2 Muscogee County School Board members call for law firm to be fired

Two representatives of the nine-member Muscogee County School Board are calling for the board to fire its law firm.

The request from Frank Myers of District 8 and John Thomas of District 2 came in an email Tuesday afternoon from Myers to board secretary Karen Jones, asking her to put such a discussion on the agenda for the board’s next meeting, which would be the Feb. 13 work session, followed by the Feb. 21 meeting.

The time stamp on Myers’ email is 2 p.m., approximately 1½ hours after the Ledger-Enquirer posted the news 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.

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 Smith has been MCSD’s legal counsel since then.

Myers wrote in his email to Jones:

“Please accept this email as a request from John Thomas and me to place on the next available agenda, a discussion and vote to terminate Greg Ellington and the Hall, Booth firm as the school board's lawyer and law firm.

“Mr. Ellington's alleged reason for settling the lawsuit mentioned in the article below is not only insufficient, it is insulting to the intelligence of any board member who realizes the board has approved many, many settlements paid though the referenced insurance pool.

“As the GBI is now actively involved in investigating this particular instance, I am confident other wrongdoing involving these lawyers will be brought to light. I can assure you that John Thomas and I have certainly reported other troubling issues regarding our present legal counsel.

“I hope the board will be proactive in making this much needed change so we can finally begin moving towards a new era of accountability at the Muscogee County School District.”

In a phone interview with the Ledger-Enquirer on Tuesday afternoon, Thomas confirmed he agrees with what Myers wrote in the email.

“I believe an illegal act has been committed in representing the school district,” Thomas said. “The board is supposed to approve settlements of lawsuits before they are paid out. I don’t know why it didn’t happen.”

Ellington told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email Tuesday evening, “There has not been any contact from the GBI, but we will cooperate with any investigation or request for information. I want to further share with your readers that the coverage agreement between GSBA (Georgia School Boards Association) and MCSD provides that ‘GSBA-RMF (Risk Management Fund) may investigate and settle any claim or suit as GSBA-RMF considers appropriate.’ GSBA paid the full amount of the settlement, as it has the unilateral right to do. … Under these circumstances the settlement does not require Board approval because GSBA can settle any claim with its own money as it considers appropriate.”

Ellington told the Ledger-Enquirer in a Jan. 23 email, “There was a settlement of a lawsuit filed by a motor squad officer. MCSD did not pay the settlement. The liability coverage provider, GSBA, paid the full amount of settlement. The settlement therefore did not require the approval of the Board. The argument in the article that there is something legally insufficient about the settlement is incorrect.”

The article Ellington mentioned is the story by retired Ledger-Enquirer staff writer Richard Hyatt on the All On Georgia website.

MCSD superintendent David Lewis and board chairwoman Pat Hugley Green weren’t reached for comment Tuesday.

This story was originally published January 31, 2017 at 4:26 PM with the headline "2 Muscogee County School Board members call for law firm to be fired."