Aliyya Swaby Photo
Rose: Mayor can’t kick anyone off the board.
The Board of Education officially changed its bylaws to approve an extra member for the year of 2016 — after receiving advice from the city’s corporation counsel.
At Monday night’s board meeting, members voted to approve the second reading of a resolution changing to bylaws to allow for eight voting members in 2016 instead of seven.
After a revision to the charter, New Haven elected two voting members to the Board of Education, creating a hybrid instead of mayorally appointed board. An error in the language required the board to decrease its size to seven from eight — without creating a mechanism for that dip.
Newly elected members Edward Joyner and Darnell Goldson will join the board in January to replace Susan Samuels and Alex Johnston, who sat at their last meeting this Monday night. Board members Michael Nast and Alicia Caraballo will leave at the end of 2016, and then the mayor will appoint one new member. That will leave the board with seven voting members as of January 2017.
Click here, here, and here to read the series of opinion pieces the issue has sparked.
The author of one of those opinion pieces, Caleb Kleppner, argued during a public comment portion of Monday’s meeting that Mayor Toni Harp as board chair should ask one of her appointees to step down with Samuels and Johnston this December.
That is the only way to keep the city in compliance with the charter’s intention for a seven-member board, said Kleppner, who was part of the charter revision committee in 2013.
Otherwise, he said, “you will be subject to a lawsuit, and any decision you make will be a waste of time.”
Mayor Harp asked Corporation Counsel John Rose to weigh in on whether she has the right to remove a board member without cause.
“The answer is no,” Rose said. The mayor cannot remove an appointed member without cause, according to the charter, he said.
Though the charter revision is clear that the board should have seven members, “what’s not clear is the language on the transition in the charter,” Rose said. The charter also says every appointee and elected member should serve four-year terms.
He said the proposal is an “appropriate resolution of the matter,” since it “doesn’t stomp on anyone’s rights.”
The board voted unanimously to approve the resolution.
For previous coverage:
• Eyewitness to Blunder (Opinion)
• Bartlett: Goldson’s Wrong (Opinion)
• In Board Of Ed’s Math, 7=8 (Opinion)
• Schools Try To Fix Supersized Board
• Oops! New Board of Ed Illegally Supersized
How can the Corporation Counsel advise that the approval of a Resolution by the Board of Aldermen can legally authorize the Board of Aldermen to have more members than are permitted by the City Charter. With all due respect, the ONLY way to do that is to amend the City Charter itself. I agree with Board member Kleppner that, in the best interest of the City, one of the current members should voluntarily step down to assure the integrity of Board of Education actions going forward.