Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2006 > April > 18
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Secrecy might just backfire on board
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First, let’s praise them.
Gwinnett’s public schools operate well. Athletics and academics thrive and co-exist peacefully. Standardized test results, generally, rank among the highest in the state. New campuses open on schedule.The community supports its public schools.
And for that, we can thank the Big Man — Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks and his administration. Their pride runs deep. It should.
But sometimes they take it to the nth degree, turn praise and success into high-minded haughtiness.
And history has classic tales of where hubris can lead.
You probably know the details. The good news is that Mr. Wilbanks and his crew spent a whopping $117.4 million on more than 1,000 acres to build dozens of schools. The unsettling news is that they did it in secret, then told the public about it. They signed the contracts, let the ink dry, then announced the purchase during a joint meeting Thursday between school board members and county leaders.
Our school leaders say that they’re operating within the law and that making real estate purchases without public input is better for you and me. Better, they claim, because they can negotiate land prices truer to market value. Yet other government entities buy land in the open with no problem.
Our school leaders continue to ignore taxpayer concern as well as the opinion of the state’s top lawman. George Thurbert Baker, the state attorney general, has said that government entities thatbuy real estate in secret violate the state Open Meetings Act.
He’s said that an exemption to the act allows elected officials to negotiate real estate sales in private. All votes, though, must be taken in public.
It’s been nearly a year since the issue of secret purchases first came to light.
The Gwinnett County Commission has corrected its land-buying ways. At first, they, too, were reluctant to change the way things have always been. But instead of insisting their way was the right way, the commissioners eventually brought their transactions into the light. They still negotiate in private, but they require sellers to sign an agreement that locks in a price. Then, after releasing details of the purchase days in advance, they vote on the deal in a public meeting.
Not the school board. Wilbanks and the school board say they re-examined their policy and found that they were right all along. They wrap themselves in their success and push humility out the schoolhouse door.
They’re caught up in the trap of hubris.
And that can’t bode well for the long-term success of the school system. Board members can’t see it now, because all they see is success. But things change. Gwinnett changes, almost every day. Parents’ support may not always be as strong as it is today. The budget is near a crisis point. Tax increases may be inevitable.
If and when the tide turns and the Gwinnett school system begins experiencing the downside of growth and glory, then the heydays of success won’t much matter. What people will focus on then is the superior attitude of the board, and there will be no bigger example than the secrecy by which the board will have spent billions of dollars.
It’s why open government can never be a bad thing. And why secrecy is seldom a good thing.
