Why was this decision rammed through at one o’clock in the morning in what, for all intents and purposes, resembled a secret session--the Board President was absent and few members of the public were present? The reasons to delay far outweighed the need for a middle of the night decision. So why did they do it? There was the problem of justifying firing the current lawyers. Not a single reason was expressed by the Vice Chair of the Board, Aron Wieder, or any of the five. And then, D’Agostino would be hired at four times the current salary of the lawyers, and Wieder offered no explanation where the funds would come from. Also, D’Agostino has recently been investigated by the Attorney General’s Office, and the State Comptroller’s Office has initiated action against his claim for $600,000 in retirement funds. Sounds like business better conducted in the dark. Aron Wieder said he had good reasons, but he gave none. So why Albert D’Agostino, and why now?

If you look into the takeover of the Lawrence New York public school board by the Orthodox community you have, perhaps, the beginning of the answer. Take a look at this video from Channel 12 for an introduction to the attorney. If this doesn’t sound familiar to you, consider the recent closing of the Merrill Colton Elementary School by the East Ramapo Board. Just one month after the closing, the property and buildings were put on the block to rent, and on May 1, the East Ramapo District Clerk opened the bids for those showing up at the auction. Those competing for the closed school were　Congregation Nachlas Chaim, Congregation and Yeshiva Beth Hillel, Yeshiva of Spring　Valley, and Congregation Bais Malka/HASP.

D’Agostino’s Other Baggage
Apparently, Mr. D’Agostino told this Board that he was found innocent of the charge of illegally taking $600,000 in retirement from school boards on Long Island. What actually happened was that the judge who invalidated the charge against him did so because of a procedural error made by the Comptroller’s Office. The judge said the Comptroller still had the right to pursue the charge, which had come originally from an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, and Superintendent Oustatcher implied that it’s expected the charge will be reinstated against him. Read "Attorneys Owe New York $700,000 in Pensions" from the New York Law Journal (here).

No Answers
After Aron Wieder made the motion to hire D’Agostino, board member Stephen Price had some comments and questions. First he objected to the motion by saying, "There are no board actions on tonight’s agenda. This is improper; it’s not on the agenda." He said the board needed an attorney’s opinion on the question, so Wieder turned to the Treasurer and asked him. Yes, ironic on more than one level this request for legal counsel from a treasurer, and, actually, Wieder’s performance for much of the night would have been comical were it not for the gravity of the decision.

Price then asked Wieder, "Are you aware of any of the attorneys, partners of that (Minerva and D’Agostino) law firm, who are under investigation by the Attorney General of the State of New York?"

Wieder at first said, "Yes," and then Eliyahu Solomon whispered something to him, and Wieder said, "I’m not aware that he’s under investigation."

Price asked the question again, and this time Wieder tried to squirm away from it with, "I don’t have counsel here to advise me that I’m allowed to have this discussion with you in public." The guy who is insisting that they fire the attorneys reminds everyone that the attorneys are not there to help him. Vaguely reminiscent of that old bad joke about the guy who killed both parents and then threw himself on the mercy of the court because he’s an orphan.

At this point, Superintendent Oustatcher said he had spoken to counsel earlier in the day, and that the discussion could be held in public session. He also offered a final clarification that Mr. D’Agostino’s problem with the Comptroller’s Office was not over.

At Four Times the Cost
The discussion then turned to what D’Agostino would charge the taxpayers of East Ramapo. Wieder read from a paper: $250 per hour for consultation and $125 per hour for travel. Likely cost for a one-hour consultation (the lawyer would be traveling to and from Long Island) would total $500. Wieder was asked what the current attorney charges, and he mistakenly quoted $125 and hour. Dr. Oustatcher corrected him—it’s $120 an hour, and Mr. Fromson has never charged for travel expenses. From $120 to $500 an hour is a more than four-times increase of the current legal expense.

Dr. Oustatcher then gave his estimate of what the charges for the new lawyer would be over time. The current legal bill is $347,000 per year, and with D’Agostino, that would increase substantially. The range the Superintendent gave was a low of $600,000 to a top figure of $1.2 million. Wieder objected, and when Oustatcher asked for his estimate, Wieder didn’t have an answer. He simply said he "didn’t believe" it would be that high. Pressed for a specific set of numbers, he repeated that he didn’t believe it would cost that much to change attorneys.

Mimi Calhoun then reminded Wieder of the Board’s responsibility to the taxpayers, and after telling him that the figures for the hourly wages were facts, not beliefs, she asked him again to consider those facts. She explained, "It’s irresponsible of us, particularly in this day and age to be talking about adding this much money to a budget—and it’s money that doesn’t exist. It hasn’t been budgeted." Wieder simply repeated his apparently baseless belief that it wouldn’t cost the taxpayers that much.

When Dr. Oustatcher asked what part of the budget this quadrupling of the expense would come out of, Wieder didn’t have an answer. Oustatcher reminded everyone that at mid-year, the district was likely to lose a substantial amount of money due to State cuts. The Superintendent summed up a frustrating exchange during which Wieder seemed to feel no obligation to answer any question with any kind of specificity with the following warning: "I would ask that you think about what you’ve heard and to think about how divisive this is going to be, both to a board that I believe you will rip asunder with this vote and a community you will rip asunder. I don’t see any urgency in voting tonight."

To the list of unanswered questions, the following also were ignored by the five Orthodox members. Another lawyer had presented a proposal, Wieder had supposedly wanted to consider him also, but this attorney had not been interviewed—he was scheduled for next week. Mr. Price was not given the opportunity to interview D’Agostino. Price wanted it on the record that he "was never invited to interview this attorney." Suzanne Young-Mercer described the way it had been dropped on the board members: "It wasn’t on the agenda, and we didn’t even know about it, so please, don’t start acting like everyone knew the attorney was showing up that day. No one knew. Oh well, yes, you guys (the five) knew."

No explanation how the transition from no lawyers to D’Agostino would take place, no explanation about where the money was coming from, no opportunity to review all the candidates, no admission of the additional costs—none of it was needed.

Richard Stone interrupted in the middle of Oustatcher’s attempt to get an answer about the legal hazard this would place the district in, and he called for an end of the discussion and made a motion to vote on the proposal. The vote was 5 to 3 with Hopstein, Kohn, Wieder, Solomon and Stone for the firings and replacing the attorneys with D’Agostino, and Price, Calhoun and Young-Mercer voting against it.

The Cost
This decision, achieved in the middle of the night, away from public view, will cost the taxpayers four times what the current legal bill is for the district. There’s no way to account for it in the current budget, and what you will get for your money is a lawyer whose integrity is still a question for the courts to decide, but whose track record is clear. More important, though, is the way the board handled this fiscal issue. The budget of the East Ramapo School District is $293,000,000, and if this current majority of five can be expected to be no more responsible with taxpayer’s money than they were with this issue, we can all anticipate skyrocketing liabilities in the future. They wanted a sympathetic lawyer, and they were willing to spend whatever it cost to get him, no matter that there is no clear way to pay him.

East Ramapo taxpayers are in for an uncertain future. Mr. Farmer (speech below), the Deputy Superintendent of Schools explained the jeopardy we are in and what has taken place so far with the take-over of the school system by the private-school interests.

Worst of all, the biggest losers in this will likely be the students at the schools in the East Ramapo system. After the takeover in Lawrence New York, the economic pressures on the system soon began to take their toll in the classrooms. In a recent email, the Power of Ten Coalition explained that "Due to smaller school budgets, Lawrence’s public schools declined in quality.　Test scores　fell, Lawrence’s reputation diminished, and Lawrence was placed on New York’s educational watch-list for underperforming school districts."

"This has not much to do with the selection of a lawyer or firing lawyers—it has to with the demise of a school district as we know it. We’re talking about an absolute power grab that has caused us to take apart the special ed department, to take transportation apart, purchasing, now the lawyers; the administrators will be next, and the power of five votes is not fair to destroy the potential of this community. Here’s a most unique community in the State of New York. And just from raw power, selfishness, to take control without any resistance is not why we’re in this business. These students deserve more, they deserve better. This is a declaration of war.