minute… in 2009 Borkowski sought to fill a vacant seat on the Freeholder board.

He said he opposed bonded debt without approval of voters, and claimed that he endorsed NJ bill A-1880, which would require voter approval of bonded debt.

So why did he do 21 bond ordinances without voter approval while he was mayor?

Good question. Borkowski has never answered it. But his supporters tried to get him onto the Freeholder board stating that:

“Tom will fight hard to put an end to the increased bonding indebtedness.”

This was part of a vicious mailer that accused one of his opponents of behaving “unethically.” That mailer so shocked Republican Committee members that Borkowski lost the vote for the Freeholder seat.

Borkowski claimed he had nothing to do with the mailer. His supporters denied they put out the mailer. It’s not clear what’s worse: Borkowski’s hypocrisy or the people Borkowski associates with: his political “friends.” Perhaps they’re waiting for patronage jobs.

Borkowski’s got a public record on that, too. One he’d probably prefer not to see online. But public contracts are public documents. Let’s take a look at Tom Borkowski’s idea of how to take care of his friends while making taxpayers pay for it.

The Patronage Game

Borkowski has attacked the exorbitant contract the Freeholders gave their attorney, Guy DeSapio. Borkowski briefly served on a “Legal Services Advisory Board” and says in his campaign flyers that he “saved county taxpayers over $700,000 annually in legal fees” by helping get rid of DeSapio. But Borkowski knows all about unconscionable employment contracts that waste taxpayer money. He’s written and signed them.

In 2004 Borkowski hired Ulrich “Al” Steinberg as township CFO and gave him a one-sided, ironclad 3-year contract. (You’d love this contract yourself, if your boss were goofy enough to give it to you!) Steinberg got full pay and benefits to work 2.5 days per week, from home if he wished:

“This schedule may be modified at the Employee’s discretion at any time”

…so that Steinberg could go to his other job… in Marlboro!

The contract Borkowski signed paid for any “meetings, conferences and seminars” Steinberg wanted to attend, “but not limited to meals, travel and lodging” — even if they had nothing to do with Clinton Township business.

But only the CFO could cancel the contract. Borkowski made sure Clinton Township was stuck holding the bag — there was no way the next mayor and council could cancel it:

Borkowski, a lawyer, ensured there was no way out of this sweetheart deal: If the Township cancelled, it would be “liable for compensating the Employee” for the entire 38 months. That’s the deal Borkowski gave his CFO to handle tax and bond money. For Borkowski, political supporters come first. And taxpayers pay.

Is Al Steinberg is helping Borkowski with his current campaign?

Bogus Claims

Borkowski’s campaign resume says he “Led fight to stop 1,000 plus unit Pulte Homes residential development known as Windy Acres.”

But the public record shows that for 6 years Borkowski led the charge to build Windy Acres and fought anyone who tried to get in Pulte’s way. (He even offered Pulte an outrageous $25 million of public funds for the land. Later, the Township bought it for $7 million, half what Pulte paid for it.)

Rushing to approve a deal to build Windy Acres, Borkowski cut short the public hearings after “too many” citizens showed up to speak. (The Hunterdon Democrat and the Hunterdon Review blasted him for it.) When state senator Leonard Lance and — ironically — the freeholders submitted letters asking for extended public hearings, Borkowski told them to butt out.

Next, the Commissioner of the New Jersey DEP tried to help stop Windy Acres. Borkowski responded with an unbelievable nastygram demanding that the Commissioner withdraw his complaints. Then Borkowski voted to sell Clinton Township out to Pulte Homes in a “settlement” deal so bad that the State of New Jersey made good on the DEP Commissioner’s warnings and rejected it.

For six years Borkowski, his lawyers, and his planning board sat on their hands while the country’s biggest housing developer took control of virtually all the Township’s land-use policy making. Pulte used COAH (the Council on Affordable Housing) to lord control over the Township — and Borkowski did nothing but cower and cry the sky was falling.

Shortly after Borkowski lost the next mayoral election, Clinton Township led 20 towns to sue COAH. Clinton Township quickly smashed the Pulte “damages” lawsuit that for 6 years Borkowski kept warning would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. It turned out the claim was insupportable and merely an empty threat that Borkowski used to intimidate the public — and to fatten the wallets of his attorneys.

Dysfunctional Leadership

So many of Borkowski’s cops went afoul of the law that his police department was taken over by the County Prosecutor. (“Appeals court rules against Clinton ex-cops who falsified patrol reports,” Hunterdon Democrat.)

Borkowski’s director of Public Works and head of Recreation were fired or convicted for unlawful activities.

Taxpayers Be Damned!

Every time voters rejected outlandish school budgets, Borkowski ignored them and voted YES to approve an unbelievable $11,211,307 in school tax increases during his tenure. He was terrified of “the school board lobby.” (Between 2006-2008, after Borkowski was gone, the Township council respected voters’ decisions and cut millions out of school budgets. Today those cuts are worth about $1,000 per year to the average homeowner forever.)

Borkowski kept Clinton Township in the North Hunterdon Court while the Township lost $90,000 per year to patronage jobs and mismanagement. Then Borkowski fought to stop Clinton Township from getting out of the court. The Clinton Township Court today processes more cases than the North Court did and is very successful. With less 1/4 the staff, the Clinton Township Court services two other towns and has always more than paid for itself and always operated in the black. Throughout his tenure, Borkowski cowered beneath the political pressure of his political “friends,” who demanded that Clinton Township taxpayers keep subsidizing the bloated North Court budget.

Fed Up

Fed up voters in Clinton Township booted Borkowski in 2005. In 2009 Borkowski’s backers backfired — and he lost the Republican Committee vote to fill a vacant Freeholder seat.

Now Tom Borkowski is back — on the June 4 Republican Primary ballot. And his public record once again precedes and dogs him.

Clinton Township couldn’t afford Tom Borkowski’s politics. Can Hunterdon County afford to give him control over tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, and the power to make deals and set policy?

Who wants big taxes, big bonding, patronage jobs, and dysfunctional leadership for Hunterdon County?

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Posted in Hunterdon County, Municipal, Schools, Taxes, Tom Borkowski's Greatest Hits, Windy Acres | Leave a comment

At It Again: It’s time for a Clinton Township school board member to resign

Posted on November 19, 2012 by admin

Oooooh…  Tarnation! They just keep flubbing the law! Teacher’s gonna be mad…

The bad boys and girls of the Clinton Township school board are at it again.

A candidate in the November 6 Clinton Township school board election misused a Clinton Township recreation department Commissioner’s mailing list for his personal benefit, to tell parents of young soccer players to vote for him and his running mates.

New Jersey statute prohibits using an official position “to secure unwarranted privileges.” Even a fifth grader is smart enough to get this — you don’t need to check the ethics laws, or to consult a lawyer, to know you should not cheat to win.

What does it take for this crowd to behave like adults?

The 3 Ms: Campaigning with a municipal mailing list

Daniel McTiernan was appointed to fill a vacant seat on the school board in 2012. On November 6 he was elected for a three-year term along with Kevin Maloy and Rachel McLaughlin. The three campaigned as a team against just one unknown, newbie candidate, and call themselves “The 3 Ms.”

None of them had ever been elected before. All three were appointed to fill vacated seats. McLaughlin ran in school board elections twice before, but lost.

It seems their campaign needed a little last-minute boost.

Township Commissioner of Soccer

McTiernan is also a Commissioner of girls’ soccer for the Clinton Township recreation department. According to the township’s recreation director, McTiernan is provided with an Excel spreadsheet listing names and contact information of parents whose children play on the rec soccer team.


The list is supposed to be used only for official communications about the soccer program.

But on November 2, McTiernan improperly used his official Township position and the Township mailing list to boost his team’s political prospects by telling soccer parents to vote for the 3 Ms. It’s a benefit their sole competitor — Jill Setaro — didn’t have. It’s a “benefit” that New Jersey law prohibits.

“Vote the 3 M’s”

Signing it with his official title, “Commissioner u 15 girls soccer,” McTiernan sent an e-mail to 62 addresses ostensibly about soccer — but turned it into a political pitch for “the 3M’s”: Dan McTiernan, Kevin Maloy, and Rachel McLaughlin.
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Unwarranted Privileges

The law is clear.

“No local government officer or employee shall use or attempt to use his official position to secure unwarranted privileges or advantages for himself or others;”
N.J.S.A. 40A:9-22.5(c)

A Township sports Commissioner using a Township mailing list to campaign: Was it just an innocent boo-boo?

Hardly. All through 2012 the school board has created a climate marked heavily by ethics issues, ethics accustions, and discussion of ethics at virtually every board meeting. Additionally, McTiernan is a human resources executive; a field in which regulatory compliance is more than half the job. McTiernan knows very well how important it is to understand ethics rules and to behave ethically. In the current school board climate, McTiernan’s unethical behavior is inexcusable.

A History of Unethical Behavior

McTiernan, Maloy, and McLauglin have been key players in the mockery that school board president Jim Dincuff has made of the Clinton Township school district. They have repeatedly violated the law, misled the public, spent money they promised to return to taxpayers, attacked teachers publicly, and made insupportable accusations against citizens and board members who spoke against their budget and questioned their behavior.

Several newspaper editorials have railed against their behavior throughout 2012:

Clinton Township School Board should have been punished for Sunshine Law violations, Express-Times

Sunshine serves many purposes, Hunterdon Democrat

Taking sunshine seriously, Hunterdon Review

Misusing Municipal Lists for “Unwarranted Personal Benefit”: More of The Same

It started with squandering of property tax relief funds sent to the township by the governor — which the board spent, after promising to use it for the purpose it was intended. It turned into abuse of teachers in public during contract negotiations, and abuse of citizens during budget hearings. The misbehavior quickly expanded into abuse of two board members — Freda and Sullivan — who were accused of ethics violations and badgered by McTiernan and other board members to confess. Dincuff admitted he had no “irrefutable evidence” against them, and the public record shows there is no evidence against them whatsoever — or any indication that either of them did anything improper. Dincuff and the board have refused to withdraw the accusations.

Then the board graduated to serious violations of New Jersey law. Faced with a draft lawsuit from public-rights advocate John Paff, the board quickly admitted wrongdoing and passed a resolution promising to stop breaking the law.

Enough? Not by a longshot. Close on the heels of Paff’s suit, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns notified the board in July that it had violated multiple sections of the Open Public Meetings Act on multiple occasions. Even after the Prosecutor’s warnings, the board continued to break the law again and again in 2012.

That’s the record The 3 Ms ran on and won. (Never underestimate the ignorance or apathy of voters.) They won in part thanks to McTiernan’s misuse of municipal lists in his role as a soccer Commissioner for the township. This unethical use of an official Township role is just more of the same for these school board members.

It should be no surprise

It should be no surprise that school board president Jim Dincuff’s key flunkies on the board campaigned as a gang to stop one unknown candidate. They couldn’t afford any more dissenting opinions on the board.

The effort seems to have been masterminded by the 4th M — board member Maria Grant — who owns the domain name 3ms4ctboe.com behind the political campaign. (If just one more board member had been directly involved in the campaign, it would have been an illegal quorum.) Here’s the public record:

Some parents were so upset at the politicization of Clinton Township girls’ soccer that they shared the e-mail with ExMayor.com.

Yada-Yada-Yada: The Core Values Statement

The school board has been working on a “Core Values Statement” which was initiated at two public board meetings with a special consultant — meetings which violated the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act when the board failed to provide statutorily-mandated public comment periods. (This school board just can’t stop breaking the law.) Dincuff has announced the board will be voting on the “Core Values” shortly.

But the “Values” include no mention of obeying the law or respecting the public — they merely define how board members shall behave toward one another, apparently to avoid embarrassment in public.

The Core Values statement says nothing about misusing one’s official position for unwarranted personal benefit. The Core Values statement, distributed in draft form to the public, reveals that it’s a meaningless collection of feel-good yada-yada-yada.

Welcome Your Politicized School Board

Say HELLO a new breed of “new” board members — seasoned political players.

Last February, “3 M” member Kevin Meloy voted against moving school board elections to November. He gave an impassioned speech, worrying that  the change would politicize school board elections by encouraging political alliances during campaigns.

How right he was.

McTiernan Should Resign

Daniel McTiernan will have to vote on the Core Values Statement. He votes on matters relating to a $30 million budget and to childrens’ education. Having demonstrated blatant disregard for ethical behavior by using his Commissioner’s role for his own political benefit, and for that of his cronies, McTiernan should resign his positions in the Township recreation department and the school board.

Or, what  is McTiernan teaching our kids on the soccer field? That they should look the other way when the coach cheats to win? That one little, itty-bitty transgression is okay… for adults?

We Don’t Need No Stinking Values

Say HELLO to another new year of legal violations by a team that has shown again and again that it doesn’t give a rat’s batootie about the law, while they “manage” over $30 million of public funds, four physical plants, and the education of over 1,600 children.

You elected them. Say HELLO to the school board’s new values — same as the old values. Nada.

Jim Dincuff’s Last Stand

On March 29, 2012 Dincuff suggested board members Marc Freda and Michelle Sullivan should consider resigning, for “ethics violations” that existed only in his own fantasy. A few minutes later, Dincuff violated multiple sections of the New Jersey Open Public meetings Act — after his own attorney advised him not to conduct an illegal executive session.

Dincuff later admitted he had “no irrefutable evidence” against Freda and Sullivan — who denied any wrongdoing — but he refused to withdraw his accusations. But the accuser turned accused — and a few months later, Dincuff was reprimanded by the County Prosecutor for leading his board to commit violations of state laws. The evidence was irrefutable.

Now Dincuff is faced with irrefutable evidence of an ethics violation in a board member’s own hand — McTiernan’s e-mail, signed in his official capacity as Township scoccer Commissioner.

Having been busted himself, and having failed to come up with proof against Freda and Sullivan, will Dincuff call for McTiernan’s resignation, and will Dincuff file ethics charges against McTiernan?

Of course not. Dincuff hasn’t got the balls or the integrity to enforce the law against his own cronies.

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Posted in Election 2012, Municipal, Schools, State | Leave a comment

New Jersey swallows JCP&L’s “7-10 days” PR gambit

Posted on November 8, 2012 by admin

JCP&L executed a brilliant PR tactic as Hurricane Sandy approached New Jersey. Even before the storm hit, and before they could possibly know the extent of outages, JCP&L announced that “it will take 7-10 days to bring power back.”

How’d they know that? Simple: They didn’t.

It was a brilliant public relations gambit. To ward off public and government pressure, JCP&L preemptively set the expectation low — then failed to meet it. The media and government swallowed the line, and by the time anyone realized that absolutely nothing had changed in JCP&L’s disaster plans, we were well into the “7-10 days.”

The problem is not “communications”

The consultant that JCP&L paid for this bit of “communications” chicanery earned their money. But now what’s clear is that government and the media have gotten sucked into the idea that “the problem is communications.”

The problem is inability to effectively respond to a major disaster

“Better communication” is a bullshit proposition in a disaster.

Even Governor Christie has been regurgitating JCP&L’s line about “communications” being better. But the only improvement in communications is that initial line about “7-10 days.” It was a fraud. JCP&L did nothing to provide better or more accurate information day by day, much less hour by hour.

Speak up!

New Jersey residents should deluge the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities with complaints. JCP&L is a power and logistics operation, and their logistics ability was demonstrated to be virtually non-existent.

Misdirected road crews

Road crews were driving up roads blocked by downed trees and power lines — and turning around to leave. When crews were questioned, they said they didn’t know the roads were blocked, and that they were in fact on their way to another site. What a complete waste of much-needed resources and time.

Out-of-state crews with no work orders

Residents chatted with out-of-state line workers at local eateries — and were told the crews were waiting for work orders. The out-of-town workers were mystified that they had come so far to handle an emergency — only to be left waiting around with nothing to do while residents suffered without power.

JCP&L road crews with no work orders

Mayor Mark Desire of High Bridge reportedly authorized his police to stop all JCP&L crews driving through his town — and to ask them for their work orders. Drivers reported they had none. They were driving around with nothing to do, waiting for orders. (Mayor Desire reported this during the daily “update call” between mayors, Governor Christie, and JCP&L officials.) Every mayor should have ordered local police to do the same.

Inadequate parts inventory

Lack of parts at JCP&L has left residents without power still — estimates for resumption are no longer “7-10 days.” Lack of replacement transformers is leaving our neighbors in the dark and in the cold. Where is the inventory? JCP&L had plenty of time to warn us about the “7-10 days,” but had no time since Hurricane and the Halloween storm of 2011 Irene to stock up?

The bullshit gets deeper — big schools without power 11+ days

Readington Township’s two largest schools are still without power 11 days after Sandy hit — with no projected restoration date.

According to a Hunterdon Democrat report:

“JCP&L has really blown it,” school board President David Livingston said today, Nov. 8… Livingston said that JCP&L has told township officials that the problem is a substation on Ridge Road where the circuits were ‘destroyed or badly damaged.'”

What is JCP&L saying? Reports the Democrat:

“JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano said this afternoon, ‘There is no issue with the substation or parts. The curcuits that serve the schools are still being worked on,’ including ‘line work along the way.'”

We’ll translate Morano’s public relations doubletalk: “Anything we tell you is complete and utter bullshit. We don’t have parts, we were unprepared, and we have no idea when power will be restored.”

JCP&L had no plan for necessary resources

President Obama and Governor Christie took over logistics for JCP&L last week. (Nice backup if you can get it. Imagine Microsoft or Apple getting technical support via the White House when they “run out.”) Obama and Christie called up work crews from as far away as Los Angeles — and flew them in on military transport planes. Where was JCP&L’s “preparedness?”

Logistics? What’s that?

You can order a music CD on Amazon and 4 hours later you can track its whereabouts by the hour until it gets to your house. JCP&L doesn’t know where its trucks are, or which lines are being repaired, or where a truck is going next?

Calls to JCP&L during the aftermath revealed one thing: The “operators” were doing nothing but repeating the press releases of the day. They said they were not provided with information about where repair trucks were, or which roads were due for repair next, or how long it would take.

That’s not communications. That’s bullshit public relations. And it sure as hell isn’t a disaster plan.

What can you do? Lean on your government leaders.

Press your municipal and county government officials to lead the effort to shut JCP&L down in NJ. There are competitors ready to step in. Create a rigorous review process that requires hard proof a power company can actually handle a situation like Sandy, and select the best. Include penalties it the agreement. We’ll get a better power vendor.

Anything less is excuses — poor management, and poor leadership.

Some of the excuses we’ve heard and read so far from officials are inexcusable — many officials are merely covering up for one of the most powerful companies in the state. Wonder why?

Thrice screwed

It’s quite a coincidence that New Jersey suffered three massive power outages due to storms in two years — two of them at exactly the same time of year.

It’s no coincidence that JCP&L was no better prepared this year than last year. The company simply isn’t in the business of delivering and managing New Jersey’s power needs. It’s time to pull the plug on JCP&L — but government officials won’t do it if residents go back about their business and wait for the next “7-10 day” outage.

File your complaint. Then attend your next municipal government meeting, and your next county freeholder meeting, and demand that your elected officials lead the charge to pull the plug on JCP&L. It’s their job. Or is their job “better communication,” too?

We should demand action, not public relations gambits.

Thousands of New Jersey residents who are JCP&L customers still don’t have power. They’re freezing their asses off. And JCP&L has no plan for a better response next time. And no one is holding the company to account. It will happen again.

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Posted in Hunterdon County, Municipal, State | Leave a comment

3 MMMbarrassment for Clinton Township

Posted on November 5, 2012 by admin

The “3 Ms” running for “re-election” on the Clinton Township school board are an embarrassment:

  • Kevin Maloy
  • Rachel McLaughlin
  • Dan McTiernan

Hundreds of their campaign signs are all over town. The three incumbents have ganged up as a “team” to run against just one other candidate, Jill Setaro, for the three 3-year seats.

The 3 Ms have now out-spent every school board campaign — to block one new candidate from getting elected.

Editorials About The 3 Ms’ Record

In recent months, the press has had a field day with the board of education these “3 Ms” have turned into a mockery:

Express Times: Clinton Township School Board should have been punished for Sunshine Law violations

Hunterdon Review: Taking Sunshine Seriously

Hunterdon Democrat: Sunshine Serves Many Purposes

The Unelected 3 Ms

Keep in mind: The 3 Ms were never elected in the first place. All were apppointed to fill vacant seats. Rachel McLaughlin ran twice before but was rejected both times by voters.

  • Why didn’t they just run as individuals?
  • What are they “protecting” by runnning as an incumbent gang?
  • What do they have against Setaro, who now has to buy signs and “wage” a campaign for a school board seat?

The 3 Ms: Politicizing School Elections

The 3 Ms have now politicized school board elections. Last February, they decided to eliminate school budget elections and to move school board elections to November, supposedly to encourage more people to run for school board. All they did was make it easier to politicize the campaigns — and to block newcomers. This, after Maloy gave a speech about how school board elections should not be political. So, why does Maloy now feel he has to join up with the other Ms to lock out a new person who’d like ot serve on the board?

It’s hard enough to get people to run for the board. This is how the Ms welcome newcomers?

The 3 Ms’ Record

Maloy, McLaughlin, and McTiernan have a record of supporting the misrepresentations, meeting violations, and bullying of board president Jim Dincuff, and pretending that the most criticized school board in New Jersey is doing just fine.

The 3 Ms continue to violate state law after Hunterdon County Prosecutor slams the board of education for multiple violations of the Open Public Meetings Act: Scofflaw School Board Just Can’t Obey The Law: Dincuff’s crew is a mockery

Vote Against 3 MMMbarrassment

Give a newbie a chance — and send a message that you want this school board cleaned up. Vote for Jill Setaro. And then write in two other names to send a signal to the inbred crowd that most of our board members have become. It’s getting tiring watching violations of New Jersey law committed by the board (as found by the county prosecutor) — and now watching them run for re-election “on their records.”

The 3Ms are an MMMbarrassment — and so is ganging up on one other candidate in a Clinton Township school board election!

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Posted in Election 2012, Municipal, Schools | Leave a comment

“The board of education has made some missteps”

Posted on August 30, 2012 by admin

From the Hunterdon Democrat, August 29, 2012:

CLINTON TWP. — Jim Dincuff, president of the board of education, offered an apology to the public in the wake of a recent determination by the county prosecutor that the board had violated the state Open Public Meetings Act during several of its meetings.

The act is also known as the Sunshine Law.

At the Aug. 27 board meeting, Dincuff read from what appeared to a prepared statement, saying, “The board of education has made some missteps on procedural items and would like to apologize for any inconvenience to the public.” [Emphasis added.]

 

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From Life In Hell, Copyright (c) Matt Groening.

 

Kearns said a violation occurred when the board went “into closed/executive session without stating the general nature of the subject to be discussed and stating when the information discussed in the closed session can be expected to be disclosed to the public.”

Another violation occurred because the board failed “to keep reasonably comprehensible minutes of actions taken because the minutes with respect to each of these meetings say that a resolution was passed at the meeting going into closed session and that the reasons for going into closed session were set forth, when in fact they were not.”

The prosecutor explained that there is a discrepancy between what is written in the minutes from the meetings on the three particular dates and the audio recordings of the meetings.
— Hunterdon Democrat, August 29, 2012

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News articles:

Clinton Township School Board should have been punished for Sunshine Law violations, Express-Times

Sunshine serves many purposes, Hunterdon Democrat

Taking sunshine seriously, Hunterdon Review

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Posted in Election 2012, Municipal, Schools, Taxes | Leave a comment

Dincuff: “I said there’s no IRREFUTABLE evidence!”

Posted on August 20, 2012 by admin

At the March 29, 2012 Clinton Township school board meeting, board president Jim Dincuff accused two board members of violating New Jersey state ethics rules. According to the Hunterdon County Prosecutor, Dincuff then violated the Open Public Meetings Act, N.J.S.A. 10:4-13(a) and N.J.S.A. 10:4-13(b), and took the entire board into an illegal executive session to continue his browbeating of “two specific board members” with his accusations.

Dincuff later disclosed that he was accusing Marc Freda and Michelle Sullivan.

Dincuff has no evidence — because Freda and Sullivan did nothing wrong

In subsequent, well-documented board meetings, Dincuff responded to Freda’s and Sulivan’s demand that he put up or shut up. They demanded to know his evidence, because both denied the accusations. Dincuff folded like a wet rag:

When prompted by both Freda and Sullivan as to whether he had any plans to file formal complaints against them, the board president said, “I think in order to file an official complaint, one needs to have irrefutable evidence” that confidentiality was breached. “At this point I don’t think I see that.”
— Hunterdon Review, April 24, 2012

Found guilty of violating New Jersey law himself, Dincuff explains the fine points of “IRREFUTABLE evidence”

At an August 14 “goals setting meeting,” conducted in violation of N.J.S.A. 10:4-12 because Dincuff failed to include a statutorily-required public comment section, Freda explained why he and Sullivan had twice asked the board to make a resolution retracting Dincuff’s accusations — since Dincuff, as board president, speaks for the entire board. And since Dincuff has no evidence to file charges.

Dincuff interrupts Freda — and says (this is not a typo): “I never said there’s no evidence. I said there’s no irrefutable evidence!”

Duh.

Well, that explains it.

That explains why Dincuff and the rest of the board have refused to apologize to Freda and Sullivan — while they deliberate their “Core Values.”

Do they need to be knocked in the head with a dummy stick to understand that what Dincuff really means is he doesn’t have a dead rat’s ass worth of evidence? And that’s why he hasn’t “filed a complaint” while he has dragged the entire board into a dark, dark place? [Sorry, due to editorial policy we could use only a live rat. No animals were hurt during the production of this blog posting. -Ed.]

But Dincuff makes it crystal clear who he was accusing — and he wants an apology from them for whatever it is there’s no irrefutable evidence for:

That’s the president of your school board talking — who then revealed what’s really troubling him:

Board members are talking to their constituents without notifying Dincuff and without getting his advance permission:

Freda made it very clear to Dincuff at the August 14 meeting that “I have expressed no confidential information outside of executive session.” Never mind that the executive session in question was conducted by Dincuff illegally — and is thus not protected to begin with.

[Disclosure: The editor of this blog has had communications during 2012 with board members Kevin Maloy, Rachel McLaughlin, Kevin Sturges, Michelle Sullivan, Marc Freda, Jim Dincuff, Michelle Cresti, Maria Grant, and Daniel McTiernan.]

Following the exchange with Dincuff, the rest of the board members — Michelle Sullivan was absent — proceeded to verbally attack Freda. Maria Grant suggested that Freda make a motion for the board to launch an investigation against himself.

But there is no irrefutable evidence

No one produced a shred of evidence to back up Dincuff.

Is the board suffering from collective insanity?

Yes. Irrefutably.

Just listen to their meetings, read their meeting minutes, and consider that after being cited by Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns, III for repeatedly violating the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, they continue to break the law as if… the majority of them are looney tunes?

 

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School board attorney spins Prosecutor’s findings

Posted on August 18, 2012 by admin

The Clinton Township school board’s official spokesperson, attorney Vito Gagliardi, is misleading the board and the public about Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns, III’s findings that the board violated the Open Public Meetings Act multiple times on multiple occasions.

At the July 23 school board meeting, Gagliardi spins the Prosecutor’s findings. He says that “the Prosecutor’s Office agreed with our assessment,” as if the board had brought its own violations to the attention of the Prosecutor. But that’s not true.

In a July 11 letter to the school board, the Prosecutor found the board created meeting minutes out of whole cloth: “It is particularly troubling that this pattern of non-disclosure at the public meetings is followed by minutes that wrongly state that the disclosures were made.”

Gagliardi even tries to turn the “troubling” misinformation the Prosecutor found in the meeting minutes into a grand gesture by the business administrator to provide “more specific minutes” than were required.

Here’s the spin

Audio clip from the July 23 school board meeting — Gagliardi speaking to the board:



Transcript:

“The Prosecutor’s Office agreed with our assessment, that is, that the three executive sessions at issue were commenced with a flawed resolution that ironically was compounded by minutes that were more specific than the resolution. That is to say, ironic in the sense that the allegations that the board is somehow trying to conduct business in secret are belied by the fact that the business administrator made the minutes more specific than the actual motion to go into executive session to provide the public with the information that the citizen alleges the public was denied.”

Say what???

If you understand this hundreds-of-dollars-an-hour doubletalk about what’s “ironic” and “belied,” drop us a note with a translation.

Here’s what actually happened

The meeting minutes were not “more specific than the actual motion to to into executive session.” The business administrator added words to the minutes that misrepresent what was in the motion. The Prosecutor explains it simply:

“These entries create the impression that all items above labeled ‘a’ through ‘d’ were discussed during the public portion of the meeting. A review of the audio recordings for each of these meetings proves that they were not.”

“The problem is that these entries do not reflect what actually happened at the February 27, March 26, and March 29 meetings.”

That is, the permanent minutes “wrongly state” the meetings.

Who authorized paying a lawyer to spin the violations?

The chair of the school board’s “communications committee” is Maria Grant. She has not explained who authorized spending legal fees for public relations purposes — and there is no record of the board authorizing funds for this expenditure.

Misinformation: This is la-la land

When will the spin and the steady gush of misinformation from this school board stop? When will board president Jim Dincuff issue an apology for falsely accusing board members Freda and Sullivan of ethics violations? When will Dincuff issue an apology for spending $247,310 of tax relief funds after he promised to put it “toward tax relief?”

When will the board just issue an apology for violating the law and explain how it happened? After spinning its meeting minutes, the board is now “ironically” paying a lawyer to spin the story of the violations:

Everything is just fine in our fair school district! No worries in La-La Land!

The school board’s policy toward the public is now clear: We do whatever we want, regardless of the law, regardless of violations, then we spend legal fees to spin it all into doubletalk that you can’t understand, and we never apologize to anyone for anything. School board Uber Alles.

(The complete recording of the July 23 board meeting is available on the school district’s website.)

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Scofflaw School Board Just Can’t Obey The Law: Dincuff’s crew is a mockery

Posted on August 15, 2012 by admin

Oh, no! They did it again!

Jim Dincuff’s Clinton Township school board violated the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), N.J.S.A. 10:4-12.

The fourth time in three months — and all after they voted never to do it again.

Last night, at the August 14, 2012 board meeting, president Dincuff failed to set aside a portion of the meeting for public comment, as required by law. According to a member of the audience:

“They didn’t have any sort of motion necessary to ask
for public comment.”
— Nicole Alliegro

The OPMA says that:

“A board of education shall be required to set aside a portion of every meeting… for public comment.”
— N.J.S.A. 10:4-12

The law doesn’t say, When the board feels like it. Or, When we think somebody in the audience wants to speak. There might be no one in the audience — the law still requires a public comment section. The agenda for the meeting did not announce a public comment period, either. The purpose of the meeting, according to the agenda, was “to review core values and Board Goals.”

Now it’s just a mockery

Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns, III, just got done warning Dincuff that his board has to start obeying the law.

The board just hired a brand new, $120,000 business administrator/board secretary to oversee public meetings.

And the board’s attorney, Vito Gagliardi, just got done promising the Prosecutor, the press, and the public that the violations won’t be repeated.

At this point, is it useful to do anything but mock the board? Their behavior has become one childish dumb-show after another.

Why don’t they set as Core Value #1: The Law Is Important. And Goal #1: Obey The Policeman Every Day. And Rule #1: Stop peeing wherever you feel like when you think no one is watching. We can see you.

Hey, look over there!

Gagliardi, designated by Dincuff as the school board’s official spokesperson, referred to the board’s problem behavior as “technical violations that have been remedied” and made a commitment on behalf of the board:

“I don’t think that anything like this (will be) repeated… I’m happy it’s come to a successful conclusion.”
Hunterdon Democrat, July 27, 2012

In other words, “Hey, look over there!” while Dincuff does it again on August 14. (Cute butt.)

An unrepentant Dincuff

Notably, when the school board passed a resolution on May 14, 2012 promising to stop violating the OPMA, board president Dincuff didn’t offer so much as an explanation, much less an apology, to the public for his board’s behavior.

Perhaps he figured he’d wait until he got busted again for breaking the same law. Or until the entire board gets fed up with being spanked again and again for his failure to manage the school board properly.

May 14

The same evening the board passed its new resolution promising to obey the OPMA, Dincuff asked for a motion to go into executive session — and the board violated the OPMA, N.J.S.A. 10:4-13(b). Attorney Gagliardi was present on the dais and didn’t say a word.

May 19

Just five days after the resolution to obey the OPMA, Dincuff’s board broke the same section of the OPMA it broke last night: N.J.S.A. 10:4-12. A portion of the meeting was not set aside for public comment.

The agenda for that meeting shows no public comment was planned, even though it was required. The official, approved minutes of that meeting confirm that no public comment was held. Oops! Made another wee-wee… That’s two in one week. Call the policeman.

June 4

Just three weeks after voting to obey the OPMA, on June 4 Dincuff took the board into executive session — again in violation of the OPMA, N.J.S.A. 10:4-13(b) — to privately interview candidates for the business administrator and board secretary positions. The board also violated N.J.S.A. 10:4-14, by reporting statements in the official minutes that were never uttered in the meeting. Is the board smarter than a fifth grader? That’s three strikes! Who told???

August 14

As reported above, they broke the law again last night, in the middle of coming up with Core Values and Goals. Clearly, the consultant the board hired, Pam Fiander, doesn’t know the law, either — or maybe she’d have suggested Follow The Law should be Core Value #1. Maybe they should hire a lawyer for another Goals meeting — so they can develop some Legal Goals. No peeing on the law!

How many times before Dincuff is OUT?

This is what it’s come to. The devil made us do it! Who told???

How many times does board president Jim Dincuff have to violate the Open Public Meetings Act before he’s ruled OUT?

How long will eight members of the school board keep letting Dincuff make fools of them? How long will they keep making fools of themselves?

How much public money has to be spent on a lawyer to act as a spokesperson, so Dincuff can avoid facing the public and the press to explain why he keeps pissing all over the the public’s right to open public meetings?

Oh, yeah?

On July 11, 2012 — just over a month ago — Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony Kearns, III found the board violated the OPMA on multiple occasions in February and March of this year. Kearns said in a letter to board attorney Vito Gagliardi:

“Since this matter represents the first time that we have been advised of a potential OPMA violation, our purpose at this point is simply to bring this matter to your attention so that you may properly advise your client of its obligations under the OPMA, its obligation to make truthful minutes of meetings under OPMA and other statutes, and that this Office takes such matters seriously.”

 

“Gagliardi said the school board is ‘very pleased that the prosecutor’s office saw fit not to take any further action beyond that letter.’”
Hunterdon Review, July 17, 2012

No kidding, Dick Tracy!

Looks like Dincuff and his board — How do we say this bluntly in New Jersey? — don’t give a rat’s ass what the law requires. And if board Attorney Vito Gagliardi has given the board leaders a crash-course in the Open Public Meetings Act — You’d think he would give them a crib sheet to follow — they must have failed it.

Looks like the good faith warning from the Prosecutor didn’t go far.

We’re not as smart as fifth graders. You got a problem with that?

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Maria Grant: Who cares what the school board voted to do?

Posted on August 7, 2012 by admin

The Clinton Township school board has already been warned by County Prosecutor Kearns that it’s a no-no to vote to do one thing, then do something else.

It’s never clear what the Clinton Township school board means to communicate to the public, and Maria Grant — the chair of the board’s “communications committee” — doesn’t seem to care what the board votes to communicate anyway. (When reporting on her notorious “online surveys” Grant doesn’t even bother to tally up all the data before making conclusions about what “the public” wants.)

The school board writes a letter

Since you don’t attend school board meetings, to understand the problem you need to listen to the official audio recording of the last meeting — July 23, 2012. The board voted to authorize a letter to the editor from the board of education — to explain, long after the fact, why it paid a jackpot 40% salary increase to hire a new business administrator who came from a district 1/5 the size of CTSD. The attorney specifically advises the board that it should vote on the letter.

This is from the last few minutes of the meeting. (The whole meeting is archived on the school district’s own website.)

“This [the letter] will come from the entire board?” asks board president Jim Dincuff.

“Yes, and Dr. Clark,” says Maria Grant.

Then attorney Vito Gagliardi says:

“In terms of talking to the press and whether you’re authorized to speak on behalf of the board… The idea is to submit this letter to the editor on behalf of the board. In order to do so, the board needs to formally approve it, hence the vote.”

Dincuff drives the point home. This letter will be from the board, not from any individual:

“I could have sent this out as an individual, Jim Dincuff, member of the Clinton Township board not speaking [sic], Maria Grant could have sent it out as an individual, as a member of the board, but not speaking on behalf of the board. Our feeling was that it was more powerful and more meaningful if there was a motion and it came from the board of education.”

All that discussion — repeatedly making it explicitly clear that this communication will be from the board because no one else is authorized to speak for the board in that letter.

But the letter isn’t from the board

Have a listen to this section of the meeting:

But the letter to the editor is not from the board. It’s from Superintendent Drucilla Clark.

But the board did not authorize a letter from Clark.

So, who authorized the letter from Dr. Clark that actually appeared in the Hunterdon Democrat? Not the board. The board’s name isn’t on it.

Who’s in charge of what the board actually does?

It’s clear that someone is in control — but it’s not the board. Why is Drucilla Clark issuing a statement in her name? Dincuff makes it clear in the meeting that Maria Grant is in charge of the letter:

Who authorized Grant to put Clark’s name on the letter, and not issue it from the entire board?

This board does not control its own behavior.

(We saw that last year, when a select few on the board decided to keep $247,310 of state aid intended for tax relief, without consulting the entire board!) Whoever is driving this bus keeps driving it into the ditch. They can’t even get a letter out.

Is anyone surprised when taxpayers and parents question how the school board manages $30 million of our taxes and the education of our kids? The driver of this bus is asleep at the wheel, meeting after meeting.

No doubt the letter will be “corrected.” After it was issued and published online. Maybe Dincuff will blame the Democrat.

Here’s how your money is spent — after it’s spent

But the bigger point is addressed by board member Marc Freda in the audio. He points out the board should have discussed all the points that are in the letter — but in a public meeting before the board voted to spend $120,000 to hire a business adminisrator making $85,384.

“We’re playing catch-up” says Freda.

And he’s right. If they’d discussed the matter publicly and above-board when they should have, then they wouldn’t need to go through this joke of a “discussion” about a letter after the fact. A letter that doesn’t address the main issues anyway. That isn’t even from the school board.

More of The Same: Act now, make up “explanations” later

Last March, the school board approved a new budget that included over $1.5 million of spending increases — while the number of Clinton Towship students had dropped dramatically. Just before the board voted to approve the extra spending, a taxpayer asked Where is the $1.5 million?

Then-board member Mark Kaplan, chair of the finance committee, explained where the extra funds were. The money had already been spent.

Even when the leadership of this district tries to clean up its own mess, they slip and fall in it.

On June 11, 2012, the school board paid a salary raise to hire a single administrator that’s almost as much as it spends to hire a starting teacher. A 40% increase — $34,616. The board didn’t discuss a word of its decision in public. It was all done in “executive session.” They voted quickly with no deliberation.

Now the board issues a letter — almost two months after the fact — to “explain.” Except the letter and the explanation isn’t from the school board.

Line up the letters — and the apologies

Board president Jim Dincuff still needs to issue a public apology to board members Marc Freda and Michelle Sullivan after falsely accusing them of “ethics violations” to punish their NO votes on the indefensible school budget. Good luck. Dincuff hasn’t got the guts or the integrity. And he has already publicly admitted he has no evidence.

The board voted to issue a letter to the editor from the board. Grant sent it out from an individual.

The next letter needs to be a public apology from communications committee chair Maria Grant — to the rest of the board and to the community, for once again playing games with “communications” from the board. Grant should issue it before she starts issuing her campaign literature next time she runs for re-election.

Doesn’t Clinton Township deserve a break already from this constant mis-management?

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