Or should I say non meeting? Apparently after "agreeing to the meeting' there was no quorum. In fact three of the four newly elected members did not appear in the auditorium until the Council Meeting time of 6PM. In fact the negative four made no appearance at all.
The resolution to call the special meeting reads "NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED ,that the Board of Education , in accordance with N.J.S.A. 10:4-9 with notice to the Executive County Superintendent of Schools, hereby declares that an emergency meeting of the Plainfield Board of Education be held at 5; p.m. on May 7, 2010 for the sole purpose to (1) take action to immediately suspend Dr. Gallon and Ms. Kemp;(2) to appoint an Acting Superintendent of Schools;(3)remove Ms Kemp from the District payroll; and (4)appoint a new Board attorney.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Board of Education, in accordance with N.J.S.A. 10:4-9 shall cause notice of the May 7, 2010 meeting to be posted in all of the newspapers designated by the Board to receive such notices."
Although the newspaper notification of the publication was not published until the morning of the 7th the concept of the law was met.
Actions listed as (1) and (2) are customary when an official is accused of a crime and arrested. The suspension is from duties and they would remain on the payroll until the court case was settled. In fact these actions are mandatory and probably should have been initiated within 24 hours of the arrests.
Item (3) removing Ms.Kemp from the payroll should have been accomplished after the March 23 Court ruling to "forfeit her public office" irrespective of any legal action she may engage.
The shocker is (4) appoint a new Board attorney. This is addressed in the whereases "Dr. Gallon (0r Board Counsel) has failed and/or refused to produce any evidence of Court Order to the Board justifying that Mrs. Kemp lawfully remain on the District payroll."
I believe that the Board Counsel at the meet in g Tuesday May4,2010 alluded to the presence of such a document, if so why was it not produced for BOE information?
Obviously, the new BOE has not gotten off to a glorious start. The signs point to a continuous 4/5 split which bodes ill for the future especially if one of the five fail to make an appearance. The 50 citizens who appeared for the meeting when they should have been at home eating their dinner are owed an explanation. Did the returning four boycott the meeting, or did all 8 who did not show fear that the meeting was illegally called? I want 8 answers!
7:20AM: Today's CN story states thta on ly Logan-Leach and Board Secretary Ottmand showed for th5PM meeting From Courier article: "According to Logan-Leach, the meeting and its agenda, which included provisions to suspend Gallon and Kemp, to remove Kemp from the district payroll and to appoint a new acting superintendent came at the order of Union County Superintendent Carmen Centuolo in coordination with New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler. "
Saturday, May 8, 2010
This is the second of two on Friday night's meetings
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