The City of Middletown has filed for an injunction against the Middletown Board of Education.
According to Board of Education chairman Ted Raczka, the city is seeking to prevent the Board from destroying, altering or removing documents pertaining to financial accounts at the School Administration building.
"As if we were going to alter or destroy documents that are protected by state and federal statute," said Raczka who was en route to the courthouse to arrange scheduling.
Yesterday, Raczka characterized the ongoing controversy as "sad."
"It is politics at it's worst," Raczka said, referring to an order written Tuesday to terminate all non-certified BOE employee who were hired outside of labor contracts negotiated by the city. "We have the mayor saying 'I'm taking these positions back,' firing these people."
"This should be done properly, and compassionately," Democratic majority leader, and Common Council member Thomas Serra said Wednesday. "To dismiss them is not compassionate in the least. If there is a problem, then there should be an appropriate and proper process. It should be adjudicated in a more professional manner."
"Middletown is becoming the laughingstock of the state," Serra said. "To go forward as judge and jury as the mayor has done is powermongering. From the Council's viewpoint we should move cautiously to consider the allegations that have been made. We need to pursue a forensic audit of Board of Education finances, and then move forward to consider a change in charter language so this situation doesn't arise again."
Serra called Mayor Sebastian Giuliano's approach "gestapo tactics."
"I really resent this, that we have a circus instigated by a government that is acting in a dictatorial and totalitarian fashion," Serra said. "We have legitimate concerns, of course. But the first thing we should do, and I don't know if it's been done, is to lock the hard drives on all appropriate Board of Education computers. This is the 21st century. To have police guarding lockers filled with paper records is not the appropriate process."
Raczka cited state statute which states that the Board of Education is responsible for all property for school uses, including care, maintenance and operation as evidence that the mayor's assignment of police guards in the Board of Education building is illegal.
"I have tried to get an appointment to speak with the mayor, since his payroll proposal was first made," Raczka said. "But I've been put off. This is not the way to solve the problem. Politics is about the art of compromise. I don't get any sense of compromise here."
8 comments:
and the common citizen is paying the bill for this power stuggle between these people. That goes for both sides of this. This is money that could be spent on education the children of our town. Shame on all of you!
"To have police guarding lockers filled with paper records is not the appropriate process."
Really? What if the paper records include information that is not stored electronically?
Councilman Serra,
When making refernce to the council as an entire enity, expressing your point of view, please do not include those who have not been included in your discussions. There are 12 council members. In the article you are only referring to the majority members. "Council" refers to 12 members, not 8 members.
Deborah Kleckowski
Member of the Middletown Common Council- Republican
Rackza is acting like a man with something to hide. The BOE may operate the buildings, but the City owns them. And Cops are often called in to potential crime scenes to preserve evidence. He needs to grow up and start cooperating with an investigation into potential criminal activities within his organization. If the CEO of Kleen energy acted this way we'd all call for his head on a platter.
Now hold on just a minute. I've been reading about how the democratic council and BOE leadership has been saying this is all blown out of proportion, there is no need to post a guard, etc.
Now we have Councilman Serra saying that instead, we should be sure that the hard drives are locked on the Board of Ed computers? That sounds like he agrees that there is a risk that records will be tampered with.
I was not at the Board of Ed meeting at Tuesday, but I hope that at least one member asked the superintendent directly if there were any cases where the school district did not spend or return funds at the end of any school year under his tenure. And also - is there any reason why an audit would show a discrepancy between how we intended to spend funds and how they were spent?
Are all the school board members in agreement on the response to the police presence? Do any of them have concerns about the possibility of records being destroyed or removed?
posting a police officer is just a cautionary measure. what if evidence was destroyed and shredded, then the mayor and police would be blamed for not preserving a possible crime scene. if the BOE is innocent, the audit will prove it. Pete is right, Rackza is acting like he's hiding something. And Serra is just acting plain ignorant. wanting to lock hard drives, but the blasts the mayor for protecting paperwork and evidence...isn't that a contradiction..somebody put a filter on this guy.
Folks this is just business as usual in Middletown! The whole thing isn't gonna get us anywhere....meanwhile, regarding the money being spent on this "cautionary measure", I'd rather have our fireworks back!
Hurray for the MAYOR; ita about time the BoE has toanswer to what's going on with finances. If Raczka and the BoE have nothing to hide why are they so concernd about a lockdown. Or is there a problem. Was there a hand in the cookie jar. Raczka grow up; you wanted the BoE job now act like a responsible elected official. If there is no problem then what are you worried about. Or is there a problem?
Gramps
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