Celia Nasser forcefully appointed to the Dearborn School Board

In a heated atmosphere, the June 19th Dearborn Board of Education took place at the Andrew Mazzarra Building with another room packed of Dearborn residents. The same important item on the agenda during the June 12th meeting was also on this meeting’s agenda: to appoint a new trustee. In the June 12th meeting, 4 members out of the 6 needed to agree on a candidate and only 3 voted for applicant Celia Nasser, 2 voted for Roxanne McDonald, and Mr. Berry was not asked to vote as he was refraining from participating in the process.

Prior to citizens participation and prior to the important agenda item, President Lane announced to the audience that there have been some “legal” developments that occurred “over the weekend” and that the district’s attorney will announce the details. Tim Currier, district’s attorney stated that because Trustee Berry refrained from the process; it counts as a vote for the majority therefore rescinding last week’s vote and confirming the appointment of applicant Celia Nasser. This was law was enacted in 1990 (before Dr. Glenn Maleyko graduated from High School as the attorney tried to improve the mood of intensity in the room). The law can be viewed here: http://www.neola.com/dearborn-... It is worthy to note that the swearing in of the candidate was not part of the agenda and it was out of order during the open meeting as there was a motion on the table by Trustee Petlichkoff supported by Trustee Berry to hold on the appointment until legal matters are clarified. That motion was not even recognized. It is also worthy to note that President Lane already instructed applicant Nasser on filling out the affidavit prior to the meeting without notifying Trustees Berry, Petlichkoff or Thorpe.

Prior to the swearing in, there was a heated debate between Trustee Berry, President Lane, Trustee Hammoud, and the district’s attorney. Trustee Berry refused to say that he abstained from voting, and that he just refrained himself from the process because it was “tainted” in 2015 and was tainted now. He also mentioned that he was never asked to vote when the roll call occurred last meeting for the appointment motion. The district’s attorney responded telling Mr. Berry that he should have raised the concern of him not being called. Trustee Berry said, “we have a veteran on the board, a professional consultant that guided us through the process and you’re telling me, you did not notify us prior to this.” Trustee Berry scolded the district’s attorney for not attending through the June 12th meeting. President Lane said she only “remembered” this law after the meeting. Trustee Berry was furious; and told the district’s attorney that the law he’s bringing up has to deal with Conflicts of Interest but the attorney insisted that it includes appointments as well. Trustee Hammoud read the definition of abstaining from the dictionary and said that she’s sacrificing her children’s time in being at the board meeting. Trustee Berry responded, “Didn’t you know that when you campaigned? All of us made the sacrifice, not just you!”.

Trustee Thorpe said that given this new information, and not one trustee knew about this law at the time of voting, things would have turned out differently. He along with Trustee Petlichkoff asked for a revote which was ignored by President Lane. Trustee Thorpe said the process left a bad taste in his mouth and he felt the spirit of the appointment had been broken and that if things would have turned differently if the board members knew the rules prior to the vote. President Lane continued to ignore their comments and went through with the appointment despite the yelling of Trustee Berry.

Residents who spoke during the citizen’s participation period were furious about what happened. Some even mentioned some Trustees by name which President Lane interrupted them from doing so. One student speaker spoke of how disappointed and embarrassed they were about how this process went down. Another speaker spoke in support of Adel Mozip’s candidacy and how he was outcasted and did not receive one vote or even a mention in the deliberations despite his involvement and unsuccessful run for the seat in which 11,121 voters voted for him. Another resident told the board if there was one person to abstain from this process, it would have been Trustee Hammoud because of her close relationship to the favored applicant as well as the campaign contributions made by the applicant by her campaign which were not publically disclosed during the entire process. Another resident was also furious about the process, “Shame on those members who are controlled by outside organizations.” Charles McDonald, husband of former Trustee and current candidate Roxanne McDonald, said that the rumors were true. He said the vote should be nullified because no one knew this obscure law. He added, “If it looks like duck poop and it smells like duck poop and you hear a duck quack, logic and reason says it’s duck poop.”



Several candidates have vowed to take legal paths to bring “justice” as they believe their due process was violated. It is unclear whether Trustee Berry will also challenge this legally.