Residency of BOE winner questioned

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Two unsuccessful candidates in the recent Bloomfield Board of Education elections are questioning the eligibility of one of the winners.

Incumbent Shane Berger and challenger Ben Morse, who polled the fourth- and seventh-highest totals, respectively, in a race for three seats, are questioning the residency status of the candidate with the second-highest total, Gladys Rivera. Rivera had 4,560 votes while Berger had 2,950 and Morse, 1,978.

“I’m concerned that all the rules are followed,” Berger said in a telephone interview earlier this week. “I’m sure it’s an honest mistake, not knowing she had to live in Bloomfield for a year.”

Candidate qualifications for a BOE position require a candidate to live in a municipality for at least one year prior to the day they are elected. The recent BOE elections were Nov. 8, 2016. According to Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, Rivera would have had to have been a Bloomfield resident since Nov. 8, 2015.

Berger said he was following up on rumors and emails that people sent to him.
“If she won fair and square, she won fair and square,” he said. “But she has to prove it.”

Berger did not recall when he first heard concerns over Rivera’s residency status but said his own suspicions increased after a Bloomfield High School student, Leo Marin, 15, spoke out against Rivera at the Oct. 18 Bloomfield BOE meeting.

Reading from a prepared statement, Leo, who lives in the same three-family house as Rivera, said he was given permission to speak by his mother. He spoke during the public hearing portion of the meeting.

He recounted a July 11, 2016, incident with Rivera, after her daughter’s car was towed from the driveway where Rivera lives on Ampere Parkway. Leo said the house is managed by his family but they did not know that the car belonged to Rivera’s daughter. After this incident, he said Rivera’s behaviour toward him was rude and disrespectful.

“Ms. Rivera does not reside in the house but permanently in Elizabeth although her stuff is in the house on the third floor,” Leo said, adding that she lives with a man, naming him.

Berger said he contacted Superintendent of School Sal Goncalves and the board attorney, Nick Dotoli, about his suspicions. When telephoned by this newspaper, Dotoli said any questions relating to the residency status of Rivera should be directed to the Essex County Board of Elections and that he had no further comment.

Morse said that after the election he also was contacted about Rivera’s residency.
“I found out she had an address in Elizabeth,” he said. “I couldn’t find out anything that she lived in Bloomfield.”

According to Morse, he passed information to Eda Baugh, the Essex County Superintendent of Elections.

In an email, Baugh told Morse that Rivera’s residency qualifications were not a matter for her office.

“In response to your Nov. 28, 2016, email regarding the qualification of Gladys Rivera as a member of the Bloomfield Board of Education, elective office qualifications for a school board position are to be determined by the school board itself,” Baugh wrote. “Therefore, your inquiry regarding Ms. Rivera’s qualifications for Bloomfield Board of Education should be referred to the board of education.

Regarding her residency and your request that this office ‘investigate,’ the Superintendent of Elections is empowered to conduct investigations as to a person’s residency as it applies to the person’s voter registration. This office does not conduct investigations that are unrelated to a person’s voter registration.”
In an interview outside her Ampere Parkway residence earlier this week, Rivera said she understood how these allegations about her residency came about.
“I have my sources,” she said.

But when told that the county superintendent of elections, the superintendent of schools and the board attorney were aware of the allegations, she appeared surprised.

“There are certain persons who have a personal vendetta,” she said motioning to the three-family house where she lives.

She referred to the public hearing address made by the son of her landlord.
“Through instructions from his mother, he was asked to speak,” Rivera said. “It’s a tenant and landlord issue. Something that’s been taken to the extreme and had nothing to do with the election.”

Rivera said she has lived at the Ampere Parkway address for over a year and a half. She displayed a change of address notification for the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission dated March 9, 2016. She said she was aware of the one-year residency requirement for board of education membership.

“I believed since I have been living here for such a time there wouldn’t be a problem,” she said.

At one time, Rivera said, she and her landlord were good friends.
“That’s why it bothers me that my residency is being questioned,” she said.
Rivera, who did not respond to repeated attempts during the campaign, by this newspaper, for an interview, including by notes left in her mailbox, said some of the suspicions about her might stem from the fact that she has never run for elected office before. She also said someone was tampering with her mail and she did not receive any notes from this newspaper.

Berger and Morse would seem to agree with Rivera, that she came out of nowhere to win elected office. All three winners for the three-year board of education seats were positioned in the first three ballot positions in the voting booth.

“It’s unclear why she wants to be on the board,” Morse said. “There was no statement.”

“During the campaign, we hadn’t heard anything from her,” Berger said. “We only saw her when she was taking her victory lap and introduced herself at a board meeting.”

Berger said he does not know what the next step will be in determining Rivera’s residency qualifications.

“That’s the problem,” he said. “I think the board of elections gets it. People are saying she didn’t move into Bloomfield until April. People want to know. We’re going to check all four winners for residency, not just Rivera.”

In addition to Rivera, the winning candidates for three years seats are Jill Fischman and Lillian Mancheno. The winning candidate for a one-year seat is Linda Lo.