BobbyO in the News

BobbyO — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:17:05 GMT

First, there was this:

Newport school board hit with Open Meetings Law complaint
01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 2, 2008

NEWPORT — School Committee candidate Robert T. Oliveira has filed an Open Meetings Law complaint over a committee meeting held last week.
In announcing the action yesterday, Oliveira provided the media with a copy of the complaint that he said he sent to Attorney General Patrick Lynch. He asserted that the agenda for last Thursday's meeting did not properly serve notice of the actions the committee took.
Oliveira said the agenda — under the section "personnel actions" — cited "recalls," but did not include enough specific information to inform citizens that the discussion would be about a high school guidance counselor.
The committee, he said, also voted without appropriate notice to direct the schools superintendent to take legal action to recoup any money the state owes for the costs of a guidance counselor at the Newport Area Career and Technical Center.
The committee, he asserts, also voted inappropriately to spend money on a regionalization study, an action that was not on the agenda.
"I am asking the attorney general's office, under the power provided by statute, hold all actions at this meeting null and void," he wrote in his letter.
Oliveira ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2006 and for School Committee in 2004.
In an announcement yesterday, he stated that the School Committee "is digging a hole and they need to be stopped. Therefore, this week he is filing Open Meetings Law complaints, and a complaint to the state auditor regarding the conduct of the last meeting. If successful in garnering an investigation, he will seek a temporary restraining order maintaining that the guidance counselor's position not be terminated while the investigation is ongoing."
— RICHARD SALIT

Then, there was this

:
Newport school panel plans meeting rerun
By Sean Flynn
Daily News staff <

For people who missed the Newport School Committee meeting late last month, they will be able to catch a live replay next week.

All votes and actions taken June 26 are on the agenda for a special School Committee meeting scheduled to be held next Thursday afternoon in the school administration building's conference room. Superintendent John H. Ambrogi said the meeting is necessary because the June 26 agenda was not posted on the secretary of state's Web site. He said the error was discovered this week and he contacted the School Committee's counsel, attorney Neil Galvin, who advised that the votes be retaken. He said Galvin made the recommendation after contacting the secretary of state's office.

Ambrogi said the meeting is not taking place in response to an open meetings complaint being filed with the state attorney general's office by School Committee candidate Robert T. Oliveira, who claims votes were taken on items that were not properly listed on the June 26 agenda. Oliveira said he mailed the complaint Tuesday morning. On Wednesday afternoon, Beryl Kenyon, spokesman for the Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, said the office had not yet received the complaint.
.. ..
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Also
TO GO

What: Special meeting of the Newport School Committee to retake votes from its June 26 meeting.

When: Thursday, July 10, 4 p.m.

Where: Administration building of the School Department, 437 Broadway.
"The School Committee actually undertook a vote to charge the superintendent with the task of filing a lawsuit in order to recoup monies from the state to pay for a guidance counselor at the Newport Area Career and Technical Center," Oliveira wrote in the complaint addressed to Lynch.

There were a series of June 26 School Committee votes in connection with high school guidance counselors.

The School Committee voted to lay off one of the three guidance counselors at Rogers High School, Flo Hazen. The committee now intends to transfer the guidance counselor who works at the career and technical center, Patrick O'Connell, to Rogers. That would restore the number of guidance counselors at Rogers to three, but leave none at the career and technical center.

There is a hurdle to this course of action.

Ambrogi has told the School Committee that state Department of Education regulations require career and technical schools to have a guidance counselor. Committee members want Ambrogi to begin the process of getting a waiver, or a variance, from that requirement. A vote to authorize Ambrogi to do this took place June 26 and is again on next week's agenda.

School Committee members also claim that under state law, the state should be funding the guidance counselor's position at the career and technical center, as well as the school director's position. Instead, they said Newport is paying those salaries. The committee voted June 26 to request Ambrogi to initiate legal action against the state to recoup that funding. That vote also will be taken again next week.

Among the other re-votes that are pending:

u A final reading of a policy change that would make students ineligible to participate in extracurricular activities if they fail a course after receiving a mid-term warning that they are in danger of failing.

u The award of a $51,000 contract to East Coast Landscaping and Construction of Portsmouth to put in a new basketball court at Sullivan School.

u A $2,000 contribution to the cost of a Phase II study of school regionalization by the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council.

u The second reading of a policy change that would allow early admission to kindergarten.

u Resignations, appointments and recalls of School Department teachers and staff.

The committee also asked Ambrogi on June 26 to explore a school reconfiguration plan that would involve closing one of the five elementary schools in the city. The plan could involve moving all fifth-graders to Thompson Middle School, and Ambrogi will revisit a plan proposed by School Committee member Hugo DeAscentis last November. DeAscentis proposed shutting down Cranston-Calvert School and pairing the Triplett and Coggeshall schools and pairing the Underwood and Carey schools as "sister schools."

School Committee member Thomas Galvin said at last month's meeting that he was voting against this course of action. There was the impression at the June 26 meeting that there was a 6-1 vote.

Ambrogi said Wednesday there was no formal vote on this item because the matter was not on the agenda. He said he was just getting a sense of what the committee wants him to do as he explores school reconfiguration.

"Hugo wanted to make a motion and Tom Galvin said 'count me as a no vote,' but I said this is a discussion item only," Ambrogi said. He said the clerk at the meeting did not record a vote.

Oliveira said he has viewed a videotape of the June 26 School Committee meeting three times, and he said the committee voted on this item.

"On the tape, you hear a motion, you hear a second and you hear a vote," he said. "They are very sloppy when it comes to parliamentary procedures."

Oliveira's complaint involves the disputed vote or non-vote. Since DeAscentis's proposal first was voted on in November and defeated on a 6-1 vote, Oliveira argues that the committee should have take up a "motion to reconsider" at the June meeting from one of the members who voted against it.

"From watching the video of the meeting, a motion to reconsider can not be determined to be offered from the original prevailing side," Oliveira wrote in his complaint.

Oliveira argued that properly posting meetings and agendas and following proper parliamentary procedure have a reason.

"One of them is to give a spectator a chance to follow the action," he wrote.

Send reporter Sean Flynn e-mail at Flynn@NewportRI.com.

Two notes:

1. Both papers force folks to register hence no links.

2. Yes, the story, like the song, is about me. It's not me making an argument so I left it all in.

Colbert: Make McCain More Exciting

PDM — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:07:02 GMT

But you ask the impossible! Here are some attempts . . .

Lay Our "Fairs" to rest

lordjosh — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:58:41 GMT

In todays Projo, Karen Lee Zinner wrote a lengthy article shining some light on the tensions between activist groups on both sides of the immigration debate. Specifically, RIILE's association with the national group, FAIR. The article predictably focuses on pro-illegal immigration groups ascertion that FAIR is a racist, white supremecy group and therefore Terry Gorman, founder of RIILE, will be labled a white supremecist himself by Progresso Latino pres. Ramon Martinez, for his group's loose association with Fair.

I'm not interested in defending Mr. Gorman or FAIR at this time. I would like to focus on some missing investigation in this report.

Among the evidence given as to the claims that fair is a racist, anti-Mexican group, is that they promote conspiracy theories concerning "behind the scenes" efforts to remove the authority of the US Constitution and create North American Union, between Canada, US, and Mexico. Also, a theory that forces seek to reclaim the southwest for Mexico. (This is actually considered an instrument for the establishment of an NAU, by most theorist.)

The title to this piece by Zinner is "Rhode Island group linked to controversial foes of illegal immigration". Zinner uses an awful lot of ink to present back and forth qoutes, often small enouph to fit on a bumper sticker, from leaders of all groups concerned, including RIILE's Terry Gorman. What is unfortunate is the lack of investigation into the alegations made by Fair that, according to Martinez, makes them racist and to Zinner, "controversial". Why is the media unwilling to shine the light on these "racist" theories. Why are they always just glossed over? Why would the Projo allow the title to proclaim Fair "controversial" without a full analysist of the "controversy"? Is it because they are not interested? Is it not in the media's interest to question the allegations made by pro-illegal immigration supporters?

How about these pro-illegal immigration supporters. How about this one group called La Raza. As most of us know, La Raza means "The Race". In all the babble about racism that makes up this "report", not one inquiry in the motives of a group that calls themselves "The Race".

Now I am not saying I believe entirely in what Fair has claimed. I would however like to see that debate in the media in order to get the facts out. Unfortunatly, Zinner does not seem to be interested in finding the facts. Instead she tells a half story. I'll round this up by calling on all enviromentalist to stand up and demand that the projo discontinue its practice of wasting paper on such substance deprived reporting.

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PDM — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:05:08 GMT

Rhode Islands Future: Politics & Culture - Recommended Diaries

BobbyO in the News

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 2, 2008

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Lay Our "Fairs" to rest

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