School board fails test of logic in Ogdensburg

Three times I have edited stories about the Ogdensburg School Board voting against filling a seat left when one of its members resigned. Three times I came away shaking my head.

The vacancy leaves an even number of votes and creates the possibility of ties. Sounds like an easy enough problem to solve. You fill the seat. It's math in its simplest form: Add one person and you will always have a majority on one side of any vote. But the city school board keeps failing the test. Four members vote to fill the seat. Four vote against. That's a tie. See the problem, folks?

The board members voting to stomp on common sense and logic by keeping the tie-breaking seat empty apparently don't see the problem. And none of them - President Frederick P. Bean and board members Angela M. Rufa, Paul M. Drummond and Vicky M. Peo - have given a clear reason why they are content to maintain the deadlock in a vote that would remove the possibility of deadlocks.

"The law says we may fill the seat ... it doesn't say we have to or shall," Mr. Bean said recently.

You don't have to go swimming or turn on your air conditioner when it's 95 degrees outside, either, but both of those things are still really good ideas. Choosing to sweat doesn't make near as much sense.

The four filibuster types are not just choosing to sweat, they are at the beach covered in blankets and wearing Arctic parkas in August.

And it gets sillier. Filibuster Angela Rufa - after helping tank the third vote - suggested others should respect her opinion and quit bringing up the issue of whether to fill the seat. Her opinion – and the others in the deadlock gang - apparently is that it is a bad idea to eliminate the possibility of tie votes that could stop the board from accomplishing things for the children in the school district. They are saying they welcome the chance to be an ineffective board. That's not an opinion that needs respecting. It needs rejecting.

To be fair to the filibuster four, they haven't technically given an opinion or offered insight as to why they don't want to add a ninth member to the board. They voice their opinions with their puzzling votes. And as far as the issue of tie votes with an eight person board goes, Mr. Bean has a plan of attack should that arise: “We'll deal with it,” he said. Quite a plan, Mr. President.

There must be more to the story. Something none of the board members want to talk about in public. There is no other way to explain the odd behavior of these four board members. Or maybe they just love the irony that a tie vote is stopping an action that could stop tie votes.

There have been residents at meetings who ask them to do the sensible thing and fill the seat. Joseph Lightfoot, the guy who left the seat, has urged them to fill it. Former board members have attended the meetings to give them a nudge in the right direction. Nine candidates ran for three seats in the last school board election, so there are plenty of people out there who would be interested in serving on the board. They easily could fill the seat. But it appears they won't. Tthat seat will likely remain empty until an election in May, thanks to the filibuster four.

That means no more having to scratch my head after editing a story about another tie vote. I suppose my chafed scalp is the only winner in this whole deal.