The back door to the board room

Community View   The Journal News  May 29, 2008

On May 20, the day of the school board elections, a dangerous precedent played out in full view of the public, but it went by mainly unnoticed. A candidate was granted a seat on the Board of Education in East Ramapo. He was not elected, he was appointed after hiding out throughout the campaign.

The man is Moshe Hopstein. The public at large did not know who he was, where he was from - how old, what education, what he did for a living. All that had been withheld, intentionally.

Hopstein did not supply information for a candidate questionnaire by The Journal News and he was noticeably absent from the Meet the Candidates night. He was running for a very important position - the school board manages a budget larger than the Town of Ramapo - but apparently, he felt he did not need the public.

Arrogant? Certainly, but worse, it displays a contempt for both the electorate and the very system itself.

Positioned anonymously, the pivot turned as Hopstein's opponent quit one week before the election. Steven Rosenstock did not give a reason. He said there were "personal reasons," which is the excuse given by public officials when they don't want to give a reason or explanation. (Ranking second only to "I want to spend more time with my family.") Another incumbent, David Resnick, also bolted with a week to go (same non-reason given), and his beneficiary was another opponent, Aron Wieder, who had, coincidentally, dropped out of last year's East Ramapo school board race. I know, you need a scorecard for the subs.

With Rosenstock out of the picture, and one week before the voters would have had a say, Ramapo had a faceless, silent, unknown as a new board member. What is his own educational background? What is his professional background? Civic involvement? Who knows?

When you go to great lengths to stay out of the light, people may assume you have something to hide. But even worse, to subvert the procedures of an open election calls for some kind of remedy.

One, the Board of Education has to insist, in the future, that information about all the candidates be made available to the public on the Board of Education Web site, well in advance of the election.

Two, the anonymous candidate should become the subject of serious scrutiny now that he's been defaulted into the position. The media should take a hard look at the way an open political process was thwarted, and, beyond the investigative reporting, there are a number of professional venues (companies and agencies) available to those citizens motivated to find out who this shadow candidate really is. The system has failed, but there's no reason why the public can't now do their own vetting.

And finally, any incumbent who is thinking about not running should make the decision in time for a replacement candidate, not seven days before the actual election. But, failing that, they should have the decency to spare us the awkwardness of a ragged non-excuse.

Michael Castelluccio