By Josh Resnek
The city council’s ire against the mayor’s plan for a new roof became more an effort about solving the overcrowding issue in the public schools than allowing the administration’s business as usual stance to move forward about a new roof for an old building.
The council’s rejection of the mayor’s motion for the $11.4 M new roof to save four operations going on inside the former 400,000 square foot 1922 building was not so much
aimed at the mayor as it was intended to be coupled with a commitment from the mayor to use the second floor of the former high school for classroom space.
It was a commitment the mayor declined to make Monday night, insisting he needed to talk to Superintendent of Schools William Hart before he could act.
The mayor insisted he could do nothing unless Hart was in favor it.
The city council charted its own course Monday night – that is– at least 6 members were adamantly opposed to moving forward with the new roof unless the former school property was to be used for classroom space to reduce overcrowding.
To his credit, the mayor assembled quite a powerful assembly of officials Monday night to pursue his agenda with facts and figures some of the councilors contested.
The effort was made to compare the former high school with the former Pope John High School facility up the street.
The mayor and his chief planner Attorney Matt Lattanzi expressed the belief that the Pope John site is too expensive to fix, and offered the former high school as much less expensive to fix and more conducive to larger numbers of students.
The mayor and Lattanzi said the 90,000 square foot second floor of the old high school could be made ready for $2.5 M, a highly unlikely figure given present day construction costs – and a figure contested by several of those who voted against the new roof measure.
They also attempted to declare Pope John an impossibility because it would cost $31 million to be made ready.
The city council did not agree with that assessment.
The mayor spoke calmly and rationally at first. Lattanzi bellowed his thoughts. His presentation was a shout out. He speaks almost breathlessly over the heads of his audience.
And for a while Monday night, the administration seemed to be prevailing.
That is, until several major outbursts by councilors and the mayor led to the final votes, and the ultimate failure of the measure.
What might have been fell apart.
Councilor Katie Rogers told the mayor near to the end of the long debate that she could not vote for the measure unless it was tied to creating more school room space in the former high school to reduce overcrowding.
That was the turning point in this lengthy and sometimes heated debate.
The debate was marked by Councilor Peter Pietrantonio sharing a number of heated and contentious outbursts with the mayor.
The mayor accused Pietrantonio of “making the wrong vote.”
Pietrantonio rejected that notion, and rather angrilly, causing sparks to fly between him and the mayor.
Council President Robert Van Campen asked the mayor straight out “what is the objective?”
He also questioned the $2.5 million the mayor claimed the second floor of the former high school could be made ready with.
“You need to sharpen your pencil,” Van Campen told the mayor.
“There’s too much uncertainty,” he added.
Councilor Stephanie Smith and the mayor got into an uncharacteristic hot interchange following the mayor’s statement directed at her that the people voting no against the new roof are voting against the ongoing services at the former high school.
Using the word “fake” several times, Smith fired back at the mayor: “I take offense to what you say.”
Smith also said “we need a full master plan. I can’t vote for the $11.4M today. I can’t vote for this,” she told the mayor.
Councilor Guerline Alcy Joboin made short remarks but they were effective and rallied her colleagues.
“We need space for the kids but I’m not hearing a clear plan about what will work for the community. We want space for school but we’re not hearing anything like that,” she said.
In the end, Councilor Wayne Matewsky seemed to sum up his colleague’s thinking.
“Seems to me this would solve the overcrowding issue,” he said of the old school property.
“This is a school,” he added.
But so is Pope John.