Jaffee to propose fix for E. Ramapo's halved term

After community outrage followed the halving of an East Ramapo school trustee’s term due to a technical error, state Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee said she plans to propose a legislative fix to return Sabrina Charles-Pierre’s seat to full term.

Charles-Pierre ran unopposed for a two-year seat that expires in June 2018, but the school board voted in late July to invalidate the term because it discovered she was not sworn in within 30 days of the May board election results being certified. Charles-Pierre was then appointed to a seat that runs out in May 2017.

Local education advocates, along with the Spring Valley NAACP and the New York Civil Liberties Union, have criticized the board and accused the district of shortchanging Charles-Pierre, a black woman representing the interests of public school parents on a board dominated by Orthodox Jewish men who send their children to private schools.

Charles-Pierre's supporters have asked the board to give her back the seat she was elected to, or for Board President Yehuda Weissmandl to take accountability for the mistake and step down.

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Neither has occurred, though the board, which has said it was only following the law, voted to file an appeal with the state Education Department. On Friday, the New York Civil Liberties Union announced it had also appealed to the state, saying, "The dysfunction, disempowerment and discrimination in East Ramapo schools has to end."

On Tuesday morning, a spokesman for the state Department of Education said the office received the district's appeal on Aug. 12 and the NYCLU's this morning. Both are under review.

Jaffee, D-Suffern, said she plans to propose a bill during the next legislative session in response to the concerns raised.

“Routinely, oaths of office are executed and filed before or at the commencement of a term. However, on occasion there are incidents where public officials do not execute and file the document within the required time period, triggering a vacancy or in this case, a truncated term in the position to which they were elected,” Jaffee said.

Because Charles-Pierre was filling an unexpired seat, she needed to take the oath of office by July 11 to continue serving. However, she was sworn in three days later, at the July 14 reorganization meeting, a mistake Weissmandl said was an administrative oversight.

Weissmandl has not elaborated any further about how the mistake occurred other than to say District Clerk Cathy Russell flagged the “technical error” to officials. Weissmandl has said the board consulted with its attorney, as well as the state Department of Education, to determine how to proceed.

In a statement posted on the district website Tuesday afternoon, Weissmandl said, "Some people, however, have seized upon the situation as evidence of something intentional and improper. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was a simple error in complying with an arcane law."

Jaffee said, “My proposed bill would correct the district’s administrative error and allow Ms. Charles-Pierre to serve in such a capacity and for the full term to which she was elected upon the taking and filing of oaths of office  (providing) such oaths are taken and filed within 30 calendar days after the effective date of this legislation.”

Jaffee's bill was modeled after a measure regarding municipal officials by state Assemblyman Steve Otis (D-Rye) and signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June.

"Given how quickly we passed that bill — something happened in one of his municipalities with a similar situation, he wrote a bill to resolve it," she said.

"This set us back and I hope by moving forward, we can do this quickly and provide Sabrina Charles-Pierre with the opportunity to continue the term she was elected to by the community," Jaffee said.

The assemblywoman said she plans to introduce the measure during preliminary filing in December and hopes it can be addressed come January. Jaffe said she has also shared her plans with the district's state-appointed monitor, as well as Weissmandl, both of whom were "very positive" about it

“However, I think it raises a larger issue, which is that we must look at and overhaul old and antiquated school board election laws,” she said.

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