NAACP calls for BOE’s Barbis to resign
Leaked email to mayor targets South Norwalk’s black elected officials
NORWALK — Mayor Harry Rilling admits Mike Barbis is “toxic” and should no longer be a member of the city’s Board of Education.
But Rilling received the controversial email — targeting South Norwalk’s black elected officials — in June that could have prevented Barbis from being elected to another term this week, leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said during a meeting Thursday night at the Open Door Shelter.
“Do I think Mike Barbis belongs on the BOE? Absolutely not,” Rilling said. “He has proven over and over and over again he does not have the temperament
or sensitivity to be on the board. If he does not resign on the board … there’s very little we can do … and that needs to be changed. When you have somebody that is toxic and can make these comments and is in position of power … that is something that needs to change drastically.”
Rilling said he doesn’t know who leaked the email or why it was released last weekend, but said he kept the message private because he wanted to “broker peace” between Norwalk NAACP President Brenda PennWilliams and Barbis. Rilling said in hindsight, he should have released the email after receiving it.
“What you just said is totally inexcusable,” Connecticut NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile said in response to Rilling. “It’s totally out of line. You received this particular information. You knew who you were dealing with. You knew the challenges. You should’ve used your bully pulpit to remove him. You didn’t put the effort in.”
In addition to Rilling, the email was also sent to the mayor’s chief of staff, Laoise King, Democratic Town Committee Chairman Ed Camacho and DTC Vice Chairwoman Eloisa Melendez.
In the email, Barbis claimed South Norwalk’s black elected officials did not “represent their residents.” The email referenced resistance from South Norwalk Democrats — naming state Rep. Travis Simms, D140; Common Council members Darlene Young, Ernie Dumas and Tom Livingston; former state Rep. Bruce Morris; and District B Democrats David Westmoreland and Mike Mushak — as barriers to the proposed Columbus School project.
“They are all SCUM and I am going to tell the press,” Barbis wrote in an email sent from his public school account on June 5. “Blacks [expletive] Latinos. That’s the headline.”
Barbis said this week he would “absolutely not” resign from the seat he reclaimed in an uncontested race on Tuesday. A representative for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education said there is no provision in the state law for a board to remove a member or for constituents to recall an official. However, NAACP members say they will fight until Barbis is no longer on the board.
The Norwalk branch of the NAACP is calling on state and national chapters for help in the effort and Esdaile said he will contact the Connecticut State Democratic Party, which Barbis ran as a member of in Tuesday’s election.
“We want Mike Barbis out,” PennWilliams said. “And when we fight, we win. And we want him out. ... To my knowledge, Mayor Rilling or Chairperson Camacho did not say anything about the email or do anything. … It is difficult for me as a professional educator and community member to stand idly and allow this kind of action in 2019.”
State Sen. Majority Leader Bob Duff, DNorwalk, released a statement Friday urging Barbis not to take the oath of office.
“It's long past time for the city to move on from the constant divisiveness on the Board of Education and focus on the future of our children,” Duff said. “I hope Mr. Barbis will do what's best for Norwalk and not serve another term.”
Members of the public who spoke at Thursday’s meeting questioned why the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee nominated Barbis and why no one challenged him for his seat. Many said they feel the email is indicative of a larger problem with the Board of Education and Norwalk as a whole.
“Barbis is just a small issue,” attorney Darnell Crosland said. “This is a bigger issue than this . ... The cancer that grows in Barbis is a cancer that grows from the head of the fish on down.”
Sandra Stokes, who is married to Simms, said “it’s just crazy it’s just surfacing now.”
“That is a political ploy right before an election that email was released . ... I bet my life there are several more emails, several more conversations, that haven’t surfaced,” she said. “This is nothing at all.”