MCSD board hires independent counsel for legal advice about controversial conduct

The Muscogee County School Board approved Monday night hiring an out-of-town lawyer to be its independent counsel for legal advice on how the board’s controversial conduct might affect the school district’s accreditation – and the vote included another episode of controversy.

The board voted 6-2 to hire Charles E. Cox Jr., a self-employed lawyer in Macon, for no more than $15,000.

Voting yes were board chairwoman Pat Hugley Green of District 1, vice chairwoman and countywide representative Kia Chambers, Vanessa Jackson of District 3, Naomi Buckner of District 4, Laurie McRae of District 5 and Cathy Williams of District 7. John Thomas of District 2 and Frank Myers of District 8 voted no. Mark Cantrell of District 6 was absent. He is recovering after being hospitalized two weeks ago for difficulty breathing.

Cox has worked with school districts, including MCSD, on “both sides” of education employee issues, Green said during last Monday’s work session, as well as with the Georgia Association of Educators, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators and local governments in Warner Robins and Spalding County. McRae also said during the work session she suggested Cox to Green after two attorney friends vouched for him.

During the meeting Monday night, however, Myers objected that the item was lumped in with the consent agenda, meaning the board intended on hiring the independent counsel along with a bunch of mundane expenditures.

Myers requested and was granted a separate vote then cracked, “It’s listed as a sole source and volatile purchase, and it definitely will be a volatile purchase. … I don’t think the board as a whole has been briefed on who this candidate is.”

Green repeated and elaborated on her comments from last week’s work session about the independent legal counsel, who was on track to be Glenn Brock, the partner in the Atlanta office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough who was the MCSD board’s consultant for hiring its three most recent superintendents.

“Mr. Glenn Brock, who was originally available and interested in providing independent counsel for the board, his mother suffered a very serious accident, which would take his focus on this very important work that we do and getting us through our accreditation process, which is coming up in October,” Green said.

Green said local media outlets reported last week about Cox. “He is a veteran attorney,” she said. “He has worked both sides in education. He has served as counsel for educators who had legal issues against school systems, including Muscogee County. He has worked around some issues for school boards, not as a lead attorney but for school boards. He’s done other work with municipalities, like city government or county commission government.”

Chambers expressed concern that the agenda item doesn’t mention Cox or anyone else as the recommended lawyer to be the independent legal counsel.

“We need to add that,” Green said. “It may have just been my oversight.”

Jackson also questioned the absence of Cox’s name on the agenda item, and the board subsequently amended the motion accordingly.

“I don’t anything about the guy,” Myers said. “I just know that this is a waste of money – big time. I would have liked to have seen a resume.”

Myers added, “When we start running short on money and they start telling y’all we don’t have money for football uniforms, it’s this kind of spending that puts us in that position.”

Green countered, “Just so that you would be correct and clear, legal fees is a part of our budget. That is a budgeted item. It wouldn’t come from any kind of athletic fields or anything like that.”

Myers responded, “I wish you well explaining to the average citizen why there’s not money for certain things and there is money for other things. I don’t care what pot of gold it comes out of.”

The independent legal counsel’s scope of work, according to the agenda item, “would include but is not limited to a consultation and review to provide recommendations. Specific criteria to assist in accreditation matters:

▪ “Provide an overview of conduct/behavior issues that have been cited against school districts who have had accreditation issues.

▪ “Give legal opinion as to conduct of our board members that may violate code of conduct/ethics.

▪ “Give legal opinion as to the effects that such behavior may have on MCSD accreditation related to the Board Governance Observation.”

MCSD board attorney Greg Ellington recommended seeking an independent counsel after Myers accused him in a June 22 email to the board of “intentionally misleading the board” in the Montravious Thomas case, “and he also played a part in orchestrating the delay in advising the board this event of Montravious being injured had even occurred,” Myers wrote.

Montravious, then 13, is the student that contracted behavior specialist Bryant Mosley allegedly body-slammed “no less than” five times while disciplining Montravious Sept. 12 in the alternative education AIM Program at the Edgewood Student Services Center, where staff failed to get him medical treatment and sent him home on a bus, according to the $25 million lawsuit filed on Montravious’ behalf. His right leg was amputated below the knee Oct. 18.

In an email to the board earlier that day on June 22, Ellington wrote that Myers offering opposing counsel “relevant facts” without sharing that information with the board’s counsel is improper because “that privilege belongs to the Board and District as a whole and cannot be waived by any individual board member.”

Myers countered in his email to the board that “no privilege is absolute. If there is underlying fraud and/or criminal activity involved – as I believe is the case here – NO privilege would apply, and certainly not the attorney-client privilege Mr. Ellington seeks to invoke to protect his own self interests, fellow lawyers and the interests of the Superintendent.”

Ellington told the board during its July 11 meeting that Myers’ criticisms of him and his firm are “completely unfounded and baseless.” He might be “a fact witness” to these allegations, Ellington said, so “I don’t think you should be hearing from me about these issues because I’m, to some extent, whether I like it or not, in the middle of it.”

This story was originally published August 21, 2017 at 10:03 PM with the headline "MCSD board hires independent counsel for legal advice about controversial conduct."