School board member suggests expanding transparency proposal

The quest of two new Muscogee County School Board members to make the school district more transparent about how it spends the taxpayers' money ran into political gamesmanship during Monday night's work session, when an ally-turned-rival tried to make their effort even more transparent.

Whether it was an attempt to derail or expand the proposal is unclear, but it certainly prompted more discussion.

Two months ago, the board rejected newcomer John Thomas' three-part proposal about the superintendent's spending. Thomas, veteran Mark Cantrell of District 6 and newcomer Frank Myers of District 8 were on the losing end of the 3-6 vote. That proposal had three parts:

Change the spending limit from $15,000 to $5,000 per transaction, with the added requirement that no recipient can receive an amount greater than $5,000 in any 24-month period without the board's approval.

Each expenditure the superintendent makes without board approval shall be "prominently featured" on the Muscogee County School District's website, including the date, purpose, amount and recipient.

All expenditures made by the superintendent without board approval during the previous three years, including the aforementioned details, also shall be posted on the district's website.

Last month, Thomas came back with a narrowed proposal, requesting only that the superintendent's expenditures without board approval be posted on the school district's website. Per board policy, the suggested revision had to sit for 30 days. Now, it is up for a vote during the Oct. 19 meeting.

All of which set the stage for Monday night's work session, when Athavia "A.J." Senior of District 3, as she did last month, suggested expanding Thomas' proposal to require the posting of all MCSD expenses on the district's website. Senior asked Theresa Thornton, the system's chief financial officer, whether that was possible, and Thornton said, "It's my understanding, we can show everything."

Myers, who had a falling out with Senior after being political allies, said he would cosponsor such a policy change, "but let's get this one done first. We're not going to have a data dump."

Senior replied, "I was just trying to get total transparency."

Thomas, exasperated, said his proposal was being twisted to the point of being "unrecognizable."

Myers also told Senior that if she wanted "total transparency" she should have joined Thomas and him during the spring, when they called for a line-item budget instead of a summary from the administration. Senior labeled such a request "micromanaging. I'm here for policy and procedure."

Speaking of which, board chairman Rob Varner of District 5 reminded his fellow members that if they alter Thomas' proposal it would have to sit for another 30 days.

"I don't understand why we're having this discussion," Varner said. "Let's vote on what is in front of you next week and be done with this. If we like it and it's worth expanding some time and the administration can do that, then sure."

Appreciating a rare moment of agreeing with the board's leadership, Myers concluded the discussion with this olive branch: "Thank you, Mr. Chairman."

Bus experiment

As promised during last month's work session, superintendent David Lewis returned with a proposal for the school district to conduct an experiment to determine whether compressed natural gas (CNG) or propane would be a wiser alternative fuel compared to diesel for its bus fleet.

So in the administration's request for the board to approve spending $1,474,784 to buy 14 buses, two of those would be fueled by CNG and two others would use propane, one each from what MCSD operations chief David Goldberg called the top two school bus suppliers, Blue Bird of Fort Valley, Ga., and Thomas Built Buses of High Point, N.C.

Last month, Goldberg said that, although CNG is cheaper than propane as a fuel, the upfront costs and maintenance expenses for CNG buses are higher than propane.

Money from the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax voters passed in March will pay for the buses as well as any costs for the alternative fuels comparison. Lewis said he has had a preliminary conversation with Benjamin Blair, director of the Butler Center for Business and Economic Research at Columbus State University, about conducting such a study for the school district. The experiment and analysis should take 6-8 months, Lewis said.

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

This story was originally published October 12, 2015 at 9:34 PM with the headline "School board member suggests expanding transparency proposal."