With this ruling, board members advanced one step closer to changing the way Polk County citizens vote for school board officials.
The motion carried by a margin of 5-4 to restore county-wide voting that was changed in the mid 1980’s to district voting.
Voting to resend the 2001 action were board members Rick Lundy, Bettie Faye Lewis, Guy Rutland, Beth Warner and Regina Roberts.
Harold Lumpkin, Harold Wingfield, Tommy Sanders and Frank Plant voted no.
The decision, according to Lumpkin will “certainly not be cheap.” Lumpkin voiced his concern over the motion and addressed School Board Attorney Mike York, along with members of the board.
“One thing that concerns me is that I know of people who will file a lawsuit against us about this. How much are we wanting to spend on a proposition that we are probably going to loose? Do we really want to take the taxpayers’ money and spend it in federal court? Will you [York] speak on the cost of this if we do go to federal court?”
York answered Lumpkin by stating that the cost is currently undeterminable, but has the potential to accumulate into the six-figure mark.
“We will be taking tax payers’ money to fight this. I would like to see community input on this matter,” Lumpkin said.
Plant then spoke up on the matter. “It is my understanding that what Mr. Lumpkin is saying about the law suit is not a threat, but a fact… I think I will be able to sit here later on and be able to say ‘I told you so.’ If we don’t want to get sued, then why are we doing this? If we vote to do this, then we are voting to put the taxpayers’ money on the line and possibly spend a whole lot to fight for something that a few people want. Let’s have a public meeting and hear what all the people want.”
Sanders stated, “There are 159 counties in Georgia and out of those, only 13 vote county-wide. That’s less than nine percent. I say we need to move slowly with this and see what the people want.”
At a previous meeting, Polk County citizen Bobby Brooks presented the board with a signed petition of citizens who wanted board voting to be changed into a county-wide method. At this meeting, board member Wingfield requested that the petition be verified before the board made any movement on the matter.
The verification of the petition was not discussed during last night’s meeting.
Lumpkin again asked that the board hold a community input session before taking action. He called for a meeting not only in Cedartown, but also in Rockmart to assure that all Polk County citizens had a chance to voice their opinions.
Board members did not take action on Lumpkin’s request.
“If we make a motion to resend tonight, then we vote. Next Tuesday night, I could make a motion to resend the motion that we resended tonight. This could be an ongoing thing. This may take me two years, but every meeting from now on I am going to ask to resend it,” Lumpkin said.
Chairman Lundy then took the floor.
“I have made it no secret that I am a strong advocate of each registered voter in the county to be able to decide whether or not I am doing my job to the will of the Polk children. I believe that everyone in the county has a stake in the say of voting for me or not voting for me if they are a registered voter in the county.
“I think there is a perception of issues of unity as a county board and I think that those can be resolved by everyone that is a registered voter and a taxpayer. And I think that it is the way that it should be. If this motion passes tonight, I hope it will be embraced. If and when anyone changes their mind on the issue, because we are a part of the democratic process, motions to resend can be made and I welcome those.”
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