Ethics review: Board offers advisory opinion on candidate issue

Written by Rachel Kirkpatrick
Sunday, 01 November 2009 23:00

The Board of Ethics held an emergency meeting Sunday after a request was made for its opinion on whether a candidate for the Redding school board can participate in certain budget discussions if their spouse is a teacher in the district.

Although the letter, written by resident Jack Foley and obtained by The Pilot, did not name a specific candidate, there is only one candidate whose situation matches it — Independent Mike D’Agostino who is running against four incumbents for a seat on the school board. His wife, Toni, is employed as a reading specialist at Redding Elementary School.

The request for the advisory opinion asked whether an individual in a position such as this “will be required to abstain from engaging in deliberations and/or voting with respect to the teacher’s contract, the annual school budget or any other matters that may come before the Board of Education.”

The Board of Ethics responded, coming to the opinion that the candidate “would be required to abstain from engaging in deliberations and/or voting with respect to the teacher’s contract or any other matters that may come before the Board of Education relevant to the teaching staff,” said Board of Ethics Chairman Emily D’Aulaire in the letter.

When asked for comment this week, Mr. D’Agostino said the request for an opinion on the matter is a “distraction” tool.

“I am disappointed to hear about this attempt to distract voters from actual issues that matter to our schools and our students, or to somehow compromise the overwhelming support I have received from the community by slowing the momentum of my campaign,” he said. “Rather than addressing the pressures and challenges facing our school system, Mr. Foley — who has already been publicly critical of my campaign — went the back route to the Board of Ethics in an attempt to suggest a potential conflict of interest due to my wife’s employment in our school district.”

“It has always been my intent and goes without saying that, should I be fortunate enough to be elected to the Board of Education, I would certainly recuse myself from any discussion or action pertaining to the hiring, firing or reviewing of staff or other related issues,” Mr. D’Agostino said in his written response to The Pilot.

In his request for an opinion, Mr. Foley said each year the board “engages in extensive deliberations regarding the composition of the following year’s school budget. These deliberations invariably include extensive discussions of staffing levels and budgetary tradeoffs... ,” his letter said. He listed examples such as decreasing staff levels and presenting a budget with less of an increase; increasing staff levels and presenting a more expensive budget; eliminating funding from one program in order to fund a different program with a consequential elimination of one staff position and the hiring of staff for the new position.

For Mr. D’Agostino, local connections such as this are not unprecedented.

“If one were to look deeply enough, there are always potential conflicts in a small town such as Redding; however, it is up to individuals and those who serve to not allow them to become barriers to objectivity and effectiveness,” Mr. D’Agostino said. “I think it is important to return to the task of building a stronger school system in Redding.”

An advisory opinion from the Board of Ethics is just that — a situation where a resident asked the board for its opinion on a specific issue or question, Ms. D’Aulaire said this week. The Board of Ethics does not have the power to initiate cases,” she said, pointing to the 2001 revision of the board’s bylaws.

“We could never go after anybody; someone has to come to us,” Ms. D’Aulaire said.

The code provides for a town official, employee or resident to ask for an advisory opinion. “The board may render advisory opinions to any official or employee and to any resident of the town pursuant to written request,” the code states.

This recent advisory opinion issues is the first action of its kind the board has taken on an issue in almost six years.

“At this point, we don’t do anything beyond the advisory opinion,” Ms. D’Aulaire said.

Before rendering its opinion, the board received backup material in order to verify the claim and questions. Ms. D’Aulaire said she spoke with school officials to confirm Mr. D’Agostino’s connection through a spouse.

“Since it was in fact possible to get everyone together in time to let the public know before the election, we thought it would be good for the voters to know ahead of time,” Ms. D’Aulaire said. “This is why we can have emergency meetings as a board.”

In his request to the board, Mr. Foley had asked the board to “convene and decide this matter at its earliest convenience” because of the election scheduled for Nov. 3.

This Board of Ethics meeting held was considered a special meeting and was noticed 24 hours in advance, according to Town Clerk Michele Grande.