Gusciora: Board prez admitted McDowell merit pay done in executive session
TRENTON >> The Trenton Board of Education may have taken a dark vote on whether to award merit pay to Superintendent Fred McDowell violating the state “Sunshine Law,” officials said.
Mayor Reed Gusciora told The Trentonian on Friday that board president Gene Bouie admitted to him during a conversation the vote was conducted in executive session.
Such a move would violate the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) and nullify the board’s vote to approve nearly $25,000 in merit pay for McDowell.
“I’m satisfied it was done in executive,” Gusciora said.
Bouie, who was out of the country, denied in a phone interview Friday telling the mayor the board voted in executive session. He was asked how the mayor came to that conclusion.
“That is a great question, and that’s a question I will ask him next week when I’m back in the country,” the board president said. “He had to have misunderstood what I said.”
The city law department may take legal action to ensure the school board followed the OPMA governing circumstances when public bodies may enter into executive session, Gusciora said.
Generally, governing bodies may only discuss certain matters, such as pending litigation and employment, in executive session. But they must vote publicly on any matters discussed in executive session.
School union leaders and advocates also pointed to another possible OPMA violation: McDowell’s merit pay didn’t appear on the board agenda.
Bouie said he couldn’t speak to that because he didn’t have the agenda in front of him.
The Trentonian reviewed the agenda and confirmed there was no mention of McDowell’s merit pay listed on it.
As for the actual vote, Bouie claimed the board emerged from executive session around 11:40 p.m. and voted to approve McDowell’s merit pay. He said by that time all members of the public had left the meeting.
“Everybody was gone,” Bouie said.
Officials from the Trenton Education Association claimed people remained until the meeting was over.
Former TEA president Naomi Johnson-Lafleur said they all reported that the board never voted publicly on McDowell’s pay.
To try to resolve the controversy, The Trentonian obtained and listened to the recording of the board meeting.
But the recording ended when the board went into executive session, and it never resumed to capture the vote on McDowell’s pay, as Bouie claimed.
Asked about that discrepancy, Bouie couldn’t explain why the vote wasn’t recorded but instructed a reporter to ask the board secretary for the meeting minutes.
The Trentonian so far hasn’t received a copy of the board minutes.
School district officials haven’t provided an accounting for how board members voted.
Gusciora said when he learned about McDowell potentially earning merit pay, he asked Bouie to postpone any vote until he fills two open spots on the board.
That’s when, he said, he learned the vote already happened. And he said the board president led him to believe it happened in executive session.
Responding to demands he force board members to resign over the merit pay imbroglio, the mayor said he would hold off on making any decisions until after he meets with Bouie.
“In fairness, I need to have a faceto-face meeting with him to give him an opportunity to say how the bonus came about,” Gusciora said.
Johnson-Lafleur said the vote controversy demonstrates the board isn’t transparent.
The former TEA leader claimed district officials have launched a leak investigation to find out how the teachers union found out about McDowell’s merit pay.
“We have to play detective every single month, going through an agenda,” she said. “We have to spend the weekend looking for things they are hiding. This is how this board has been operating.”
“They want to know how we got these papers,” she said, referring to the justification form. “This is the issue. We should have had the information anyway. Why are you upset how public dollars are being spent?”
Asked about the alleged OPMA violations, Johnson-Lafleur called it business as usual.
“[Bouie] understands [OPMA]; he just does not care,” she said. “He feels he can do whatever he wants.”