Votes To Fill Greenwich Board Of Education Vacancy Spark Controversy

GREENWICH, CT — In a special meeting on Tuesday, the Greenwich Board of Selectmen voted to appoint Paul Cappiali, the town's harbormaster and current candidate for state representative, to fill a Republican vacancy on the board of education.

First Selectman Fred Camillo and Selectwoman Lauren Rabin voted in favor, while Selectperson Janet Stone McGuigan abstained.

Cappiali has no experience on the school board, and worked on Camillo's political campaigns in the past.

The vote came a day after the board of education held what it said was an emergency meeting to appoint Republican Jennifer Behette to fill the position.

The school board was slated to hold a vote to appoint a replacement on Oct. 17, but a board member had to leave abruptly so the vote was pushed to Oct. 23, ahead of a vote on the FY 26 capital budget on Oct. 24.

The emergency meeting was called for the morning of Monday, Oct. 20 after the Board of Selectmen scheduled a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss and vote on the vacancy.

During Monday's Board of Education meeting, Acting Chair Karen Hirsh said the emergency meeting was called so the new member would have time to review budget documents ahead of the important budget vote. BOE member Laura Kostin nominated Behette, a former educator.

"For years, Jen was an educator and guidance counselor in the Yonkers City Schools, and having another educator on the board, I believe, is really a gift," Kostin said in her nomination remarks.

Hirsh, Kostin, Kahleen Stowe and Sophie Koven voted yes, while Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony, the lone Republican at the meeting, voted no.

There has been a vacancy on the eight-member board (four Republicans, four Democrats) since July when Republican Chair Karen Kowalski resigned, and BOE members have been working since then to find a replacement, with six candidates in contention.

Mercanti-Anthony objected to the nomination of Behette, saying she was the one candidate his fellow Republicans didn't want to work with.

"I had private conversations with all of you, saying any of the other five candidates were acceptable," Mercanti-Anthony said. "In a small town, bipartisan system like ours, this is not how it's supposed to work. This is a level of parliamentary moves worthy of Mitch McConnell, quite frankly. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should. You are causing irreparable damage to this board, and it is simply not fair."

Mercanti-Anthony also took issue with the emergency meeting.

"So you're calling an emergency meeting Monday morning to vote in a Republican member of the BOE caucus that was supposed to be scheduled for Wednesday, without giving any notice, under supposedly the sense that whoever we vote in needs another 48 hours to review the budget documents. That's nonsense," he said.

Mercanti-Anthony did not mention specific reasons why Republicans didn't want to work with Behette.

Following the vote, Camillo told Greenwich Time that the emergency meeting was "illegal" and that the vote was invalid, and that Democrats were trying to "circumvent the will of the voters" by choosing a candidate who didn't commit to caucusing with other Republicans.

Read more from Greenwich Time

During Tuesday's special meeting, Camillo said the Board of Selectmen is statutorily permitted to take action if a vacancy is not filled within 30 days.

"What happened [Monday] was an attempt to subvert the will of three remaining Republicans on that board, and the will of the voters who did not vote for Democrats last year," Camillo said. "This is a blatant attempt to gain a majority that was not there at the polls last year. That's why I made the decision to step in here."

Stone McGuigan said she was puzzled why the board of selectmen was meeting to take up the vacancy.

"I see no compelling reason to meet at this time. More importantly, I have not seen any written legal opinion from our town attorney that the board of selectmen has standing to vote on a board of ed. vacancy," she added. "I'm concerned we are conflating our authority to break a deadlocked vote for the chair of the board of ed. with an authority to fill a vacancy."

Camillo said he has had "many conversations about this with town counsel."

"Research has been done. There's precedent for this, and again, this is the last thing this board needs to do," Camillo said.

Camillo said the Democrats have retained counsel, "so they're now in an adversarial position with the town." He said "we're going to have to litigate it now" based on a letter the town received.

"I hope in the future this board will get together and work together and agree on candidates, and not look to see who's going to gain an advantage for a chairmanship," Camillo added.

Greenwich Democrats blasted the Board of Selectmen special meeting, saying in a newsletter email on Wednesday that "Camillo committed partisan, and potentially illegal, overreach, claiming Behette isn’t Republican enough."

"So who did he choose? Someone with zero educational experience, a political pal, and current Republican candidate for state representative, Paul Cappiali," the Greenwich Democrats' newsletter said. "He is also the guy who was working on the Camillo campaign in 2019 when fake Trump-Camillo signs appeared on our streets. He helped unmask the funder in a case that eventually cost our town $650,000 after the sign’s creator sued."

Hirsh, who was unable to speak over the phone Wednesday, told Patch in an email she was "disappointed by both the outcome of yesterday's meeting of the selectmen and the remarks made by the First Selectman."

Early Wednesday evening, the Board of Education Democratic Caucus of Hirsh, Kostin, Koven and Stowe issued a joint statement to Patch, saying the board "conducted a thorough and transparent process" to fill the vacancy, "following board policy and state statute."

The statement explained the board met with six candidates, all registered Republicans, "who were given the equal opportunity to answer the same questions and share information about their relevant personal and professional experience."

The board Democrats said in their statement that Republican board members "then apparently worked behind the scenes with [First] Selectman Fred Camillo" who scheduled a special meeting "in an attempt to illegally appoint his own candidate."

The board Democrats claimed the selectmen vote did not follow their own processes, as they didn’t interview any candidates.

"Why did the First Selectman attempt to illegally insert himself in board vacancy election process, contrary to state statute, the Greenwich Town Charter and historical precedent?" the board Democrats said. "It appears to be a simple power grab."

Board Democrats said Camillo's "attempt at a blatant power grab ignores the legal autonomy of the Board of Education," an entity of the state.

"Camillo willingly ignored all normal processes for BOS appointments and recklessly and flagrantly violated the law, all in an attempt to oust someone he apparently views as threatening to his power," the board Democrats said. "Who is this person who has Fred Camillo so afraid? She is Jen Behette, a Republican, a former teacher, a PTA leader, a Junior League member and a mother of three GPS students."

Behette was sworn in on Oct. 22, the Democratic caucus said.

"In the past few days, Jen has already demonstrated her unwavering dedication to the schools and a resilience that surpassed our expectations and confirmed that she will be an excellent addition to the Board of Education. Welcome, Jen," the joint statement concluded.

Hirsh told Patch the board was proceeding with its scheduled meeting on Wednesday night. A quorum of Hirsh, Stowe, Koven, Kostin and Behette were the only members in the meeting. The members voted to ratify Behette's appointment.

Editor's note: this story has been updated with a joint statement from the Board of Education Democratic Caucus