Please Follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Gettr, Truth Social, Twitter
It was a short, but heated meeting to discuss and vote on filing a complaint and motion for a temporary restraining order to challenge the legality of all of the Board of Education meetings since the Democrats essentially pulled a coup on October 21, 2024.
Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo started the meeting by reminding that the Town had followed "all of the proper channels" when it came to filling an open Republican seat on the Board of Education.
He explained the Town had taken the issue regarding the legality of the "emergency special meeting" to the Freedom of Information Commission ("FOIC") two times to ask for an expedited hearing, but the FOIC can't get to the complaint for at least a couple of months... which could be a problem, especially considering the budget process is right around the corner.
"The Democrats on the Board of Education have ignored their own bylaws, which we can point to. They have ignored state law and Board of Education precedent," explained the First Selectman who felt there was "no other choice than to ask our town counsel...to seek injunctive relief in court because we cannot let that this go on that long."
"And, as I said at the last meeting, lots of other entities are watching this and concerned," cautioned Camillo.
Selectwoman Janet Stone-McGuigan asked for a point of order before offering prepared comments.
She wanted to know exactly what the attorney, Ben Bianco, meant by the term "restraining order."
Bianco explained, "what that means is that we would ask a court to enjoin certain members of the Board from from taking certain conduct, i.e., seating members that are not proper members, from not seating members that are proper members, in order to put the Board back where it...should be in the Town's opinion with respect to the conduct that took place on October 21st of this year."
"And then further after that, at meetings, where there were no quorums based on certain members not actually being members yet forming the quorum," continued Bianco. "So it would be to ask the court to instruct or order the certain board members to act in accordance with the law."
Stone-McGuigan then read from her comments, complaining she had requested a written legal opinion "that unequivocally establishes that the Board of Selectmen has legal standing" in the matter.
"Without a sound legal basis, I will not support any legal action against our Board of Education," said Stone-McGuigan before attacking Camillo over engaging "in an expensive, protracted legal battle solely for the purpose of installing your preferred Board of Education candidate."
Of course that's exactly what Republicans in Greenwich want -- to install their preferred candidate into an open Republican BOE seat. They don't want Democrats filling the seat!
Stone-McGuigan said legal action would be "unprecedented" and "harmful to our schools" before adding, "no process should be used by one board to intimidate another."
Unprecedented, eh?
As unprecedented as pulling a stunt like calling an emergency meeting when there is not an emergency so that Democrats could install their own candidate into an open Republican seat?
Camillo got snarky with Stone-McGuigan, thanking her for her "scripted response" and then boasted he didn't need a script.
"We did not start this. We were not the ones who had a lawyer threaten the town. We were not not the ones who hired the lawyer to sue the town with our own taxpayer dollars. We were not the one who ignored their own bylaws, which clearly state that the...town clerk has to swear in a member of the Board of Education or designate somebody to swear them in or designate. We are not the one who ignored state law about the 24-hour posting notice and claimed there was an emergency when there wasn't and that emergency excuse changed several times," Camillo argued.
"You picked a fight. They picked a fight. And you know what? We're not going to ignore the state law," promised Camillo. "We're not going to allow that and maybe you need to talk to some other people in other branches of government who are very concerned about what they did."
Camillo chastised Stone-McGuigan for always wanting to follow the proper process except when it's inconvenient for her to do so.
Stone-McGuigan took offense to Camillo's comments, and said no one put words into her mouth.
Meanwhile, Camillo reminded Stone-McGuigan that Republicans got the most BOE votes in the last election and the people spoke, yet the Democrats keep ignoring the will of the people.
"So this is a, this is the mother of all power grabs and for no good reason, and to do this on the Board of Education, when your sole purpose should be to educate the kids in the best possible way," Camillo charged. "It's embarrassing and it's not going to stand."
Before going to a vote, Bianco was asked to explain in more detail what the legal process would look like.
“In aid of that complaint to rectify and restrain certain board members from acting outside the law and their own bylaws, and seating members that aren’t members because they have to be sworn in and weren’t, and seating members that were not sworn in,” said Bianco.
He also added that he was "incredibly doubtful" the Democrats' special meeting would be considered legal because all of the case law and precedent "weighs heavily against that that was actually an emergency meeting."
"And so, in order to try to preserve that and not have to unwind months and months worth of votes and some critically important votes, we would ask the court to follow the clear law and and issue restraints against certain conduct in order to put the board back in order," explained Bianco.
The Board of Selectmen ultimately voted 2-1 in favor of petitioning to the court for an immediate stay, which would effectively roll back everything on the BOE and restore it to what it was like before the Democrat-led sham emergency meeting on October 21.
That means no Behette, and also no Cappiali.
After the special meeting, BOE Acting Chair Hirsh issued a statement claiming Camillo made "unfounded accusations" about the attempted Democrat coup, and remarked "we are the Board of Ed, not the Board of Fred."
She then proceeded to gaslight taxpayers by blaming Camillo for taking "further legal action, forcing the taxpayers in Greenwich to continue to fund a petty, partisan grievance."
Hirsh even called the Republican appointment of a Republican candidate to fill an open Republican BOE seat a "power grab intended to seat an ally."
Yes, it is indeed a power grab...initiated by power-hungry Dems who think they can force Republicans to sit back and wait months for the legal process to play out while in the meantime the Dems do whatever they want?
No thanks, Democrats, this travesty needs to be stopped immediately.
And while we are not thankful to see taxpayers getting shafted by having to fund both sides of a lawsuit that never should have happened, we would much rather fund the lawsuit than allow Democrats to just get away with the coup.
P.S. We just LOVE that our last meme triggered the other side so much they had to "fact check" us. Yes, that was in fact a REAL PICTURE of Mr. Cappiali's Board Of Education certification card.
