Urgent: week of January 21

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Messages which absolutely need to be seen today due to time constraints or breaking news. Remember to check the"new answers" link for the most active topics. This topic will run for a week, and then we will start a new dated "urgent" file.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2001

Answers

Another "Community Awareness Regarding Education" started by "moms" in Marlboro. Coincidence?

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2001

After some exhaustive research here are some of the town's which Shaw and Perelman or Shaw and Silveira have represented over the past 10 years:

Dobb's Ferry, Susquehanna, Rhinebeck, City of Kingston, Hyde Park, Rye, Warwick, Cornwall, Florida, Sullivan BOCES, Newburgh, Greenburgh, Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Tuxedo, Pine Plains, Dover, Roxbury, Jasper-Troudsberg, Roundout, Saugerties, Millbrook, Valhalla, Northeast Central, Goshen, Chester, Wappinger, Mamamroneck, Washingtonville, Minisink.

I don't know which of these towns retained them for the year or just as a gun for hire but if you have contacts in any of these towns please do look inquire the matter. Again we are looking for any of these districts in which we can find the unexpended fund balance for any years we can. This may be used to publicly discredit Shaw in response to when he stated that he didn't know if any other districts had unexpended fund balances over 2%. My understanding is that it is required by law that the district lawyer sign off on the budget before it is approved. So any lawyer would know if there are unexpended funds over 2% in the district he represents. If Shaw did this, we got him.

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-- Anonymous, January 21, 2001


For the record, here are the lawyers I came up with who either currently or previously worked for Shaw.

Michael K. Lambert, Margo May, Lisa Rusk, Pilor Sokol, Garrett Silveira, Lisa Schreine, Perelman, and Shaw.

My research has also shown that Shaw is very successful in representing BOE's before appeals to the commissioner. His cases usually involve Child Disability Cases in where he represents the district trying to avoid providing services for a child. In these cases he wins about 60% of the time. In other cases such as residency, transportation,and employment disputes, he is hugely successful. He is also considered a tough player in labor negotiations and is involved in many cases against the unions before the commissioner. Shaw knows the education laws inside and out. He is a very able lawyer in his field.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2001


It appears the only one with any bite is the commissioner when it comes to repeated breaking of open meetings laws, improper exec sessions/ getting info that they shouldn't have (personnel files, etc.) But the Commissioner usually just says "bad dog, no biscuit." and on they go...if we can get some statement from him it's better than nothing, but whoever files this (bettr not be me this time) needs to have facts and dates and actions correct or he'll toss it before even looking. T.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2001

Here's a link to the Budgeting Handbook put out by NYS regrading the determination of contingent expenses:

http://www.emsc.nysed.gov:80/mgtserv/append-05.htm

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2001



Had a good meeting yesterday...Maureen, Morty, Jim, Curry, myself and Meg met and decided to move forward with board /elections related issues, including formation of a group focussing on ways to find constructive help for the district...called SOS Save Onteiora Schools. There was a group by this name ten years ago, and it was the start of the golden age of board/community relations that lasted until the reign of terror started with Doan...Anyway, we'll be formulating plans to focus on the money issues/etc and ways to move the agenda forward in a good way.

Public meetings, etc will follow. BOE meets tonight at 7PM at high school...good article in today's Freeman...spin spin spin...we hope to have concrete examples of districts where Shaw/Bullis work that have fund balances over 5%...if not this time...then next...Jim is spearheading the battle...our gladiator with a keyboard... Tobe

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2001


Sad and disheartening..even though we'll be able to showe Shaw to be two-faced, when Doan comes up wioth double billing again and again, this is very hard to confront...Sad...I'm at a loss for what to do in particular here.

On another note, the Kingston Freeman today has an article about three people arrestedfor hate crimes because they shot at tires at the Wood Jewish Congreg and they said it was "because they were Jews"...Two were from Olivebridge..anyone know who these people are, and any connections with you know who? Anyone know anyone on the saugerties Police force so they can at least ask the right questions about organized hate groups and not look the other way in the face of possible evidence that shows this to exist??

names from the press are: Matthew Norton of saugerties Robert Cordani, 28 and Nicle Cordani, 19 of 1677 County Rte 2, Olivebridge...the article goes on to say State Police investigated...Carol, want to call your friends there and ask if they are considering the connections to tires, etc.?

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001


To enlighten the crowd that wasn't there...it was disappointing, at best.

The board voted to not allow the students to have a non-voting seat on the board until they had a different process to elect representatives (or the kid the board wants).

The board voted, during old business at the end of the meeting, to further retain the services of Shaw and H&R to investigate another double billing activity which Doan claims he has found regarding Montrose.

It was all very disheartening and sad.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001


Here's a link to help us share a laugh.

http://www.ifas.org/library/cartoons/natives.html

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001


Here's an excerpt of a letter I sent to Ed Sanders. It may help to update evryone on what we are finding out.

...a friend on the New Paltz BOE claims that it was our current outside accountant firm (Churchill) that replaced the accountant firm (Nugent and Haeussler) in New Paltz around 1993. This is the same firm that Doan is bringing into Onteora to replace Chuchill. I understand that in the records of New Paltz BOE there is a document ('92-93 ?) in which Churchill blasts the accountant practices of Nugent and Haeussler (N&H) and CPA Randy Bullis. Bullis is the CPA from N&H who just last week publicly lambasted the current Onteora accounting practices which Churchill had recently signed off on the week before. Churchill replaced them in New Paltz back then. Now they are looking to replace him here. This was all during the fiasco in the New Paltz BOE that led the district into a 2 1/2 million dollar deficit for which, I think, the town BOE had to borrow money in order to keep functioning. Taxes rose 35%. BTW-David Shaw is the lawyer that Doan brought in to run the Ontoera witch hunt and he was the lawyer for New Paltz during all of their financial woes. The taxpayers are paying for these macho accountants and lawyers flexing their fiduciary muscles before naive trustees on the BOE's. At Onteora, this is led by the maniacal trustee Doan with his headstrong power trip.

Another interesting tidbit is that David Shaw represented Poughkeepsie but was recently displaced by Onteora's current lawyer, John Donoghue. Let's not forget that Doan brought Shaw and N&H into Onteora because he didn't agree with the legal opinion that Donoghue and Chuchill provided on our accounting procedures. Sounds like they go after each others business the minute they smell blood. All at great taxpayer expense.

I am looking into documenting all of this but don't know if I will have the time to get all the records before the next BOE meeting.

Another option we are looking into the legality of using school funds for all of this bull during a state mandated austerity budget. An appeal to the NYS commissioner of education with a stay order could stop them. But a stay order is rare and the legality of this is open to opinion. It also takes the commissioner about 8 months the hear the case. If we don't get a stay order, it may be moot.

BTW- Did you see that 3 people, 2 from the Onteora school district (one whom I know graduated) were arrested for the recent rash of BB gun shootings? Lot's of money and vandalism to windows and cars. But when arrested for shooting out tires at the Woodstock Jewish Center they claimed they did it because "they were Jews". Now these people are being held on a hate crime charge. Who said during the mascot debate that Onteora didn't have any race problems?

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001



Word from the greenspun.com folks this afternoon when I queried them was:

"Apologies, we're working on it. We've had some problems with the Oracle configuration, but our best DBA is supposed to fix them presently. Sorry for the inconvenience."

DBA something other than "doing business as"? De-bugging analyst? Data-busters Anonymous?

I was idly wondering yesterday, I wonder how much the market would bear charging people to throw a baseball with Hal Rowe sitting in one of those dunking booths? Could we buy some modulars outright with what we'd haul in?

Wittenberg Store seems to be Doan's local place for coffee, seeing as the phone book places him at Glenford Rd. in Bearsville, so that is why that one is there. Anyone seen the petitions anywhere else? I see by the way, in an old Woodstock Times, confirmation that Mr. "Shut the door after me and call them outsiders" Doan came up from New Jersey just a year before I did. And Mr."Let's not talk about the delicate subject of whether I'm an outsider" Walters came up from Lodi, New Jersey much, much later. So who are these guys trying to kid?

-- Anonymous, January 27, 2001


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