Be it in the N.C. General Assembly’s upcoming short session or the subsequent long session, proposed legislation restricting school boards from suing county commissioners is coming.
N.C. Rep. Carl Ford, R-Rowan, said he and other lawmakers are crafting a statewide bill aimed at cutting school districts’ ability to pursue litigation against the county’s elected officials.
Ford said he is not pursuing a local bill, and he is “almost positive” a statewide bill will not come through in the short session — unless a state senator makes a surprise move once the legislature convenes in May.
If not, Ford said the issue definitely will be brought up during the long session.
“Whoever is saying it is me pushing a local bill couldn’t be further from the truth,” Ford said. “They have been pushing it for years. Millions and millions have been spent on attorneys, yet most of these issues go unresolved or the school board may win part of the money. Things can drag on for years, thus building a wall between the two boards.”
Bills focusing on addressing divisive, controversial subjects like the one relating to lawsuits between school districts and counties do not have a good track record of making it through the short session, Ford said.
The bill being crafted is not an effort to completely take away the rights of school boards, Ford said, but instead to provide alternatives for discussion and curb the spending associated with fueling ongoing lawsuits.
“There are millions spent that the taxpayers are footing the bill for, and nobody is getting that money but the attorneys,” Ford said. “That is why we want it stopped. There will be more money for education. This is something they have been talking about for years before I got here.”
Although the dispute between Rowan County commissioners and the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education over funding for capital projects is one of the more recent examples of friction across the state, Union County is perhaps the biggest, Ford said.
“I don’t think anything will happen (in the short session), but I’ve been told that before, and it’s happened,” Ford said.
Dr. Richard Miller said his reaction to hearing talks about the potential bill is the “same as last year.”
Miller, chairman of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education, said he feels strongly about the repercussions of giving one governmental entity absolute authority while restricting bodies like the school board to raise their concerns, even through lawsuits.
“I think our forefathers had a sound system when they set up checks and balances,” Miller said. “The timing of the whole thing is very interesting. I wouldn’t want to imagine it with what is happening in our current situation.”
For Rowan County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jim Sides, the spending directed toward ongoing litigation between commissioners and school boards is a “terrible waste of money.”
“Union County has been sued eight times. We haven’t been sued yet, but we most likely will be,” Sides said. “We’ve had a system that has worked for 60 to 70 years where we can sit down and work out our differences.”
Sides said he has spoken with Rowan County’s representatives in Raleigh, and if those lawmakers were not able to pass a bill transferring the ownership and construction rights of school facilities to commissioners, then at least they could pass a bill addressing the financial loss associated with litigation over capital improvement funding arguments.
“With all the money that has been spent, not one teacher has been hired, not one raise has been given and not one book has been bought for a classroom,” Sides said. “I am much in favor of this bill. It is ridiculous that legislation such as this exists.”