Let’s Hope for A Happy Ending
I see the City Council Members are confused on this resolution R-129 3/16. Isn’t that odd? Let’s understand one thing. The City Council Members have a responsibilty to see the right thing is being done and to investigate all matters that deals with money or whatever is on the agenda.
As for the Law Director, she will do her job to see everything is accordingly by the law of the State of New Jersey. For the Mayor, she can go anyway she wants left or right along as it is by the book. The concerned citizen has a right to voice their concern. It’s their tax dollars at work. This is the way a Council meeting should be. Let everything out in the open, not like years ago HUSH,HUSH. Now let me open the doors on something for the Law Director. I know she smart and she can go anywhere if she wants to, but I guess she want to stay here for the PEOPLE. I’m only assuming this. I have talked to many people on this matter and this is why the Administration has a hard time keeping people in the system. It’s all politics and a joke for the taxpayer’s. Let’s HOPE this will have a happy ending.
Orlando “Wildman” Perez
Perth Amboy’s Self-serving Board of Education
As a resident of the City of Perth Amboy and as a parent of three children, who attend the Perth Amboy Public School District, it is truly astounding to see how self-serving the current Perth Amboy Board of Education members are. In January, the Perth Amboy Board of Education unanimously voted in favor of changing the date of its election to April 19, 2016 from the general election date of November 8, 2016.
Reasons for the sudden move, which is estimated to cost Perth Amboy taxpayers over $30,000 unnecessarily, have been murky at best. It has been suggested that members of the current board do not want Board of Education politics in the mix with local, state and federal elections to ensure the public has an opportunity to be engaged in our school system. It would have almost been believable if the board did not decide to change the election in a matter of two days with virtually no public input.
In another blatant contradictory reason for the change in election dates, board member Mr. Israel Varela publicly claimed he found there to be higher voter turnout during school board elections held in April. However, when actually analyzing the voter turnout numbers, which are publicly available on the City of Perth Amboy’s website, without making blanket statements to suit one’s need, we see significantly higher numbers in November.
Simple research shows that in 2012, the first year the Board of Education election took place in November, the candidate who received the most votes tallied 2262. In 2011, the last time a Board of Education election was held in April, the highest vote total for a candidate was 693. In comparing those two elections alone, we see an increase of over 250% in November’s favor.
There is one November election that saw less of a turnout than one April election in the last seven years – 2015, when there was historically low voter turnouts across the State of New Jersey.
In the November 2014 election, the candidate who amassed the lowest number of votes with a total of 1067 still toppled the highest vote getter in 2010 by over 300 votes.
The discrepancy between Mr. Varela’s claim and the actual facts can be either one of two things: a total lack of understanding of the results or a deliberate attempt to mislead us.
An even more egregious political motive for the Board of Education to want to change the elections so hastily and without public input comes in the case of its President, Mr. Samuel Lebreault. The last time Mr. Lebreault ran for a seat on the Board when running in a Presidential year he lost, overwhelmingly.
I applaud Mayor Wilda Diaz and the Perth Amboy City Council for acknowledging the Board of Education’s decision for what it is – dirty, political maneuvering disguised as public service. Last month, the City Council voted in favor of a resolution moving the Board of Education election back to November, in an attempt to save taxpayer dollars. The board is now challenging the City’s decision in Superior Court. An oral argument date has been set for March 21, which should definitively determine an election date.
If this year’s Board of Education election were to happen next month, Mr. Lebreault, Mr. Varela and their running mate, who are all supportive of this sudden and costly change in dates will run unopposed – meaning they will essentially be granted another term to continue using our school system for their own political agenda. When are they actually going to care about the education of our children?
Junior A. Iglesia
