Board Meeting 01-22-13: Audio of Edited Out Portion of the Meeting

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This is the audio of the board meeting on 01-22-13 where the board struggles to understand Utah election code.

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Highlights of 01-22-2013 meeting on Utah Election Law As It Pertains To The School Board Race:

The board president wanted me to RESTATE  my Point of Order from the  previous meeting (see video titled: Salt Lake School Board NOT following Election LAW) because she said that she did not follow Robert’s Rules of Order properly.

Board member Laurel Young did not want to discuss the issue because it was not on the agenda. The board president had to point out to her that we could discuss it because it was procedural (Laurel made the same point in the last meeting, not recognizing that my POINT OF ORDER was about the AGENDA).

I went through the HISTORY of the PRECINCT issue and why the board should not have placed the term on the agenda of the previous meeting.

The superintendent and board president passed out a memo: Board President’s Response to my 01-08-2013 Point of Order Letter. (The notes on the memo are my writing.) She said “this is what we found out…..”

Superintendent Withers said they are “still collecting information”.

Board President quotes Amy from the County Clerk’s Office saying that historically they used the term ‘precinct’ and have no intention of changing it.

Board President said she spoke to past board presidents and that they were okay with using the word “precinct”.

Superintendent offers his interpretation of what he is hearing from others.

I made the point that the county clerk is now Saying that their office places the term ‘precinct’ on the ballot because that is the information that they received from the superintendent’s office. Prior to this, they were claiming it was state law, they now know that is not true.

At one point vice president, Heather Bennett asked with a chuckle in her voice, “why is this so important to you?”

She has asked me this question in the past and I have answered it each time. At the previous meeting, she asked me this question and responded by rolling her eyeballs at me when I am explaining to her that placing the word PRECINCT on the ballot caused confusion in my community during the election.

In this instance, I explained that it is important to me because if the state legislature changed the law, we should follow the law. I make the point that we took an oath of office to sustain the Utah constitution……

I also pointed out that as a school district we have some responsibility to teach the proper form of government. I make the point that if the adults do not understand the proper form of government how do we expect our children to understand?

Laurel Young then asked the president if it something we can change? The president said that we could not. I said that is not accurate. I pointed out that in an email from County Council man Wilde he states that the board could indeed have a vote to make the change on the information sent to the county clerk.

The president and vice president then make the statement “well everyone else, does it that way”.

My response is: that is not my standard, just because everyone else is doing it wrong, I’m going to do the same?

The superintendent states that out of all the people he has spoken to, no one at this point has said that we are acting contrary to state law. WOW! This man has a PhD, makes a little more than $200,000.00 and he is okay with breaking the law because no one but me is telling him that is wrong ?????                                      [What is wrong with that picture?]

Board member Doug Nelson wanted to vote as he says, Michael  you have laid out your case and the way anything gets done on the board is to have three other board members agree. So now I have to convince three other board members to follow the law?

Ironically, our board president is more worried about following Robert’s Rules of Order than she is in following state law. Even more ironic is the fact that our board president was just elected as a vice president for the Utah School Board Association and is up on Utah Capitol Hill lobbying legislators. Why lobby for laws if you are not going to respect and honor them once passed?

The mind set during this discussion is troubling. The CURRENT LAW clearly states that the School District is to be divided up into local districts. The law was changed from using the word in 1994 the word PRECINCT was stricken through and replaced with DISTRICT. 

This is the source of confusion for voters in my neighborhood, yet the board president, vice president and the superintendent are insensitive to that. They instead want to perform all these verbal gymnastics and put all this energy into order to maintaining the status quo, which is clearly wrong.

The superintendent and the board president and vice president are presented with problem and instead of solving it they are like a dog that runs in circles chasing his own tail. After a while they exhaust themselves on the matter and the problem still remains.

It is disconcerting to me to witness their inability to grasp this issue, weigh it on its merits, and solve it.

How are we to deliberate on weightier matters? I suppose we should not wonder why the educational outcomes of children on the west side are so low.

Because this board failed to act. And on the recommendation of the county clerk’s office , I did approach our legislature and Representative King did open a bill file on this issue. We will see how far it makes it this session. Some legislators have told me that the current law is clear, why pass another law to say you should follow the law? Good Question………………….

 

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