Meet Geeta Singh: New Rochelle “Resident” and School Security Guard from Bronx, NY

Geeta Singh, a part-time school security guard working for the New Rochelle Board of Education, did not live in New Rochelle at the time he applied for a job through the New Rochelle Municipal Service Commission in 2009 as required for civil servants in New Rochelle. When informed of this during the last school year, the Board of Education failed to investigate the allegation but sent a letter to the complainant claiming they had done so.

Singh, sources say, resigned from his previous position in 2009 rather than be terminated by his former employer, the College of New Rochelle, following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.

The New Rochelle Board of Education was made aware of questions about Singh’s residency in a letter sent to School Board President Sara Richmond on January 8, 2010. In her response dated January 10th, Ms. Richmond stated that the district had looked into the matter and was satisfied that Singh lived in New Rochelle.

The matter has been investigated by the City School District of New Rochelle’s Human Resources Department and it appears to the best of our knowledge that this person has a valid New Rochelle address. I thank you for your vigilance.

Sincerely,

Sara M. Richmond
President
Board of Education

Talk of the Sound spoke with Singh this week and asked him about his residency. Singh stated that he had lived in the Bronx going back to 1981 but moved to New Rochelle in 2002. He claimed that he had lived at 39 Lathers Park in New Rochelle from 2002 until the present day.

That would be news to his former employer. According to records from the College of New Rochelle, obtained by Talk of the Sound, Mr. Singh resided at 2333 Washington Avenue in the Bronx near Fordham Road. It might also be news to his bank, the I.R.S. the Social Security Administration, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, the New York Statement Workman’s Compensation Fund, the New York City Department of Taxation of Finance and the Bronx County Board of Elections all of which have shown Singh’s address as 2333 Washington Avenue in the Bronx during the time Singh claims to have lived in New Rochelle.

Singh’s current voter registration document on file in Bronx County:

Talk of the Sound made two phone calls, sent on email and interviewed two people –putting in a total of an hour’s work over the course of a few days to confirm with records and first-person accounts that Mr. Singh has, since 1981, resided at 2333 Washington Avenue in the Bronx, suggesting the Board of Education made little or no effort to investigate allegations against Singh.

39 Lathers Park was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Collins. Mr. Collins, who passed away last year, worked with Mr. Singh at the College of New Rochelle. His wife still resides at that address.

Mr. Singh has his own rather large family, according to sources, yet has claimed that since 2002 he has lived with Mr. and Mrs. Collins and after the death of Bill Collins continued to live with his widow at 39 Lathers Park.

If Mr. Singh were to be believed, he is a grown man with a family living by himself is a small house with an older black couple from the Lincoln Park area for the past 8 years. Asked to explain this, Mr. Singh declined to answer.

When asked whether Singh lived at her house, Ms. Collins said “he gets his mail here” and pointed to a piece of blue painter’s tape with the words “Collins & Singh” scribbled on it. When the question was repeated, Ms. Collins hesitated before saying “sometimes he lives here”. When asked where he lives the rest of the time she stated that he “sometimes” stays in the Bronx.

The terms under which Mr. Singh left his previous employer also raise issues. In his position, he would be required to complete a Municipal Service application. On the back is a section where the applicant must sign and attest that the information provided is accurate. There is note that withholding information or supplying inaccurate information will result in disqualification. On the front of the form there is a field for the applicants address. There is also section 4 which contains the following question “Did you ever resign from any employment rather than face dismissal?”

Based on information obtained by Talk of the Sound, Mr. Singh appears to have been, and is now, ineligible for the position he holds and is disqualified on the basis of providing false information on the form.

Talk of the Sound has yet to obtain a copy of Mr. Singh’s application but it is clear that Mr. Singh would have used someone else’s address to create the appearance of having residency in New Rochelle. In doing so, he may have procured false identity papers of some sort to establish his residency claim. He would have been required to disclose that he resigned from the College of New Rochelle rather than be terminated after an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment. If he presented photo identification, he may have obtained and presented a false New York State ID or Drivers License. Each item on this list is a misdemeanor or felony.

The records appear to indicate that Mr. Singh has engaged in criminal conduct to obtain his position and that when alerted to the issue the Board of Education failed to conduct a meaningful investigation.

Another issue is that Mr. Singh routinely works hours beyond those allowed for a part-time employee in violation of the F.U.S.E. contract. Sources tell Talk of the Sound, Singh is moved back and forth between various locations in order to mask the number of hours he is working from F.U.S.E., a practice said to be common for “friends” of School District Security Director Bruce Daniele.

Talk of the Sound readers will recall the name Bruce Daniele.

For more than a decade, Mr. Daniele ran an illegal box-betting gambling operation which may have grossed close to a half million dollars. The gambling operation was displayed publicly on a web site operated by New Rochelle Police Department P.A.C.T. officers, a site ostensibly created for a P.A.C.T. Fantasy Football League. The site was laced with crude, misogynistic statements, graphic, deviant pornography with nude images of transvestites, morbidly obese woman and elderly women. The site openly glorified a gangster mentality and promoted a culture of drug and alcohol abuse.

The site was password-protected (not removed) after the Talk of the Sound expose on the site.

Mr. Daniele was also the subject of an investigation by the New York State Municipal Service Commission which found that he was improperly receiving his police pension while working full-time as the security director at the New Rochelle Board of Education.

Informed of Daniele’s prominent role in the P.A.C.T.’s gambling and porn web site (by me), the Board of Education took no action. Challenged by the New York State Municipal Service Commission regarding Daniele’s police pension and failure to obtain a “211 waiver”, the district passed a phony resolution to legalize Daniele’s status after the fact along with two senior officials reporting directly to Daniele. Under a deal with the state Municipal Service Commission, the district was allowed to retain Daniele, Robert Coyne and Rolf Koehler until the end of the 2009-2010 school year. For no apparent (good) reason, the 211 waiver resolution required that positions described in the resolution be filled by former New Rochelle Police officers. The requirements were so restrictive that few people could qualify. When Talk of the Sound revealed that Koehler never served in the New Rochelle police department, the resolution was withdrawn. It was later rewritten and passed a second time with the NRPD required removed so Koehler could qualify. Ultimately, the job requirements were changed again and several candidates took the civil service exam for the open positions in February 2010. After so many maneuvers to protect Koehler, he failed to score high enough to be considered for the position — only the top three scorers on the test can be considered and Koehler did not win, place or show. Rather than fill the position with three top candidates, the Board of Education solved Koehler’s problem by creating an entirely new position, Director of Surveillance and gave the job to Koehler. Daniele and Koehler are such good friends that Daniele, the head of security for the entire school system, recently took time out during the middle of the school day to drive Koehler to the airport, sources say.

The highest scoring candidate on test was Paul Sarachelli who is said to have scored a 100. Talk of the Sound is familiar with Paul Sarachelli as the security guard given extra hours by Daniele each month to “protect” the members of the Board of Education and administrators from Robert Cox (me). For almost two years, Mr. Sarachelli was assigned by Daniele to work overtime at Board of Education meetings — presumably earning extra pay. In the months after Sarachelli beat out Bruce Daniele’s friend, Rolf Koehler for the high level security position, however, Sarachelli was no longer assigned to the Board of Education meetings.