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New 3 R's: Reeling, Riling And Rankling

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Daniel Ruth

druth@tampatrib.com

Published: October 30, 2008

If you didn't know any better, you'd think the Triangle of Death has been relocated to Kennedy Boulevard, the home of the Hillsborough County School Board, or as it is otherwise known, the World Wrestling Federation meets Sonny Corleone.

Talk about dysfunction.

These folks are quickly making the Hillsborough County Commission, which at times more closely resembles a dust-up between Dagwood and Mr. Dithers, begin to look like the Harvard Law Review.

Do you think it's entirely possible that by the time the school board gets together again, it could well make Robert De Niro's baseball bat/banquet scene in "The Untouchables" come off as a state dinner?

Are we counting the moments? In the immortal words of Sarah Palin - you betcha!

That's because Chairwoman Jennifer Faliero and fellow board member April Griffin are about as close as Amy Fisher and Mary Jo Buttafuoco.

This may make for lousy governance, but it sure is fun.

Another Banana Republic?

While Faliero and Griffin have never laughed at the same jokes, their fractious relationship reached new levels of caterwauling a few days ago when the chairwoman threatened to have a security guard physically remove her nemesis from the board room.

Maybe Faliero was imparting a history lesson to the district's children with a demonstration of how banana republics function.

The mosh pit of education began when a new travel committee - set up after disclosures that a board member was flitting about as if running for president - lopped off two of three trips applied for by Griffin.

Griffin had submitted travel requests totaling $3,500, which is in line with the other board members.

The travel involved attending three conferences focusing on curriculum, which is sorta what school board members deal with.

You know, this wasn't as if Griffin wanted the three grand to attend Kabuki Dance School in Tokyo.

You're Out Of Order!

By the time Faliero and the travel committee got through with Griffin, her request had been pared to $646. If this had gone on much longer, Griffin would have probably had her parking space revoked and found herself sitting on a camp stool at the board meetings.

When Griffin insisted on pressing her case - read: wouldn't shut up - Faliero cut her off, insisting her fellow board member was "out of order."

The Shia and Sunni are more collegial.

An exasperated Faliero banged her gavel and nodded toward a security guard to be prepared to physically remove Griffin from the meeting.

"You have no right to cut me off and order me removed," Griffin shot back. "I am your peer, not your employee," which obviously was news to Faliero.

Well, insofar as Santo Trafficante and Meyer Lansky were "peers," perhaps Griffin had a point.

But these two women are only "peers" to the extent they were both elected to their jobs.

At the board meeting next week, Griffin plans to raise questions about schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia's bonus structure.

Faliero might want to have some retired Stasi agents with brass knuckles on hand for this one.

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

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