Wednesday, June 17, 2015

R-8 Board schedules special meeting to discuss petitions

The Joplin R-8 Board of Education will meet in special session 6 p.m. Thursday at the old Memorial Building to discuss their response to a writ of mandamus petition filed against the board in Jasper County Circuit Court

The posted agenda says, "Discussion regarding legal guidance for Joplin Schools response to Petition for Writ Mandamus filed in the Associate Court of Jasper County, MO."

The board has until Monday to respond to the petition, which was filed Friday by Anderson attorney Jonathan Pierce, representing Joplin residents Joshua Bard, Jon Buck, and Jamie Johnson.

This description of the writ of mandamus petition comes from the June 16 Turner Report:

The action against the board asks the judge for a writ of mandamus ordering the board to seat Jim Kimbrough and for board secretary Pat Waldo to administer the oath of office to him. In documentation filed with the petition, Pierce says that when a vote to put Kimbrough on the board during the May 26 meeting ended 3-2 with Board President Jeff Koch, Debbie Fort, and Jennifer Martucci saying "yes" and Lynda Banwart and Mike Landis voting "no," the simple majority was enough to put Kimbrough on the board. Board member Randy Steele had resigned just before the meeting.

Two days later, Landis announced his resignation, saying that his purpose was to send the decision on who the new board members would be to the Jasper County Commission which, according to state law, makes the choice if three or more vacancies exist. The petition says that only two vacancies existed because Kimbrough should have been seated to replace Lane Roberts.

Pierce also filed a petition for writ of mandamus against the County Commission, asking Judge Hensley to rule that Kimbrough had been seated and that the Commission's decision to appoint Gary Nodler, Sallie Beard, and Ron Gatz should never have happened since there were never three vacancies.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The response from the Board should be fairly simple. They should simply respond with "okay."

Anonymous said...

Forgive me for maybe asking a dumb question here... Is this special meeting including the newly sworn in members and if so, how do you think that will play out?

Anonymous said...

CONFIDENTIALLY ONLY, NO FURTHER DISSEMINATION PLEASE,

Even though I don't know if anyone bothers to read my important communications I have decided to send another. That is because I have another idea. This one is like a paradigm shift, because it repeats actions which the gang of blockers (you know who they are- no need to repeat THEIR names,) do not expect to be repeated.

The recommended course of action to defeat the writ of mandamus is to have the three newly appointed board members RESIGN so that the writ becomes moot! That should really jam a stick in their spokes! The the next three can be appointed in the same way the last three were.

Let me know if you need any more ideas. The best way to reach me in secret is to use morse code on the walkie-talkie I sent you the other day. .... . .-. . / .. ... / .- / ... . -.-. .-. . - / - . -..- - / - --- / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / - .-. .- -. ... .-.. .- - --- .-. .-.-.- / .... - - .--. ---... -..-. -..-. -- --- .-. ... . -.-. --- -.. . .-.-.- ... -.-. .--. .... .. .-.. .-.. .. .--. ... .-.-.- -.-. --- -- -..-. - .-. .- -. ... .-.. .- - --- .-. .-.-.- .... - -- .-..



Anonymous said...

I wonder if Banwart will bother to show up. It would be interesting to see what her response to this suit is, since she and her accomplices caused it to happen. The political donations she and her husband have made should have all of you who were flinging elitist arrows at Martucci in an uproar. She's doing all she can to protect the status quo while keeping the little folks at bay and in their proper station. Lady Banwart is a truly contemptuous person. She is not on the Board to help the students of Joplin, but to help her peers in Joplin's elite groups stay in power.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Banwart will show up all right. She is bringing her new cronies with her to show their power. She is in the bird seat, she thinks. Have you ever seen discussion of pending litigation discussed in open session....oh, they will be huffing and puffing in their chairs tonight...Power is an ugly thing!

Anonymous said...

Perceived power, Banwart thinks she has power, but really the people do. They need to show up and use the power of their voices and let the legal system deal with Banwart and her conspirators. Curious that they are willing to discuss litigation in open session, why now? No vote they take will matter - if it didn't matter when they appointed Kimbrough to a seat, what has changed to make any vote matter now? According to the law, the selection of the people to think they have a board seat didn't really happen, so why are they even going to be at the table discussing this matter? Crazy people will do just about anything to keep a hold of their perceived power!

Anonymous said...

Will this meeting be televised anywhere?