Pereira files yet another lawsuit

BRIDGEPORT- - Board of Education Member Maria Pereira today filed a lawsuit against Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim, claiming his recent BOE appointment is both “illegal, “and a violation of Connecticut State Law and the Bridgeport City Charter.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in Bridgeport Superior Court by Attorney Kevin Smith, with the law firm of Pattis & Smith, Pereira claims that Ganim’s appointee needs to be “removed immediately.”

In late May, Board Member, and former chairman Dave Hennessey, resigned. Hennessey, who was elected to a seat on the Board of Education as a Democrat changed his party affiliation to Republican shortly before resigning.

This put some members of the BOE and Ganim at odds, and a battle ensued. The points of contention were whether a registered Democrat or Republican should fill the vacancy, and whether or not Ganim could appoint a replacement if the BOE did not do so within thirty days.

Ganim appointed Annette Segarra-Negron, a Republican, to fill the vacancy in July, claiming the BOE missed what City Attorney R. Christopher Meyer stated in a legal opinion, is a 30-day deadline, and that he (Ganim) had the legal right to appoint a replacement.

A challenge to this appointment was filed by Karen Jackson, a public school parent and registered Democrat, who was seeking to fill the vacancy created by Hennessey’s resignation. At that time, Jackson was notified that she did not meet the requirements to fill the vacancy because she was not a registered Republican. That case is currently pending.

In this new lawsuit, Pereira, who is also the Democratic District leader in the 138th, is asking a judge to grant an injunction against Ganim, preventing him from appointing another new board member. The newest vacancy is the result of the resignation of former BOE member Andre Baker, Jr., who is also the State Representative in the 124th. He resigned on August 15, just days after winning the August 9 Democratic Primary.

Pereira, who campaigned heavily to elect Ganim Mayor, is adamant in her assertion that Ganim has “absolutely no authority to appoint a BOE member to fill a vacancy. That responsibility rests with the remaining board members.”

She added, “although the City Attorney claims there is a 30-day window to fill a BOE vacancy, no such time frame is referenced in either Connecticut State Statue, or the City Charter”.

Attorney Kevin Smith stated “The laws and history of our state place the pupil above politics in every instance. Bridgeport's prominent place in that history provides a clear lesson to even the most casual observer: those misguided actors who would seek to subvert that constitutionally protected, student-first paradigm does so not only at their own political peril, but at the peril of the Bridgeport students and parents who have consistently proven that they will protect their children by any means necessary. In light of the Mayor's power grab and bastardization of Connecticut law, this action is a necessary means to an inevitable, constitutionally-mandated end: the restoration of local, democratic rule for Bridgeport schools, in spite of any one person or private interest group that would undermine the pupils in favor of political gains. Given how recently his predecessors have stumbled down similar paths without success, Mayor Ganim appears to be no student of History; given the import of the lessons he so blithely ignores, Ganim seems poised to be a repeat student at the City's expense.”