Fall River: Malone declines City Council invite to discuss projects heraldnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
FALL RIVER Mayor Paul Coogan will deliver his State of the City address on Tuesday, but unlike charter-mandated annual events in the past, he’ll only have a live audience of City Council and School Committee members in City Council chambers.
“We’ll talk about COVID obviously, but we’re going to concentrate on what’s going on in the positive, despite COVID,” said Coogan on Friday. “We’ll talk about what our goals are going forward.”
Tuesday will be the first live City Council meeting in months with previous meetings being held remotely on Zoom.
The public is not allowed to attend and Coogan said he’s not invited his staff or any department heads.
FALL RIVER The public sparring continues.
The Fall River School Committee defended itself in a response on Tuesday to criticism rained down on members by the City Council, which condemned four members for their November vote to keep Superintendent Matt Malone despite allegations he harassed and bullied school staff.
“Last week, City Council members questioned the performance of this Committee and its response to these allegations suggesting that a conflict of interest influenced its actions in response to the complaints against the Superintendent. Any such suggestion is unfounded. The members of this Committee followed the proper legal procedure and received specific guidance from the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission prior to participating in or voting on the matters concerning the Superintendent. There is no legal or ethical basis for raising such concerns and it cannot be fairly questioned that the members of the School Committee ethically and lawful
FALL RIVER Superintendent Matt Malone violated several School Department policies, and suggested to an investigator that Mayor Paul Coogan orchestrated a flurry of staff complaints against him last fall, according to a confidential investigation report.
The School Committee has refused to release the report and rejected an open records request from The Herald News. However, a copy of the report was provided by a source who requested to remain anonymous due to a fear of retribution.
The School Committee ordered an investigation after receiving complaints from five current and former staff members last September. The more than 20-page report was presented to School Committee members in executive session in November. In a 4-2 vote, the committee declined to fire Malone, but weeks later did reduce his annual salary by $17,000.
School Superintendent Malone should resign say some City Councilors
FALL RIVER City Council leadership is calling for the resignation of school Superintendent Matt Malone after an email was leaked last week from a former School Department administrator containing damning accusations regarding Malone’s behavior toward staff.
“I am taking the position that the leader of the School Department needs to be held to the same standards as any other city employee and any School Department employee and clearly he is not,” said City Council President Cliff Ponte, who has taken to social media with the call for Malone s resignation.
The council president’s assertion that Malone should resign a position he’s held going on four years comes after the email sent to School Committee members by Ann Dargon, the school department’s former assistant superintendent of student services and special education, three weeks after she resigned from the position in August.