This is an opinion piece, as is anything I write here personally. However, I will apologize up front because I will be speaking very bluntly.
The level of outrage we feel over this despicable act is beyond belief. On behalf of both myself and the many people who are now contacting us over this mailer, this needs to be said publicly, and as loudly as humanly possible.
Please share this story on every social network within your reach.
A new low has been reached in the Belleville municipal elections. Until now, we didn’t know that was even possible.
To anyone who had a hand in this disgraceful, defamatory mailer, you have now sunk lower than a prehistoric whale turd.
Since the cowardly authors of this mailer didn’t have the guts to put their names on it, we can safely assume it’s from the Board of Education, since that is in fact the contact listed at the bottom of the publication, and they are the ones who created this list of trumped-up charges in the first place. What a shocker.
Further, when attempting to figure out who is behind something, ask yourself who has a motive for doing so? Ask yourself the Latin phrase, “Ciu bono?”….”Who benefits?”.
As Board Trustees running in the election next Tuesday, that points the finger directly at both Mr. Longo and Mr. Freda.
As perhaps the most outspoken yet still congenial critic of the Board of Education and their alleged unfair labor practices and intimidation, it would certainly benefit Mr. Longo and Mr. Freda to try to undermine Mr. Mignone with a defamatory mailer, and damage his credibility, in a desperate last-minute attempt to try to salvage their own public image. Good luck, fellas.
For those of you who have not received this shining example of malicious political idiocy in your mailboxes, here is a copy for your review:
Now, the entire thing is absurd enough that you don’t need me to rip it apart. If there’s any doubt as to the motivation behind this, or you don’t know the backstory behind his struggle against the Board, check out Mr. Mignone’s recent open letter published across several news sites:
Let’s get to the fun part. Believe it or not, the most interesting component of this whole story isn’t a misleading attack ad mailed out to every home in Belleville, but the return address the “authors” placed on the back of the mailer itself.
The address of the supposed sender is 15 Van Rensselaer Street in Belleville. Again, since no one had the courage to put their actual affiliation or campaign logo on the mailer (“Paid for by”, etc), our collective Spidey Senses started tingling immediately. So, we decided to look into who actually resides at 15 Rensselaer Street.
WELL, you’ll never guess what we learned almost immediately.
Look at the following picture, and tell me if you notice anything peculiar about it?
Yes, you saw it right. The sender and the recipient have the same address. Except, well, apparently one of them doesn’t know how to spell the street name correctly. We’re guessing it’s the fictitious residents rather than the legitimate ones.
Turns out there’s a very nice family living there who had nothing to do with the mailer, had no knowledge of it, and have nothing to do with anything remotely political. And as you can see above, they even got a copy of it mailed to their own home! Now wasn’t that nice of them to send a copy to the family they’re trying to pin this on?
By the way, isn’t mail fraud a federal crime?
But wait, it gets better. The family just so happens to have a daughter who had Mr. Mignone as a teacher, and they had nothing but wonderful things to say about him.
So, it seems the Longo/Freda camp completely picked an address out of a hat, used it fraudulently on a campaign mailer, sent it to thousands of homes, then tried to implicate an innocent family of private citizens in their smear campaign. How many ethics violations is that right there?
But as luck would have it, they happened to pick a family who is totally supportive of Mr. Mignone. Karma….it is a b*tch.
Read their statement on Facebook:
Oh and by the way fellas, the Grande family is PISSED. You’ll be meeting them tonight at the Board of Ed meeting, and apparently they have already filed a complaint. Perhaps we should also extend a warm welcome to the media? I think they would enjoy this story tremendously.
This is great. You’re each doing a splendid job of sinking yourselves, without anyone else’s help. Thank you! We could certainly use a moment to rest these days.
Anyway, let’s circle back to the mailer.
To the Board Trustees:
On what planet did you gentlemen (and by this point, I use that term loosely) think it was okay to publicly and wrongfully smear a teacher to further your own political campaign during an election? Is Mr. Mignone running for a political office? Is he a political opponent in this election, susceptible to the scrutiny of the residents of the town?
Of course not. And you know it. Only malicious, desperate, dishonorable twits who are unfit for leadership would conduct themselves like this.
Ask yourself – is there anything truly more counter to the very spirit of being an educational leader than to publicly condemn your own teachers, who only want what’s best for their students?
Is this also the sort of sleazy, rodent-like behavior we can expect from you two, if by some accursed cosmic phenomenon, you somehow make the leap to Town Council?
You have already clearly demonstrated to everyone that you cannot manage a school budget of nearly $65 million without virtually destroying both the school district and the taxpayer’s wallet.
Does this look familiar?
You blew through $65 million, and now you need a further $1.4 million from the taxpayers just to keep yourselves afloat? And by “afloat”, I guess that means teachers and staff will still be unable to requisition even the most basic teaching supplies and study materials for yet another school year?
You have spent the school district and the town into a financial hole so big, you could fly a zeppelin through it without ever touching the sides.
More relevant to Mr. Mignone and your vile mailer, you’ve also proven that you cannot manage a successful working relationship with a few hundred teachers, each of whom cares far more for their students than for their own job satisfaction and quality of life.
Yet, you seriously expect us to stand here and believe you can govern a town of 36,000 people, with any degree of honesty or good judgement?
Mr. Michael Mignone has three things that each of you will never have – courage, respect, and integrity.
Your malicious campaign literature only serves to prove that to the good people of Belleville.
~ Griff
Update: It suddenly occurred to us that the individuals responsible for this mailer were probably trying to pin the blame on Mr. Salvatore Giangrande, someone who has been vocally opposed to them in the past, and instead mistakenly used the address for Mr. Salvatore G Grande.
On the subject of “Attention To Details”, you guys have been given a rating of Ineffective.
Furthermore, if you “politicians” can’t even pull off your own dirty hair-brained tricks without fouling up a simple yet crucial detail, how on earth do you expect to be able to manage a town?
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