The Elmont Board of Education, after its reorganization meeting on July 6, voted to hire special counsel to investigate board of education members' attendance at board conferences, travel expenses, the acquisition of credit to attend such conferences and use of the public relations assets of the district. Board members, on occasion, attend conferences related to educational issues and professional development. The motion received support from new board president Robert Nori and new vice president Lorraine Ferrigno and the majority of the board.

Board of education member Aubrey Phillips, who was president of the board prior to the board's reorganization on July 6, believes that the move is just a way to attack his leadership while he served as board president. "It's not at all about them finding something useful. It's about creating an impression in our community that there might be something wrong and that they have to now call in a special counsel," he said.

Phillips, who seconded Nori's nomination as president, said during his presidency he encouraged the board members to attend conferences in order to become better board members and meet state requirements for training is critical of Nori and Ferrigno for trying to seek special counsel. "They are seeking special counsel to investigate this, which, in my opinion, is a feather in the district's cap," Phillips said.

The Elmont School District has had recent oversight from New York State when the comptroller's office conducted an audit last year. The New York State Comptroller's Office conducted an audit of the administrative expenses of the Elmont School District from July 1, 2002 to August 31, 2004. The state comptroller released the audit results last June and stated auditors did not find any evidence of wrongdoing and found that the district had already addressed many of the control weaknesses that had been identified in the audit. State Comptroller Alan Hevesi was quoted as saying in his press release dated June 17, 2005, "I commend the Elmont School District for proactively taking steps to assure that the district is managing public money responsibly and for making necessary improvements when auditors found weaknesses."

Phillips voted against hiring the special counsel. However, the majority voted in favor of it. Phillips, who is so confident that there is no evidence of wrongdoing and that the move was done because there is a personal agenda against him and his leadership as president, said he asked the Nassau County District Attorney's office to investigate the claims about the board members' expenses. "You're not going to take the district and put it under a cloud of suspicion," he said.

Nori, who served as vice president of the board while Phillips was president, said he doesn't believe anything was legally wrong. However, Nori said the majority of the board felt a fresh set of eyes should review the board's policies and procedures, the way trips are discussed and what authorization is needed as well as policies and procedures when it comes to issuing press releases. "Aubrey took it personally. No one is accusing anyone of stealing money. Now we're looking at things that were done in the past so he's taking it as a personal knock on him," said Nori.

According to the new board president, the special counsel, Ingerman Smith LLP of Northport, will look at approval processes for board members going on trips to see if the board's internal procedures and bylaws are sufficient and the public relations system relating to how a news release from the board gets written and how it gets through the system.

Nori believes that when an organization gets new leadership, it should review its policies and procedures. "I've been involved with the board so I think I know where we are and I'm troubled by these two areas. I don't feel we're as tight as we could be. If we're going to make a mistake, let's make a mistake on being overly cautious," he said.