A judge's decision to reinstate an Atlantic City board member's vote has now put the school board's leadership in question.
Farook Hossain was the Board of Education's vice president last year. But when the board reorganized in January, not only did he lose the spot, but the board solicitor took away his voting rights.
At that time, Tracy Riley told the board members that Hossain was no longer a resident and barred the board secretary from recording his vote.
That gave Patricia Bailey the vice presidency by 5-4. Shay Steele also took the presidency from incumbent John Devlin by the same margin.
But after an administrative law judge ruled Thursday that Hossain's vote should have counted all along, there is now a 5-5 tie in those votes.
That now leaves the decision up to Executive County Superintendent Robert Bumpas.
Riley has sent an email to Bumpas asking that he begin that process, according to an email she sent to board members.
She also sent the judge's decision to the board members, pointing out Hossain's vote remained because he has not officially been removed from the board.
While Riley first made her accusations Jan. 11, she did not have the board vote on a petition to the commissioner of education for his removal until a special board meeting Feb. 23.
In the email, Riley again made the claims she did to the judge, saying the vote didn't happen earlier due to several meetings where there was a lack of quorum, due to Hossain's supporters either not coming to the meeting or leaving early.
But she still has not explained why she did not tell the board about the petition during any public meeting nor had it put on the agenda until the meeting remove him until six weeks after she barred his vote.
The next board meeting is set for Tuesday. It's a special meeting that was called to discuss the budget.
It was not clear who would be in charge at that meeting if Bumpas has not yet made a decision.
When a board reorganizes, the board secretary runs the meeting until a president is selected.
