From time to time, we here at Talk of the Sound document various forms of malfeasance going on in the City School District of New Rochelle under Assistant Superintendent for Business & Administration John Quinn and John Gallagher of Aramark. Mostly we save it up for various reasons which I am not going to explain here.
As the board considers the question of whether to renew John Quinn’s contract and keep the management team at Aramark, we thought we would share a sample from our voluminous archive.
The video above is based on surveillance of Vincent James “Jimmy” Bonanno obtained during a stakeout which began at Ronalds Lane in New Rochelle at 6:30 AM on February 28, 2014 and ran until about 9:40 AM on the same day. Bonanno is a supervisor in the Buildings & Grounds Department working under John Gallagher and John Quinn respectively.
In theory, Bonanno’s work day begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, with 30 minutes for lunch.
In the video, Bonanno does not leave his house until shortly after 8 AM and arrives at the Cliff Street yard, where he is assigned to report to work, at about 8:10 AM. He then proceeds to the Dunkin’ Donuts on East Main Street where he sits with Phil Rosetti, a district employee reporting to Bonanno, and Anthony Raffa, a plumber working for the district. Raffa reports to James Purdie at the B&G offices at 88 Grove Street.
The three District employees remain at the Dunkin’s Donuts until about 9:30 AM. Bonanno then drives them all to City Hall where Rosetti exits the vehicle and goes inside to…wait for it…pick up his paycheck!
At the point I had to break off surveillance but suffice to say, for 2 and a half hours, not a lick of work was done by either of the three.
Below are time sheets for February 28, 2014 for Vincent James Bonanno and Phil Rosetti, both signed by John Gallagher, the Aramark consultant who works under John Quinn.
The records indicate that Bonanno and Rosetti falsified these business records. If this were proven in court it would be a criminal offense.
Throughout the surveillance, Bonanno drove his personal Dodge Ram truck. B&G employees have been repeatedly admonished by Gallagher on district policy prohibiting the use of personal vehicles while on the clock. GPS tracking systems were installed on all district vehicles a system easily circumvented if supervisors use their personal vehicles and assign an employee to drive the vehicle assigned to them.
Regular readers will know that Jimmy Bonanno and his son, “Little Jimmy” Bonanno filed a criminal complaint against me in April 2012 with the New Rochelle Police Department claiming harassment and a civil lawsuit in June 2012 in New York State Supreme Court claiming defamation.
The NRPD dismissed the complaint as unfounded.
The Bonanno’s lawsuit has not gone so well for them either.
The pair repeatedly contradicted themselves over four days of depositions. The father testified under oath that he did not say what is written in the police complaint he filed alleging harassment. The Detective on the case, testifying under oath, described Bonanno as a liar, several times. The son was unwilling to answer when asked why his defamation claim does not mention the claim of harassment he made to the police regarding his visit to a methadone clinic in New Rochelle and the claim that he is a heroin addict.
Things have gotten so bad for the Bonannos that their own lawyers have filed a motion with the Judge in the case asking to be relieved of representing the Bonannos.
At a recent court appearance on that motion, Big Jimmy told the judge that he never wanted to file a lawsuit and alleged that the lawyers effectively duped him into the lawsuit, that he never wanted any money from anyone (the lawsuit indicates otherwise) and that he never thought things would get so far. He claims that all he has is his good name and that he (meaning me) said Jimmy was in the mafia.
His own lawyer rebutted Bonanno’s claims.
In fact, I have never said or written or even thought that the mafia would accept someone like Jimmy Bonanno as a member. What I did say, write and think is that Jimmy Bonanno is connected to the mafia through is family, which he is. In particular, through his mother who is the sister of Frank Fiumara.
Fiumara, who died several years ago, is described in this 1990 AP wire story as a “made member” of the Gambino crime family.
