A month after two new members were voted onto the Hoboken Board of Education, the new five-member majority is already at odds with Superintendent of Schools Jack Raslowsky.

Members of the new faction, considered to be “reformers,” tabled 10 employee contract renewals at their meeting Tuesday night, saying Raslowsky gave them inadequate time to review them.

However, they then voted to hire an additional board attorney without much notice, a move the other members say took them by surprise.

Board president Rosemarie Markle said she had asked Superintendent Jack Raslowsky to remove the 10 new employee contracts, mostly for one year appointments, from his agenda. However, he did not.

Raslowsky said at the meeting that the rehirings were “time-sensitive” since the contracts expire on June 30, and he asked for a “speedy approval.”

Board members complained that the finalized list of contracts was only given to them on Monday night, giving them little time to review and approve the deals. They said they want a new lawyer to review them.

Tit for tat

But by the same token, the minority board members said the five-member majority did not give them much time to review the new law firm they voted to hire Tuesday night.

The board had previously sent out requests for proposals seeking an additional law firm. Newly re-elected board member Theresa Minutillo said that the board received seven responses. The board’s Governance Committee interviewed four of the candidates before making their selection.

Minutillo sits on the Governance Committee with new board members Ruth McAllister and Maureen Sullivan, who were just elected in April.

The committee met Tuesday before the meeting to interview four applicants.

The minority board members claimed they weren’t aware they would be hiring a new lawyer on Tuesday night.

At the meeting, Minutillo introduced to motion to hire the firm of Porzio, Bromberg, and Newman of Morristown and New York City for a six-month period. The contract, she said, should not exceed $75,000 and was effective immediately.

She and her allies said the new counsel will help review meeting agendas, contracts, and other documents for the board, but will not do specialized legal work like bond issuance or worker compensation.

The board will now schedule a special meeting to handle the time-sensitive contract renewals before the existing contracts expire. “It’s a dangerous precedent for us to move ahead without doing our due diligence and sending [the contracts] through committee,” said Sullivan.

The move to hire another lawyer for the board may indicate a lack of trust in board counsel Joseph Morano, who signed a two-year contract last year and can only be replaced if he is fired for cause.
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“Clearly there are trust issues somewhere.” – Jack Raslowsky
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But Markle said the board has no plans to replace Morano; they just want another opinion.

“I’m not as comfortable as I should be with the board attorney,” she said after the meeting.

At least one member of the public charged that the board majority was hiring a lawyer whom they were somehow connected to. While they did not respond publicly, one board member deflected that argument after the meeting, noting that Morano is from Scarinci and Hollenbeck, one of the most politically connected law firms in North Jersey.

Although Morano has butted heads with Raslowsky in the past, the board majority still sees him as a mouthpiece for the administration.

“Clearly there are trust issues somewhere,” Raslowsky said in an interview afterward. He said he has no big issues with Morano, even though they have had their disagreements.

‘Shoved down my throat’

Board member Phil DeFalco objected to the hiring on two grounds. He said the board didn’t budget for another attorney (DeFalco sits on the Finance Committee) and he didn’t like the seemingly hasty way it was added to the agenda.

He said the measure was being “shoved down my throat.”

However, the majority board members said he could have read the responses to the requests for qualifications the board had sent out.

DeFalco said he hadn’t read the RFQs since he had no idea the measure would be coming to a vote so soon.

Then, former board member Frank Raia, now a member of the public, took the podium. He said the public should have a chance to speak on the issue before it was voted on.

Markle at first denied him the right to speak before the vote. Then, the board majority reconsidered and moved the vote to the “new business” portion of the meeting, after the public speaking portion.

Raia declined to speak later in the meeting.

Before the vote to approve the new attorney, Raslowsky warned that the legal contract could have a “potential programmatic effect;” in other words, it could take money away from programs for children. His attempt to dissuade the board failed.

DeFalco and board members Jim Farina and Frances Rhodes-Kearns opposed hiring the new lawyer. Board member Carmelo Garcia was absent. The five-member majority voted to hire the firm.

Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.