A leaked confidential e-mail among local politically connected attorneys and the school board's business administrator has caused several of the Board of Education's elected members to question the process of how contractors are placed on the board's agenda.

A copy of an e-mail from Hoboken attorney Edward Florio, whose firm handles workers' compensation cases for the school board, was obtained by the Reporter last week. The e-mail was sent from Florio to the Board of Education's general counsel, Mark Tabenkin, a week ago Friday and states, "The following are the items to be prepared for the reorganization meeting Tuesday." It then lists the names of three law firms and four other firms to be put on the school board's meeting agenda, ostensibly for contracts, and also suggests certain board members for the positions of board president, vice president and "governance committee chair."

Even though at this past Tuesday's school board meeting, the contracts were tabled 5-4 (on a motion by newly elected board member Frank Raia), several board members are crying foul.

They complained last week that outside political operatives are applying undue influence and attempting to usurp the authority of the autonomous nine-member elected board.

"If this letter is truly the way the business is done, I feel like I need to stand up and say that it is wrong, whatever the repercussions are," said board member Theresa Burns in a written statement Thursday.

The day of the board meeting, the leaked e-mail was being circulated among several board members, according to a high-ranking Board of Education official.

The first portion of the correspondence consists of two April 24 e-mails from attorney Edward Florio of the Hoboken law firm Sarkisian, Florio & Kenny, to the Board of Education's general counsel, Mark S. Tabenkin, of the Lyndhurst-based firm of Scarinci & Hollenbeck. Florio doesn't just serve as the school board's workers' compensation attorney. He also serves as the attorney for the county's Board of Freeholders, and he is special counsel for the city of Hoboken on a variety of different issues.

Florio's firm also has, as a partner, state Sen. Bernard Kenny (D-Hoboken), the state Senate's Democratic Majority Leader and a strong ally of Mayor David Roberts. Kenny has lobbied hard at the state level for funding for school construction, and now, the district is poised to receive more than $100 million in state Abbott "special needs" funds for new schools. While the Abbott vs. Burke court decision requires the state to pay for new school construction in special needs districts, Kenny lobbied to make sure that the city could get as much funding as possible for the district's proposed projects.

The firm on the receiving end of the correspondence, Scarinci and Hollenbeck, is one of the most powerful legal firms in Hudson County. The 13-year old firm is well known for its political connections. One of its partners is Donald Scarinci, a close personal friend and political ally of Rep. Robert Menendez (D-13th Dist.) Menendez is also a close political ally of Roberts and Kenny.

Both firms have contributed more than $5,000 each to the Hoboken Democratic Party this year. The party is chaired by Mayor David Roberts and has helped fund municipal political campaigns this spring that are backed by Mayor Roberts.

The e-mails from Florio suggests who should be voted into the positions of board president and vice president (a reorganization that was slated to happen Tuesday due to the recent school board elections), and they list seven contractors. The contractors include both Florio's firm and Scarinci's firm, implying that their contracts should be on the agenda for renewal.

Tabenkin, in turn, forwarded Florio's e-mail list to board Business Administrator and Secretary Anthony Curko, whose job is to create the meeting agendas. Curko did put the vendors on Tuesday night's agenda.

When Tabenkin forwarded Florio's e-mail to Curko, he added a brief message of explanation: "Tony [Curko], attached are the appointments for the reorganization meeting as received from Ed Florio."

Florio said Thursday afternoon that he has no comment on the e-mail.

"Until I can see what is being distributed in the public domain, I will not be able to comment," he said.

Tabenkin did not return phone calls.

The e-mail implies that Mayor David Roberts was a part of the conversation on which firms should be added to the agenda. "Mayor Roberts has directed that the fee caps on all the above professional contracts be lowered," said Florio about Roberts in the e-mail. This may look positive for Roberts in that the mayor was advocating lower spending caps on the contracts, but sources have still said that it's troublesome because it implies that Roberts may be involved in the decision of which firms should be hired on a board that is supposed to be independent of City Hall.

Because these contracts are "professional services contracts," it is not required by state law that they go out for public bid.

Although the city and the Board of Education are separate entities, Roberts has made it no secret that improving the schools is one of the biggest initiatives of his administration. It has not been unusual for mayors in Hoboken to get involved in the school system or to heavily support a slate of candidates running for the board, but in theory, the mayor is not supposed to be involved in the hiring of contractors or in reorganization matters.

Roberts has been vocal about improving the schools. He has been an architect of a partnership with Stevens Institute of Technology in which the school provides teacher training and technology consulting for the school district. He has also been an active member in the negotiations for how the Board of Education should spend its more than $100 million in state Abbott Funds for new school construction. Roberts advocates a high/middle school campus on the city's northwest side, the plan which the board has approved. Last month, Roberts' ticket, "Hoboken United for Education" swept the Board of Education election, winning three open seats.

In a statement by Bill Campbell, the mayor's spokesperson, the mayor distanced himself from the memo.

"This memo was just one man's thoughts," Campbell said Thursday. "No action was taken, and [the memo] has no effect on the contracts." Campbell did not comment further.

State Sen. Kenny said that he did not know such a memo existed until Thursday. He had no comment and directed all questions to his partner, Florio.

Theresa Burns said that the e-mail is "proof" of political interference in an autonomous governmental agency.

"This undermines the board's authority and shows a lack of respect for our abilities to do what is right for the district and its children," she said. "We're not just here to pass what is handed down to us."

Burns, who has children in the public schools, added that the board is full of qualified and intelligent people who are capable of representing their constituency without being handed "marching orders."

"The members [of the Board of Education] have diverse opinions, differing areas of expertise and interest, a strong work ethic and a genuine love of children at heart," she said. "I sincerely believe that we would each like the opportunity to be able to do what is in the best interest of the district."

Another school district insider, speaking anonymously, said that the memo appears to confirm rumors that often circulate in Hoboken about political influence on the board.

"Sure, this type of thing happens," the source said, "but it's really stupid to put it on paper or send it out over the internet."

According to Burns and newly sworn-in member Frank Raia, who was just elected to the board on a Roberts-backed ticket as the top vote-getter, the board members were first given their agenda less than an hour before the meeting started.

Burns and Raia said that before they received their agenda, they didn't know which contracts would be on the agenda.

It was Raia who only minutes after taking his oath made a motion to table all the contracts. His motion to table was seconded by Burns.

The rationale he gave for his motion to table, he said, was that the board wasn't told about the contracts until just before the meeting.

The contracts would not take effect until July 1.

"I'm a brand new board member, and they're asking me to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars without anything in front of me," Raia said. "There is no way that I'm going to be a rubber stamp. I have an obligation to the 2,000 people that just voted for me to actually read the contracts that we approve."

He added that the information that was provided to the board members was incomplete.

While Roberts directed the caps on the contracts to be lowered according to the memo, the agenda presented to the board members did not have any spending caps at all, according to both Raia and Burns.

The space in the agenda set aside for caps was left blank, a fact confirmed by Burns. Burns and Raia later said that had they voted on the contracts, there would have been no spending cap on most of them - although Curko promised that caps could be added later.

The tabling motion passed 5-4, with Raia, Burns, John Raslowsky III, Frances Rhodes Kearns, and George Fonseca voting in favor of tabling, and Wanda Santana-Alicea, David Anthony, James Farina, and Carmelo Garcia voted against tabling.

Another board meeting was scheduled for this coming Tuesday, but now it has been canceled. The next regularly scheduled meeting is slated for May 20.

Another topic of Tuesday night's meeting was the reorganization of board officers. By a unanimous vote, Santana-Alicea was appointed president. She is the Board of Education's first ever Latina president.

She replaces Raslowsky, who served as president for a year. Former board president David Anthony, who wielded the gavel as president for eight terms, was voted in as the board's vice-president.

One side note to the board reorganization was that the Florio e-mail lists suggestions for the two positions: Santana-Alicea for president, and Carmelo Garcia for vice president. Garcia is also Mayor Roberts' director of human services. And while the board did promote Santana-Alicea to the board presidency, the board members picked David Anthony for the vice presidency. The fact that the latter recommendation was not followed could suggest that Florio's memo was more of a recommendation and not a direct order from the mayor or the city.

A third suggestion in the memo, James Farina for governance committee chair, did end up coming to pass. Farina is a long-time board member who also works as city clerk.