Melissa Bailey Photo
Gonzalez: “This isn’t right.”
Declaring herself “shocked” by an ouster attempt by people she considered allies, Daisy Gonzalez vowed to hold onto her seat on the Board of Education — and the board is preparing to hire a lawyer to help her.
The ed board, in a special meeting called for Monday night, is considering hiring its own lawyer as well to press the matter.
Those were the latest developments Thursday in a separation-of-powers battle that broke into the open this week between the Board of Ed and the Board of Alders.
The Board of Alders — in a surprise move, with less than a day of public notice — voted 24 – 1 Monday night to remove Gonzalez from her seat on the Board of Ed early, at the the end of the month. Her term was slated to end in December 2018.
The alders said they did so to ensure that the Board of Ed has seven members, not eight, when it convenes in January. The city charter calls for the board to have seven members. It is currently scheduled to have eight for a year because of a mistake made when the alders previously voted to amend the city charter (followed by a successful referendum) to create a new hybrid appointed/elected Board of Ed.
“A lot of the moms came out to support me. They want me on the board,” Gonzalez, who’s considered parents’ voice on the board, said Thursday. “If the parents are adamant that they want that voice on the board, then I’ll fight. I’ll fight. Because parents have to have a voice.”
The alders’ vote Monday followed dueling legal opinons. The city’s corporation counsel, John Rose Jr., produced an opinoin arguing the the alders have no legal authority to remove Gonzalez. Boards of ed are creatures of the state, not a city, he wrote, adding that legal precedent allows a board of ed to have too many members. Rose also noted that the alders voted to renew Gonzalez’s term after it approved the charter amendment to create a hybrid ed board. Rose’s opinion supported a separate vote by the Board of Ed to leave all eight members in place for a transition year and require a super-majority to enact proposals.
The alders produced a legal opinion from local attorney Martyn Philpot to back up their claim that they can legally remove Gonzalez, who was the most recent person whose appointment they had voted to approve. Philpot argued that under the state’s home rule tradition, the alders have that power.
Read their opinions here and here.
The ed board had a notice posted in the City Clerk’s Office Thursday announcing a special meeting to take place at 5:30 p.m. Monday “to approve a Leagl Services Agreement and to discuss Board of Education composition and voting members.”
Translation, according to schools Superintendent Garth Harries: The board will seat Gonzalez and hire a lawyer to ward off any efforts by the alders to enforce their vote.
Harries said Thursday that the board has not yet identified a lawyer to hire to represent Gonzalez. It has identified the firm of Pullman and Comley to hire to represent the board’s interest in any potential legal wrangling. He declined to reveal the proposed fee prior to Monday night’s meeting.
Repercussions?
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Philpot: Board of Ed work in jeopardy?
Harries said the ed board will also look at whether to continue its current arrangement with attorney Philpot, who “does work on expulsions.”
“Martyn Philpot did work for the alders that was counter to the interests of the Board of Education,” Harries said.
Philpot was out of town Thursday, according to a secretary at his office, and couldn’t be reached for comment. The alders paid around $3,000 for Philpot’s advice, according to the Office of Legislative Services.
“Marty was put in a tough position without seeing our memos, our thinking,” Harries added. “What should have happened was a sit-down discussion.”
After Monday night’s vote, Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker said that ultimately the decision to remove Gonzalez wasn’t a personal one about Gonzalez or her performance on the board, but about the need to adhere to the what voters said they wanted when they revised the charter — a seven-member board. Gonzalez happened to be the last ed board member whom alders confirmed for reappointment, so it made the most sense to shorten her term to comply with the law, Walker argued.
“It’s simple. We have a legal opinion, and our lawyer said what we did tonight is right,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that the the Board of Ed is just going to disregard what we did here tonight. The charter says seven members.That’s the law.”
In response to the criticism that they acted hastily and at the last minute, Walker and Majority Leader Alphonse Paolillo Jr. pointed out that they had been working with education officials on a fix since September. They said they were presented with no solutions that would have reduced the board to seven before the charter took effect at the beginning of the new year.
When asked if the next step would be into a courtroom, Paolillo said, “at the end of the day, the vote was what the vote was tonight and we will consult legal counsel as needed.”
A Sunday Visit
Daisy Gonzalez said Thursday that she first learned of the move to unseat her on Sunday, the day before the vote, when her alder, Jessica Holmes, knocked on her door. She said Holmes advised her that she planned to vote in support of the move. “She said she had to vote for what was best.”
“I was shocked,” said Gonzalez, who is a member of New Haven Rising, the grassroots activist group affiliated with labor unions that back the Board of Alders majority. “I told her that I didn’t think that it was fair, [that] because a mistake was made that I had to pay for it. I do want to keep my seat. I think it’s very important that parents have a voice on the board. I love what i’m doing. I’m visiting schools. I’m helping out students and parents.”
Holmes did not ask her to resign, Gonzalez said.
Holmes could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The matter of whether to have eight or seven members on the Board of Ed in 2015 has sparked heated debate in town. Potentially, a board majority could be at stake: Opponents of the current schools administration are believed to have a better chance of prevailing if the board has seven, rather than eight, members.
Critics of the alders’ action argue that this week’s vote could set a precedent: If the alders don’t approve of the actions of an independent board or commission, they can retroactively try to remove its members.
Critics of the ed board’s action argue that expanding the board is an attempt to blunt the impact of democratically elected new members who promise to put the schools under greater scrutiny.
Instead of hiring lawyers, the alders, the ed board, and the executive branch could try to negotiate a compromise. New Haven government has not operated that way these day.
Markeshia Ricks contributed reporting.
For previous coverage:
• Separation Of Powers Battle Looms
• Schools Approve 8‑Member Transition Board
• 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
At this point neither lawyer is citing any state statue, local law or precedent in support of their argument that the charter does, or does not call for seven/ eight members to the BOE starting Jan. 2016. The 2013 voter acceptanced charter by the voters of New Haven clearly states the composition will be seven members and two non-voting student members.
(Note: Student members are voted/ elected office holders, but cannot sit in executive sessions and cannot vote on board matters. Ridiculous concept.
Harries is getting himself into deep water fighting an issue that rightfully should be defended by the Mayor, she made the appointment, not Harries.
The BOA has every right, by charter, whether referencing the 1993 or 2013 charter as revised, to rescind the 2015 appointment approval of Gonzalez; the Mayor has every right to veto the boards action, not Harries.
The moral of this Xmas eve story is for Harries to butt out!!!