MORRISVILLE
The Morrisville school board welcomed new members, including William Hellmann, who was elected president. Alfred Radosti, who has served on the board since 2003, was elected to serve as vice president.
Other members joining the board were Robin Reithmeyer, Marlys Mihok and William Farrell.
Hellmann and Radosti were elected by votes of 7-2, with Edward Frankenfield and Joseph Kemp voting to elect Kemp as president and Frankenfield as vice president.
Mihok was unanimously elected to serve as school district representative to the Bucks County Intermediate Unit Board.
Power has an interesting dynamic all its own, and I admit that I am somewhat surprised that Radosti, Heater, and Worob (oh my!) having survived so many years of silent second banana-hood under the alleged dictatorial iron thumb of Dr. Gibson would decline an opportunity to gloriously lead this board. May their golden tongues be loosened.The next two years are also going to be tough on Ed Frankenfield and Joe Kemp. In much the same way the Republicans have found that minorityhood in Congress is not fun (and they are retiring in record numbers for the 2008 election cycle), they will be largely ignored by the NSNs unless they maintain strident and loud dissent or moderate their positions to more closely match the NSN positions. I remember reading about Richard Nixon's first few days as a private citizen following his resignation, and he wanted to send a letter to a supporter. They looked and looked, and the only stationery available was the apple green letterhead reserved for the President of the United States. An aide took a pair of scissors, cut off the presidential seal, and handed the remains of the page to the former president remarking, "This is the new reality."
Any thoughts about the power dynamic with the former borough controller now president of the board? How about board member Mrs. Worob and councilman Mr. Worob? Is Vice-President Radosti running for a second shot at Mayor Wisnosky's job? And how about relations between the borough council and the board of education? Who runs who? Any other thoughts?
14 comments:
"Any thoughts about the power dynamic with the former borough controller now president of the board? How about board member Mrs. Worob and councilman Mr. Worob? Is Vice-President Radosti running for a second shot at Mayor Wisnosky's job? And how about relations between the borough council and the board of education? Who runs who? Any other thoughts?"
Oh Boy. What a wonderful invitation. I'll try not to run on too long on this one... :^)
One has to keep in mind that the top of the pyramid is Jane Burger. Since Morrisville has a "weak mayor" government structure, it doesn't matter much who the mayor is. It mattered to Jane for a little while, when Tom became an independant thinker and Jane's ego got the better of her. Once she calmed down and realized that Tom was just a figure-head and that in most cases it didn't matter what he thought, everything was fine for her.
She lost control of Sandy also, when Dr. Gibson turned out to be an independent thinker. (You can bet Jane will thoroughly vet candidates she wishes to place in positions of power from now on, and never again make the mistake of putting an independent thinker into office.) This fueled the battle between Council and School Board, but Jane had enough puppets on the board to keep Sandy in check. Once she got a confederate on the board (Brenda) that would funnel information directly to her spouse council member (Steve), there were no longer any barriers.
If President Bill remains a Burger puppet, you will see the Council and School Board march in lock-step. No-one from the new board will criticize the Council, and no-one from the Council will criticize the new board. (As much as I respect Frankenfield and Kemp, I believe they will be cowed into submission.)
There is a reason that the State Legislature created two separate governing bodies to regulate local ordinance and to over-see public school finance. It is because these two have separate and very distinct mandates. By having the two controlled by common political bodies (which, in essence, will now be the case) you will have massive failure (look to Philadelphia to see what can happen). However, there will be a time of faux peace, when the people of Morrisville will say, "look how nicely the Council and School board are playing together".
No free shave from me, sorry. I found it very odd that the new board members each had a "swearing-in buddy" help them hold the bible as they said their oaths at the reorganization meeting. Jane Burger helped two of them. I'll leave it to the political analysts to decide what that show was about. My hope is that the new board will get over itself and realize there's business to be done and a school district that needs to keep improving. It really shouldn't be a local politics playground.
Inquiring minds want to know. Who are the two school board members who are buddies with Council President Burger?
Regarding the power dynamic, I'll report what I saw and leave it to the political analysts to decide what it means. The incoming board members decided to take their oaths individually and each one had a "swearing-in buddy" to help them hold the bible. This is not a practice I've seen before. Jane Burger helped two of them, the others had wives and mothers, possibly signifying the importance of the seniors, I don't know.
The second event of note was when Mr. Hellmann, in his first act as president, told the Board what the all-new committees would be and who would be on them. Two significant names were left off of all committees, shouldn't be too hard to guess who they were. While that's a perfectly legitimate power of the president, it's important to note that Dictator Sandy asked all members which committees they'd like to serve on. Also of note, the two members who are not currently on any committees were also not informed of the changes to come.
Hellmann and Heater, if memory serves. Also, I think I'm going to have two similar comments here because this is the first time I'm posting and I didn't think the first one worked. Feel free to delete one if you can.
If I were one of the two left off the committee rosters I would choose which committee I wanted to serve on and show up for the meetings. According to Commonwealth school code, committees are appointed by the president, but all board members may attend AS LONG AS there is not a majority of the board in attendance. If there is, then it is an illegal meeting, and must be stopped right away. I would use this to my advantage to stop meetings of committees that were over quorum until the president appointed me to an appropriate committee.
But (thank goodness) I am NOT on the board and don't have to worry about that. Just some advice for Frankenfield and Kemp.
I'm curious, does anyone know, or know where to find, the oath that a school board member swears to, and the prescribed duties of a school board member?
That seems like a reasonable tactic, however, Joe and Ed would, of course, be blamed for disrupting the work that needs to be done and that THEY would be preventing all the improvements from happening. Just a guess.
It is also important to note that the committee meetings are also open to the public, although people rarely attend. I plan to attend them at random, but will probably stay focused on the Education Committee. Please exersize your right as a citizen and attend these meetings as well.
As for the council/school board dynamic, I foresee a lot of good relations but not much else. Its hard to ruffle feathers with inaction.
I also find it hard to believe JB wields that much political power, that she is the puppet master.
I have some answers.
~~Jon~~
The "Oath of Public Office" taken by each public official is signed and filed with the public entity and also with the State. Therefore, you should be able to call the MHS business office and ask for a copy (a fee might apply). I believe it is based on the standard federal "Constitutional Oath of Office" that every public official swears (or affirms) to.
The prescribed duties of a school board member are stated in the "Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949 (ammended)".
There is some VERY interesting reading in there. ZZZzzzzz....
~~Peter~~
I agree that being a "pain in the ass" makes one a target of criticism and a scapegoat for inaction. However, one should learn from the actions of the master PIA himself, Steve Worob. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, even if it does tend to slow down progress of the wagon.
I think your idea of attenting committee meetings as a member of the public is brilliant! If those candidates who lost are truly dedicated to the betterment of the Morrisville School District, and they would have otherwise committed to attenting these meetings if they won, they could still provide invaluable public service to Morrisville by attending these meetings anyway, and reporting to the public what is being discussed. I applaud you for committing to attend, and I think I might see if I can do so also.
And finally...
"I also find it hard to believe JB wields that much political power, that she is the puppet master."
The utter brilliance of her achievements is that she is able to hide behind a general public disbelief that she is, in fact, manipulating events. Take your statement, for example. I believe that 90% of Morrisville feels the same way that you do.
I'm not just trying to stir up anti-Burger sentiment here, but if you take a good hard look at it, everything, EVERYTHING that is wrong with Morrisville politics today has ties back to her.
She is a strong leader in the Morrisville Republican Committee, has influence over the Morrisville Democratic Committee (what's left of it), has friends at the State and County levels of politics, influences Council, the School Board, the BC EDC, the Bridge Commission, the Morrisville Business Association, etc.
But she does all of this with such finesse (if you could call it that) that she generally keeps her hands clean. Take for example the Worobs. She has complete control over them, but all she has to do is strike the hornet's nest a few times and Steve is off on a rampage over something she mentions to him. She doesn't have to lift a finger after that.
Be cynical of my opinion, if you like. That's healthy. But also consider what I say, and over the next few months scrutinze things and consider what I suggest.
Jon,
The Pennsylvania School Board Association defines the role of school board member here.
You might be able to find the oath on their site somewhere. I didn't come up with it. Sorry.
As I write this I am stunned by the news. I must modify (a bit) what I had previously said about JB.
I just heard news, from a reliable source, that the council throne is going to be tilted over and dumped out, and when the music stops, the queen who was, will have to find a different seat.
I do not know who will end up as council president (I could hazzard a guess), but this news is plenty bold enough without trying to be a svengali.
I really wonder, now, what this will do to the Mo'ville political dynamics.
Hmm....
That's curious news, and if it turns out to be true, could mean real changes, but if another Burger-bot is the council prez, that what really does change? I believe that a political sage once said "It ain't over until it's over."
Oh no, it's all becoming clear to me now. With the defeat of Jack Buckman (R-Grandview) at the hands of Dave "I'm in a union and I'm even more against the new school than you" Rivella (D-Grandview), council has tilted ever so slightly over to the Demautocrats. That leads me to believe that the new Council Pres. is none other than Kathy Panzitta, a fixture and rising star in the Demautocratic machine. Also, Davy R. has proven to be an excellent foot soldier in Mz. Panitta's march to purge the Demautocratic ranks any non-NSN's, something my wife in in the midst of experiencing personally. How many licks is it going to take to get to the center of this one?
One... Two-o-o... Three...
[[[CRUNCH]]]
Three
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