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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