Legal representation for Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp filed earlier this month an appeal to U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy's injunction against the applying of Georgia Code 20-2-51(c), an election provision that would have kept Bartow County School Board member Lamar Grizzle from running for re-election. The provision --established under Georgia House Bill 251, passed last year by the state General Assembly -- prevented former Gainesville City Board of Education member Kelvin Simmons from running last year for re-election.
Grizzle and Simmons filed in January a lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of the election provision; Kemp is the remaining defendant in the suit. Due to Murphy's order, Grizzle was allowed to qualify last month for this year's board election.
The election code says that "no person who has an immediate family member sitting on a local board of education or serving as the local school superintendent or as a principal, assistant principal, or system administrative staff in the local school system shall be eligible to serve as a member of such local board of education." Immediate family is defined as "a spouse, child, sibling, or parent or the spouse of a child, sibling, or parent." The plaintiffs were affected by the law as Grizzle's daughter, Kimberly Ruff, serves as an assistant principal at Pine Log Elementary, while Simmons' wife serves as assistant principal at Gainesville Middle School.
Since the state's appeal filing, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has signed new legislation that impacts the election restriction in question. Enacted last week was Senate Bill 84, which covers qualifications of school board members, board ethics issues and the process to which board members can be removed.
The approved legislation also adds language to the code to where the election restriction involving relatives of district employees applies only when the employee began his or her employment on or after Jan. 1 of this year. Ruff has been in her assistant principal position since 2006.
"[In] my understanding, the way Senate Bill 84 is written, in his particular situation, [Grizzle] would be grandfathered," said Boyd Pettit, attorney for the Bartow County School Board, who has been watching the case.
"I would see the passage of that bill as mooting the appeal," said Peter Olson, an attorney representing Grizzle and Simmons.
Grizzle on Friday declined to comment on the case.
Prior to the filing of the appeal, Olson filed on behalf of his clients a motion for attorney fees in the amount of $30,920. The Kemp camp has a few days left to respond to the plaintiffs' motion.
Several attempts to reach the state attorney general's office last week regarding Kemp's appeal in the wake of the new legislation were unsuccessful.