Derby school board members made it easier to hire their relatives Thursday night by deleting a key provision of their nepotism policy.
The board voted 5 – 2 to delete the part of the policy that barred the school board from hiring their immediate relatives.
The rule existed to limit conflicts of interest.
During the meeting no one on the board offered any reasons why the change was needed.
After the meeting, a board member indicated various degrees of nepotism are common in Derby government.
Earlier, board members heard testimony from Town Clerk Marc Garofalo and former school board member Walt Mayhew asking them not to change the rules.
Voting in favor of relaxing the nepotism rules were: Daniel Foley, Christine Robinson, Rebecca O’Hara, George Kurtyka, and Andrew Mancini.
Voting against: Jim Gildea and Janine Netto.
Chairman Kenneth Marcucio, whose son the board voted to hire last year in violation of its nepotism policy, abstained from the vote.
‘Bad Public Policy’
Thursday’s school board meeting began with Garofalo, a former Derby mayor, asking the board to keep the nepotism rule as is.
He pointed out it was only adopted in 2013 and said the school district should keep it on the books.
Deleting it “sends the wrong message to the community,” he said. “I just think it’s bad public policy.”
Most public policy experts agree with Garofalo, having long condemned nepotism as a bad thing for the obvious reason that the hiring of a public official’s relative — even if that person is qualified for the job — could give the appearance of preferred treatment.
For example, Judy Nadler and Miriam Schulman, writing for Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, wrote that nepotistic practices in government “undermines the common good.”
“When someone is granted a position because of connections rather than because he or she has the best credentials and experience, the service that person renders to the public may be inferior,” Nadler and Schulman wrote.
“Reasonable people will differ about the appointment of friends and family in high-level positions, but public officials should be aware that such choices can give the appearance of unfairness.”
But elected officials in Derby are taking a different approach when it comes to conflicts of interest. Specifically, they’re working to lower their standards.
On Nov. 8, Derby voters will be asked whether to remove a 50-year-old rule that bars city employees from being elected to the Board of Aldermen without first getting unanimous approval from fellow Aldermen.
According to “explanatory text” released by the city meant to inform voters about what they’re voting on, the government is also asking whether to “eliminate the prohibition against City officials doing business with or being employed to do any work for the City of Derby.”
Gildea, one of two school board members who voted against weakening the nepotism policy, referenced the upcoming citywide vote in a statement.
“It is my belief that the revisions to our nepotism policy, coupled with the proposal to eliminate the waiver required to be an employee of the City and serve in a volunteer capacity, make us not as strong ethically as we had once been,” Gildea said. “Having the best in class standards is something I believe we should hold onto.”
In a letter to board members read aloud by Superintendent Matthew Conway during Thursday’s meeting, Mayhew, a former Aldermen and school board member, asked the board to work toward a compromise on the family hiring rule.
He suggested allowing family of school board officials to apply for jobs in the school district — but require they disclose the relationship in writing while applying, and only be hired after the board votes by a two-thirds “supermajority.”
“In a day and age when the public has a very low opinion regarding the ethical conduct of elected officials, desires more openness, more accountability and policies, procedures and laws holding elected officials to a higher standard of conduct, simply removing the provision entirely is going in the wrong direction,” Mayhew wrote.
Click here to read Mayhew’s statement.
The video below shows the school board voting on the issue. The acoustics in the room are poor. The article continues below the video.
Support
School board member Dan Foley, a former teacher himself, told the Valley Indy that Derby’s school board “is the most open and above-board organization of the city.”
“If we go back years, I could point to nepotism in many of the organizations in Derby, and I still feel that this new policy holds us to a higher standard,” he went on.
After the meeting the Valley Indy asked Foley what he meant.
“Basically, in Derby, it’s such a small city that either you’re related to someone or you know someone that has a spouse or whatever,” Foley said. “By eliminating the conflict, by recusing themselves from voting, it enables qualified candidates to be considered, whereas before they couldn’t be if they were related in some form or another to a board member.”
But the old policy already included a provision that relatives of school board members could only be hired following disclosure of the relationship at a public meeting.
The new policy does not mandate that a board member recuse his or herself from a vote to hire a relative.
Foley also pointed out, without naming names, that nepotistic practices exist elsewhere in city government.
Isn’t that like saying two wrongs make it right?
“No, no,” Foley said. “At least we’re open about it, whereas different sections of the city, they may or may not have a policy, but if you want to, do research and check people that are working in the different departments of the city who are related to city officials.”
