Documents the Turner Report received following a Sunshine Law request, indicate board member Mike Landis was working with Dankelson and Commissioners Darieus Adams and John Bartosh.
In a June 3 e-mail from Landis to Bartosh and Dankelson, the former board member writes, "We voted in April to accept Lane Roberts' resignation from the Joplin BOE. Thanks, Michael D. Landis." From that e-mail, it appears that Landis had sent Dankelson word that he, Randy Steele, and Roberts had resigned and that he wanted the County Commission to appoint replacements and that the prosecuting attorney had questions about Roberts' resignation.
Dankleson responded the following day in a message that is headed "Subject: Document May 28, 2015," and was sent to Bartosh, as well as Landis:
Would you be able to provide an affidavit to the commission confirming your intent to resign from the Joplin School Board effective May 28 and that you have no intent to withdraw that resignation? I am assuming from this e-mail you have no intent to withdraw it.
Since the Sunshine Law request pertained only to documents received or sent by the three county commissioners, it did not include Landis' original e-mail to Dankelson.
That same day, the Commission received petitions containing 65 signatures asking it to appoint new board members, with the signers including Landis, board member Lynda Banwart, and numerous contributors to the Joplin Progress Committee.
As noted in the June 15 Turner Report, Landis contacted Commissioner Darieus Adams on May 27, the night before he submitted his resignation:
Documents obtained through a Sunshine Law request to the Commission show that on May 27, one day after Randy Steele resigned, Superintendent C. J. Huff, obviously aware that Landis was planning on resigning as well, called the Missouri School Boards Association (MSBA) to find out what was necessary to get the Jasper County Commission to appoint replacement board members.
Susan Goldammer, senior director, employment and labor relations for the MSBA, e-mailed the information to Huff, "Any vacancy occurring in the board shall be filled by the remaining members of the board, except that if there are more than two vacancies at any one time, the county commission, upon receiving written notice of the vacancies shall fill the vacancies by appointment."
Goldammer was unaware that anything was in the works.
"As you can see, it takes three or more vacancies for the county commission to get involved. That has only happened once since I have been at MSBA. The Board will need to fill these two," she said, referring to Randy Steele and Lane Roberts.
Huff forwarded Goldammer's e-mail to Landis at 12:36 p.m. May 27. At 9:38 p.m., Landis forwarded the e-mail to Commissioner Darieus Adams.
Landis resigned the next day, setting the stage for the Commissioners to appoint Gary Nodler, Ron Gatz, and Sallie Beard.
Mike Landis said elections don't matter when Shawn McGrew was placed on BOE after a vacant seat. Tossed the petitions with 300 + signatures aside on Jim Kimbroughs behalf.
ReplyDeleteAnd he has the flippin' nerve to put his name on a petition???!!!!
If he was featured on the O'Reilly Factor, he'd get the Pinhead of the year award.
I fail to see how this implicates anyone in wrong doing. What your readers are a witness to is someone clinging to relevancy now that they've got their way in C.J. getting "fired."
ReplyDeleteIf you fail to see the implications here...you are either blind or....nope, you're blind.
DeleteWhoever you are you appear to be a bitter little man who hates children, because after all they are the ones who will suffer when this is all said and done.
DeleteThey are playing dirty pool to keep control of the BOE.
ReplyDeleteIt's called collusion, this was orchestrated by a small-minded group of people who have a need to cover-up their past misdeeds. Those are just a few of the implications just to get started, the onion needs to be peeled and this is just the first layer of crap. Cannot wait to see what is under the other layers once the people who were elected get to actually do their jobs.
ReplyDeleteI have seen repeated attempts at the same theme:
ReplyDelete'You got what you wanted (Huff, Sharp, etc..), now stop digging!"
I had a long Anson-esque soliloquy but I guess the best way to put it is more straight forward (so simple even Anson can understand it without having to draw it in crayon)
ReplyDeleteI sometimes think Randy whines way way too often about Joplin's board of education, CJ Huff and Joplin education in general. I actually friended him (we are both ENHS alums) on Facebook during the termination trial and deleted him two weeks later because I was tired of attending the pity party he had every post. Hell I even told him on this forum after CJ resigned, congrats you won, build a bridge and get over it, find something new to write about.
That being said, the more investigation he does, the more evidence and emails he uncovers, it makes me more sure he's less crazy and paranoid and more dangerously right and I'm just too naive.
And the best collobration I've seen, isn't scanned images or recordings, but the Joplin globe, taking a side, backing that side, and showing a obvious bias towards that side, even when some serious questions need to be raised, and to present Burlingame's half lunatic, half carpetbagger love letter more and more frequently, AND to present him as a contributed rather than shying away from him and his agenda. When your holding a 2-7 off suit in Texas hold'me poker with a potential straight on the board, you don't keep raising the pot. Fold or check and see where it's going.
And that makes me believe, Turner may be right all along.
His actions are just a side effect of the littlemanitus he suffers from.
ReplyDeleteThis post also confirms the hypocrisy of Lynda Banwart, who was quoted in the Globe saying something to the effect that Board members should not be discussing the selection of members outside of meetings, while she had been quite active organizing/signing petitions, collaborating with her close, close commissioner friend, and doing anything else she could do to stop the three members the community elected to enact change from being successful. Banwart, Steele, Landis, and the commissioners are guilty of grotesque Sunshine Law violations and should be held accountable for that immediately. They are desperate people, and I would not put it past them to harm people in order to protect themselves. They aren't in the least bit worried about harming the education of children in Joplin.
ReplyDelete7:04
ReplyDeleteI guess it's better late than never to admit that you've been wrong. That's more than a lot of people who criticize on here will do. It should also make you, and others who are feeling as you do, wonder what else you might also be wrong about? Turner has provided enough documents all along the way to prove what is going on, and there are still people who vociferously defend Huff and his people, even as he is fleecing them. It is a very sad situation, but some people just have to believe in the fairy tale because the truth is painful. Until enough people protest loudly enough that the county prosecuting attorney, the county commissioners, and elected Board members do not dare ignore them, the fight will be a hard one. We need all hands on board to defeat the faction that will sacrifice the schools, students, and staff in order to promote their business and personal interests. Thank you for your acceptance of the reality of this horrible situation.
The open manipulation, plotting, and planning were obvious from the time that Landis stated that he knew what he was doing when he resigned and that he intended for it to go to the commissioners. He is as thick with them as Banwart, and you can bet that they plotted out Cj's severance package, the times they would resign (remember, Steele took a vacation in Southwest Missouri at what would have been his last BoE meeting), and I would even surmise that they had this plan in mind since the elections, as it is known the commissioners were talking about the possibility of stepping in even then. They are a despicable bunch of liars and thieves. It is going to catch up with them, though, as they are so arrogant as to confess on camera (Mike), sign their petitions (Mike and Lynda) and send emails. Idiots. It would be better for one of them to step forward and become state's witness than to go down together.
ReplyDelete