The Georgia Attorney General’s Office has offered the Evans County Board of Education an opportunity to resolve a violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act by paying a civil penalty and taking a training course in lieu of litigation. Board members would also have to admit wrongdoing.
Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Colangelo sent a letter to Evans County Board of Education attorney Ron Hallman on Thursday offering the resolution after Hallman sent a letter defending the boards actions after a complaint was filed by AllOnGeorgia.
Each Board Member would pay a $100 civil penalty and would participate in an Open Records and Open Meetings training session led by the Attorney General’s Office. District Office employees and Superintendent Dr. Martin Waters would also have to take part in the training session. The civil penalty would be a personal responsibility of each individual Board member and not one of the tax payers. Board Members would admit that the law was violated and that such violations would not occur in the future.
Should the board decline the resolution, the matter would be subject to litigation, criminal prosecution, and fines up to $2500. The board has until October 26th to decide.
You can read Hallman’s letter below. AG letter is below Hallman’s.
doc00047520181003152321(1)
You can read the letter from the Attorney General’s Office below.
Letter to Ron Hallman re OMA Complaint of Jessica Szilagyi regarding the Evans County Board of Education_20181011131556
tkennedy
October 11, 2018 at 4:57 pm
What an awesome concept! Requiring the Evans County Board of Education to be answerable to the public! Hopefully this will wake up the public to see that our board members are not looking out for the interest of the children as they often say. The waters continue to be muddy but hopefully there may be light ahead! The people of Evans County need to call for an answering by the board as well as the school attorney. Deception seems to be the standard used by the board when it comes to county business. Maybe they need a refresher as to who the county consist of.