Committee to Recall Eric Schubiger and Maureen Tirella, Lacey School Board Members.

We have initiated a recall petition for the Lacey Township School Board Members, who have brought us and defend the Solar Panel debacle.  All of the 5 remaining Board members should have resigned, as a result of the NJ State Comptroller Alert published on March 11, 2014.  This mismanagement is unacceptable and a recall of two of Lacey School Board members is now underway. (District phone number (609) 971-2000.)

The recall initiative was an absolute necessity caused by the financial mismanagement of the 2008 Solar Project Referendum. The Lacey taxpayers was asked to bond for an $8.2 million dollars excess (resulting in an interest payment of an additional $3.5 million!). Not one piece of paper was able to back up the original referendum amount of $19.8 million dollars. (See NJ State Comptroller’s ALERT “Is your School District paying too much for architectural services?” Dated March 11, 2014 ) http://www.nj.gov/comptroller/news/docs/comptroller_alert_31114.pdf

The five remaining Board members responsible for the solar financial fiasco are: Linda Downing, Mr. Martenak, Mr. Bruce Carney, Mr. Schubiger and Ms. Maureen Tirella.

By law, only 2 Board members; Mr. Schubiger and Ms. Maureen Tirella are currently eligible for recall.  Both Mr. Martenak and Mr. Bruce Carney can not be recalled because they are in the final 6 months of their term and running on this November Ballot for re election.  They need to be voted out in this November election cycle, if they run again.  Ms Downing must be one year and 50 days into her term for recall ineligible for recall at this time.

The purpose of this recall is to replace four of the board members and we call for Ms. Downing to resign.  This will dramatically change the composition of the board.  There were two newly elected board members last year, providing us with an entire new board

These five board members, bonded 19.8 million dollars for an 11.6 million dollar project.  Took the remaining 8.2 million dollars and placed those funds in a bank receiving one percent interest, while paying four percent interest on the bond.  Also, they gave a no bid 19.8 million dollar contract to an Architect who had no prior experience with solar projects.  This contract was issued without the School Board Attorney’s even looking at it.  Our district then paid that Architect there fee based on the estimate and not the project actual cost.  That meant we over paid the Architect in the amount of $433,000.  Help us change the mismanagement of our school district and sign the petition for the recall.