Dear Editor:
The mayor and the councils displeasure in our Superintendent Cynthis Randina and the staff she has put together is a matter of record. Each accusing the other of lack in communication and/or distorting of facts presented to each other. Similar the path to the Secaucus Education Association, (SEA) established ever since the Superintendent arrived on the scene.
Established on what I consider misleading information and distorted information given the mayor has deemed it necessary to cut the budget $1,499.725.00. Face it, in my opinion, (one of nine trustees on this Board,) the mayor and councils halfhearted support of this budget has lead us to the position they are now in, their prerogative, the mayors problem.
Mayor Gonnelli and Councilman John B. Bueckner, at the May 19 meeting, made a last minute grandstand attempt at damage control. Their devastating cuts to the budget were too severe and they knew it. When John Bueckner singled me out in an attempt to coax me into an argument, saying, I’m paraphrasing, you always have so much to say at council meetings, why are you so silent now I knew that my silence along with my fellow board members silence, keeping our emotions in check, had gotten to them. Mayor and council, you are now in a position where you are calling the shots. I will not allow you to forget that. The more they say the Board is on the wrong track the more I will enjoy proving them wrong. This will not be the first. Check my record.
Mayor Gonnelli you can not win this one, you have left yourself open to any wanna-be candidate to attack you on this issue down the line. I can assure you it will not be me. Who will it be? Time will tell. To support what I believe might have played a part in the Mayor Gonnellis decision process, I submit the following.
In 1991, the school budget was defeated. Newly elected board trustee, by the name of Dennis Elwell said to Mayor Amico Quote: “A lot of people voted against the budget and the amount you cut was a little bit.” I think the people gave you a mandate for at least a ten percent cut and you cut less then one percent.” Howie Elwell, his father speaking at a council meeting call the budget cut, Quote: “an insult” “You should have started with a twenty percent cut and worked down to ten percent.”
As one of nine members on this Board, I will work with the figures place before me, unlike the newly elected Board of Ed. Trustee did in 1991. Has Mayor Gonnelli cut wisely? Time will tell.
Tom Troyer
P.S. Do you think Mayor Gonnelli in 2011 learned something from former Mayor Amico, experience back in 1991?