Norreese L. Haynes

 

December 21, 2007

 

 

 

Dr. Mark Elgart

President/CEO

ADVANCED Advancing Excellence in Education

1866 Southern Lane

Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097

 

 

 

Dear Dr. Elgart:

 

   I am writing this letter to you to register two official Complaints with SACS concerning two of my colleagues on the Clayton County Board of Education, Ms. Ericka Davis and Mr. Rod Johnson.  As I have mentioned to you before, I want you to incorporate the many letters and documents, as well as my official Response of December 11, 2007, into these two official Complaints stated herein.  I am not the kind of person who relishes filing any complaints against any of my colleagues, but because I have been the unjust target of non-meritorious and laughable charges from Rod Johnson, I feel that I have no recourse except to file these two complaints, especially in light of the fact that Mr. Johnson has twice verbally renounced at two board meetings (one time in open session and one time in executive session) his outrageous claim that the Metro Association of Classroom Educators received ten million dollars from an alternative education vendor, but has repeatedly failed to renounced this claim in writing and hence your letter of  November 12, 2007 to Dr. Duncan and several articles in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution keep referencing this bogus and unfathomable claim.  The matters about which I will briefly delineate in this letter are matters of which I have been aware for some time but I was hoping that the school board could resolve these matters internally without involving you or SACS.  But, Mr. Johnson chose to involve you and SACS and hence my complaints to set the record straight.

 

   Ms. Ericka Davis and Mr. Rod Johnson have engaged in the actions which I have listed below, and I would appreciate and expect a full investigation of my charges filed against them.  I noticed recently that Ms. Scott’s complaint of December 11, 2007 about Ericka Davis and Rod Johnson may have passed your letter of December 14, 2007 in the mail because your letter did not include Ms. Davis as one against whom a complaint was filed.  Please be assured that my complaint is against two people, Ericka Davis and Rod Johnson.

 

Ericka Davis

 

1.      Ms. Davis sent the board members a contract for Attorney Dorsey Hopson on Friday, August 3, 2007 at 5:44 PM via email.  The board voted on a concept of “in house [sic] counsel” on August 6, 2007 (without mentioning the word “contract” or Dorsey Hopson by name).  This contract was substantially changed, and she and Dorsey Hopson signed this changed contract (without a date, a seal, or witnesses).  This constitutes fraud on the factum and fraudulent inducement.  This is a classic “bait-and-switch” maneuver.

 

2.      Ms. Davis signed a contract with a company owned by John D. Stephens for dirt. This dirt contract alone constituted several million dollars.  This was done without the permission of the then superintendent, Dr. Barbara Pulliam.   The late Jean Hicks, Chief of Staff at the time, signed the contract “for Dr. Pulliam,” but administrator Steve Holmes was apparently left in charge while Dr. Pulliam was out-of-town at her aunt’s funeral.  Dr. Pulliam returned to town the very next day.  I inquired as to whether a copy of Power-of-Attorney existed, and the staff replied in the negative.  Ms. Davis, I believe, overstepped her authority to do this, and the Clayton County Grand Jury agreed with me that this entire land deal fiasco wasted several million dollars of tax payers’ money.

 

3.      During the initial controversy of this land deal, Ms. Davis engaged in an unauthorized mass phone-calling campaign.  She stated, in her own admission, that she and Dr. Pulliam “decided” (not the school board as a whole) to send out the thousands of phone calls to the residents of Clayton County, implying that a certain “board member” (translation: me) had done something wrong during the board meeting.  The school board as a whole did not authorize Ms. Davis to engage in these actions.

 

4.      Ms. Davis put in motion on January 16, 2007 actions which resulted in a citizen being falsely arrested at the Clayton County Board of Education meeting on the same night.  On this same night, Ms. Davis introduced a resolution directed at this falsely-arrested citizen (the charge of which were summarily dropped), and she slandered him during this board meeting and gave out to the media and public (as well as to  board members) this gentleman’s social security number.

 

5.      On several occasions, Ms. Davis has written to staff (including two Superintendents), and sometimes directing staff to do certain things (such as directing staff members to attend a weekend seminar at her Fulton County church and to utilize county resources) and also expressing her displeasure with certain actions taken by staff as well as even implicating that Dr. Pulliam had something to do with her not getting into a certain sorority.  Many of her micromanaging emails were written on the State’s email system where she works.  Some emails recommend personnel and some  even inquire about a fellow board member’s husband and son.   On one occasion, she expressed to Dr. Pulliam her distinct displeasure that Dr. Pulliam refused to switch the board meeting security detail from the Jonesboro Police Department to deputies from Sheriff Victor Hill’s staff. 

 

6.      Ms. Davis apparently used Attorney Dorsey Hopson to inquire about buying police cars from the County Government.  The School Board never knew about this nor approved of this action.

 

 

 

7.      Ms. Davis, as a member of the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE), on several occasions communicated by email with the local GAE president, Sid Chapman, about matters before the school board, even expressing her strong bias against the Chairman/CEO of a competing union, Dr. John Trotter with the Metro Association of Classroom Educators (MACE).  In this particular email, she called for Mr. Chapman to get a “slate” ready for the next election and indicated that “BP” [sic] was trying to please “JT” [sic] and other “unsavory” persons.  She warned Mr. Chapman that “HE” [sic] [presumably Attorney Harold Eddy of the Weekes & Candler law firm] should not be trusted.  In this email exchange, Mr. Chapman asked Ms. Davis if it was “time for BP [presumably Superintendent Barbara Pulliam] to go.”  Ms. Davis’s membership in GAE and her resulting bias against the Metro Association of Classroom Educators (MACE) constitute a conlict-of-interest.

 

8.      On several occasions this year, Ms. Davis has adjourned/recessed the school board  on her own without the board voting on this action.  She also dismissed the board in executive session, even announcing to the audience that the board would dismiss from executive session.  I warned her on more than one occasion that this violates the provisions in the Open Meetings Law.  Only recently, since I filed my official Response, has she begun to come back into the open to have the whole board take action on adjournment.

 

 

Rod Johnson

 

1. Mr. Johnson met with Superintendent Duncan on July 24, 2007, the morning after the school board named Dr. Duncan as the Interim Superintendent, making suggestions for personnel changes from his organizational chart.  He then went into the Cabinet meeting as Dr. Duncan gave out his organizational chart.

 

2. Mr. Johnson hired on his own, without the recommendation of the superintendent as O.C.G.A. 20-2-211(a) requires, a man named Alexander to be in charge of security.  He instructed the Jonesboro Police to wait for a call from Mr. Alexander on instructions as to what to do.  This same Mr. Alexander had previously worked for the school system but later left this job when he was charged with allegations of sexual molestation of female students.  Recently, Mr. Alexander was indicted by the Clayton County Grand Jury.  On the night when Dr. Duncan became interim superintendent, Mr. Johnson had already installed Mr. Alexander as head of security and driver for Dr. Duncan.  He drove Dr. Duncan home that evening, accompanied by Mr. Johnson and another gentleman.  It is my understanding that Mr. Johnson discussed personnel issues with Dr. Duncan on this drive to her house.

 

3. Mr. Johnson tampered with the bids for the Alternative Education vendors.  Even after Dr. Pulliam had recommended one vendor for the Alternative Education program and the SASS Committee had unanimously voted for this vendor, Mr. Johnson kept engaging in actions to have another vendor added which had not been recommended by Dr. Pulliam.  He instructed via email to have Lonita Collier, Director of Purchasing, to have the “bids” (note:  plural) from the “vendors” (note:  plural) to be sent to Attorney Hopson (to the chagrin of Ms. Collier who expressed that this was not how the process worked) to be used at the Appropriations Committee which was charged solely to vote the recommended vendor up or down based on financial considerations.  He even called me, wanting me to meet with him and Ericka Davis at the Dwarf House in Hapeville.  At this meeting, both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Davis solicited my support for bringing this additional vendor into the school system.  I told both Ms. Davis and Mr. Johnson that only Dr. Pulliam could recommend such action.  Mr. Johnson, even after Dr. Pulliam had recommended a certain vendor and the SASS Committee had unanimously voted for this vendor, tried to sell an advertisement to the recommended vendor for a newspaper published by one of his colleagues at Sheriff Victor Hill’s office.

 

4. Mr. Johnson’s wife’s salary shot up inordinately in her July, 2007 pay check, the same month that Dr. Duncan was hired and the same month in which Mr. Johnson introduced his organizational chart.   State Representative Celeste Johnson, Mr. Johnson’s wife, received her master’s degree, I believe, this past Fall.  Her name was not pulled out of the Personnel Report, as required by the statute on nepotism.  Her salary was also not appropriately docked when she served in the General Assembly in 2007.

 

5. I witnessed Mr. Johnson engage in assault and battery against a citizen at a school meeting.  This happened during a break from executive session while the board was discussing whether or not to hire the law firm of Greenberg Trauig. There was another independent witness to this event.

 

 

   Dr. Elgart, I have exhibits and witnesses to the actions which I have addressed in these two complaints.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me.

 

                                                  Thank You,

 

                                                  Norreese L. Haynes, District 8