Utica board of education appoints Testa to fill vacancy

UTICA — The Utica City School District Board of Education met on Tuesday to decide how to handle the vacant seat left by the resignation of former member Anthony LaPolla.

The board immediately went into executive session to discuss potential options.

During the regular meeting, board member Robert Cardillo reported the board had three options how to handle the vacancy: hold a special election, fill the seat by a majority vote, or leave the seat vacant.

The board said it weighed the options during the executive session and came to a consensus not to leave the seat vacant or to hold a special election, citing a special election can cost anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000.

Following an announcement that the board will fill the vacancy by a majority vote, residents in attendance of the meeting reacted with a mix of audible groans, laughter and criticism prompting Cardillo to ask residents to let him finish speaking.

Cardillo said the board will go down the line of the six candidates from last week’s district elections and offer the next candidate in line the vacant board seat. The top two vote getters, James Paul and Tennille Knoop, were elected.

The third place finisher was Jack LoMedico, however, Cardillo said he spoke with LoMedico and that he said he would decline the position if offered.

Cardillo also spoke with the next highest vote recipient, David Testa, who, Cardillo said, would accept the position if offered.

Board member Joseph Hobika Jr. suggested what the district advertise the vacancy and the intention of the board to fill the vacancy so the board could evaluate potential candidates who submit a letter of interest.

Board member Danielle Padula disagreed with the suggestion, saying candidates worked hard during their election and a decision to fill the vacancy shouldn’t be rushed into.

Cardillo made a motion to appoint the fourth-place finisher (Testa) in the board election, with board member Donald Dawes seconding the motion. The board approved the measure with Hobika and Padula voted against the motion.

Residents voice concerns

Utica resident Braedon Nanna was one of the residents at the board meeting and believes the board came up with a poor excuse to not hold a special election to fill the vacancy.

“To say that it’s cost prohibitive to have a $25,000 to $50,000 special election is asinine when this board of education just approved a $30,000 pay increase to the superintendent,” Nanna said. “We can afford a $30,000 pay increase, we can’t afford to allow the voters to democratically elect a school board member? That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Nanna also believes that Cardillo reaching out to offer the vacancy to LoMedico and then Testa was an illegal and unethical move on Cardillo’s part.

“Bob Cardillo is an individual board member,” Nanna said. “He had no right, he had no authority to offer the position to them. It’s expressly illegal for an individual board member to try to portray themselves as representing the will and authority of the board, which is what he did.”

When asked if reaching out to the runner up candidates was standard procedure, Cardillo says the situation was unprecedented.

“This is all new, we haven’t had this happen so close to an election,” Cardillo said. “It’s the way the process worked. I know Mr. Hobika said that he would have been accepting of it had Mr. Testa been there, but we didn’t think it was appropriate to have anybody be there until we decided on how this was going to take place.”