Look for the news story on tonight’s Atlantic Highlands Council meeting which will be on VeniVidiScripto tomorrow once I get the resolution that was unanimously adopted tonight. But suffice it to say actions at the meeting certainly raised a lot of things that make me wonder.. like Ghosts, Labor Attorneys, Mediation, Sea Bright (in or out), and who’s running this … circus show
Mediation
In essence, the Mayor and Council agreed to do the mediation with Highlands, maybe Sea Bright, they said they were going to do a couple of months ago and for which they long since retained a mediator about regionalization of the schools. They said it again at this meeting in a formally adopted resolution that was not available for the public to read, though it was read to them. Under terms of the resolution, the borough will enter into mediation with Highlands, maybe Sea Bright it seemed to me, and first of all approve regionalization of the three schools in the town towns already under one superintendent. Then, if Sea Bright doesn’t have any legal problems with Oakhurst, they’ll also include regionalization with them.
Last week, the three boards of education voted to put the question of making the present 7-12 district into a pre-K-12 district for the two towns first, and if everything works out ok, then let Sea Bright come in at some unknown time in the future. They want to put the question on the ballot in a special election two months before the regular November election.
Last night, the Atlantic Highlands Council said they’d like to get the question on the ballot in the November election if all is settled.
Does that mean two elections in two months by two different groups on the same subject? Nobody could answer that last night.
So now it’s all clear. You shoulda been there!
Giacobbe the Ghost
The council had announced an executive session at the very beginning of the meeting to get advice from their special attorney, the missing Matthew Giacobbe. Purpose of that executive session was to get an update from Mr. Giacobbe.
If he were there at all…how would the public know, it was executive session and to their credit, Council moved to a different room rather than make the public stand out in the hall like Henry Hudson does…..but they apparently heard advice from him. A zoom meeting? Maybe? A telephone call? Perhaps. In person? A possibility, but if that was the case, he scooted in and out of the building sight unseen by the people paying his fee.
Giacobbe the Labor Attorney
All that was made clear is that this LABOR attorney, who is being paid by the taxpayers of Atlantic Highlands, had something more important than these taxpayers and the decision they have been trying to make for several years now.
So once again, the paid attorney did not have the time or apparent interest to talk with the taxpayers or listen to their questions. Everything he had to say was said in secret to the officials who hired them … with the money from the people he did not have the time to talk to or listen to.
Doesn’t this council even care Mr. Giacobbe can’t face the people of their town? It makes me wonder whether he made the plans which were more important than Atlantic Highlands after being advised there was a meeting when they needed his advice? Or did he have his plans first and Council still decided to have the meeting, the public be damned? Couldn’t they have set a more convenient time so he really could be here?
Mr. Giacobbe said in the past he’s a labor attorney, and that was the first thing that made me wonder when he was hired by the governing body to work out the financial aspect. Even this year, when they hired a new finance attorney, they kept the labor attorney on the regionalization financial issue…even though he is so busy he even had to rush away from a previous ZOOM meeting…he didn’t have the time to be there in person for that one either……
The problem now seems to be whether Sea Bright has any encumbrances and might have to spend money to defend themselves that has to be resolved.
Dueling Attorneys
Highlands and Atlantic Highlands boroughs and the three school boards in the two towns keep saying yes, yes, yes, we want Sea Bright. But we don’t want them if they’re going to have problems that Oceanport has raised. So one attorney says this is litigation brought by Oceanport, another attorney says it isn’t that at all. So the savings to the taxpayers not only get put off once again, but these same taxpayers are paying the bill for attorneys to resolve the difference of opinion.
Sea Bright in the House
Councilman Erwin Bieber from Sea Bright made it clear tonight….the Commissioner of Education has not yet made a decision on what everybody agreed to last year, namely, yes, we want to let the people in the three towns decide whether they want to regionalize. She hasn’t made the decision because she’s waiting for the formula on how the two towns are going to split the money they’re going to be getting from Sea Bright. But the towns haven’t settled on that yet…that’s what this mediator was supposed to be doing. She can’t make any decision on whatever it is Oceanport is bringing against Sea Bright since the tri-town request to her is not yet complete. So why not simply complete that, he said, and let the Commissioner make a decision?
What was really scary was when Councilman Bieber talked about the money issue…the real issue in this whole thing. Quite simply, are Highlands and Atlantic Highlands going to be satisfied with a $440,000 savings? OR do they think it will benefit the taxpayers in both towns more, to say nothing of the educational system, if Sea Bright came in and poured in another $2.5 million?
Is that such a difficult question to answer?
Greedy Oceanport
On the Oceanport issue, let’s remember a couple of things. Of course Oceanport doesn’t want Sea Bright to leave…they’re getting bundles of money from that town that certainly offsets their taxes for education. So it’s kind of understandable why an Oceanport resident paying taxes there would want to do everything possible to put off Sea Bright leaving. That’s the situation the Hudson district superintendent Tara Beams is in. She lives in Oceanport, she’s the primary…make that only…spokesperson for the three boards of education gathering and reporting most of the information and answering the questions on regionalization even when posed to board of education members.
Is Beams in Conflict??
But tonight, when the Atlantic Highlands Council was asked if they ever even questioned whether this cozy arrangement between Tara Beams, Oceanport, and the Hudson district represents a conflict, the first response was it’s a question that should be asked of the school boards. When pressed, with a reminder it was a question to this council on whether any of them has even questioned it, the response was…yep, secrecy…it was a matter of executive session so of course couldn’t be shared.
What ever happened to the public’s right to know?
I feel all three BOE’s are totally forgetting who is really in charge when it comes to overseeing the superintendent’s position. The superintendent is the sole employee of the Board of Education. She answers to them in her oversight of the operations of all three schools. They should not feel that they answer to the superintendent. These Boards of Educations must be held accountable to the citizens of the communities from which they were elected!
The sup should not be allowed to overpower, over assert, or give power to outside agencies or individuals that benefit her personally. She is responsible for the staff of these schools and the students. She should answer specifically to the loss of staff since she was hired (reported to be upwards of 30 educators as well as administrators). Any person hired by these Boards especially the superintendent must certainly be required to be faithful to the voters of and the students educationally and financially.
I would expect any employee to recuse oneself when advising the members of the Boards and the communities of Atlantic Highland, Highlands, and Sea Bright on the subject of Regionalization when personal property taxes are involved. I would expect the elected members of these Boards to take these factors into serious consideration when evaluating and rehiring any employee.
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