Rhau Loses Control After waiting almost a month for a "single" piece of paper, I finally received the list of names of those who sat on the interview committee during the hiring of Business Administrator, Joe Dziadik!
A Circus But first I would like to talk about last Tuesday night's school board meeting. I must admit, of all the meetings I've attended, this one is a classic. The auditorium was almost filled to capacity with both members of the public and the Saugerties Teachers' Association. About ten minutes into the meeting, Board President Brennan opened it up for public comment. A line of individuals prepared to voice their opinions and concerns quickly formed at the podium. Remember the Wes Maxwell letter from a few weeks ago, the one that encouraged people who have an issue with the school to go to the board meetings? Well, that's exactly what these people did! Since such a great number of people wanted to speak, Brennan stated that each person would be allotted three minutes. First to address the board was local businesswoman and attorney, Erica Guerin, whose comment that the real self-indulgence of the administration lies with the superintendent (Richard Rhau, who shows nothing but total disparage for this community), infuriated Rhau. In fact, it so enraged him that he lost total control and wrestled the microphone away from Brennan and blared out, "Wrong, I do not accept that...Stop her, this must stop." Mrs Guerin dismissed Rhau's remarks and continued with her speech. So, Rhau became even more infuriated and once again wrestled the microphone away from Brennan to demand that the board stop her. What a show! I sat in the front row, directly in front of Rhau, and had a bird's-eye-view of the whole thing. I could see the budging veins in Rhau's neck as he launched his angry tirade. The scene was reminiscent of the Jerry Springer show; all that was missing was a chair being thrown. Well, so much for Maxwell's suggestion.
Back to Joe Dziadik Getting back to Joe Dziaik, the School's Business Administrator. As you will recall, I pointed out in an earlier article that Joe Dziadik was accused by school officials from the Fabius-Pompey School District of withholding information from the board and the superintendent concerning shortages in their budget that resulted in a $600,000 deficit. The deficiency eventually cost the taxpayers of that district a 21% increase in their taxes. My question was, "Did the board of education have knowledge of this baggage and, if so, why was Joe Dziadik hired? With the hope of finding answers to my questions, I personally asked some board members if they had knowledge of the problems in Fabius-Pompey before they voted to hire Joe Dziadik and they assured me that they "had not." Indeed, I was assured that if they had known, they would not have hired him. I then received an e-mail from an individual who claimed to have spoken personally to board member McCaig a year ago about the problem with Joe Dziadik. McCaig is alleged to have told this individual that the board knew all about it before they hired him (Dziadik). If this is true, someone is obviously not being truthful. With the striking inconsistencies about what really took place, and in a attempt to uncover the truth about who knew what in this matter, I FOILed for a list of all those individuals involved in the interview process and whom each one recommended for the position. Here is the information I was provided through FOIL. There were originally 21 applicants for the position of Business Administrator. However , when I requested the names of those individuals, the Administration refused to provide that information. Truly believing those names are a matter of public record, I feel that the administration has violated my rights under the "Sunshine," or Freedom of Information Law. First Rhau and his sidekick (assistant Cheryl Nucifaro) reviewed all the applications. As I indicated in a prior article, Joe Dziadik is basically from the same upstate area as Cheryl Nucifaro, which automatically makes me wonder whether there is a connection. Once Rhau and Nucifaro reviewed the original list, Don Gottlieb, Tim Price, Michael Miller and Joe Fondino joined the remaining interviews. The list was narrowed down to four of the applicants, one of which was Joe Dziadik. According to documents obtained through FOIL, the four applicants were then interviewed by the following individuals from the Hildebrandt Building: • Linda Sindt (personal secretary to Rhau); • Carol Petramale (clerk of Grounds, Building and Transportation); • Nanette Weeks (District Treasurer); • Pat Praetorius (Payroll Clerk); • Taylor Vertetis (Secretary to Business Administrator); and • Bob Lewis (former Building and Grounds Superintendent). These individuals verbally recommenced the hiring of Joe Dziadik to the superintendent. My question is, "Did any member of that committee have personal knowledge of Joe Dziadik's problem at the Fabius-Pompey School District? In my mind, having employees from the Administration Building (absent of elected officials) make such a critical decision as the hiring of a District Business Administrator to oversee the District's 44-million dollar budget is not only suspicious at the very least, but appalling at best. I, therefore, suggest that the public question these individuals when you see them—asking them if they had any personal knowledge of Joe Dziadik's problem at Fabius-Pompey. Let's find out who knew and who didn't—all we want is the truth, and nothing but! George D. Heidcamp, Sr. October 19, 2006 |