Shipman v. North Panola Consol. School Dist.
| Decision Date | 04 August 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-CA-00063,94-CA-00063 |
| Citation | 641 So.2d 1106 |
| Parties | 94 Ed. Law Rep. 1041 Paul SHIPMAN, Melba Shipman, W.S. Taylor, Jr., Frances Taylor, Elbert Sides, Horace Jackson, Charles Jackson, Horace Matthews, Mike Sumner, Judy Sumner, William Wallace, William Matthews, Betty Matthews, Robert A. Allen, William T. Evans, Georgia Evans, Jerlean Matthews, W.T. Johnson, Jack Ray, Shirley Ray, J.E. Phillips, Alvin Jackson, Joy Jackson, Henry Graeber, Rebecca Graeber, Dr. Steven Shideler, Bobby Scruggs, M. Short, Glenn Barnett, James L. Goodnight, Patsy Barnett, Ward Dawkins, Bobbie Scruggs, G.C. Goodnight, Donald Sharp, Joyce Beard, Evander Simmermon, Linda J. Cook and James B. Beard v. NORTH PANOLA CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
John W. Dulaney, Jr., Tunica, for appellant.
Guy T. Gillespie, III, Nancy M. Maddox, Holcomb Dunbar Connell Chaffin & Willard, Oxford, for appellee.
Before HAWKINS, C.J., and SULLIVAN and SMITH, JJ.
In order to properly issue school bonds in Mississippi, a school district must comply with many state and federal laws. As we agree with the Chancery Court that the school district here did so comply, the holding of the Chancery Court validating the bonds is affirmed.
FACTS
In May of 1991, the Board of Trustees of the North Panola Consolidated School District (NPCSD) passed a resolution which called for a special election concerning the issuance of $4,000,000 in school bonds. On July 9, 1991, this first school bond election was held with the proposed bond being defeated with a margin of 56.67 percent for and 41.72 percent against. 1
At a July 31, 1991, special meeting the board proposed a second school bond election. There is no record of notice of the meeting in the minutes or in the record. Nevertheless, James W. Harris, Superintendent of the NPCSD in 1991 testified at the August 24, 1993, hearing, "I feel sure notices were posted because that's the practice that we do for all meetings."
The minutes of the meeting state that "numerous members of the public were also present." Furthermore, James Minor, attorney for the NPCSD, testified at the 1993 hearing,
There were a number of people there. I'm really not from Panola County, so sometimes I see faces and don't know them. But we have a very, very small meeting room and I'm usually there, but that meeting room was filled and there were people outside. But as to the number, I didn't go outside; but the meeting room itself was filled, yes, sir.
There are also conflicting reports as to which members of the board were at that meeting. The transcript of the minutes sent to the State Bond Attorney lists only four of the five members as present: the president of the board, Robert Haynes; the president pro-tempore, Stella Mamon; the chairman of finance, Polly Gordon; and the secretary, Charles Blakely. Missing from this list is parliamentarian Otis Wallace although this same transcript later lists him as voting at the meeting. Furthermore, the minutes from which the transcript was prepared state that all five board members, including Wallace, were present. Both accounts list Harris and Minor as being in attendance.
Adding more fuel to the fire of controversy is the fact that although the meeting took place on July 31, 1991, the minutes were not signed by board president Haynes until October 11, 1991, even though they were timely attested by Blakely. Minutes of this meeting and of several other meetings were approved unanimously at a special board meeting held August 21, 1991.
At the July 31 meeting, a resolution was approved by a vote of three-to-two to have a second election September 17 for a $4,000,000 school bond issue, which was also the date of the Democratic and Republican primaries. Voting for this resolution were Mamon, Blakely, and Wallace, while voting against it were Haynes and Gordon. A final draft of the resolution was not in front of the board at the time it was passed; a final draft was, however, filed with the Panola County Clerk on August 8, 1991.
The following colloquy concerning the absence of a final draft took place at the hearing between Randall Wall, the attorney who represented the NPCSD in connection with the bond issuance, and Guy Gillespie, the attorney who represented the NPCSD in the case at bar:
Q. (Mr. Gillespie ) Just a couple of questions, please. Mr. Wall, do you feel confident that prior to July 31 of 1991, Mr. Minor, the attorney for the school board, had in his possession a copy that was virtually identical, a copy of a resolution and in proposed form either identical or virtually identical to the form in which it appears in the transcript since sent to the State's bond attorney?
A. (Mr. Wall ) Yes.
Q. All right, sir. If there were anything left out or changes made, would those have been anything other than minor changes reflecting the date or the person who made the motion to adopt the resolution?
A. They would have been in substantially that form.
....
Q. All right, sir. Do you feel certain that prior to that time you had sent him a version of the resolution that was substantially identical to the one that you sent him back in August the 2nd with all the blanks filled in?
A. I'm not certain that I sent them, but I'm certain that he had one in his possession.
Furthermore, although a copy of the actual resolution considered at the July 31 meeting is not in the record, the resolution filed on August 8 is virtually identical to the resolution passed to call the first bond election.
Notice of the second election was published in the August 22 and 29, and September 5 and 12 editions of The Southern Reporter, a weekly newspaper of Panola County. The notice listed the following voting sites:
Precinct Voting Place
East Sardis Sardis City Hall
East Como Water Tower Building
Pleasant Mount Holden Store
West Sardis County Courthouse (Sardis)
West Como Como City Hall
South Sardis Sardis Library
Belmont-Hebron Radio Station in Industrial Park
Pleasant Grove Jennings Store
Crenshaw City Hall, Crenshaw
Longtown O'Neal Store
Fern Hill Raymond Speers Home
According to Robert Carter, Circuit Clerk of Panola County during the September 17 election, the West Como school bond election was held at one site, while the West Como primary election was held at two sites. Carter explained:
It was a policy the whole time I was clerk that if the ballot was heavy enough and we expected a heavy turnout, then we split that box.
You have to understand that the majority of the voters in those precincts up there are ones that have great difficulty reading ballots and making decisions in a hurry in the polling place. You have to give them plenty of time. And if we expected a big turnout, we knew it was going to take a lot of time in the booth for each individual voter, then we would split those boxes to make it move faster and a little smoother. We did this in all the boxes where we anticipated problems like that like that. [sic]
The bond issue we didn't expect that kind of problem because most people knew what they were going to do when they walked in there. It was either yes or no. And most of them knew what they were going to do and it shouldn't take but seconds to mark the ballot. And we didn't figure they were going to have lines backed up and that sort of thing, and so we didn't split it.
In West Como, the entire bond issue vote was held in the City Hall police station, 2 while the primary election was split, with A-to-K in the City Hall police station and L-to-Z in the nearby fire station.
Betty Matthews, a taxpayer/objector in this suit, who worked at the Republican table at the fire station, was cross-examined by Gillespie at the hearing about past election procedures:
Q. You said that prior to this election that you worked in September of 1991--
A. Yes, sir.
Q. --that was the first time you--the first time they had gotten it switched over to where you could vote in the police station and the fire station for the primaries?
A. That's the first time that I had worked in it.
Q. Right. Okay. And on previous occasions the regular voting place for that precinct had been the City Hall, as I understand it?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And the City Hall is right adjacent to the fire station and the police station?
A. Yes, sir. The police station is where the boxes are when they work in the City Hall.
Q. Okay. So let me make sure I understand it. In times past, the proper voting place for that precinct had always been City Hall?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. But a recent change allowed the primaries in '91 to be held in different places than where they had been before?
A. Well, they allowed us to go into the fire station.
Q. Okay.
A. I don't know the reasoning unless it was maybe because both of us was going to be set up in there. I don't know.
Q. All right.
A. I don't know the reason.
Q. But how many years did you say?
A. What?
Q. How long have you lived in this county?
A. I've lived in this county 53 years. That's how old I am. That's where I've lived all my life.
Q. I wasn't going to ask you that.
A. I've lived in the Como area for 30 years. I'm originally from Batesville.
Q. All right. And so in that 30 years this is the first time you remember the primary elections being held in the fire station and the police station as opposed to City Hall? Do I understand you correctly?
A. Yes sir. That's the first time I remember.
Q. So if someone preparing for an election in 1991, in September of '91 had told someone that their elections were going to be held at the usual place that they've always been held for west Como, that would have been the City Hall?
A. Yes, sir.
Carter gave testimony while being questioned by Gillespie which echoed that of Matthews:
Q. Mr. Carter, as I understand it, what you've told us is that elections had always in the past been at the Como City Hall for the West Como precinct?
A. That's where the designated precinct is and...
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