Well said, and once again Frank thank you for your leadership and
integrity. This whole issue is a disgrace and I for one think you
hit it right on the head with your post below.
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "asburycheech" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> Hi Group Members:
>
> I do not speak for the BOE. This was my statement upon asking
> that the attorneys' fees for September and October, totaling a
little
> under $60,000. be separated:
>
> "I have asked that the monthly bills for the BOE's lawfirm,
> Schwartz, Simon, et al., be separated. I did this so that I would
> have the distinct pleasure of voting "no", because apparently my
vote,
> useless and feeble as it is, is all I have left. As chairperson of
> the finance committee, I do not believe that we should be wasting
the
> taxpayer's money to enrich a lawfirm that is hell-bent on stopping
> kids from playing ball on public property. In my opinion, we have
> wasted thousands of dollars to do exactly the opposite of what we
are
> charged to do as educators. The BOE has voted on several occasions
to
> give the Little League and Danny McKee, who has invested the better
> part of the last two years of his life in accomplishing this, the
> green light to make the improvements necessary so that the kids here
> will have a world-class Little League field, something they richly
> deserve. Every time we have done so, the lawyers at Shwartz Simon,
> who apparently don't have enough other issues in our district to
> contend with, have turned every green light into a red one. What
> Danny and the Little League parents want to do would inure to the
> kids' benefit as well as the school system's since the Little League
> is the obvious feeder system for our own baseball teams. Much to
the
> lawyers' chagrin, I suppose, every time they fashion, at taxpayers
> expense, more and more elaborate hoops for Danny to jump through, he
> has done so. Now they have fashioned various Catch 22's for him to
> overcome, like telling him that he has to have soil tests done and
> then not giving him access to the soil. That alone cost Danny $1800
> today out of his pocket.
>
> Meanwhile, the lawyers charge the taxpayers thousands upon
> thousands of dollars writing interminable reports for our
edification
> telling us why the Little League cannot proceed. Their latest
report
> explains why the BOE should not pay $300 to have ancient deed
> restrictions lifted. So it is costing the taxpayers thousands for
the
> lawyers to tell us that we shouldn't pay hundreds. That is either
an
> irony that escapes the law firm or maybe amuses them. But I am not
> amused, neither should the parents, taxpayers, or even state
> officials, who I regret to inform you, are taking the side of the
> lawyers and are themselves piling on the Little League instead of
> doing something useful for the ridiculous amount of money that the
> taxpayers are paying them.
>
> Only in Asbury Park would this be a problem. Any other sane
> community would have embraced and celebrated Danny and the Little
> League and helped, not hindered him, in his volunteer work.
>
> All of our stationery used to have a little nifty saying at
the
> bottom. It used to read "Make it Happen!" I suggested at the time
> that we change it to something more accurate, like "Make Nothing
> Happen!" Instead we have changed the motto to "Together Everyone
> Achieves More!" Of course, the acronym for that is T.E.A.M. The
fact
> that it is a team, the Little League, that we have thrown every
> roadblock in front of, is also an irony that seems to have escaped
> some of us. I'd like to suggest a new motto in honor of Danny and
the
> Little League. How about, "Let No Good Deed Go Unpunished" ?
>
> For that reason it will give me great pleasure, although no
> satisfaction, to vote "no" to the monthly bills for Shwartz Simon et
> al. I will continue to do so until I get an exact accounting to the
> dollar on how much it has cost the taxpayers for our lawyers to work
> on the Little League case and to proceed in a direction counter to
the
> clear direction that the Board had given them.
>
> I would remind them that, even though I did not vote for them,
> they work for us, not the other way around."
>
> Frank D'Alessandro
>
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