New Rochelle Board of Education’s Cindy Babcock-Deutsch Says BoE “held so much more responsible”

There been an interesting little dance going on at the last two BoE meetings. The District surprised the board a few weeks ago by asking them to approve a purchase of a new garbage truck for $175,000. BoE member Jeffrey Hastie expressed concern that there was only one bidder on the truck. Mr. Hastie has been raising questions all along at board meetings — a welcome sign — but Cindy “Amen Chorus” Babcock-Deutsch has never questioned ANYTHING done by the administration that I can recall.

Her sudden interest in this garbage truck — now pun intended – smells.

Cindy Babcock-Deutsch is a woman who has board president repeatedly lied to residents regarding contract negotiations with F.U.S.E. that there was no deal with the union then tried to peddle the deal announced by the union the day after the budget vote as a zero percent wage increase “for the first six months”. In reality, between a delayed wage increase and the contractual “step” increases built into the contract, the contract was actually more like a 5% across the board pay increase with no givebacks on medical or pension benefits.

So, after approving millions of dollars in new spending amidst what President Obama is now calling “The Great Recession”, Cindy Babcock-Deutsch is now worried about whether the district got the best deal on a garbage truck? Talk about a day late and a dollar short.

At the meeting this week she said she wanted to know more about the garbage truck being the board is “held so much more responsible”. The board is elected by voters to have oversight responsibility for the administration. The reason she should be asking about the garbage truck is because that is what she was elected to do by New Rochelle voters. Instead, it is because she thinks maybe the board will be criticized by Talk of the Sound for approving the purchase of the truck (unless you think there is someone or something out there holding the board “so much more responsible” for their behavior).

No. We have seen this before. Her current term of office expires in May 2010 and now she is trying to paper over her abysmal track record with a sudden concern over “competitive bidding” for a garbage truck. This concern is laughable considering her rabid defense of no-bid contracts for MacMenamin’s Grill and the law firm of Kehl, Katzive & Simon, “emergency” single-bid carpentry services, the conversion of school trucks and vans for personal use, supporting TWO “full-time” locksmiths on staff, taking no action against supervisors who allowed Vito Costa to work his “no show” HVAC job and a long litany of profligate and often legal spending by the district. But now she is suddenly a “born again” deficit hawk?

I don’t think so.