Prior to Lodi switching over to November elections in
2013, a very alarming trend was developing.
Hardly anyone was voting in the April school board elections and as you can see above, some of the tax increases were crazy.
Lodi voters were in a no win situation. If they voted down budgets, the mayor and council (employed in the Lodi schools) would not cut anything anyway. If they stayed home and didn't vote, budgets would pass and embolden the politicians to grab for more the next time around.
Lodi voters were in a no win situation. If they voted down budgets, the mayor and council (employed in the Lodi schools) would not cut anything anyway. If they stayed home and didn't vote, budgets would pass and embolden the politicians to grab for more the next time around.
The 2012 BOE election was uncontested and
the turnout was one of the lowest. But when I went to vote, the St. Francis gym
wasn’t empty. It was occupied by Patty
Licata, Linda Tucci, and other Wilson School teachers (most of whom didn’t live in Lodi). Teachers were telling their students’ parents
to approve the budget. Teachers were “challengers”
in an election where nobody was running against Patty Licata’s son. The budget passed.
I saw what was going on. Joe Capizzi was taking advantage of the
situation. Out of towners were
influencing elections and the people of Lodi were suffering. These abuses worked better under April
conditions than November.
In 2012, I began raising these issues at council
meetings:
You can read the rest of the conversation on the
minutes below:
Sidenote: If you read the minutes, Alan Spiniello was not truthful about being proactive with the pension issues. I had raised the issues long before Mr. Spiniello claimed they asked their labor counsel to look into them. The problem persisted for years after that August 2012 meeeting.
