On June 29, 2021 the Richland 2 School Board elected three officers for the 2021-2022 School Year.
Why did James Manning nominate Teresa Holmes for Board Chair?
Later in the meeting why did Cheryl Caution-Parker nominate Amelia McKie for Board Secretary?
All on the board knew that the question of legitimacy of Holmes and McKie on the board has been an issue since at least February 2019.
There were several community members who began speaking about the legitimacy of Holmes and Amelia McKie on the board at the beginning of 2019. The others have tired of blowing in the wind and have given up that this serious error will ever be corrected.
And, during the Public Participation segment of the June 29th board meeting, I addressed the board in person and asked them to nominate and elect only fully-qualified board members.
The reason that Holmes and McKie are not legitimate board members is found in S.C. Code of Laws Section 8-13-1110 (A), which reads
"No public official, regardless of compensation, and no public member or public employee as designated in subsection (B) may take the oath of office or enter upon his official responsibilities unless he has filed a statement of economic interests in accordance with the provisions of this chapter with the appropriate supervisory office. If a public official, public member, or public employee referred to in this section has no economic interests to disclose, he shall nevertheless file a statement of inactivity to that effect with the appropriate supervisory office. All disclosure statements are matters of public record open to inspection upon request." [Emphasis added]
The facts are:
1. The oath of office was administered to both on November 13, 2018. Each then attended the November 13, 2018 school board meeting, including the confidential Executive Session, and voted on board Motions. The District submitted the notarized Oath of Office documents to the S.C. Secretary of State.
2. Both Holmes and McKie filed their Statements of Economic Interests with the S.C. Ethics Commission on December 4, 2018.
I think even a second-grader could figure out that Holmes and McKie took the oath of office and "entered upon official responsibilities" before filing their Statements of Economic Interests.
And neither has ever taken the oath of office legally; i.e., on or after December 4, 2018. They could have. They have been asked to. They have not.
Holmes continues to claim she hasn't done anything wrong. Isn't usurping public office "wrong"?
So, to ask again, why did James Manning nominate Teresa Holmes?
Why did Cheryl Caution-Parker nominate Amelia McKie?
