NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Deacon David Peters of Bethesda Baptist Church was simultaneously serving as the “point person” for a half-million dollar real estate transaction with the City School District of New Rochelle and taking steps to run for a seat on the New Rochelle Board of Education, the same body which would have had to approve the very deal he was negotiating.
Then-Board President Amy Moselhi intervened on behalf of Peters’ campaign at least twice, emails show.
School officials went to great lengths to keep from the public both Peters’ $519,000 real estate deal with the District and Peters’ designs on a school board seat.
The school board election was scheduled for May 19th. The election was pushed back to June 9th then extended again to June 16th by the Governor. The presentation of Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo’s recommendation to move the Campus School to Bethesda was presented on June 23rd. The Board made a decision on a new location for the Alternative High School (New Rochelle High School not Bethesda) on July 22nd.
Had Peters been elected to the school board while negotiating a multi-year lease on behalf of the church where he serves as a deacon he would have been on the tour of Bethesda as a member-elect on June 22nd and in a position to influence the outcome of the Moselhi-Peters deal for Bethesda. As it happened, Peters’ campaign and the Moselhi-Peters deal were both stillborn.
The Bethesda deal cooked up by Peters and Moselhi was initiated on January 21, as previously reported by Talk of the Sound.
On the same day, January 21, Peters confirmed receipt of an email from the Clerk’s Office telling him his Board Packet to run for school board that he had previously requested was ready to be picked up at City Hall.
Three months later, unaware of Peters’ behind-the-scene machinations, Talk of the Sound made a standard request. Every April for more than a decade, Talk of the Sound has requested, and received, the names of residents who took “board packages” — petition sheets, campaign finance forms, other instructions to run for school board— and who turned in completed petition sheets sufficient to qualify for the ballot in the May school election. This is public information and a standard request for any local media outlet.
For reasons she has yet to explain, New Rochelle School Board Clerk Lisdalia Saraiva, for the first time ever, refused to provide the information despite repeated requests.
Emails recently obtained by Talk of the Sound offer an explanation.
After several phone calls in April were not returned, Robert Cox sent an email on May 1st which triggered an unusual and unprecedented exchange. Initially, the purpose of the questions were to determine who was on the ballot for school board but expanded over a two-week period as Saraiva became increasingly combative. Saraiva raised the issue of board packets in the context of a change in the filing deadline so the request for information was expanded to include the names of those taking board packets. As the delays continued the new deadline to file petitions approached and the request for information expanded to include details on how candidates could file under the rules as amended by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Saraiva refused to answer questions about the amended rules except for those requesting a board packet so Cox requested a board packet (with no intention of running). At one point then-Board President Amy Moselhi intervened to shield Saraiva for stonewalling Cox.
To this day, Saraiva has never provided any of the requested information.
What follows is a version of the exchange about board packets and candidates edited for clarity. A separate article will examine the overlapping emails on Saraiva’s failure to answer questions about how candidates could get on the ballot under the “Cuomo Rules”.
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: May 1, 2020, 11:44 AM -0400
To: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Subject: BOE candidates?
What is the status on this?
Bob
Robert Cox
Publisher and Managing Editor
Talk of the Sound
http://www.talkofthesound.com
From: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Date: May 1, 2020, 1:46 PM -0400
To: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 202.13, issued on March 30, 2020, delays school district elections until a date in June, reserving for future action the adjourned election date and voting methodology. The Executive Order specifically states: “Any school board, library board, or village election scheduled to take place in April or May of 2020 is hereby postponed until at least June 1, 2020, and subject to further directive as to the timing, location or manner of voting for such elections.”
I have not received any further directive regarding the postponement date and respective timelines associated with it.
Liz
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: May 1, 2020, 2:55 PM -0400
To: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Liz,
Thanks. I had not seen that.
To be clear school district elections is school board and budget referendum?
Mamaroneck said 4/20 was their deadline to file petitions for BOE. What about filing petitions in NR? Did any candidates take packets? Were any petitions received? Did any candidates qualify for the ballot?
Thanks
Bob
From: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Date: May 1, 2020, 3:04 PM -0400
To: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 202.13, issued on March 30, 2020, does not specifically reference the budget vote, but it is our understanding that since the budget vote occurs on the same date as the election, that too is postponed.
Liz
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: May 1, 2020, 3:17 PM -0400
To: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Subject: BOE candidates?
And my questions on BOE Candidates?
What about filing petitions in NR? Did any candidates take packets? Were any petitions received? Did any candidates qualify for the ballot?
Bob Cox
From: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Date: May 1, 2020, 6:46 PM -0400
To: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Dear Mr. Cox,
Gov. Cuomo issued Executive Order 202.26 late this afternoon pertaining to the Election/Budget Vote. The new date is Tuesday, June 9, 2020. Following is the link:
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-20226-continuing-temporary-suspension-and-modification-laws-relating-disaster-emergency
Liz
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: May 1, 2020, 7:51 PM -0400
To: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Yes. I saw that.
My questions about BOE candidates remain.
What about filing petitions in NR? Did any candidates take packets? Were any petitions received? Did any candidates qualify for the ballot?
Given the 6/9 date is there a new deadline for filing petitions?
Thank you
From: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Date: May 1, 2020, 8:13 PM -0400
To: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Dear Mr. Cox,
Since the Election Date is now June 9, 2020, as per Gov. Cuomo’s Executive Order, the filing of petitions is discussed therein.
There were packets for prospective School Board members requested by and provided to a total of nine people, including the incumbent, but I do not know if they were for the people who requested them or if for someone else, or if they even consider running.
I received nominating petitions from two prospective candidates.
Since the date of the Election was postponed from May 19th, so were other timelines. The new Executive Order outlines qualifications of candidates for the ballot for the Election on June 9th.
Sincerely,
Liz
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: May 4, 2020, 10:54 AM -0400
To: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Hi
Still looking for answers to my questions.
Bob Cox
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: May 5, 2020, 6:29 PM -0400
To: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Liz,
I am getting a bit annoyed.
I am STILL looking for answers to my questions from last week.
Bob
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: May 6, 2020, 7:25 AM -0400
To: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Liz
…I still do not have answers to the other questions I have been asking…
Thanks
Bob Cox
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: May 6, 2020, 12:00 PM -0400
To: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Cc: boe@nredlearn.org, mnovotny@nredlearn.org
Subject: BOE candidates?
Liz
I emailed your 4 times on Friday BEFORE Governor Cuomo issued Executive Order 202.26 so I fail to see how that order has any bearing on not answering the sorts of simple questions I ask every year. It has now been a dozen emails and you have still not told me who took the 9 packets and which 2 candidates filed petition signatures by the original deadline…
Bob Cox
From: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Date: May 6, 2020, 6:16 PM -0400
To: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Subject: BOE candidates?
Dear Mr. Cox,
…Please be further advised that I will no longer engage in a back and forth with you concerning the contents of these documents.
Liz
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: May 6, 2020, 6:49 PM -0400
To: Liz Saraiva <lsaraiva@newrochelle.k12.ny.us>
Cc: boe@nredlearn.org, mnovotny@nredlearn.org
Subject: BOE candidates?
Liz
There is ONLY one reason there has been a back and forth at all and it is because you have not been answering my rather simple questions. I would say you have been deliberately obtuse.
I asked you MANY times since the morning of May 1st about who turned in petitions for school board. You tell me why 12 emails later including 4 that day BEFORE EO 202.26 was issued you have STILL not answered that question. And I still want an answer. I want to know who took the 9 packets and who turned in the 2 sets of petition signatures.
In my 12 years of Talk of the Sound it has become a standard question at every election. Yet this year and this year alone you danced around that rather simple question. I can only wonder at that…You could have addressed my emails in one email Friday morning with a few names and then the others with a link to an updated web page about how to file to be on the school board ballot.
—
The school election in June was an utter fiasco with ballots sent late or not all, hundreds of voters disenfranchised, 12% of received ballots were disqualified, thousands of ballots were not properly sealed and stored and egregious errors such as recording more ballots were received than there were registered voters in one school election district and awarding more votes to a candidate than there were ballots cast in another school election district.
Two weeks after Talk of the Sound launched an investigation into school election irregularities on June 23rd, Saraiva unexpectedly resigned on July 7th ending a career working for the New Rochelle Board of Education that spanned three decades. Saraiva was in charge of school elections for most of those 30 years. Saraiva claimed she quit because the board voted to remove Moselhi as board president. A more likely cause is that Saraiva was the one person who knew how poorly the election was run, she realized that Moselhi would no longer be in a position to cover up the mess for the six month post-election period after which the ballots and oath envelopes documenting the mess could be destroyed under New York State law and figured to get out while the getting was good.
The Talk of the Sound investigation exposed significant failures under Saraiva’s leadership of the 2020 school election in a 12-part investigative report: Massive Election Irregularities in New Rochelle School Election Show Need for Audit, Restoration of Wrongly Voided Ballots.
A separate investigation into claims by Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo that a plan to move the Campus School from its long time home at St. Gabes School to the Bethesda Family Life Center was her idea uncovered emails which showed the idea to move the school was actually a scheme cooked up by then-Board President Amy Moselhi and her “best friend” David Peters, a Deacon at the financially troubled Bethesda Baptist Church. Moselhi and Peters had already discussed the plan before Moselhi contacted Feijóo. Peters sought and received approval from the board of the Bethesda Baptist Church to enter into negotiations with the District before Feijóo had replied to an email introduction to Peters from Moselhi.
At the end of the day, I can take a shower and wash away the dirt. These thieves can never wash away their brand of filth