At a special meeting Tuesday night, the Hoboken Board of Education approved two major moves – it accepted the resignation of board member David Anthony so he could take a paid position as board secretary, and appointed Ron Rosenberg to fill his vacated unpaid board position.
The moves were questioned by a number of parents and residents, who have long believed that political patronage has driven up the cost of education and has led Hoboken to have some of the highest administrative costs in the state. The school district spent $15,589 per pupil last year, the most in the county.
David Anthony, however, has served unpaid on the board for 11 years, during which time the board kept taxes down.
Anthony resigns, then hired
According the motion that was passed Tuesday, Anthony has been hired for $39,500 to become the board part-time secretary; a job that he says will require about 20 to 25 hours per week. He also works full-time as a manager for the Department of Motor Vehicles in North Bergen. With 11 years on the board, Anthony is the second-longest tenured member.
Normally, according to the Board of Education’s by-laws, a board member is ineligible for appointment to a paid office or position in the district for at least six months after the member’s resignation. The rule is in place to ensure that members of the board do not unfairly profit from their elected position.
But according to the board attorney, “one of the very few” positions that is exempted from this rule is board secretary, a position that involves writing meeting notices and agendas, and maintaining the district’s records. In the past, those duties were handled by the board’s Business Administrator, Anthony Curko, but Curko is on leave using up his sick days before retirement. Curko received a stipend for the double duty.
Some members of the “reform” community worry that Anthony’s hiring is political payback for his support of Mayor David Roberts earlier this year.
Not so, said Anthony at Tuesday’s meeting. “My life as a board member has gone full cycle,” Anthony said. “The [high school] graduating class this year was just entering first grade when I started. As these students move on to a new challenge in life, so will I. I also took my service on the board very seriously and take being board secretary very seriously.”
The measure passed with five members voting in favor, and four abstaining. Board President Carmelo Garcia said that he was “uncomfortable with the procedure” and worried that the hiring might be against the board by-laws.
Garcia had recently been angry with Anthony over the prospect, and during an argument with Anthony the week before, he smashed his hand into a wall and broke it.
Rosenberg in
The resignation of Anthony left open on the nine-member board. Ron Rosenberg was nominated Tuesday night. Rosenberg has lived in Hoboken for the past 25 years and has been involved in a number of civic activities. He has long been a leader at the United Synagogue of Hoboken and was active in People for Open Government. Last year he was active in advocating a public “pay to play” referendum, which was passed by the public by a nine to one margin.
Rosenberg holds an MBA in finance and strategic planning from New York University and has extensive corporate experience in those fields. He currently operates his own Hoboken-based computer components business.
Rosenberg was born in Jerusalem, Israel and is a former member of the Israeli Air Force.
He has also run for City Council twice, once in 2003 in the 1st Ward and once this year as an at-large councilman on Board of Education member Frank Raia’s ticket.
“[Rosenberg] is an intelligent man that I think can help this district a lot,” said board member Raia, who made the nomination. “I can tell you this man is a good man.”
Not a slam dunk
His selection, though, was not without controversy.
Board member Wanda Alicea made a motion that Rosenberg’s appointment be tabled so that the board could accept resumes and interview members of the public who might be interested in the position.
Alicia’s motion was voted down, with only Alicea and Garcia supporting it.
Theresa Minutillo, who earlier this year came in fourth as an independent in the Board of Education elections, said that such an important decision should not have been made behind closed doors. She added that, if given the opportunity, she would like to have submitted her resume for the vacant position.
“I think there should be more public input into the process,” she said. “I think [the board] should have taken more time.”
The board could have taken up to 60 days after Anthony’s resignation.
Some have also questioned the political aspects of the appointment. During a heated runoff earlier this year, Raia, who was unsuccessful in his own mayoral bid, strongly supported the incumbent Roberts in the runoff. The selection of Rosenberg, in many political circles, is seen as payback for Raia’s support over the summer.
Another hurdle that Rosenberg will have to overcome to gain the full support of the public concerns a statement he made during a debate when he ran for the City Council in 2003. During the debate he said that the Hoboken public school system “sucked,” which rubbed many in the school system the wrong way.
Tuesday night, Rosenberg apologized for his statement.
“Next month is the highest of Jewish holidays, primarily because we have time to reflect not only on our lives but on our relationships with others,” he aid. “I have to tell you folks that I started this process and I have reflected long and hard – I am guilty of a transgression. It’s those little three words that you know me so well by that were said it in a moment of passion in a 30-second political debate. I have regretted those words for a very long time. I apologize to all that I hurt.”
But he added that the district still has room for improvement. “I have witnessed the great improvements that we have done under [Superintendent of Schools Patrick] Gagliardi,” he said. “Our scores are up, and I have toured the schools and found them to be interesting, fascinating and welcoming, but I am not pleased to be in the middle, in the average. I would love to be associated with top school districts in the state of New Jersey.”
Decided in the dark
While the public just got wind of this move about a week ago, it seems as though there had been deal making orchestrated by the Roberts’ administration for several weeks.
According to sources close to the board, on Monday, Sept. 5, at least five members of the board were called to City Hall. According to the state Sunshine Law, it is illegal for a majority of any government board to meet unless that meeting is open to the public and properly noticed. But a common way to get around the letter of the law is to rotate the members in and out of the room.
At that meeting, a master plan for changes in the Board of Education was discussed. Elements of the plan were for Superintendent of School Patrick Gagliardi to retire in two years (which he is now set to do). Gagliardi has four years left on his contract, so the district will have to buy out the final two years of his contract, which will likely cost $300,000, or more.
Also discussed was the plan for Anthony to resign and for Rosenberg to be appointed. In fact, according to sources inside City Hall, this discussion became so heated that Anthony and Garcia got in a loud verbal argument in the Mayor Conference Room, after which Garcia struck a door out of anger, breaking his hand.
Some in the good government community believe that such a meeting where board business is discussed is against the intent of the law.
“It’s clearly illegal,” said Hoboken parent and acting President of the Calabro School PTO John Madigan. He added that those types of discussions should take place before the public, or else patronage and political deal-making runs rampant.
Likewise, Minutillo said the public has a right to know about how decisions are made and how appointments are selected.
Board member Jack Raslowsky, who has been rumored to be on the short list for next superintendent of schools, said, “I think there is a need for us all to have some honesty and transparency with this.” But he added that there has long been a political aspect of governance that involves discussion between board members.
He said many of the people who were critical of the board Tuesday have been guilty in the past of benefiting from the political process.
“The political process was fine when we were running for election, the political process was fine when we sought out endorsements, but now all of the sudden it’s dirty and problematic,” he said. “You can’t have it both ways.”