December 11, 2009

Two recent appointments in Spring Valley seem to prove that if you want to hide your qualifications, or lack of qualifications, or you’d just rather avoid any conversation at all about your life experience and professional track record, the new Jasmin administration could have a place for you.

Stealth Candidate Finds another Open Door
A headline in The Journal News described Mayor Noramie Jasmin’s most recent hire as "unusual." I don’t know about "unusual"—about 500 or so parents who attended the last Board of Education meeting might have other ways of describing Aron Wieder, the new administrative assistant to the mayor. They had quite a selection of colorful terms for Wieder, the vice president of the school board, at that tumultuous meeting. Wieder and his Orthodox majority of five had rammed through a midnight firing of the current attorneys and had voted in an attorney from Lawrence, NY, who currently is under investigation by the State Attorney General’s Office. Refusing to answer any questions, Wieder's contingent hired Albert D’Agostino at four times the cost of the current attorneys.

Aron Wieder operates on the East Ramapo Board of Education in the same way he did as a candidate. When he ran for the position, he refused to provide information about his qualifications, employment, and intentions. He didn’t attend the Journal News interviews or photo session—no information was offered. In fact, he became a board member when David Resnick, his opponent, dropped out of the race with one week to go—leaving no time to name a replacement. Curiously, Wieder had been involved in the same maneuver the last time he had run for the board—in that race, he dropped out. This stealth candidacy was most recently employed by Moshe Hopstein, another almost completely unknown quantity who now sits silently at the end of the board table and votes with the private-school majority.

And now, Aron Wieder is a $45,000-dollar-a-year executive assistant to the Mayor of Spring Valley. Is he qualified? Who knows? We do know that he has a lot of trouble with the Robert's Rules of Order that guide public meetings. The tortured path that he stumbled through to the final vote for D’Agostino is currently under review by the State Board of Education. Also, he has the kind of judgment that prefers a lawyer currently under investigation to a firm that also applied which has twice argued education cases before the Supreme Court. They were not even given the courtesy of an interview. But then again, that firm probably has scant experience in closing public schools and selling them to private-school officials, as does Minerva & D’Agostino.

The Journal article quoted Steven White of Spring Valley who questioned "Wieder’s professional background and qualifications." And the paper itself tried to get some specifics about the job and why Wieder was chosen.

Mayor Noramie Jasmin said, "She was not sure who held the administrative position prior to Wieder," but she did claim that the post required someone who was "academically fit." So, the Journal writer did what you would expect any reasonable reporter to do—ask the questions. And once again: "Wieder declined to comment about his past employment experience and administrative qualifications."

When you ask the kind of questions that any public official would feel obliged to answer, and you are repeatedly denied any information, it’s natural to begin to harbor some suspicions. When a panel has several members who are similarly cloaked, the question becomes, is this a school board or a Star Chamber? Look at the middle of the night proceeding that hired D’Agostino, and then remember that this group is guiding the educational futures of thousands of kids in East Ramapo.

The New Spring Valley Attorney
[Journal News Photo]

The other position recently filled by Mayor Jasmin presents something of an opposite sort of problem. Ryan Karben has been appointed the new village attorney replacing Bruce Levine.

Karben’s qualifications and experience are an open book, but there are some patches in his personal landscape that he, and the village, would like to perhaps obscure. Ryan Karben is a practicing attorney, and he did graduate law school. He is also a graduate of the Rockland County Jail having spent a short sabbatical leave as a guest of the County last December (2008) due to a drunk driving charge.

Karben has extensive political experience along with some pretty hefty baggage. He rose rapidly in Rockland politics and then spectacularly flamed out in the State Assembly, resigning without any real explanation amid rumors of an impending ethics investigation. Of his brief tenure in Albany, The Journal News wrote: "He abruptly resigned his Assembly seat in 2006 amid allegations that he had made unwanted sexual advances toward a male intern in Albany. He was drinking alcohol at the time. . .Karben has declined to address the allegations. He has said he left to. . .establish a law practice and do political consulting."

That law practice was in the papers in March of this year: "A 76-year-old Congers woman has accused Monsey attorney Ryan Karben and a New Jersey-based company of misrepresenting a real estate transaction in which she says she lost the deed to her home." (Journal News—March 13, 2009). The lawyer for the plaintiff filed the charge as a federal racketeering offense against Karben, who did the closing on the $240,000 house, for which the woman received $40,000, and a company from North Haledon, NJ.

Ryan Karben is a securely locked-in flywheel in the Ramapo Democratic Machine. How he has survived the numerous disasters in his political career is a testament to the indifference of the voter base in our town.

The new administration in Spring Valley has, depending on your perspective, either hit the ground running or has badly stumbled with these first public appointments. But until a lot more is known about Aron Wieder and his new position, there are going to be serious, unresolved doubts.

Michael Castelluccio
www.PreserveRamapo.org

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