Chair Faliera:
I have requests in to the board attorney Gonzalez for a month asking for public information. He has not responded to them.
My latest request to Mr. Gonzalez is for the financial windfall his firm has enjoyed from what appears to have been the no-bid perpetual contract that Dr. Lennard awarded Mr. Gonzalez and his firm. No other of the area’s firms got the chance to bid on the job. It was done behind closed doors as is all of the schools’ business.
Mr. Gonzalez is not exempt from the Sunshine Law just because he passed the bar. He's supposed to carry out the open-records law, not thwart it because it concerns him.
The board members took an oath of office to uphold the laws. I want you to instruct Mr. Gonzalez to obey the law and send me the data I asked for, or I shall have to appeal to higher authorities to get the school board of Hillsborough County and its lawyer to obey the law.
I will appeal as many times as it takes to get the government-in-the-sunshine law obeyed by the Hillsborough County board and its lawyer. And I will include the names of the board members as scofflaws if I do not get a response from you to this email assuring me that you have instructed Mr. Gonzalez to obey the open-government law and send me the data I have requested.
The board members took an oath of office to uphold the laws. I want you to instruct Mr. Gonzalez to obey the law and send me the data I asked for, or I shall have to appeal to higher authorities to get the school board of Hillsborough County and its lawyer to obey the law.
I will appeal as many times as it takes to get the government-in-the-sunshine law obeyed by the Hillsborough County board and its lawyer. And I will include the names of the board members as scofflaws if I do not get a response from you to this email assuring me that you have instructed Mr. Gonzalez to obey the open-government law and send me the data I have requested.
I would appreciate a timely response to this request, Madam Chair. When running for office, board candidates on the stump aver their eagerness to hear from voters. When elected, however, they disappear into the bowels of ROSSAC’s bunker and don’t even answer emails. Ms. Kurdell only recently ceased returning every email sent to her with a “spam” message attached to it.
La Kurdell has been on the board for fifteen years and as silent as the sphinx in Gaza until it’s election time when she suddenly becomes animated. Her only activity on the podium during those fifteen years has been to rubberstamp the administration’s dicta on the consent calendar.
If another board member asks for an item to be pulled from the consent agenda to examine it more closely in public, Ms. Kurdell leads her buddy Ms. Olson into jumping on that board member for being "disloyal" to the administration functionaries.
La Kurdell has been on the board for fifteen years and as silent as the sphinx in Gaza until it’s election time when she suddenly becomes animated. Her only activity on the podium during those fifteen years has been to rubberstamp the administration’s dicta on the consent calendar.
If another board member asks for an item to be pulled from the consent agenda to examine it more closely in public, Ms. Kurdell leads her buddy Ms. Olson into jumping on that board member for being "disloyal" to the administration functionaries.
At board meetings, citizens get only two to three minutes to address the board. The chair’s chief activity during this time seems to be keeping an eye glued to the time bell so the chair can shut up the speaker mid clause.
Some of the other board members look on with a sneer at the citizen petitioner. Dr. Lamb’s incumbency as board chair featured a gargoyle-visage that forbade any feeling of the speaker that his or her comments were welcome.
Some of the other board members look on with a sneer at the citizen petitioner. Dr. Lamb’s incumbency as board chair featured a gargoyle-visage that forbade any feeling of the speaker that his or her comments were welcome.
I will be interested to see how you conduct your chairship. I hope it exceeds in hospitality of that of Dr. Lamb, who once snarled at me to stay home when I challenged him about using his office to get the stenographic services of the school board personnel to write a letter on board stationery to Mayor Iorio to abate his condo’s water bill. He implied I was a wet back because I live on the beach.
Such arrogant behavior as that some board members and attorney exhibit validates the truism that you can tell what kind of character a person has if he or she gets a little bit of power.
Very respectfully yours,
lee drury de cesare
15316 Gulf Boulevard 802
Madeira Beach, FL 33708
leedrurydecesarescasting-roomcouch.blogspot.com
2 comments:
Why do we even have a school board, if the board is simply going to trust the school district officials? Just let Elia and the district supervisors do everything they want and stop pretending there are checks and balances. Get rid of the school board members if they aren't going to act as checks and balances, which is their job. If they are not willing to do that why do they exist? I hear Candy Olson does favors for her friends and she is able to do these favors by staying friends with school district officials. If you are not her friend, she will not help you. This is the root of why these school board members ignore their job and just go along with whatever Elia's team wants.
I would have a lot more respect for a board that concentrates on relevant issues, expresses all the different thoughts and approaches to those problems and THEN makes the (often difficult) decision.
Forget the pompous PR. That's what the Public Relations office is for. Who the hell watches the board meetings for the "school award shows" anyway?
Take out an ad in the paper for cryin' out loud and run the meeting like a corporate board of directors or senate hearing.
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