Michael Mattesi is a mason working in the Buildings & Grounds department working under Anthony Rigos and John Gallagher of Aramark. Mattesi is assigned to Vehicle E-69, a 2004 Ford Dump Truck (NYS Lic. Plate: L48856). It’s official “home” is the Braemar parking lot near the New Rochelle High School tennis courts but you will only rarely find it there. Rather than drive the vehicle he is assigned, as required by school board policy, Mattesi prefers to tool around in his personal vehicle, a Ford E250 Econoline Van (Lic. Plate: L48856) contrary to school board policy.
Mattesi has been assigned to work out of job description as a plumber, working with Anthony Raffa, a district plumber on the so-called Honeywell “Energy Savings” project. In March, Talk of the Sound reported how Raffa was keeping Vehicle E-68 parked in the driveway of his personal residence at 21 Harold Court and driving his personal vehicle on district time, again in violation of board policy.
Mattesi and Raffa ostensibly report to Anthony Rigos of Aramark who, in turn, works under Aramark’s John Gallagher. Sources tell Talk of the Sound that Rigos “let’s Mattesi and Raffa do whatever they want”.
Gallagher is a private contractor working for ServiceMaster under a no-bid contract. Employees working under Gallagher have been engaged in a wide range of criminal activities during his tenure as Director of Environmental Services. Frank Demasi, a carpenter was caught making personal use of district vehicles and equipment. Anthony Newman sexually assaulted a school district employee in City Hall. HVAC specialist Vito Costa was arrested and plead guilty to charges stemming from his “no show” job under Gallagher. James Bonanno, Jr., a known heroin addict, filed a lawsuit against Talk of the Sound after we reported that he painted a death threat against the publisher of this news outlet on the side of a boat in the yard on Cliff Street leased, in part, by the New Rochelle Board of Education. Likewise, James Bonanno, Sr. filed a defamation lawsuit against Talk of the Sound after we reported that he ordered men working under to him to go to his girlfriend’s house in Orange County to work on renovating the house,
At the school board meeting on Tuesday April 24th, Organisciak made a public statement to announce that he had brought with him a copy of the “Superintendent’s Policy” that would address concerns over a Talk of the Sound report that district plumber Anthony Raffa was taking district Vehicle E-68 home at night rather than his personal vehicle. The policy later presented to the board in executive session, DISTRICT OWNED VEHICLES 3530 USE OF SCHOOL DISTRICT VEHICLES is actually a Board of Education policy, a directive from the board to the Superintendent, as several displeased board members later pointed out to Talk of the Sound. The document makes clear that Organisciak has not been enforcing the policy for his entire tenure as Schools Superintendent in New Rochelle.
Despite assurances to the board in April, by May it was clear that Organisciak, Quinn and Gallagher were still not stopping B&G employees from using their personal vehicles during the work day. Mattesi was observed by Talk of the Sound driving his Ford E250 Econoline Van from New Rochelle High School to Albert Leonard Middle School then back along Valley Road, Trenor before disappearing.
The New Rochelle Board of Education recently demonstrated their tolerance for this conduct by Aramark employees and the district employees working under them by extending its three-quarter million dollar contract with Aramark Education for another year despite full awareness of flagrant violations of district policies and criminal activity by employees working under Aramark and the knowledge that Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak Organisciak, Assistant Superintendent John Quinn and the board’s own attorney, Jeffrey Kehl tried to sneak through a sweetheart deal for three highly-paid Aramark employees in a board resolution designed to put John Gallagher, Anthony Rigos and James Purdie, all Aramark employees, on the district payroll and make them pension eligible. Resolution 12-266-1 on March 27, 2012 would have violated the district’s contract with Aramark and would have opened up the board to claims for three counts of tortious interference for inducing the Aramark employees to violate their employment agreements with Aramark. The resolution would have authorized the administration to pay the three Aramark employees along with three district employees for work on a TV pilot for ABC Television that was filmed at Isaac E. Young Middle School in March. Sources tell Talk of the Sound that none of the six people were present at the school that weekend so that the invoice to the Disney film production company would have been a falsified business records for the purposes of defrauding Disney.
