04-06-95 District SHILL says Nominating committee is not partisan

Yeah Right !!! Everything about the Nominating committee is partisan AND illegal-JPG

To the Editors:

At a recent Bedford Central School Board Meeting (March 29), several comments were made regarding the Citizens Nominating Committee. As chairperson for this year's committee, I felt compelled to respond.

First: "The committee was not doing a good job."

This year's committee reached out to more than 20 members of the community in an effort to find qualified people to run for a seat on the Bedford Central School Board. Two themes predominated the responses why people choose not to run, time commitment, and secondly, that if the incumbents were going to run again, they did not want to challenge them as they felt they were doing a good job.    Bullshit !!!

We followed the same routine of sending out flyers, notifying the press, placing boxes in various parts of the community and relying on committee members to reach out to members of the community. This has been the same practice that the committee has always followed. We cannot force people to run if they are not predisposed.

Secondly, James Markowsid, current school board member, made two comments: A) that the committee was "partisan," and B) that the school board separated itself from the nominating committee because of this so-called "Partisan" practice.

I am not sure how Mr. Markowski has come to form that opinion as I do not recall seeing him at any of last year's meetings, nor any of this year's meetings, and for all accounts he has had no direct contact with the committee since he himself ran for his seat.

In addition, Phyllis Jaffee, the board counsel stated the reason for separating the board from the nominating, committee was that it is in fact a violation of state school law, not for what Mr. Markowsid calls "partisan" practices.

What Mr. Markowski does by making statements such as these is to call into question the integrity of each and every member of not only this year's, but prior years,' committees. May I remind you that these members are all volunteers and that the committee is open to all members of the Bedford Central School community. It is a public service group and to suggest that we all get together on a "partisan" basis borders on the ridiculous.

Furthermore, by making such statements, it undermines the entire process and it is no wonder that for the first time in recent memory, candidates have chosen to run for a seat without coming before the committee. I can only wonder how that came to pass.

MICHAEL P. LONDRIGAN Beverly Road, Mount Kisco