Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Is Gus Philpott intimidating?

When I arrived at R2i2 yesterday about 5:20PM and while I was chatting with another member of the public, a security officer and a deputy, the superintendent approached. 

He told the other man and me that one of the female trustees had reported that she felt intimidated by us. I had noticed last week that one trustee had requested a deputy to escort her to her car in the parking lot, and I recall saying to someone that I wondered whether she had received threats.

I was pretty sure the other man had not acted in an intimidating manner toward that trustee, and I KNEW that I had not. 

The question for me now is how to resolve it with that trustee. I find myself reluctant to approach her to discuss what caused her to feel intimidated and whether, in fact, she had even told the superintendent that she was intimidated by me. I certainly would not open the discussion without a female trustee as a witness.

As many know, I have complained for 2½ years that Holmes and McKie are not legitimate board members and now cannot serve as board officers. I told the board in March 2019 that the issue was not going away. When will the issue go away? When they take the oath of office legally and become legal members of the board!

I know the laws, and I know that I have avoided any words or actions that could be considered criminal. That didn't keep Holmes from filing a harassment claim against me with the Richland County Sheriff's Department in March 2019. I met with an Investigator Sergeant and the Deputy Chief of Criminal Investigations. The Chief quickly determined that no crime had occurred.

I have a copy of the deputy's report of Holmes' complaint. It is 100% lies. I pointed that out while I was at RCSD. 

It is my intention to see that Holmes and McKie are removed from the board. In fact, they aren't even legally ON the board, so it's not a question of "removing" them. All Holmes and McKie have to do to become legal board members is take the oath of office - legally. Both became eligible to take it on December 4, 2018. 

I have no idea why the rest of the board, the school district's attorney and the superintendent don't persuade Holmes and McKie to do so. It has been suggested to me that one reason is that the District will have to review every vote by the board, starting with the November 13, 2018, and take out the votes of Holmes and McKie. Many decisions will change. 

Votes that were 4-3 (with Holmes and McKie counted in the four) will become 3-2, meaning the votes failed, not passed. The longer the District waits to correct this, the farther they will have to go back. 

There are board meetings since November 13, 2018 that won't have quorums, once Holmes' and McKie's names are removed from those attending. Any one of the five legal trustees who missed a meeting in 2½ years will cause a meeting to miss the quorum requirement.

Perhaps I'm intimidating because I can count. That could be it.

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