Members of the Hamilton County Commission persistently neglect the public work their constituents need most – a county government with an urban charter, municipal-style ordinances, comprehensive growth planning and cost-efficient consolidated services and utilities. But they are all too happy to meddle in the county school board’s business and to use their budget clout to bend the school board to their agenda.
That was evident when the commission decided several months ago to withhold $7 million in payments-in-lieu of school fund property taxes for VW-related growth this year, pushing the school system’s fiscal deficit to nearly $14 million.
It was shamefully evident again last week when the commission’s political interference in the school board’s budget and administration finally led Superintendent Dr. Jim Scales to agree to a buyout of his contract this year, a year before it was to expire.
And it was blatantly punctuated by commissioners’ tasteless uniform advice to the school board, a day after Scales’ announcement, to replace Scales with a local candidate – i.e., Rick Smith, an assistant superintendent, and the white man they have wanted since before Scales, the merged schools system’s first African-American superintendent, was hired in 2006.
Meddling deeply rooted