By Brian Zanzonico
In July 2004, Trustee Lorraine Ferrigno stated at the reorganization meeting that she lacked confidence in the board's president at the time, Aubrey Phillips, and abstained, along with another trustee, Deanna Doreson, from voting for president and vice president.
Last July, at the behest of then President Robert Nori and then Vice President Ferrigno, the board voted to hire a special counsel to investigate trustees' travel expenses for conferences during Phillips's presidency in 2003-04. Phillips dismissed it as a ploy by rival board members to diminish his tenure.
The latest issue, which arose at the July 3 reorganization meeting, is the status of the district clerk's position. Ferrigno and Trustee Frank Ragona said that District Clerk Carol Pane was fired the weekend before the meeting without board approval, and that Hillary Yates was hired as her replacement and promised a salary of $50,000.
"The actions are scheming, retaliatory, unsettling and most likely illegal," said Ferrigno, who is also an attorney. "We are no longer in a democracy in Elmont."
Phillips, however, disagreed. He said that Pane was not fired, and that her one-year term had simply expired on June 30. Ferrigno and Ragona, however, maintain that without consulting with the entire board, Phillips had instructed Superintendent Al Harper to fire Pane and hire Yates. Phillips denied that anyone was hired, and Harper declined to comment, saying it was a personnel matter.
"The board did not reappoint Carol Pane at the previous meeting, so there's talk that she was fired," Phillips said. "That language, in my opinion, has no legal merit."
Ragona said he learned that Yates, the Alden Terrace School PTA's president in 2003-04, was offered the clerk's position, met with Harper and given a salary $7,000 larger than Pane's. "We are entrusted with a responsibility," said Ragona. "When someone has the nerve to take this away from us, and on his own speaks to our superintendent and tells him to do something without speaking to all of us, not only do I think it is illegal, but most certainly immoral at best."
School attorney Colum Nugent, however, said that nothing illegal took place. "I have reviewed actions of board members prior to tonight, and do not find violation of law," Nugent said.
Phillips said it would make no sense for him to force Pane out, since he brought her to the district to succeed former District Clerk Connie Ciccio. He also took umbrage with Ferrigno's comment that Phillips's pursuit of Yates, who is black, and his attempt to drive out Pane, who is white, is racially motivated. "I fought against Ms. Ferrigno in order to appoint Mrs. Pane," Phillips said. "It was a desperate battle, and for her to make a statement about skin color has no merit."
Ferrigno told the Herald her question was a reasonable one. "What I was intimating was a decision being made based on race," she said. "It's a question I, as an attorney and a board member, need an answer to. It could put the district in liability of a lawsuit, I believe."
At one point, Ferrigno made a motion to appoint Pane as the new district clerk, and received support from Ragona and new board member Michael Jaime, who questioned fellow Trustee Pam Byer's and Phillips's respect for him for not including him in the district clerk discussion. But Phillips, Byer and Elsy Guibert voted against the appointment. The board ultimately agreed to table it until further notice. In the interim, Annette Sullivan will serve as acting district clerk.
This was Jaime's first meeting as a member of the board, and his first impression of the proceedings was not a positive one. "I'm very aggravated because I felt that this is a serious job, and we have some people who are not taking that responsibility seriously," Jaime told the Herald.
Phillips said he was not sure when the board would decide on the next district clerk, but no decision would be made until every member can review the candidates. The board was expected to go into executive session on Thursday. "I have no intention of nominating anyone until such time that members of the board come together and have a reasonable time to examine the people being circulated for that position," Phillips said.
When Ferrigno was told what Phillips had said, she responded, "That's news to me, but if that's truly the case, I'm happy."
At the reorganization meeting, Byer and Guibert were elected president and vice president, respectively. Another new trustee, Carol Parker Duncanson, was chosen to represent the school district on the Sewanhaka Central High School District board.
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