By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer

MARGATE – Mayor Michael Becker has exercised his power to appoint members of the Margate Board of Education twice in the last few months.

In a Type I school district, it is the mayor’s job to appoint members to the board of education. Becker’s first appointment was to put Detective Sgt. Christopher Koch in the seat left vacant when Steve Marchel resigned, to serve the balance of the term.

However, his latest appointment raised some hackles here and brought the appoinment process under scrutiny from the public.

Kelley Blanchet was appointed to a three-year term on the school board by Mayor Vaughn Reale in 2005 and has been serving as vice president since Marchel’s resignation.

When her term was up in April, Becker failed to reappoint her, giving the seat to Donna Foerrster, 50, a 20-year resident of Margate.

Resident Joseph D’Amico challenged the appointment at the public session of the April 17 Margate City Commission meeting and questioned the mayor on how and why the change was made.

“When you ran for office last year, you said that you would not make appointments without consulting the other commissioners, that government would be transparent,” D’Amico said.

Becker responded that he did not remember making a promise to discuss all appointments with the rest of City Commission and said he did tell the other commissioners about the appointment.

The next person to question the appointment was Sharon Simon, who said she had asked to be considered for an appointment to the board.

Becker, who spent 22 years on the Board of Education prior to running for city commission in 2007, said he decided to just take all of the resumes available from residents interested and invite people in for interviews.

“I think I interviewed eight or nine possible candidates, including Kelley. I spoke to her first,” Becker said.

“When I spoke with Donna Foerrster I knew we had a dynamite person who would be a real asset to the board. She was really very strong in her interview, and that is how I made my decision.”

Becker said that in the future he would consult with the other commissioners before making an appointment.

“I guess really this could have been done better, but I will do it better from here on,” the mayor said.

“I will always go for the best candidate,” he said after the meeting.

Foerrster said she was very active in the schools when her daughters were younger.

“I was approached and asked if I was interested in being a member of the Board of Education. I have a degree in public health and business administration and worked in the preschool at the JCC and now at Beth Israel in Northfield,” she said.

She said she no idea there was any controversy over her appointment.

Her first meeting with the whole board will be at the annual reorganization May 16.