South Range BOE in violation of state law with appointment

Members of the South Range Board of Education would do well to go back to square one in filling the vacancy that was created by the resignation of their colleague, Bruce Zinz.

Why? Because one of the foremost experts on open meetings laws in Ohio — if not in the nation — is of the opinion that the board acted illegally when it appointed Amy White to succeed Zinz.

Atty. David Marburger of the Cleveland law firm of BakerHostetler isn’t just blowing legal smoke when he says the school board would have a difficult time prevailing if someone decided to challenge White’s appointment.

Marburger, who has represented The Vindicator on numerous actions relating to freedom-of-press and Ohio’s open meetings and public record laws, had a hand in writing the state’s Sunshine Laws. He has earned a national reputation for his unyielding commitment to government transparency and openness.

To be sure, our long relationship with Marburger allows us to believe him when he says the South Range school board acted illegally. But, even without those ties to the Cleveland lawyer, we would still be urging members to start the selection process anew.

Although the board of education unanimously approved White’s nomination during its meeting last Monday, it seems the decision had already been made behind closed doors in executive session.

We say that because Vindicator Reporter Robert Connelly pointed out in a story based on the meeting that a gold and black metallic nameplate for White was already in place in front of the seat vacated by Zinz before the formal vote was taken to appoint her.

It suggests that the board had decided to select her, and that’s against the law governing meetings of public bodies. Members were permitted to only discuss the applicants in private. Any attempt to reach a collective decision and to take a formal vote had to have occurred in public.

“The whole circumstance sounds to me that there would be clear evidence that the decision was already made, and taking a formal vote before the public was just theater,” Marburger told The Vindicator.

He pointed to the nameplate as the “clearest evidence” that the decision already had been made before the public session of the board of education.

LEGALITY OF FUTURE VOTES?

Therein lies the problem for the school board. While the lawyer for the South Range school district, John Britton, insists that the board did nothing wrong and, therefore, does not need to start the process over, members should consider this:

Any votes taken in which White participates could be voided if a challenge to her appointment is successful.

If members want to find out how to correct what they have done, they need only look at how the Mill Creek MetroParks commissioners straightened out their flawed appointment of Aaron Young as executive director last December.

It’s one thing for the South Range Board of Education to violate its own bylaws by not interviewing all the candidates whose applications met the filing deadline.

It’s quite another to give short shrift to Ohio’s public meetings laws, especially during Sunshine Week in Ohio when Attorney General Mike DeWine and others reaffirmed their commitment to transparent government.