If what I read Saturday in the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution is true and the gentleman from the 5th District actually asserted that the Metro Association
of Classroom Educators (MACE), the organization for which I serve as Executive Director, has received ten million dollars
($10,000,000.00) from one of the vendors for the Alternative Education Program, then this is an appalling and flagrant total
disregard for the truth reflective of the Big Lie Theory. This is an unmitigated,
bold-faced lie which I suspect germinated in the mind of my gentleman-colleague perhaps to deflect the calcium light of truth
which I have shone on the now infamous land deal and the light which I am bringing to the apparent fraud surrounding the two
contracts relative to Mr. Dorsey Hopson as well as a recent expose about my gentleman-colleague’s apparent hiring of
a bodyguard who had already been terminated by this school system for suspicions of sexual molestation of some students for
which he is still apparently under GBI investigation. Not only has MACE not received ten million dollars from any vendor but
MACE has not received even ten cents from any vendor which has now or has had in the past any desires to do business with
this school system or any other school system. MACE is a highly independent organization
which is always committed to protecting and empowering its teacher-members. Unlike
the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) of which our Chairperson and Vice Chairperson boldly display on our school system’s
official website that they are members, MACE is not associated with a national organization which subsidizes its budget. Also unlike GAE, MACE does not burden the school system with a constitutionally questionable
practice of having the school system collect its membership fees from its members through the process called payroll deduction. Furthermore, unlike GAE, MACE has never asked the school system to funnel our Chairman’s
salary through the school system’s finance department so that Chairman Trotter, a former employee with this school system,
can receive his insurance and other benefits through the school system and accrue creditable years in the Georgia Teacher
Retirement System (TRS) which is probably a fraudulent practice.
Let me state the following in terms which no one can misunderstand. Apparently,
for the reasons which I will now outline, Mr. Johnson, my colleague from the 5th District as well as Mr. Dorsey
Hopson, have chosen to defend their dubious and questionable actions by going on an outlandish and ad hominen attack against
me. It was me who began to question the obscene amount of money which this school
system spent on a wasteful piece of land more suitable for a rock quarry. Dr.
Pulliam’s signature was not on that contract but her name appeared on that contract with the phrase “per Jean
Hicks.” When this contract was signed, Jean Hicks was fighting cancer,
and I am told that she was heavily taking prescription drugs while fighting this cancer which eventually took her life. Dr. Pulliam personally told me, Michelle Strong, and Sandra Scott that she did not
think that Jean Hicks would have signed that contract. But, when I began my questioning
of the waste of eight million dollars on this land deal, unfortunately Ms. Hicks had already passed away. Recently, I asked for a copy of Ms. Hicks’s personnel file, and, lo and behold, there was nothing
in this file which bore her signature. I was not surprised because I had been
tipped off that the file was missing. Shazam! I was now feeling more and more like Matlock. Next, I am requesting
that any document in this school system which bears Ms. Hicks’s signature be turned over to me. After all, she served as Superintendent Pulliam’s Chief of Staff.
We ought to have a signature somewhere – unless they have been systematically destroyed.
I was not grandstanding on this issue of wasting millions of dollar on this
now infamous land deal. The Clayton County Grand Jury vindicated my position. If I were grandstanding, I would not have turned down the Bill O’Reilly Program
on national television and all four local networks all on the same day. This
is not what a grandstander does. I was trying to get to the truth – just
like I am getting to the bottom of the truth about the great waste of taxpayers’ dollars on this fourth largest law
firm in the world, charging us up to $455.00 per hour. Then, there came a movement
wherein some board members wanted to hire one of the lawyers from this law firm as a fulltime lawyer with the school system. However, Chairperson Davis and Vice Chairperson Rod Johnson went about doing this
the wrong way. O.C.G.A. 20-2-211(a) clearly states that only the superintendent
can recommend “employees,” even if the employee is a staff attorney. Mr.
Hopson has never been recommended by Dr. Duncan. Also, the contract which Chairperson
Davis emailed at 5:44 PM on a Friday before the Monday night board meeting on August 6, 2007 and was, in the mind of some
board members, voted on that same Monday night (but was not mentioned in the motion nor was Mr. Hopson’s name mentioned
in the motion) was not the same contract which was signed by Chairperson Davis and Mr. Hopson.
The contract was significantly altered in several areas. This, I believe,
constitutes fraudulent inducement and fraud on the factum. It is a classic “bait
and switch.” I am aware that the many letters which I have fired off because
of this apparent fraud embarrassed and perhaps scared Mr. Hopson, Chairperson Davis, and Vice Chairperson Johnson. I am sorry, but I was placed on this board by my constituents to look after their welfare – and one
way of looking after their welfare is not to waste millions of dollars on outrageous land deals and fraudulent contracts.
There have been other programs on which I thought that the school system was
wasting taxpayers’ money. One was the Kaplan Program. The teachers hated this program. One was Direct Reading in
our elementary schools. Again, the teachers complained loudly about this restrictive
program. Personally, I think that this program has some immoral reading materials
in it also. Fortunately, Dr. Duncan effectively ended the use of these programs,
and hopefully this will save this school system millions of dollars. Chairperson
Davis and Vice Chairperson Johnson voted on a number of times for these programs.
Finally, I have been very critical of the flagrant micromanaging of both Ms.
Davis and Mr. Johnson. Their flagrant micromanaging is a matter of record. We have many emails and witnesses which testify to these two colleagues trying to
run this school system instead of just serving in a policy role. Recently, Mr.
Johnson has come under fire for his apparent hiring of a bodyguard and driver for Dr. Duncan.
This apparent illegal hiring took place on July 23, 2007, the night that the school board hired Dr. Duncan. I and some of my colleagues brought the heat on this micromanaging and the bodyguard
hiring. I hope that this short explanation has shed some light on why Mr. Johnson
and Mr. Hopson have begun attacking me. Thanks, Norreese.
