TRENTON-A pastor claiming to represent the office of Reverend Al Sharpton ended a public board meeting of the New Jersey School Development Authority on Wednesday by declaring the backlash against the authority as racist.
Reverend Steffie Bartley, the Northeast Regional Director for Sharpton’s National Action Network said the people who lost their job, mostly white individuals, deserved it.
The meeting’s public session began with employees and allies speaking in favor of the authority, followed by employees who feel they were fired for no other reason but to be replaced by patronage jobs to friends and family.
“To see how such a racist attack on such a woman as Liz [CEO Lizette Delgado Polanco]…to see how you all can speak the way you speak the way you have just spoken, this is a clear indication to why I’m here, ” Bartley said.
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He then invoked his boss, notorious racial instigator Reverend Al Sharpton.
“Reverend Al Sharpton directed me to come here so we can keep an eye on exactly what’s going on here at the SDA,” he said. “We want to make sure that she’s protected to do the job that she needs to do.”
“All I hear is those who should have been fired long ago because of your attitude and things that you said, you’re not concerned about the community,” he added.
Prior to Sharpton’s emissary pulling the race card out of his wallet, race was not mentioned by any member of the board, the executive team or speakers at any time, save for the CEO’s declaration as a hard working latino woman to open the meeting.
Polanco was appointed to run the agency by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, but has no experience managing construction projects.
According to her biography at the SDA website, she is the first female Hispanic to lead the authority and previously worked as a political director a carpenter’s union. Her background appears to be in union management, labor relations and political activism.