Subject: CRAZY CARL AIN'T NO ANGEL: I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE RUMOR REGARDING MR. CARL HIS BEHAVIOUR AT LAST NIGHT'S MEETING (Monday) WAS DOWN RIGHT SCARY. HE ACCOMPLISHED WHAT MANY WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE, HE MADE LARRY ANGEL LOOK RATIONAL.

Subject: BOE meeting...WOW! Dear Larry, Anyone who doesn't vote for Mary Hunt in the new election obviously didn't see Tom Carl verbally attack Mr. Goldberg last night (Monday) at the Board of Education meeting. Mr. Carl was so angry and agitated that I don't think he noticed the whole room of people staring in silent disbelief. His behavior was frightening and irrational. Mr. Goldberg is a kind and fair man who deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. For Mr. Carl's supporters- If you saw his outburst, I'm sure you would regret casting your vote for him. I urge all Mullica voters to support Mary Hunt. She truly does want what is best for the school and the taxpayers. If you want to know what her goals are, just ask her. She's friendly, committed, and passionate about our community. NOT voting for Mary Hunt would do an incredible disservice to the families in Mullica Township. -A

RESPONSE: It was an unfortunate outburst. I had hoped that Mr. Carl was merely 'pugnacious' ... and felt that would be a good addition to the Mullica School Board. However, the angry accusations directed at the School Administration, the Superintendent and the Business Administrator -- when examined calmly seemed irrational. Hopefully, Mr. Carl will take a calm moment and consider the offer from Ms. Hunt to flip a coin ... rather than put the community through a Special Election that will only serve to divide the community more deeply ... at at time when the Mullica School District faces real challenges.

I wanted excerpt a portion of a correspondence from Ms Hunt;

'As you are aware, Tom Carl and I tied for the 3rd and final board seat on the Mullica Township Board of Education. This weekend I tried to get him to agree to flip a coin to settle the matter and to save time, effort and money for another election. I thought that it would allow the Board and the candidates to move beyond the uncertainty. I was also concerned about the intrusion of politics into school board elections if we had a runoff election, something that we have tried to avoid in the past and reason I believe that we have a nonpolitical board that works together as a team. Tonight Tom Carl has made it clear that he wanted a special election because he and his supporters think that he will win. The Mullica Board of Education voted in the reorganization meeting tonight to table the vote on the Board President to allow the winner of the pending run off election the chance to be President, while voting Dr. Spiros Malaspina in as Vice President. Tom Carl’s behavior and attitude at the school board meeting tonight leads me to conclude that he would be a disaster for the board. He claimed that he taped each and every phone message from the School Superintendent to him discussing the election, complaining that the Superintendent had tried to encourage him to toss a coin and that he was going to bring the matter to the county and state authorities. Furthermore, he was outraged that his campaign signs were removed by school officials during election hours because they were too close to the polling place.'

The outburst from Mr. Carl involved allegations that the Superintendent, Rick Goldberg and the Business Administrator, Steve Moran, had injected themselves inappropriately into the contested Mullica School Board Election by removing Carl's political signs and by encouraging Carl - after the apparent tie ... to 'concede' the election to Ms. Hunt.

The issue of having removed political signs from across the street from the school was not fully rebutted by the school administration at the meeting...or so I felt. Clearly, the school owns property across the street and acted properly in removing all political signs from its property across the street from the school buildings that were on its property. More troubling is the apparent removal of political signs from across the street of the Primary School Building which is NOT owned by the School.

The position articulated at the Board Meeting was that these signs were placed illegally within the boundary that the LAW states -- no campaign signs can be in proximity to the polling place and that these signs were placed to near 'the only handicapped entrance to the polling place.' GadFly would argue that this was not done properly...the removal of political signs that are on someone else's property and in violation of the LAW in terms of proximity to a polling place should have been handled via a call to the Mullica Police Department, or a Complaint to Ms. Johnson, the Mullica Clerk ... who oversears all elections in Mullica. Had this occurred ... the Police would have come out (as they have in the past) and measured the distance of the sign from the polling entrance to determine if it should be removed. This apparently was not done...and as a result the School Administration may have acted inappropriately and may owe Mr. Carl an apology.

The issue raised by Carl that the Superintendent had sought his concession in phone calls after the election was perceived to be a tie seemed to lose credibility with Carl suggesting that he was also pressured by Deputy Mayor St Amour ... also to concede. This simply strains credulity...and at this point Carl claimed to have these conversations saved as he had taped them...and as noted above, he would go to the proper authorities. HUH? The challenge to 'play the tapes' from the Superintendent was ignored by Carl.

It does seem clear that a call was made to Carl by Hunt after the election was perceived to be a tie...suggesting that a coin be flipped. The apparent response from Carl was not clear...that he might think about it, perhaps. Apparently, this was followed-up with a call from the school administration in the hope that the cost and divisiveness of a Special Election might be avoided. This some how was apparently perceived by Carl as pressure for concession. HUH? Flipping a coin would clearly avoid the thousands of dollars that a Special Election would cost Mullica taxpayers. One can only hope that Carl will give some serious thought to what is best for the larger community and not let himself get caught up in the clearly petty nature of the Democrat/Republican divide that exists in both Parties here in Mullica. The sooner this matter is resolved the quicker Mullica can get back to addressing more serious matters.