Allegations of voter intimidation in the East Ramapo school district election are repugnant to say the least; the voters have so much riding on the outcome of school votes, they should get nothing short of first-class treatment when they show up to vote.
What is more alarming about the allegations: The wrongful conduct is alleged to have been carried out by a school board trustee, someone duty-bound to encourage voter participation.
Trustee Aron Wieder, the school board vice president and assistant to the Spring Valley mayor, owes fellow board members and the community a full accounting of his conduct at the polls May 17, when the proposed 2011-12 budget was soundly defeated by voters. Wieder faces a misdemeanor charge that he violated state election law, by engaging in "conspiracy to promote or prevent election.
He is accused of blocking the entrance to the polls, photographing those who showed up to vote and otherwise intimidating residents from casting votes. Sgt. Brian Gorsky of Clarkstown police said two unknown men are believed to have assisted Wieder.
The allegations are a new headache and fresh embarrassment in a district where tensions already run high. The East Ramapo school board has a demonstrated propensity for discouraging public engagement and for keeping taxpayers out of the loop on important decisions.
The district's controversial sale of the Hillcrest school (where the alleged voter intimidation took place) is under investigation by the state Education Department, and the federal Department of Education's civil rights division is probing complaints about the district's actions, including the funding of special education.
Wieder isn't the only school official whose conduct merits scrutiny. When the trustee appeared Thursday at Clarkstown Police headquarters, he was accompanied by the school district's counsel, Albert D'Agostino. The lawyer, who told reporters he was acting as a volunteer and not representing the school district, maintained that Wieder had done nothing wrong.
D'Agostino said Wieder had merely gone to the polling place to investigate claims that poll watchers were improperly turning away or over-scrutinizing voters at Hillcrest, on the New City-New Square border.
"He, as an elected official, had a right to go to that location in response to complaints that he was getting from constituents who felt that they were being deprived of their right to vote," D'Agostino said.
The attorney's instant judgment — arrived at before any formal investigation or official inquiry had been concluded — is not yet justified by the record, which remains incomplete.
The school district attorney should have reserved judgment before deciding that trustee Wieder's self-interests pose no conflict with those of East Ramapo, his paying client. Now D'Agostino, like the accused acting board president, is effectively sidelined from further board inquiry into the subject.
The remaining, uncompromised board officials should see to it that the allegations of voter intimidation — or any impediments to voter participation — are throughly investigated, and that the results of that inquiry are shared with the public.
And they should wonder why their hired counsel, who by virtue of his position should play some role in shepherding the necessary further inquiries, cannot reasonably do so now.
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