Two McComb selectmen have set up a special meeting at 5 p.m. Monday to consider appointing Alvin Burks to the McComb school board.
The city board discussed three other names for the school post at its meeting this week: Kizzy Coney, the current trustee who joined the board in 2018 and has said she would like another five-year term; former city administrator Dirkland Smith and former selectman Ronnie Brock.
No one made a motion to nominate Smith after current city administrator David Myers recommended him. Selectman Eddie Thompson suggested Brock but Mayor Quordiniah Lockley said the recommendation had to come from the city administrator.
Selectman Tommy McKenzie then amended the meeting agenda to nominate Coney, but the board vote was 3-3 and Lockley refused to cast a tiebreaking vote.
Burks, a resident of McComb, is a longtime employee of the Amite County School District. In recent years his duties have included management of Amite County’s college and career readiness program.
Selectmen Bruce Mullins and Eddie Thompson called Monday’s special meeting.
At the same time, at least four opinions from the Mississippi Ethics Commission were being circulated Friday, questioning whether up to three selectmen would create a conflict of interest or violate state law by voting on a school board appointment.
Selectman Tabitha Felder Isaac is a school district employee who works at Otken Elementary.
Selectman Matt Codding’s mother Sue Ellen Codding works in the district administration office.
Selectman Eddie Thompson’s son Trell Thompson is an assistant basketball coach at McComb High School.
In a 2009 opinion, the Ethics Commission told a city alderman who wanted to take a job as a school district coach that “public servants similarly situated (should) recuse themselves from voting on appointments to the school board to avoid the appearance of impropriety.”
The opinion also said a city board member who works for a school district “should fully recuse himself from all matters involving the municipal school district, including appointments to the school board.”
It added that city board members who are employed by a school district should vote on school board appointments only if their recusal would result in the lack of a quorum.
A 2010 Ethics Commission opinion on whether aldermen and a mayor whose relatives were employed by a school district could participate in school board appointments advised the officials “to fully recuse themselves from all matters involving the municipal separate school district in order to fully comply” with state law.
The opinion defines a relative as a board member’s spouse, child, parent, sibling or the spouse of any of those four relatives.
In that case, the opinion also noted that if the board vote is a tie, the mayor must vote on appointments to the school board “to serve the greater public interest.”
The other two Ethics Commission opinions were from 2018 and 2020.
The 2018 opinion said an alderman could provide architectural services for a school district but should recuse himself from school board appointments.
The 2020 opinion said an alderman whose spouse is a substitute teacher for the school district “should fully recuse himself” from voting on school board appointments.
