A good-government advocate known for filing open meetings lawsuits across the state on Thursday sued the Akron Public Schools Board of Education, claiming it held an illegal executive session.
Brian Ames, president of Open Government Advocates, filed the lawsuit in Summit County Common Pleas Court. He’s accusing the board of discussing a matter in executive session Jan. 8 that it was not legally allowed to talk about.
When board members came out of that executive session, they voted to approve a contract with Varsity Tutors, a Missouri tutoring company, an action that has come under fire from the Akron Education Association.
Read more: Dispute over tutors in Akron schools centers on teachers’ contract, state funds AND Akron teachers’ union seeks injunction to stop tutoring program, members protest at board meeting
In his filing, Ames said minutes from the board meeting show executive session was called “for the purpose of considering the employment or compensation of a public employee or official of the School District.”
But the vote afterward involved an LLC.
“An LLC is not a person,” Ames said. “There’s no way to do that in executive session. The results of it are invalid and the service agreement is void.”
Ames, who has sued more than 10 other Ohio school districts, said he’s interested in enforcing Ohio’s sunshine laws. Other districts have settled with him in his quest to make more districts follow open meetings laws.
He’s seeking $500 and a declaration that actions resulting from the executive session are invalid. Ames also asked in his suit for an injunction forcing school board members to comply with Ohio law.
Public is entitled to know what its school boards are doing
The school board president, Diana Autry, declined to comment on the filing, as did an attorney representing the school board.
In an email responding to Ames’ suit, Mark Williamson, a spokesperson for the school district, ridiculed the filing, saying it was rife with spelling and grammar errors.
“I love it when people promoting education struggle with English,” he wrote.
Ames said he filed the suit in Akron after reading coverage of an injunction the AEA is seeking in hopes of stopping the contract from moving forward. The injunction is “totally deficient,” Ames said, and isn’t in the proper format.
“It’s going to get thrown out of court,” he said. “There is merit, but you can’t get to the merit if you don’t file it right.”
Don Malarcik, an attorney representing the AEA, said, “Good for him” when he was told of the suit.
Ames said he has no problem if the board votes to approve the contract properly — unlike the AEA, which said that, in addition to open meetings concerns, it thinks the contract with Varsity Tutors violates its collective bargaining agreement. The AEA has also filed a grievance against the district, and President Pat Shipe has said she plans to file an unfair labor practice complaint.
For his part, Ames said he thinks the public is entitled to know what school boards are doing.
“People now know the school boards can’t just do whatever they want. They have to follow the law,” he said. “I wasn’t going to sit by idly when I can draft one of these complaints in a morning.”
