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Free Speech Lives Another Day in Lodi! (September 3, 2019)

Background:  Debra Kwapniewski and Gail Oxfeld have taken tens of thousands of dollars out of unknowing teachers’ pay checks to file frivolous complaints against me for posting public information and my personal opinions on this blog.  They were unsuccessful with their PERC complaint.  They were unsuccessful with their ethics complaint against another Lodi board member.  They were unsuccessful with their ethics complaints against me for the past two years.  Oxfeld and Kwapniewski eventually found an OAL Judge named Elissa Mizzone Testa to go after my speech rights and carry out the NJEA’s agenda.  She issued a nonbinding decision from a hearing that I did not participate.  She let the NJEA attorney write that decision for her.  She sent her decision to the School Ethics Commission for consideration.  In July, I posted on this blog that the decision was completely BASELESS and I provided the “Exceptions” I submitted.  In August, I filed a Judicial Conduct Complaint against Elissa Mizzone Testa for her misconduct with case. 

Today, I received a decision from the School Ethics Commission.  The Commission saw what everyone else saw when they read Testa’s decision.  Testa did NOT cite, explain, or demonstrate with any facts that I violated any ethics code when I exercised my FREE SPEECH rights on my personal blog.  From the SEC’s decision that I received today.

The case has been remanded back to Elissa Mizzone Testa so she can explain her baseless decision.  She has also been ordered to analyze my free speech rights (my blog has a disclaimer that I am not speaking for the board).

To Karen Viscana and Mike Cardone:  your July smears on me were desperate, pathetic, and unintelligent.  Unlike the Cardone Family, I am NOT corrupt and I have upheld the highest ethical standards on the board.  After almost 3 years on the board, if the best you can go after me for is posting on this blog, I must be doing something right.  If you want to learn about real ethics violations, please read my preceding posts about Nancy Cardone’s voting record.  Try being professional and keep your dirty politics out of schools. 


To Oxfeld and Kwnapniewski: stop stealing other teachers' union dues to carry out your nonsensical political agenda.  Many teachers actually put education before politics.  They work too hard for their paychecks to be flushed down Oxfeld's pockets.

Side Note: I saved the Lodi taxpayers at least $15,000 by defending myself against these frivolous complaints and refusing to use a taxpayer funded attorney.

Augie Defalco (Cardone's "Money Man"), please call your two close friends Capizzi & Quatrone immediately and find out what THEY did with the reserves…

For decades, the Lodi Board of Education has been rampant with fraud, waste, and abuse.  Money was and still is going into the pockets of politicians when it should be going into the classrooms.  People are still robbing the district.  Just a few weeks ago, I caught someone submitting invoices for many hours they never worked.  I provided the oversight and accountability when the administration did not.   I had the courage to call it out.  I have the records to show it.

I welcomed and encouraged the OFAC investigations and audits.  I have criticized OFAC in the past for not doing enough to address Lodi corruption.  I requested that our auditor send all fresh eyes for this year’s audit and offer recommendations and corrective action plans.  That was discouraged in the past.   I will support any and all independent audits.  However, making a motion in the middle of a hearing of a citizens would just be a political stunt.  How can you make a motion to hire an independent auditor without going through the RFP process?

The Capizzi/Quatrone/Defalco administrations were complete fiscal disasters. They were a taxpayers’ nightmare.  Their patronage pit was funded at the expense of our students.   I also have many issues with the way the interim administration is being run.   I fully support independent audits of all.

I never met with the politicians at their late night diners.  I never was taken for a ride.  I am not a politician.   I have exposed more abuses by more people than anyone else.  What was the result?  I have been viciously targeted by the corrupt politicians, some self-dealing LEA officers, and even board attorneys (including some of the current political hacks serving as board attorneys).  I have been the victim of multiple frivolous complaints in an attempt to suppress my free speech rights pertaining to this personal blog.

Once again, I urge Augie Defalco to contact the two people that created his patronage job and his outrageous retirement payout.  Mr. Defalco, call Quatrone and Capizzi immediately and ask them what they did with the reserves.

Q & A is Tonight: I Gladly Accepted an Invitation to Participate in a Candidates’ Forum…

Candidates that can think for themselves, speak for themselves, and have some knowledge of BOE issues would have no problem participating in a Q & A.  Candidates controlled by a corrupt political machine (washed up politicians) would have a problem.

To the constant whiners, try clipping your strings for one night of the year.  

The Cardone group is scripted and fake.  It is running a Seinfeld campaign- a campaign about nothing.  It is no wonder that each year they look for a thousand excuses not to participate.