Friday, January 17, 2003
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Friday, January 17, 2003 |
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Board violated 'spirit of law' in electing chairman By JOHN
THOMPSON After conducting a secret ballot vote, Rick Melville was elected chairman of the Coweta County School Board Tuesday night. But, the use of the secret ballot for electing officers may have violated the spirit of Georgia's Open Meetings Law, said Georgia First Amendment Foundation director Hollie Manheimer. "It certainly smacks of limiting access to the public," Manheimer said. She's not aware of a similar case being litigated in the state, but said the issue sets a bad precedent. "If we deny the public the mechanism to see how things are done, it's not a truly open meeting," she said. School board attorney Joe McNabb said the board has done secret ballots on issues before and said the board is governed by Robert's Rules of Order, which allows the secret election method. "The Georgia school board council does not believe it's a violation," he said. In previous years, the board has always taken nominations from the floor to elect their slate of officers. This year, Superintendent Peggy Connell said the board would use a secret ballot method, which is allowed in their policies and procedure manual. To be elected to an office, a board member would have to receive four of the seven votes, Connell said. The voting worked fine for the chairman's race and the vice-chair race, which went to Smith Pass. But when it came time to elect a secretary, the race ended in a 3-3 tie between Allan Payton and Marihope Troutman because board member Marihope Troutman was not present for the vote. Board member than nominated Payton as secretary and Troutman as treasurer, which passed the board unanimously.
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