Published: April 29, 2009 11:19 pm      

LEW-PORT: Board rescinds referendum

Measure to consolidate board to five members won’t be on May 19 ballot

The Lewiston Porter Board of Education did an about-face on its board consolidation referendum Wednesday after seeking legal counsel.

The board called a special meeting to vote to rescind the resolution to add a referendum to the May 19 ballot to consolidate the school board from seven members to five effective July 1, 2010. The referendum’s placement was “pending legal advice.”

The board voted 4-3 to approve adding the consolidation referendum and a cost control referendum to the ballot at its April 21 meeting. Board members Keith Fox, Mike Gentile and Jim Sperduti all voted against the measures.

Board member Ed Lilly requested the board go into an executive session at the start of the April 21 meeting to add the resolutions to the agenda.

State law requires a 45-day time period for referendums to be made public in order to be placed on a ballot. Section 1703 of the education law also requires obtaining signatures of at least 5 percent of the public who voted in the previous election of school board members before a referendum can be placed on the ballot.

Wednesday night, board members said the process in which it was submitted doomed the referendum.

“Tonight we are not voting on the merits, pro or con, of these propositions, we are voting on the process by which they were introduced,” Fox said. “The contents of the propositions are not new. They could have been presented in a timely way, as they have in the past. But no, they were presented during election time and in an untimely way.”

The board voted 6-0-1 to rescind the referendum. Lilly, who introduced the consolidation referendum to be put on the agenda at the April 21 meeting, abstained from the vote.

“The board has decided to prohibit the voters from their right to vote,” Lilly said. “Voters should have the opportunity to express their views on how to spend their $41 million.”

However, other board members disagreed with how the issue was handled.

“In the future, I will vote against or vote to table any last-minute agenda items,” board member Jim Sperduti said. “It’s not fair to the board members to drop something in our lap 15 minutes before the meeting.”

Others agreed.

“This is the result that should have occurred last Tuesday,” board member Mike Gentile said. “(The referendum) should have never seen the light of day. These measures are put on the agenda with no notice on something this important. It did not meet executive session criteria. And with no specifics, apparently you want people to vote without knowing what they are voting for.”

Lilly said that there were exceptions made by the New York state Education Commissioner on a similar referendum at a district in Central Islip, New York.

“This happened before,” Lilly said. “The public will notice.”

Lilly proposed a resolution to include the referendum and a request for permission from the education commissioner in public notices in the local newspaper the weeks prior to the election on May 19.

However, that was a last minute resolution and was voted down 5-1-1 with one abstention.

The public has voted down a board consolidation in previous elections.