WCBC

March 26th, 2019 by WCBC Radio

The Allegany County Board of Education, by a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, retained the services  of Mike Llewellyn and the firm of Geppert, McMullen, Paye and Getty as the board’s legal counsel. Mirroring the actions of an early January meeting, board members Robert Farrell, David Bohn and Wayne Foote voted to appoint Llewellyn while rejecting a motion by members Tammy Fraley and Deb Frank to re-hire former board attorney Gary Hanna. The motion to hire Hanna was defeated by a vote of 3-2 with the board voting moments later in favor of Llewellyn. Frank and Fraley both argued that Hanna, who served more than 20 years as the board attorney, demonstrated a superior knowledge of education law and clearly is more experienced in that field. Prior to the vote Frank read a letter from the local Ethics Panal responding to questions she had submitted to the panal about potential conflicts of interests for both Farrell and Foote. Farrell currently has a lawsuit against the school board; while Foote is being investigated by the state at the request of the former school board. Frank noted that the Panal concluded neither Farrell or Foote should vote on the selection of the board attorney. Dr Bohn downplayed the conclusions of the Ethics Panal, suggesting there might be some bias attached to that group, and noted that the board is not bound by any ruling or advisory opinion. Farrell added that he believes Frank’s public questioning of Llewellyn’s ability to do the job might be cause for her recusal from the vote.