After heated exchanges, request to fire Muscogee school board’s law firm fails

Feb. 14--After heated exchanges, two representatives on the nine-member Muscogee County School Board have failed in their effort to add to the agenda for next week's meeting a vote on whether to fire its law firm.

The board spent half an hour discussing the controversial issue during the 3 3/4 - hour work session Monday evening. Frank Myers of District 8 and John Thomas of District 2 didn't convince any other member to speak in favor of their request.

Myers emailed the request to board secretary Karen Jones approximately 1 1/2 hours after the Ledger-Enquirer posted the news Jan. 31 that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has decided to investigate the Muscogee County School District's settlement of a lawsuit -- which included a $550,000 payment from the insurer -- without board approval.

Board attorney Greg Ellington of Hall Booth Smith PC has argued that settling the lawsuit didn't require board approval because the liability coverage provider, the Georgia School Boards Association, paid the full amount. The lawsuit in question was filed Feb. 4, 2016, on behalf of Columbus Police Department motor squad Officer William Green against MCSD bus driver Kenneth Canup after a 2015 crash that injured Green.

Hatcher, Stubbs, Land, Hollis & Rothschild had been MCSD's lone legal counsel in the first 65 years of the school district's history until the Columbus law firm dissolved at the end of 2015. The Hatcher Stubbs lawyers who had been doing the bulk of the legal work for MCSD (Ellington, Melanie Slaton and Chuck Staples), were among those who moved to Hall Booth Smith PC, a regional law firm with offices throughout the Southeast, including Columbus, and Hall Booth has been MCSD's legal counsel since then.

Calling the arrangement a no-bid contract, Myers and Thomas were the only members who voted against superintendent David Lewis' recommendation in December 2015 to hire Hall Booth Smith as legal counsel. Lewis disagreed then and Monday with that description. He said his recommendation was based on interviews with five law firms.

Lewis said he convened a committee of district administrators whose jobs require them to often use legal services: student services chief Melvin Blackwell, chief financial officer Theresa Thornton, risk management director Tracy Fox, chief operations and facilities officer David Goldberg, special education director Mary Lewis and human resources chief Kathy Tessin.

The committee's recommendation was based on cost, proximity to Muscogee County (because law firms bill clients for travel) and depth and breadth of education law experience, Lewis said. During that December 2015 meeting, Lewis said Hall Booth Smith would charge MCSD an hourly rate of $165 for work by partners and $115 for work by associates at the firm. Those were the same rates Hatcher Stubbs had charged the district. They also were substantially cheaper than the rates offered by the other interviewed firms, which ranged from $225 to $275 or $280 per hour, Lewis said.

Thomas and Myers also objected to not being allowed to vote on the legal counsel when the board voted on its officers for the year during last month's meeting.

"I believe that had been the practice of the board for countless years," Thomas said. "... I understand we don't have to vote on this, at least that's what's been explained to me, but who made the decision to not vote on it this year?"

"I did," Lewis said, "along with consultation with board leadership."

Board chairwoman Pat Hugley Green of District 1 said the board didn't vote on its legal counsel in 2016 and 2013.

"I do not feel that we were treated fairly," Thomas said. "At least we should have had the opportunity to express our vote."

The hiring of legal counsel is being treated the same way the school district hires other professional services, such as auditing, Lewis said.

Myers read board policy CE, which states: "The board, upon the recommendation of the superintendent, shall also appoint teachers, principals of schools and their assistants, employees, legal counsel and such other personnel, professional and lay, as the board may deem necessary to the proper functioning of the merged school system."

Myers added, "Folks, if we want to fire somebody tonight, it's a motion and a second by a board member, and we could have the vote tonight. ... I don't know if we're going to ever have a majority that's going to understand what our true power is. We are the authority, the nine of us elected. ... Pick out a cabinet member we don't like. We hired them; obviously, we can fire them."

Lewis: "Absolutely not, sir. With all due respect, you don't have that authority."

Myers: "If you don't mind, let me finish. I'm not interrupting you. ... It's time for this board to wake up, realize what your power is and realize life is not a dress rehearsal. This is our only chance to make change. I mean, I know the GBI is on the ground. If we're not going to be heard on this, and we're not going to be able to speak on this, I guess we'll speak through the GBI, because this is clearly breaking the law."

Naomi Buckner of District 4 said the only person the board hires is the superintendent.

Myers responded, "That is such an untruth. At some point, we've got to start exercising our power as a board or we will continue to be in the bottom third statewide, we'll continue to have third-graders who can't read, who are going to end up in prison, on public assistance, and if we don't change things, this horrible situation is going to continue to repeat itself. We can change the world in this room if we want to. And if you don't, why are you here?"

Buckner countered: "Your day job is not hiring educators. You are not qualified to hire a person. The superintendent is the only person that we can hire."

Myers: "Then why do we vote on it?"

Buckner: "We listen to what he says."

Myers: "No, you rubber-stamp what he says."

Cathy Williams of District 7 noted that MCSD paid nearly $600,000 for legal services in fiscal year 2010 and cut that expense to less than $200,000 last year. The board hired Lewis in July 2013 from Polk County, Fla., where he was an associate superintendent.

"It is wrong, it is utterly wrong, to sit up here and to talk about changing the world or firing anybody on this cabinet when, legally, that's not what we're charged to do," Williams said. "We hire, we fire, we impact, one person, and that is the superintendent. Our job -- and I take this job very seriously, as I've had the opportunity to do it on three occasions -- is to hire the person that sits in that seat and to find the absolute best person in this country that this county can afford to bring in to do the myriad things that have to be done to have the district of excellence like we have. And I can tell you, for this one person, that man is the best that we have ever had."

The crowd applauded, and Williams continued.

"So I will not be part of a board that tries to defame any of our leadership, our superintendent, our cabinet members, our teachers, our principals, our legal counsel or anybody else that works so hard to serve the children, the taxpayers and everybody who lives in Muscogee County," Williams said.

Lewis thanked Williams and said, "I appreciate your support. I'm privileged and honored to serve (after) other superintendents and follow their lead."

MCSD has a five-year contract with Hall Booth Smith, but Lewis said, "I can assure you that if there was a need to change legal services, I certainly would bring that recommendation. That is not the case here today."

Myers then referred to a quote from Williams in a Ledger-Enquirer story earlier this month that his request to vote on firing the law firm is "very hostile and almost personal."

"First of all, I don't get all this stuff where people are trying to make this personal about you or me or something," Myers said to Lewis. "Let me just say, it's not to me. OK? ... It may be personal from your end, it's not to me. I don't really know you. The truth is, you decided you would govern without me and John. But that's OK."

Lewis didn't respond.

With three new members since the board last voted on its legal counsel, Myers argued, the new board should be able to vote on that service provider.

Seeking a consensus, Green asked board members if they are in favor of putting the request on the agenda. No board member other than Myers and Thomas voiced support for the request.

Kia Chambers, the board's lone countywide representative, said, "I'm not in favor of that. I think that's outside the scope of the school board."

Ellington cited the board's policy that requires a majority of the board to add an item to the agenda.

Myers said he agrees with Ellington, "but the problem is, he has a conflict by even speaking up because we're talking about him. That's one of the problems I have with this law firm. They have never seen a conflict they didn't think they could overcome. I mean, that illustrates perfectly why I've had enough of this law firm and I think we could do better. We have to break this stuff up so we can finally move forward as a district."

Williams: "This is just another one of those monthly 'look at me, look at me,' grandstanding, 'my hair is on fire.' There is nothing to this. We have a clear policy that says this is not the way it's done, this is the way it's done. And -- guess what, folks? -- we're doing it the way it's supposed to be done. There's nothing to see here."

Myers: "Look at me. Look at me. The GBI's in the building. My pants are on fire."

Williams: "You know as well as anybody when the GBI comes into town."

In 2013, the year before Myers was elected, then-board chairman Rob Varner and then-interim superintendent John Phillips asked Columbus Police Chief Ricky Boren to investigate allegations that Myers and state Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, had threatened one or more board members who wouldn't vote to end the no-bid contract with Hatcher Stubbs. Boren referred the request to the GBI, and the Georgia Attorney General's office determined the investigation uncovered no crime.

Laurie McRae of District 5, referring to the GBI's current investigation of MCSD, told Myers, "Unless you've got more facts to tell me, I have not seen a criminal act."

Myers replied, "I didn't share those with you because I shared them with the people who enforce the law."

Vanessa Jackson of District 3 didn't speak during this discussion, and Mark Cantrell of District 6 was absent.

After the work session, Ellington wrote in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer, "It is a pleasure to serve the District, to lend our efforts to an organization that plays such a vital role to our community. Hall, Booth, Smith appreciates the continued support of a majority of the Board and Superintendent and we will work hard to continue to deserve that trust."

Mark Rice: 706-576-6272, @markricele

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