But controversial attorney favored by haredim may still be hired for special projects – like providing public goods or services to haredi schools. 650 people attend public meeting.
Why did so many people show up? This:
Undo lawyer vote in East Ramapo
Journal NewsThe East Ramapo school board's vote to drop its longstanding legal representation and hire a controversial — and costly — Long Island lawyer must be undone. The decision wasn't good for taxpayers and it wasn't good for amicable community relations. Why a majority of the board couldn't figure this out without public prodding defies good sense.
On Nov. 18, the board voted, 5-3, to hire Albert D'Agostino as counsel. The Valley Stream-based lawyer is among a group of private-sector lawyers under state Attorney General's Office investigation for allegedly improperly being awarded a public pension for school board representation. D'Agostino represents the Lawrence school district. It, like East Ramapo, has a school board with a majority of members from the Orthodox Jewish community, which sends its children to private yeshivas.
The school board on Tuesday will revisit the vote in a special meeting called by East Ramapo school board President Nathan Rothschild, who was not present at the Nov. 18 meeting. Rothschild had requested the representation matter be tabled when the board met in November; he was rebuffed by board member Aron Weider, who chaired the meeting in Rothschild's absence. Weider pushed ahead with the vote, over the objections of some board members and school administrators.
Rothschild told the Editorial Board he will offer a compromise — to keep attorney Stephen Fromson as counsel and add D'Agostino to the district's roster of attorneys. The district has a variety of counsel that specialize in certain areas, Rothschild said, and D'Agostino is valuable ”for where his expertise best suits us.“
What is that expertise? Earlier this year, D'Agostino successfully argued on behalf of the Lawrence district against a federal lawsuit that alleged the district's sale of a school building to a yeshiva violated the First and 14th Amendments. That action could be relevant to East Ramapo, which shuttered an elementary school and is leasing it to a yeshiva. The district has said there is no plan to sell the building, and state regulations would prohibit such a sale. Rothschild agreed that D'Agostino's experience on this case could be valuable for East Ramapo.
D'Agostino also has been able to tamp down growing special education costs in the Lawrence district in Nassau County. D'Agostino worked out a way to have private school parents in Lawrence share the cost of special education, Rothschild said. ”Special ed, I predict, could end up being as much as 10 percent of the cost of our budget within the next two years,“ Rothschild said.
Questions about choice
Keeping Fromson, who has served the district well for years, and retaining another lawyer with expertise in certain areas makes good policy sense. It is premature, however, to bring D'Agostino on board — not with the pension scandal unresolved. D'Agostino and other private lawyers who worked for school districts were accused by the state comptroller of receiving public pensions improperly; D'Agostino sued and a court ruled that adequate due process wasn't given. Meanwhile, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been reviewing the pension cases for possible fraud.
Another concern is D'Agostino's proposed fee of $250 an hour, plus $125 an hour for transportation — more than four times higher than the hourly rate that East Ramapo now pays for Fromson's legal work. Many Lower Hudson Valley school districts are curbing such expenses in the face of protests from taxpayers . The school board has not sufficiently set forth a justification for the rate increase.
More tensions
The November vote adds more tension to a school community that doesn't need it. Schools Superintendent Ira Oustatcher strongly challenged the board's vote during the marathon school board meeting. District Deputy Superintendent Joe Farmer may have put it best: ”This is a declaration of war,“ he warned the school board majority. That's hardly hyperbole in East Ramapo. Tension over resources for public vs. private school students, and blocked school budgets, has long simmered. Even undoing this vote may not calm the ire of many who viewed it as an act of arrogance — a move that ignored community input and input from educators. The idea of adding expert lawyers to East Ramapo's stable is a logical one. But not this lawyer and not at this time.
East Ramapo rehires fired lawyer
BY ALEXANDRA CHENEY • JournalNewsRAMAPO — The East Ramapo school board on Wednesday night announced that longtime district lawyer Steve Fromson would continue to work on behalf of the district.
The board also is going to hire a special counsel to deal with the state commissioner of education's action about whether to reverse the original, controversial vote to hire Albert D'Agostino.
The firm — Feerick, Lynch and MacCartney of South Nyack — will be contracted for 15 days until the next board meeting on Dec. 16.
The hiring of D'Agostino ”is on hold for the next two weeks,“ school board President Nathan Rothschild announced, adding ”this special counsel will advise us through the process until we are able to sort this all out.“
The night before, the school board voted 8-1 to hire the law firm of Kuntz, Spagnuolo and Murphy.
The Bedford Village-based firm was to counsel the district in the aftermath of hiring of D'Agostino, who, through a 5-3 vote, was hired to replace Fromson.
Kuntz, Spagnuolo and Murphy backed out before Wednesday night's meeting and was replaced by Dennis Lynch of Feerick, Lynch and MacCartney.[0xa0]
Fromson had been abruptly let go after serving as East Ramapo counsel for the past 33 years.
Trustee Aron Wieder apologized to the public and tried to answer some of the unanswered questions from the Nov. 18 meeting.
”Change we can believe in comes with bold and daring actions that can be controversial,“ Wieder said.
The board's action Wednesday night followed a tumultuous public sesson in which about 40 people spoke and board members met in executive session for more than two hours.
More than 400 people crowded inside the East Ramapo administration building gymnasium Wednesday night, while about 150 others listened from the halls.
Parents, students and residents addressed the board on issues ranging from the privatization of East Ramapo transportation to the contentious hiring of Long Island-based D'Agostino.
The lawyer has been embroiled in a controversy over more than a half-million dollars in state pension payments.
The five members who voted in favor of hiring D'Agostino had not provided an amended budget. D'Agostino would charge $130 an hour more than Fromson.
He also would charge for transportation to and from his offices on Long Island.
Several members from the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities have expressed that D'Agostino's expertise would be worth the additional monies.
The five-member bloc that voted in favor of D'Agostino's hiring represent the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities in the district, most of whom send their children to yeshivas, or private religious schools.