The-Leader_1985-06-13

              Ollicial.
Newspaper
Village of
Freeport
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School District
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Baldwin °
School District
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FREEPORT. NEW YORK. .JUNE 13,1985
SlstYEAR. Nb.8
FREEFORT UEKORIAL LIERARV
W HERRICk RD
FRPT l\X .11520.
PRICE 2 5 * PER COPY .
SCHOOL Yes-1^6...No-1i)05
BUDGET VOTE:
Sawyers'Case Now
Before
Bribery Doesn't
Work in Freeport
. FREEPORT - A village build­ing
inspector, allegedly offered a
bribe by thei owner of an illegal
bottle club in-Freeport, wpAed
-undercoverfor three-months-with-the
Nassau County District
EkiUwin Teacher Ckums
Dishidi Discriminated
. ' '. • by Joan Delaney
-. BALDWIN - The continuing saga of the Baldwin School District and
suspended Industrial Arts teacher Robert Sawyers resumed with the
case now being heard under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of
Labor rather than the New Yort-State Department otEducation. Saw-
Z38i ReMenfs Go To
Polls For Second Time
' FREEPORT - In its second time before the voters of the district,
the 1985-86 Freeport School budget received a sirong "yes" vo;e.
Defeated on May 8 by only 25 votes, the budge! weni through
1,376-1,005 as an increased number of district voies weni to ihe_polls
\yednesday, June 12.. .
The earlier low vote, which saw a budget defeai; had only 1.407
voting, with 716 voles" cast ]• .
against the budget and 691 for
the budget.
In this week's second vote,
2,381 residents went to the polls.
in May, three polling places
had a majority of "no" voters:
Archer, Bai-view and Giblyn. In
this second vote, only the voters
at Giblyn School registered more
"no" votes. .-'
A scMooI-by-sehooI breakdown
(Cpnt. on Page's!
Freepbrf GOP Roifcs Unsefiled
Attorney's Special Investigations
' Bureau and the Freeport and
Nassau police departments, cul-'
mlnating with the • arrest of
Pasquale Zappina on June 10.
According to District Attorney
Denis Dillon, Zappina, 46, of
236 Allen Street, Lawrence, had
been operating an illegal bottle
• clyb called Anthony's Cafe at ,
56 Guy Lombardo Avenue,
Freeport.
In order to co.-.tinue to operate
the club, Zappina offered to pay
John Provenzano, an inspector
for the Village of Freeport's
Building Department, - regular
payments of S250 to avoid being
cited for fire, health and other
. violations of local zoning and
building codes.
Prsvenzano, who has found
himself in a similar situation
several limes before, immediate­ly
spoke'to Mike Ruiz de Zarate,
Superintendent of the Building.
Department, and they contacted
Dillon's office.
In addition, according to the
District Attorney's office. Zap­pina
also solicited members of the
police department and made
recurring payments of S200 to
avoid police Interference in his
operations and activities of club
.members. All this, of course, was
done with the knowledge and
under the watchful eye of Dillon's
office.
Proveniano. wired up by the
D.A.'s office, met with Zappina
and he and the police department
cooperated with the District
Attorney's office in lincovering
the solicitations and in docu­menting
them for Zappina's
arrest on two charges of bribery
in Ihe second degree.
In the culmination of this inves­tigation,
Anthony's Cafe , was
raided by the Freeport Police
'(Cont.onPagaie)
yers ts the teacher who was accused b^ the district of tampering with •
an air filter which was placed in
the Baldwin Harbor'Junior High
School'on'March 4. 1983 to test
for Ihe presence of asbestos.' The
incident' occurred after Sawyers
had complained about unsafe
conditions, which he felt existed,
because of'asbestos' removal
which was taking place; while
faculty and students were in the
building. In'June. 1983. Sawyers
was suspended. -
Under the 3020A educational
hearing, the Sawyers case was
originally heard before a three-jierson
panel consisting of-a panel
member chosen by the district,
.one chosett by Sawyers and a .
chairman, Jonas Silver Esq. ac­cepted
by both parties. As a
result of that hearing. Sawyers
was found guilty by a vote of
'2-1 and given a S2,000 fine.
The school district then decided
to appeal the case to the Com­missioner
of Education and
seek a severe penalty. After nine
months, Comnussioner of Educa­tion
Gordon Ambach imposed a
one year suspension without pay
. and cited the severity of the of­fense.
Sawyers continues to maintain
his innocence noting that the air
filter he allegedly tampered with
was destroyed by TAKA,_ -.the
outside consulting firm, and is not •
available for corrobarative test­ing.
He has taken his case now to
the Department of Labor alleging
that he has been discriminated
against by the District because of
his reputation as a • "whistle
blower" regarding toxic sub­stances.
His attorney is seeking
to show a course of continuous
action of discrimination against
Sawyers, The Baldwin School
District, hon-ever. has indicated,
throughout the proceedings that
they have not discriminated
against Sawj'ers but voted to
suspend him because of the
specific case of tampering.
According to papers served on
the district by the U.S. Depart­ment
of Labor, their investiga-tidnsj
have' indicated that "dis­crimination
as defined and pro­hibited
by the statute was a
factor in the actions wluch com­prise
his complaint." .
The first day of Departmentof
Labor hearings took place on May
14th in New York Cty and it
was decided that subsequent
hearings could be scheduled in
Nassau County. On Wednesday
and Thursday. 'June 4 and 5,
Adnunistrative Law Judge Robert
J. Shea began hearing the case
at the Federal U.S. Bankruptcy
Court Building in Westbury.
On June ^th. both attorneys
attempted to have the case dis­missed
on the basis of "time­liness."
Robert Clearfield. Saw-yers'lawyer,
alleged that the Dis­trict
did not respond to the com­plaint
and request to appeal with­in
the five days provided by la'w
and he stated that his client
should'therefore be reinstated as
provided in the statute. Jerome
Ehrlich. attorney for the school
district, explained that the Dis­trict-
was closed for the inter-term
recess tad that although
an employee did sign for the let­ter,
E>r. Holland Jones. Super­intendent
of Schoob, did not
receive the'letter until February
25th when the district's at­torneys
then sent«telegram indi­cating
that they would appeal.
Ehrlich then attempted to have
the case distnissed, also based on
time technicality. He alleges that
the complaint was not made with­in
30 days of the alleged dis­crimination
and that even if a
letter by Sawyers to the EPA
could broadly be interpreted to
fuUfill that 30 day requirement,
(Com. on Page 6)
.FREEPORT -,ll's been more.than a week since ihe news broke
publicly of dissension wiih'ui the Freeport Republican Pariv, and siill
there is apparent jockeying for places on the Primaij- Day (Sepiem-ber
10) ballot.
Commilleepersons elect their executive leader,
leaders also have some control as
to who •will be the committee-persons.
"
Following the divisive village
election of this past March, when,
former Republican Leader Fred
Hager ran against Republican
nominated. Dorothy Storm for
mayor, GOP Leader Ray Malone
obviously w-anled to "dean
house."
Malone is- Nassau County
Commissioner of Housing. Com­munity
Development fiinds go
through his office.)
bu! execulive
After two caucuses — the first
in which Hager took the {H)P
nomination, the second in which
Storm, regain'ed it —Hager de­cided
to stay in the race iinder the'
Home Rule Party's banner. A
Republican committeeman, and a
recently retired assistant - to
Nassau County Executive Fran
Pnrcell, Hager was joined on his
line on the ballot by Home Rule
Party founder lionel Socolov and
Ed Monroe, another GOP com-
. (Com. on Page 3W)
FLASHINGS WINS. Freeport,.HIgh School's student newspaper has
been awarded third place'(Nassau Division) In Feature Writing in the
1985 Newsday School Journalism Competition. The certificate was pre­sented
at the Eighth Annual Press Day co-sponsored by Newsday,
C.W. Post Center o< Long Island University, and the Long Island
School Press Association. Flashings Feature Editor Erik Saarmaa ac­cepted
the award which was for the October 9, 1984 feature article
"Pledge of Allegiance: A Dying Tradition at FHS" by reporter Jona­than
Michaels. Attending Ihe Press Day conteremce were 0- to r.)
Sports Editor Rot>ert Fernandez, reporter George Sanchez, Editor-in-
Chief Rotiert Ennls, Erik Saarmaa, News Editor Meg Jaeger, Busi­ness
Editor Samaniha Boulukos and Production Editor Tara Slenzel.
Accompanying Ihe Flashings staff at the^Press Day was advisor Ira J.
Schlldkraut who conducted a workshoR on "Law and The Student
Press." . '