Trash at the BoE- UPDATED

GA's head is about to explode...

Anecdotes from last night are pouring in; jaw-droppingly moronic antics and thuggish stunts that  turned last night's BoE meeting into an embarrassment for the City of Hoboken.

The scene in the room was unruly and threatening.   Police were stationed in the room at the start then left, only to be called back later after an ally of BoE member Carmelo Garcia tried to fight with a woman seated in the room.

The thugs and their patrons in attendance were:  Matt 'Gumby' Calicchio and his brother Nick (Thugly and Mugly), Mike Holmes, some heckling blond battle-axe GA was told is a Belfiore-relation, Michelle Russo,  Terry Castellano and Mike Russo.    

Beth Mason, wearing a form-fitting red suit, stood alone in a far corner of the room- as far from her bodyguard, Gumby, and  Old Guard allies as she could possibly be, with Tim the videographer in tow.

Tim was there to tape Mason when she stood up to speak up for  'letting the People decide'  petition.  You know, that Mike Russo production containing 2600 signatures which by the way...

...aren't ENOUGH.

From  a reliable source:

Aside from the fact that no number of signatures can deprive the school board of its right to move the elections, and the law makes a referendum appropriate only if both the School Board and City Council fail to act themselves to move the election, Mikey Russo our former finance chair apparently is unable to count. 24,007 people voted in the 2008 presidential meaning that 3601 valid signatures would be necessary to put a referendum moving the election onto the ballot- not the 2200 or so Mikey seems to think.

So much for Mikey's 2,600 signatures... short by 1,000. Well, I guess arithmetic isn't his strong suit.

Also there: 'political consultant' Perry Belefiore, who I hear made quite a scene.   GA understands why Perry's in a foul mood; it's not every day a so-called ally gives your private email to a newspaper to publish.

Dare I say the RAT'S name?  (How about sending this RAT an email?) 

Well, it was quite a night.  Would you like to hear about it from those who were in the room?

Here they are,  some eye-witnesses to what went down at the BoE last night:

Carmelo and gang brought out their skanks and thugs. They were there to harass and intimidate as many people as possible- teachers, parents, board members anyone was up for grabs! After the police left, intimidation, harassment and chaos broke out.

A parent who wanted to to hear the board business, as her child attends the public schools, asked the audience to "shush"- one of their thugs then began cursing at her and threatening her, when asked by another parent to please leave her alone and let us hear the meeting she jumped up and said "ill fuck you up". The police were called (back) in.

Order was restored and the meeting continued with a barrage of bullying of the board members.

Any normal observer and many commenters comments on the total abuse of the public by these people toward those on the board and those in attendance. It was an embarrassment to all of Hoboken. The out of town attorneys, other business professionals and even the city council gadflys were shocked at the low class behavior and lack of a coherent thought or sentence. Those thugs acted in pure rage and hysteria. I feel bad for the students, teachers, staff, parents and administrators in Hoboken Public Schools- Having these ignorant bullies being filmed on TV at a board of ed meeting has degraded the very hard work of all in the public schools.

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Most explosive moment was when a Hispanic woman (Carmelo's friend) started to speak aggressively to Theresa Howard. Liz Mulholland stepped up to help saying “will you just leave her alone.” The woman went nuts got directly in Liz’s face and started screaming threats and obscenities. I think she may have actually said “I’m going to fuck you up” and did this thing where she kissed her fingers. Liz didn’t respond in kind but didn’t back off. It went on for several minutes until someone walked the loony away and the meeting went on.

Belfiore refused to leave the mike until two police officers spoke to him. I heard one officer say “how do you want to do this?” Then Nick C came forward to walk Perry off in what seemed to be a spontaneous piece of theater.

At one point Mike Russo started to scream at Roman “are you threatening me?” while making the “bring it on” hand gesture. Roman said something back, everybody looked and they both backed off.

Some woman in the back was interrupting every speaker on both sides by yelling out. When Mike Russo was speaking, she kept screaming things like “that’s right” and “you tell them.” Russo pretended that it was one of our people screaming and demanded decorum – an obvious attempt to turn the world on its head and make it seem like the circus was caused by us rather than them. This seemed like a coordinated message as it dovetailed with Theresa Castellano’s statement blaming the circus on the Board rather than the audience.

All in all a complete embarrassment to the City of Hoboken and a throwback to the “bad old days” with one critically important exception – none of it mattered because we had the votes so it was all a stupid self defeating childish game.

They seemed to be also trying to plant the idea in the press’s head that this would “wind up in court.” I suspect that they will succeed in getting the story written that way since Ray and Claire appear to have not figured out that Nick C is not a particularly qualified or credible source on legal issues.

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Nick Calicchio's behavior was disgusting, is that the way the State correction officers should behave? Really? Telling the board prez he's not going to listen to her? I can only imagine how he acts with the tenants he is supposed to protect in the housing. You do know he has an apartment there under the Police Next door program.

I think the best was when Peter (Biancamano) said that there were TWO petitions, saying this adamantly and Nick Calicchio is in the back of the room giving him the cut off sign. They never handed in the second petition... LOL Of course Theresa (Minutillo) had to tell Peter that Nicky was telling him to cut it out... ROFL!

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The heavy set guy (Mike Holmes) near me said something interesting. Said things like this are going to turn into law suits.   

Claimed the Old Guard has retained a top lawyer- the lawyer that represented Bush for the Florida voting case.

He also bragged how he beat up former Jersey City Mayor Jerry McCann in the 80's and that someone sitting a few rows in front of him  (Gary Enrico)is lucky it is not the 80's.

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At one point at the end of the meeting... Biancomano was asking the BoE attorney- Vito something- about the petitions that were handed in yesterday.. Something about do they trump this vote (I think ??) Vito read the 1st paragraph of the petition aloud... and Peter said no not that one the other petition that was handed in...

At that point Nick Calicchio, sitting in the back of the room, starts making hand gestures to Peter, cutting him off... Theresa (Minutillo) said aloud for everyone to hear.. look Peter, Nicky's giving you a signal to be quiet.... LMAO!!!

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Jeez, what an embarrassment.

These morons belong on a Jerry Springer episode, not at a School Board  meeting.

Speaking of morons, interesting to note that Timmy wasn't there.  Perhaps his handlers wanted to keep their golden boy untainted by the trashy spectacle planned by his Old Guard friends?

On a positive note, GA wishes to thank Kids First for comporting themselves like the professionals they are in spite of this miscreant-spectacle; this effort to intimidate them with disorderly, thuggish conduct.

You ladies (and Leon) rock.

(Updated: 3:45 pm)
Here's another eye-witness account:

It's not easy to summarize a 5 hour meeting, but I will try. This doesn't address budget issues, Maureen issues, etc. feel free to cut down and edit as you see fit.

First, there was a great turnout from the public from people who supported the moving of the boe election from April to November. Not only did they come out at 7, but they stayed late in the evening, reflecting a real commitment to being seen and heard. The Boe majority was well supported by members of the general public.

What was striking about the general tenor of the speakers opposed to moving the elections to November. Nick Calicchio spoke first. He treated Rose Markle with utter contempt. She announced that speakers would have 2 minutes to speak instead of 5, which created an uproar in the room. He stated that he would give 5 minutes no matter what she said. Eventually, a 3 minute compromise was reached, but he essentially insisted that he's speak as long as he like. He ended asking for a legal opinion from Board counsel, asking what effect a previously filed petition would have on the pending resolution. The answer was "none" because the State law allows for 3 ways to move the boe election to November, by legislative body, by the boe, or by referendum. Since the submitted referendum seeks to ask whether to move the election to November, but doesn't move the election to November, the petition has no impact on the pending resolution.

Perry Belfiore was the 2nd speaker. He said that it would be necessary for police to remove him, and that he was going to say what he wanted to say. In the end, a police officer came over to remove him, but he agreed to go voluntarily after his time expired.

At one point, the meeting was disrupted when a parent repeatedly threatened to assault a Kids First supporter in the audience. Police were called to the meeting by a security guard who was working the meeting at that time.

France's Rhodes-Kearns is Michael Russo in a dress. She spent at least 15 minutes berating Leon Gold for the way he handled negotiating union contracts. Everyone listened to her respectfully, and Leon Gold pointed out how at least some of her complaints (that Gold had shared confidential negotiations with a member of the public) was done by mistake (an email sent to a former boe trustee by accident) which was quickly deleted by the recipient and never read by the unintended addressee). However, when trustees from the majority spoke, she would "accidentally" shuffle her papers against her microphone, making crackling noises that interfere with the other trustees' speeches. NOTE: if someone wanted to put together a video of Frances Rhodes-Kearns greatest hits on her microphone, that could be set to some very entertaining music for a nice piece. She repeatedly mocked one boe official who acted as clerk when he mispronounced her last name saying several times that he "need to spend more time in Hoboken".