When incoming Scranton school Director Tara Yanni called Director Greg Popil this summer seeking help to get her husband a coaching job, Popil told her no and never to speak about it again. Instead, she called the human resources office and sought help there, Popil said.
The day after Yanni’s attorney called allegations prompting a school district investigation “false and frivolous,” members of the board’s personnel committee provided details about the conversations.
“It’s very upsetting,” Popil said. “If this is what she did as a board member-to-be, what will she do when she has real power?”
Attorney Richard Fanucci, who is representing Yanni, disputes the claims.
Outgoing directors Popil and Tom Borthwick, the two members of the personnel committee, said Yanni contacted them in August seeking help getting her husband’s application for West Scranton High School assistant baseball coach accepted after the deadline passed.
Popil said he could not help, and Borthwick reached out to human resources and learned that interviews were already scheduled, the directors said. Both of them said there was nothing they could do, and Popil said he advised Yanni that such inquiries could get her in trouble as a board member. She later called the human resources office, and when she didn’t receive any assistance, reached out to Borthwick again via text message. In text messages, which he showed The Times-Tribune on Friday, Yanni wrote that Chief Human Resource Officer John Castrovinci was “condescending” to her and then, “I will be applying for personnel committee” and included a smiley face. Borthwick apologized for the administrator being “rude.” Attempts to reach Castrovinci were unsuccessful Friday.
“She got very upset,” Borthwick said. “She said she would remember he did this to her.”
District policy prohibits nepotism in the selection, hiring and assignment process. Under the state’s Ethics Act, a conflict of interest exists when people use the authority of their public offices for the financial benefit of themselves or their immediate family members.
Popil said he told then-Superintendent Alexis Kirijan, Ed.D., about Yanni’s inquiry, and also spoke to solicitor John Audi. Kirijan resigned from the district shortly after that conversation. Popil and Borthwick said they spoke to current administrators and Audi last week, after Yanni sent an email to directors asking the board to delay the vote for superintendent until new directors took their seats. In her email, Yanni said that while she had nothing against Melissa McTiernan, she asked that the district conduct a search for a superintendent. The board voted 9-0 this week to appoint McTiernan as superintendent.
Audi, who said he had no comment, is conducting the investigation.
Yanni is one of four newcomers set to take seats on the board Dec. 3. Running with the promise of being a financial watchdog, Yanni beat both Borthwick and Popil in May’s primary election.
Fanucci accused the “lame duck board members” of politics and only bringing the issue up again in retaliation to the email his client sent.
“I will take substance over fiction any day and truth over allegations anytime,” Fanucci said. “She asked questions. There is no harm in doing that. That’s all she did.”
Fanucci also questioned why the district waited until now to investigate an incident that allegedly happened in August.
Borthwick and Popil said Yanni’s email prompted them to follow-up with the issue.
“I don’t care about politics,” Borthwick said. “I care about ethics.”
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9133; @hofiushallTT on Twitter