Regionalization: Zip It

It was horrific enough Monday night when the Highlands Board of Education vice chair Robin Sanfratello running the board of education meeting in the absence of the chair, told the audience they could not ask any questions about school regionalization.

Ms Sanfratello said she was telling that to the dozens of folks at the meeting because the board had gotten an e-mail in August from their attorney telling them not to let the public ask any questions.  That policy was enforced for last Monday night’s meeting. People tried to ask questions, and they weren’t allowed. Even a member of the Board of Education, sitting at the table, wasn’t allowed to ask a question.

But it was even worse last night at the Atlantic Highlands Council meeting when their attorney. Matthew Giacobbe, was on the agenda to give an update on regionalization. But he wasn’t there. And he didn’t give any written report.

Instead, he told the borough administrator he was too busy to come to Atlantic Highlands, though he couched it in far more courteous words than that, and Administrator Ferragina read from notes apparently from Mr. Giacobbe when asked a question. He repeated the directive, reading from those written notes, every time a resident attempted to ask  anything even close to regionalization. So policy was set for both public portions of the meeting.

So here we are. Last month, the Atlantic Highlands Council, without telling Highlands about it first, authorized Giacobbe to get a mediator, the deputy Commissioner of Education, to help the two towns work out the financial agreement for regionalization.

Last night, not only would Ferragina not say whether a mediator has been retained, but Council didn’t even question why that simple a question could not be answered.  Part of the new policy, it would seem, advised by Mr. Giacobbe.

Those two meetings this week, together wit the fact Dr. Beams, the superintendent of schools but not a resident of any of the three towns, does all the talking on regionalization for all three boards of education, leaves me to wonder: do all of these folks really NOT want the public to know what’s going on? Why else would all of this be so secretive? Are the questions so difficult only an attorney can answer them?

By contrast, because of yet another delay, the cannabis question was pulled before it had a public hearing in Atlantic Highlands last month. But still they let all the public talk, ask questions, and leave the meeting with the idea the ordinance will once more be back on the agenda, although changed, at some other time in the future.

Taking all of these incidents together, do you get the feeling the elected folks, the paid attorney and the superintendent, really don’t want the public to know what’s going on?

Do the boards of education know so little about their issue they’re afraid to answer any questions?

Don’t they have anything to say, or do they simply not care to provide a better education for the kids  at a lower price for everybody in two or three towns?

The irony of the latest action is Attorney Giacobbe, busy as he is, is smart, capable, and in my opinion knows what he’s doing every step of the way.  Not because he graduated from two colleges magna cum laude, not because he’s licensed to practice in two states and the US District of New Jersey. It’s because of an incident  years ago in Middletown.

It was  when Joe McCarthy was Middletown’s Chief, and Larry Loigman was a resident, a defeated candidate for township committee, and an unofficial watchdog of police and government. Loigman filed a suit against the township’s attorney for refusing to let him in to the proceedings of another police officer. The attorney refused, arguing Loigman might be a witness and therefore should be able to sit in on everything. Loigman’s attorney won that suit at the lower level, and the township appealed the decision.

That’s when Attorney Giacobbe got involved.  He brought the matter all the way up the NJ Supreme Court with Mr. Giacobbe, the labor lawyer representing the township attorney arguing the lower court had erred.  And the earlier decision was overturned.  The grounds? The Supreme Court ruled that the municipal attorney could not be charged with any liability for his actions during the trial.  That’s because, the court said, attorneys are not policymakers  and therefore are immune from liability for their actions in any case.

It appears Attorney Giacobbe was the policy maker in Atlantic Highlands when he was too busy to come to a meeting and told them all not to talk about it to the residents.

There’s another possibility to all this political nonsense around letting or not letting the people who pay the bills get to vote on it.  Something that goes back a few years in another town. Seems that governing body was having a project done, one that wasn’t being done very well and certainly was not desired by the town’s people. So there were signs that went up say close to the work site as well as other places in town.

The signs said simple

Danger!!!

Incompetence is Everywhere!