Labrosse Team Renews Call for Independent Investigation into Gaines’ Political Work
Labrosse Team Renews Call for Independent Investigation into Gaines’ Political Work on School Time After Inaction from Zisa-Controlled BOE
HACKENSACK, N.J. — The Labrosse Team campaign is renewing its call for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office to conduct an independent investigation into Zisa Team campaign manager Caseen Gaines doing political work on school time after a week of inaction from the Zisa-controlled Hackensack Board of Education. Mayor John Labrosse submitted a hand-delivered letter to the district’s interim superintendent on March 10th outlining the clear violations by Gaines of state law and district policy, both of which demand an investigation. The campaign also submitted an Open Public Records Request for Gaines’ class schedule on March 13th, which has so far been ignored even though the document is an easily obtainable record that must be turned over by law.
“If the Zisa-controlled Board of Education won’t investigate this clear taxpayer abuse then the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office must step in,” said Labrosse Team spokesman Philip Swibinski. “Hackensack taxpayers suffered under the Zisa machine for far too long and they deserve to know whether or not they have been paying for Caseen Gaines to do political work when he’s supposed to be teaching. Only a truly independent investigation will uncover the truth.”
The connections between Gaines, a Hackensack High School teacher, the Zisa campaign and the Board of Education run extremely deep. Current Zisa candidate Lara Rodriguez is the BOE Vice President, while BOE President Jason Nunnermacker ran on their council ticket in 2013. Gaines’ wife Johanna Calle is also a BOE trustee. The BOE Attorney, Richard Salkin, has been involved politically with the Zisa machine for decades. All of this makes it highly unlikely that the BOE can conduct an unbiased investigation.
Gaines issued a political news release at 9:14 a.m. on March 9th, a day he was supposed to be working as a teacher. He later claimed to have prepared the release the night before, which is impossible given that he was responding to a Labrosse Team press release issued earlier that same morning. This constitutes a violation of school district policy, which says that no school employees are permitted to do political work on school property, and of state law which bars public employees from doing campaign work on taxpayer time.
The Zisa machine has been caught misusing school resources for campaign purposes before — their ticket used an internal school directory to send out campaign letters to teachers during the 2013 municipal election. The Superintendent of Schools at the time was quoted by the Record saying “We have a clear policy, no campaigning and no politics on school premises” and the act attracted widespread criticism for the blatant misuse of school resources.
About the Labrosse Team
Mayor Labrosse and his team of Deputy Mayor Canestrino, Councilman Leo Battaglia and Councilman David Sims won the 2013 municipal election, and since that time their leadership has resulted in the city’s downtown redevelopment and revitalization, adding nearly $1 billion in new real estate value to the city, and in Hackensack’s first tax rate cut in a decade. They announced their re-election campaign recently along with their running mate Council candidate Stephanie Von Rudenborg.
