With much fanfare Maureen Sullivan has announced her “resignation” from Kids First, the slate of three Hoboken School Board candidates who were elected to the Hoboken Board of Education with an overwhelming majority almost one year ago. While resigning from an electoral slate a year after the election would appear to be a meaningless gesture, the excessive volume with which Sullivan is broadcasting this news indicates that she wants everyone to hear that she’s got something important to say. And the news is this: she’s appalled that the majority of the Board voted against her in their decision to hire Dr Frank Romano as the next Hoboken Superintendent of Schools. Sullivan’s stated reason for opposing the decision is that she feels Dr. Romano’s salary is too high. The other dissenting vote came from Board member Carrie Gilliard who favored a candidate who failed to submit their application on time. Gilliard stated that the Board “rushed” the hiring process, presumably because they did not (illegally) accept this late application or re-open the search to consider her candidate.
Let’s put things in perspective: seven of nine Board members voted in favor of hiring Dr. Romano. Only three of those seven members were elected on “Kids First” tickets. Furthermore, the only two dissenting votes also came from members elected on “Kids First” tickets. To me that sounds like a healthy vote in favor of Dr. Romano. It’s clear evidence that the vote had everything to do with individual decisions and nothing to do with electoral slates. Nevertheless, as a result of losing the vote Sullivan has publicly decried the existence of a conspiratorial “machine” at work behind the scenes. Given the diversity of members voting in favor of Romano this accusation is clearly nonsense; and so it raises the question: what is Sullivan’s real motivation in making all this noise?
The Wile E. Coytoe, Eric Kurta provides this historical gem on the view from the Machine on the Board of Education, circa 1993. The more things change the more they stay the same. Will history repeat itself?
That depends. How sweet is the taste of revenge? Is it sweet enough to enjoy the sour fruits of spoiler when your neighbor sees massive waste and fraud restored (with higher taxes) under your favorite ringworm Frank Raia?
What kind of “principle” is that?
We came across a story from a Board of Education regular and it’s worth a read. It’s quite an insightful view on the current situation on the Board of Ed and it sums up the thoughts we are hearing on the street.
We’ll have more to say on the BoE but still hoping that maybe the repeated invitations to speak to Maureen Sullivan will actually be accepted. To this point, we are getting nothing but emailed references to a discussion with her husband, even after a public offer to speak was posted on the Hoboken Journal the other day along with the several emails offering same. Maureen had complained that the Hoboken Journal did not give her a chance to offer her perspective. Well MSV has, repeatedly.
The police audit has yet to be made public but it’s already creating quite a bit of discussion over in the NJ.com Hoboken forum, even with its unreleased arrival. Not everyone can let go of their pet idea about it. Some are launching personal attacks on its supposed author and another theory posits the incomplete report should have been illegally released just as Councilman Mike Russo advocated. As part of that suggestion, it’s stated Dave Mello transgressed with ye gods of grandstanding in his comments Wednesday night.
Apologies the audio is somewhat low as this was a backup camera. A woman in the audience asked about how the hospital can build trust in Hoboken.
Here’s resident Leon Gold asking for details on the bond.
Here’s new commissioner Toni Tomarazzo speaking in response to an earlier disagreement on the roles of oversight vs. management. It was a bit heated earlier but was now moving to a clearer basis on all sides. The area of concern was specifically on learning more and reviewing information on the $4 million cost annually for Information Technology. There are almost two dozen contracts covering that area, not one for the record and CEO Hatiras has obtained 10% reductions. At the same time, the oversight role of the Authority Commissioners still remains.
In the Mayor’s twitter, word is now hitting the street: the long awaited police audit is now officially in Hoboken. Although further details will come with a complete press release Monday morning, the saga is now truly over.
Earlier MSV had expressed confidence the changing of the guard with Acting DCA Commissioner Lori Grifa’s arrival would mean the State’s follow through was likely sooner than later. And now just about a week later, the promise made has been fulfilled.
Recent changes on the Hoboken University Medical Center hospital board is adding some flavor to the big push to propel the hospital into surplus’ projected to year’s end. The new commissioners appointed to the Hospital Authority are very active, getting up to speed and requesting lots of information. Earlier commissioners are weighing in more too and it’s showing signs of being a very dynamic, positive mix.
Of course, there’s going to be some growing pains in an evolving process and we’ll say more on this later with video. For the moment, here’s the report. Things are most definitely looking better for the hospital. There’s numerous areas heading in the right direction and the seriousness of the changes and improvements are significant.