Fired up over who's hired P'burg school board members balk at colleague's proposal to get advice from state ethics committee. Wednesday, October 25, 2006 • By DANIEL HAUSMANN • The Express-Times PHILLIPSBURG | School board members bickered at a Monday meeting over participation in the hiring process for a board labor attorney. Chafik Zarbatany brought a letter asking the state Ethics Committee to advise on whether he, board President Paul Rummerfield and James Hanisak may interview and vote on the labor attorney. All three have family members who are district employees. "I think there's an ethics problem," Zarbatany said. According to board minutes, Zarbatany voted to appoint current labor attorney Richard Bauch at an August 2005 meeting. Rummerfield voted no at that meeting. Bauch's contract has expired and he is working for the board on a case-by-case basis. At a meeting last month, Zarbatany made a motion to have the full board interview and appoint an attorney rather then a committee. That motion passed 7-5, with Rummerfield casting a no vote. Zarbatany said he planned to mail the letter Tuesday to Trenton. He was looking for Hanisak and Rummerfield's signatures on the letter but both said no. Rummerfield responded by calling Zarbatany's request another roadblock in the process. "You've tried to stonewall it," Rummerfield said. "Let's have the interviews and get it over with." Rummerfield also accused Superintendent Gordon Pethick of trying to hold up the process. Reached Tuesday afternoon, Rummerfield said he didn't know what Pethick's reasoning would be to delay the hiring. At the Monday meeting, Pethick twice denied any intentional hold-up on the hiring. Rummerfield said he consulted an outside attorney about whether his involvement in the hiring of a labor attorney was a conflict of interest. The indication he got was there is no problem, Rummerfield said. Zarbatany did not return calls for comment Tuesday evening. The labor attorney issue comes up at a critical time because the board is in the middle of negotiations with the teachers on a new contract. The board is set to conduct the labor attorney interviews at the Nov. 13 meeting. Board member Stanley Hughes made a failed motion to delay the interviews if Zarbatany did not hear back from the state ethics board. Rummerfield has said several times Bauch was without a contract for his first 10 years on the board. At the Aug. 18, 2005, meeting, board Secretary Bill Poch told The Express-Times, the approval marked the first time Bauch would work under a written contract since coming to the district in 1996. "I don't believe that was the case," Bauch said Tuesday. "I believe I always operated pursuant to a contract." Bauch said the board brought him in for a small specific assignment in 1994 and he possibly did not have a contract for that. He said over the next three years his role with the board evolved. At the Aug. 18, 2005, meeting Poch said Bauch charges $150 an hour and that the district paid him about $135,000 in the prior year. Reporter Daniel Hausmann can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at dhausmann@express-times.com. © 2006 The Express-Times. Used by NJ.com with permission.