Once again the Board or Education and the mayor are sparring over control. Tuesday, Mayor Sebastian Giuliano sent city IT (Information Technology) workers to disable the Board of Education ability to issue checks on computers in the Board of Education offices.
"I think it's outrageous that they disabled our computer system," Board of Education chairman Ted Raczka said Thursday. "Two policeman arrived to seize equipment saying they were there by the authority of the mayor and that they could take the computers because they were city property in a city building."
"The police accompanied IT Director Bill Oliver," Giuliano said. "He was there to disable the ability of the Board of Education to issue payroll checks."
According to Raczka, the BOE attorney Christine Chinni happened to be on site and questioned the authority of the officer to seize equipment without a warrant. Oliver and the officers took two networking cards from the Board of Ed, according to Raczka.
"I don't need a warrant to take those computers," Giuliano said. "They are city property, in a building that is city property, and it's within my authority as executive officer of the city to move that equipment."
This is not the first dispute the mayor has had with the BOE over who has authority in Board of Education buildings, and over non-education employees working at the Board of Education but employed by the city.
"They were using city software for which our license had run out," Giuliano said. "Our finance department will be issuing all payroll checks, and they (the BOE) were attempting to operate a system which gave them access to our information, and allowed them to issue checks. By using their duplicate system they were attempting to do what the city is supposed to do. And in the process they cut off the system for Adult Ed."
"We received no notice of the city's intent to change the system," Raczka said. "I haven't talked to the mayor about these issues since we left court. And now we've added to our complaint against the city asking the court to prevent them from hacking our system."
Giuliano said that part of his motivation for bringing the payroll function entirely under the city's auspices was that the BOE had locked the payroll supervisor, Christine Bourne, out of her office at the Board of Ed, thereby preventing her from doing her job. Bourne, who is also the city treasurer, is a union employee, hired by the city and a member of local 466. Giuliano said that the Superintendent locked her out of her office on grounds that she had seriously violated confidentiality. Bourne is now working out of an office in City Hall.
"The payroll checks will go out today, but they'll go out from here," Giuliano said, indicating that they would be issued from City Hall. "The bank has been informed to only honor communication and checks issued by our system."
Giuliano said he was not sure if there would be two sets of payroll checks issued this week, one from the city and one from the Board of Ed.
"I doubt it," Giuliano said. "Ours are the only checks that will be honored."
This dispute begain when the Board of Ed's IT department discovered that the check-issuing system had been disabled, and that a firewall had been placed between the BOE system and the city system.
"It disabled our ability to process any checks at all, payroll or invoice," Raczka said.
"If there was going to be a change in process, I would have thought we would recieve notice," Raczka said. "But it's always the same thing. Always in the middle of the night, or at the last minute and no warning. I don't understand it. It borders on bizarre behavior."
16 comments:
Please, tell me this pitiful report is from a foreign country.
Seb must think he's Saddam Hussein.
Right or wrong, the Middletown Police aren't the Mayor's private goon squad and it's ridiculously unfair to them to ask them to be.
How far down does the bar have to go down on this BS? Seb is certainly looking like a dictator. Let the BOE hire their own employees! Change the city charter! If you ran a businees, wouldn't you want a say of who works for you? When this is all over with (hopefully soon) I hope the court finally decides who has the bigger one. After all, that's what this is really about.....not the children of our city.
In addition, Bill Oliver (city IT) should check where his own employees are all day.
this tit for tat has to stop.Teacher getting punched in the face, SRO still out of the buildings because the BOE wants to tell any officer when to be an officer, there have been other incidents of violence that we do not know about,and drugs from the reports our children send home every day from keigwin up, it is time to stop placing Staff and students in harms way.
Having checks issued from one source is common in Ct municipalities just not done in Mayor Seb way.
What is the BOE afraid of having checks issued in a cenral place for the whole city, that will save city tax dollars, fully understand being upset by the methodology the Mayor uses, but, he does get the BOE attention quickly. Are they afraid of accountability for spending?
The Superintendent and BOE Chair are just as guilty as the Mayor it is time for the rest of the BOE to say enough convene a joint meeting with the Common Council and Mayor in public and resolve the issues instead of spending money on lawyers to see who can waste the most money in these recessionary times.
It is sad that it has come to this. It is really as shame that the mayor has to resort to such covert behavior. Shouldn't government be transparent? Lately, it seems the mayor has been secretive about things, i.e. board of ed, chief of police selection. Our public officials owe it to the taxpayers to be at least upfront with governmental actions.
What an irrational and dishonorable use of the Mayor's office. This is an outrage.
Thanks to the mayor for paving the way for BoE accountability. Its about time that we the tax payers get to know how the BoE spends our tax money.
GRAMPS
Every day the mayor brings more shame and embarrassment to Middletown.
Good for the Mayor. The BOE is always doing shady things, and it's time they lost the ability to do that.
The funny thing is, everyone here who posts that "BOE" isn't basically doing whatever the "City" wants clearly has no clue about School Law. The Mayor, the City, and all the city unions have ZERO input on how Boards spend their appropriation. It's State LAW. Not anything "shady". Get an education, then you'll understand.
Richard This is out of control. Mayor out of his mind!
Caesar and his Praetorian Guard.
Can you spell BULLY? The Mind Police rush in like Chapin's Keystone Kops and seize school property wihout a warrant.The paper gets it all wrong again about the date of hire for the poor people that the mayor fired in his mad grab for more and more power....Bourne fudges it about being locked out of her office when actually she was not allowed back into her office because a firewall was put up by the mayor's minions.She also must be a spy for City Hall.. And the poor people let go?They are only pawns in the game...Does this tiny once proud city have no shame?
"Hacking our system" - Are you kidding me?!? The BOE has installed spyware to read all the employees' e-mails -- what's next Michael, a loyalty oath?
I think that the BOE needs a good cleaning up. Chairman its time for you to step down! The BOE is more about politics than anything else, all Democrats on the board except 1 minority Republican. Hmmmm....
So Seb decides to exercise his right as Mayor. Good for him. But he's not an angel either. Why has Middletown become such a drama town. BOE with issues. The Mayor having issues. The Chief of Police having issues. The list goes on. We need new blood with new agendas.
I think the soul of town is groaning in its own sickness.
Perhaps the BOE IT dept. was backing up BOE emails as required by State law? Was the town afraid of this being done to them?
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