Myers, Green have ‘showdown’ over Muscogee County School Board legal counsel

Pat Hugley Green was the newly elected chairwoman of the Muscogee County School Board for about 5 minutes Tuesday night when she had her first confrontation with Frank Myers, the nine-member board’s most outspoken critic.

Myers, the District 8 representative and a lawyer, asked why the board wasn’t voting on the annual appointment of its legal counsel.

Hatcher, Stubbs, Land, Hollis & Rothschild had been the Muscogee County School District’s lone legal counsel in the first 65 years of the school district’s history until the Columbus law firm broke up at the end of 2015. The Hatcher Stubbs lawyers who had been doing the bulk of the legal work for MCSD (Greg 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.

Even before Myers was elected in 2014, he condemned the board for not soliciting bids from other law firm.

“I truly regret that this issue is not going away,” Myers said during Tuesday night’s meeting. “We don’t give away no-bid contracts, and we have an election for legal counsel every year, and we need to have that election tonight.”

Ellington, serving as the board’s attorney Tuesday night, responded, “There actually is nothing in the bylaws that says you’ve got to take an annual vote on the legal counsel.”

Columbus High School students who won the state’s Class 4A one-act play competition started lining up in front of the board table to be honored as the next agenda item, so Green tried to end the discussion.

Green: “We have students …”

Myers: “Yeah, I realize we do. One of them is a relative of mine, so she’s going to be real upset. But I’m going to let this go, and then we’re going to revisit this issue as soon as this crowd sits down, because we’re not giving away no-bid contracts as long as I’m sitting here.”

Several folks in the audience applauded.

Myers added, “You will have me removed from this place, because this is not going to happen without a fight, OK? And I apologize to my daughter.”

Approximately half an hour later, Myers brought back the issue.

“My daughter is going to kill me, and I wish she had not been standing in here,” Myers said. “She hates the fact that I’m on the school board, and I just about feel horrible about it, but I was so shocked when, all of a sudden, we find out we’re not electing anybody; we’re selecting people.”

Green tried to cut off Myers, and then they spent the next several minutes talking at the same time.

Green: “Mr. Myers …”

Myers: “No, ma’am …”

Green: “No, sir …”

Myers: “I’m sorry. I’m not finished my comment.”

Green: “Let me interrupt you, because we’re sticking to the agenda items.”

Myers: “I want to speak.”

Green: “What we’re going to do, because that’s an issue certainly worthy of our discussion, we can bring it back.”

Myers: “Well, it’s certainly worthy right now. It’s going to be worthy right now.”

Green: “If you want to talk about the process, we can take it on at the work session next month.”

Myers: “I’m going to talk about the law, and I’m going to finish my comment, and you’re not going to shut me up. This is your first meeting (as chairwoman), thinking you’re going to shut me up? You can forget that.”

Green: “No, I’m not trying to shut you down. I’m just trying to make you understand. …”

Myers: “Well, I understand …”

Green: “This is our business meeting …”

Myers: “And this is the school board, and there’s an illegal action being taken right now. I’m trying to correct it. May I finish?”

Green: “No, sir.”

Myers: “OK, so as I was saying …”

Green: “No, sir.”

Myers: “What I was saying is …”

Green: “Mr. Myers, you’re out of order.”

Green tapped her gavel.

Green: “Mr. Myers, you’re out of order. This is our business meeting, and I need you to be in order. I need you to understand the process here. We have an agenda that’s printed. We have an agenda that was available to you ahead of time …”

Myers: “And I get that you’re breaking the law.”

Green: “The issue that you want to discuss is an important issue to you, and the board may want to hear it, and we will take it up next month if you so choose.”

Myers: “Next month?”

Green: “If you so choose for it to be on our work session for February, we’ll gladly have it …”

Myers: “That is asinine. Let me have 2 minutes.”

Green: “No, sir. We’re moving on.”

Green tried to introduce the next agenda item.

Myers: “So I guess you’re going to have your first showdown. I am not shutting up about this. You can have me removed if you want to …”

Green: “It’s your choice.”

Myers: “I am not shutting up. You are breaking the law. Listen to me.”

Green: “No, sir. You listen to me, and I need you to pay attention to the agenda. We’re going to follow the agenda. This is our business meeting. If you want to do any kind of grandstanding …”

Myers: “There is no grandstanding. We have voted on legal counsel for 25 years …”

Green tapped her gavel again.

Green: “Mr. Myers …”

Myers: “Twenty-five years, and we did it last year, and all of a sudden we’ve got three people who are running the school district who decided we’re not going to do it that way anymore. Folks, something is rotten in Denmark, and it’s rotten in this room, and I’m sick of it, and I’m not going to sit here and take it.”

Green again tried to introduce the next agenda item.

Myers: “I don’t know what part of this issue you don’t understand.”

Green ignored Myers and continued with the next agenda item.

This story was originally published January 17, 2017 at 11:30 PM with the headline "Myers, Green have ‘showdown’ over Muscogee County School Board legal counsel."