Pearls of Wisdom

On Monday night, there was a candidates’ debate, sponsored by the Fort Lee Homeowners’ Association, and held at the Lewis F. Cole Middle School.  The usual rhetoric permeated the room, with each candidate throwing barbs at the opposition. 

Note:  To clarify the record, so there are no misunderstandings, I believe that I am a registered Democrat! However, it was so long ago, I might have registered with the Whig Party. I do have one radical belief; I prefer to vote for the best candidate, rather than party line. 

Candidates:

Democrats: 

Mayor: Mark Sokolich; Town Council:  Armand Pohan; Michael Sargenti

Republicans:  

Mayor: Judith Fisher; Town Council:  Martha Cohen; Alfred Norton

For the most part, candidates for both parties performed well with a few notable exceptions:

 (1)   It was totally condescending when Armand Pohan implied that Judith Fisher   had difficulty reading a Fort Lee financial statement. For the record, Ms. Fisher’s company sells accounting software.

(2)   Judith Fisher was a bit presumptuous in stating that she would be more available to the public than Mayor Sokolich. It is unlikely that any mayor would be more available than Mark Sokolich, who responds to e-mails and phone calls very quickly and puts in an exorbitant amount of time on the job.

(3)   Martha Cohen was directly on point with her issues regarding the Council’s use of “emergency appropriations.”  If the Town Council is going to publicly state that they are balancing the budget, they have to be more open about additional expenditures to pay off civil servant pensions and other retiree benefits, e.g. accrued sick days and accrued vacation time. These specific items do not appear to have been included in the budget projections.

The award for “gaffe of the night” should be awarded to Councilman Michael Sargenti. His responses to questions regarding his position as liaison to the Board of Education were ludicrous. The fact that he confirmed that he remembered attending exactly ONE meeting in his nine years as Councilman was embarrassing at the very least. One of his responses reflected indignation, “I am not running for the Board of Education.” He stated that he was also liaison to the Police Dept. and the Fire Dept. and that he rarely attended Police Dept meetings, but sometimes attended Fire Dept meetings. He joked that if the BOE had problems they could contact him. He referred three times to Charlie Luppino, a BOE member in the audience, as if they had personally conferred on BOE matters. 

First, I think that Councilman Sargenti should understand what a “liaison” position entails, so I have downloaded a definition:

Definition:  li·ai·son:             

Communication or cooperation that facilitates a close working relationship between people or organizations.

A person who acts as a link to assist communication or cooperation between groups of people.

Please note that a liaison is an “active position,” not a passive position, as exemplified by “close working relationship” in the definition.   

Over the last two years, these are some of the major issues that have confronted the Board of Education in Fort Lee:

(1)   A new superintendent, Dr. Raymond Bandlow, was hired to replace a departing superintendent, Joann Calabro, whose contract was not renewed for various reasons.

(2)   There have been two major referendums on bond issues that have been defeated, with a third referendum scheduled for January. If this referendum is not passed, there will be no funds to address the deterioration of the school buildings.  To the best of my knowledge, Councilman Sargenti has not weighed in on any of these referendums. 

(3)   The School Budget was passed by THREE VOTES. It is my understanding that if it had it been defeated, by law, the budget issue would have been sent to the Town Council for review and revisions. One might surmise that the liaison would be called upon to inform the Town Council members on BOE issues, structural problems with the buildings, and a general overview of Fort Lee education. It would appear Councilman Sargenti would have been ill-prepared to fulfill this role.

(4)   A new Freshman Academy was created and opened in 2011 to improve the transition of students from the middle school to the high school.

(5)   Dr. Bandlow resigned after two years, creating a new Superintendent crisis, with major opposition to the appointment of the Assistant Superintendent, Steve Engravalle as “Acting Superintendent.”

(6)   New anti-bullying legislation was passed and new programs were implemented into the Fort Lee school system.

(7)   There have been several major lawsuits against the Board of Education, with severe ramifications as a result of the Jay Berman lawsuit.

With all of these major educational issues facing the Fort Lee community, with his absentee status, and with his answers to questions on Monday night, Councilman Michael Sargenti hardly inspired confidence in his qualifications to be “Council Liaison” to the Board of Education. 

It is my understanding that there will be several more debates. We should all look forward to each of the candidates defining his or her position with hard facts and less rhetoric. Fort Lee is a community that needs solid leadership more than any time in our history to guide us through the current economic downturn and the educational crises that we will face in the next few years.