Bradenton
Manatee County School Board member Dave Miner is feuding with the chair of a voluntary oversight group, a rift that formed in June before it grew much wider at a recent board meeting.
“I think if we continued he would have tried to take a swing at me,” Robert Christopher, chairman of the Citizens’ Financial Advisory Committee, said in a recent interview. “He wanted a physical altercation, and I wasn’t going to satisfy him.”
The committee had its charter — the organization’s guiding document — approved with a 4-1 vote of the school board on Tuesday, nearly four months after the group had its first meeting. Miner cast the dissenting vote.
At its core, the group is charged with oversight of money generated by an increase on property taxes, which voters approved in March. The money is earmarked to help the district increase its salaries and improve its science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.
Tuesday’s board agenda included two proposed charters: one drafted by the committee and another crafted by Miner, who felt the committee’s document was lacking in several areas.
Christopher approached the board and answered questions. Speaking on his own charter, Miner said, “Did you take time, did you care enough to read this, sir?”
Christopher said he never reviewed the other document. Miner read one line from his charter, headed by a new title, before he digressed.
“The exclusive mission and authority of the Citizens Independent Millage Oversight Committee,” he said before trailing off. “And you can call it finance committee or the Bob Christopher Committee, I don’t care.”
He interrupted Christopher over the next 30 seconds, prompting a tap of the gavel by board Chair Scott Hopes.
“What purpose is your adversarial approach to a volunteer?” he said.
“Don’t badger the poor man — he’s a volunteer,” board member John Colon added.
Miner suggested they take a recess and allow Christopher to review both proposed charters. A 10-minute break ensued, and the dispute nearly came to a head in the board chambers.
Miner, as witnessed by a reporter, grew increasingly agitated as he stood within inches of Christopher’s face.
“I tried to diffuse it,” Christopher later said. “I said this is going nowhere and somebody’s going to take a swing at somebody.”
The committee’s chair, Miner said, was questioning his intentions to serve the community. Christopher said his message was somehow lost, and that he was actually trying to highlight their similarities: both he and Miner are working for Manatee’s residents.
On Thursday, Miner also disputed the notion he might become violent.
“Maybe I have to work on style, and maybe he has to work on getting his act together when bringing something to the board,” Miner said.
‘An enemy’
It seems Tuesday’s encounter was not a one-off event. On June 20, a day after the Citizens’ Financial Advisory Committee held its second meeting, then-superintendent Diana Greene was contacted about a dispute.
Board chairman Hopes sent an email to Greene and recounted two phone calls from Christopher.
“Mr. Christopher, in his words, was ‘quite disturbed’ by Mr. Miner approaching him in the parking lot, putting his head in Mr. Christopher’s vehicle, spewing profanity and criticizing the actions of Mr. Christopher and the Committee,” his email read. “Mr. Christopher claims Mr. Miner acted like an ‘enemy’ in his aggression.”
Hopes also requested surveillance video from the Professional Support Center, off 63rd Avenue East, where the meeting was held.
“I’ll have it done today,” Greene replied. However, Hopes later said, the cameras were never reconnected after workers repaired the building’s roof.
Christopher said much of the email is accurate, though it was not Miner who initiated the encounter. Christopher said he was driving through the parking lot as he locked eyes with Miner, who was stepping into his car.
Christopher said he stopped, rolled down his passenger-side window and assured Miner that everything would be OK.
“He got real aggressive and said, ‘You screwed up; I didn’t like the way you ran the meeting,’” Christopher said.
He also said the conversation was intense, but that Miner was not “spewing profanity,” as the email states.
Miner said he checked with the board attorney, James Dye, and found that commenting on Hopes’ email and interviews could be a violation of the Sunshine Act. He did, however, recall parts of the parking lot incident.
He said there was likely a disagreement over how the meeting was managed, but he denied acting aggressively.
“I wasn’t trying to climb in (the window),” Miner said. “This guy comes up and he starts talking to me, and I’m trying to hear what he says over the sounds of outside and the motor running on his car.”
‘A resolution of contempt’
At the June 19 meeting, shortly before the parking lot encounter, committee members voted to bring a resolution to the school board.
Committee member Garin Hoover made a motion to request broader oversight authority. After further discussion, his motion passed with an 8-6 vote.
Miner, speaking on Thursday, said the vote should have never taken place. The board’s agency clerk emailed Christopher about one week prior, notifying him of the board’s decision to roll back the committee’s oversight authority.
But, according to minutes from the committee meeting, Christopher said “he was not aware of the amendment passed on June 12, 2018, that redefined the charge of the committee.”
Miner said he was frustrated by the apparent contradiction.
“It seemed like more than denial on the part of Mr. Christopher to comply with the school board,” he said.
The group was created to “issue an annual report to insure proper fiscal stewardship” of money collected through the tax increase, and to “identify relevant outcomes and report results to the community.”
However, the school board voted in February to expand the committee’s roles, allowing it to review “other areas of financial concern brought forward by a committee member, a member of the public, the superintendent or school board members.” Then, on June 12, school board members Colon and Charlie Kennedy supported a motion by Miner to limit the committee’s oversight to the receipt and disbursement of millage funds.
The committee brought its request to the school board on June 26, asking for its previous authority to be reinstated, and Miner called it a “resolution of contempt.” He felt the board’s decision should be final — committee members had “thumbed their noses” at the board, in his mind.
Board members came to a consensus about one month later: the committee’s main focus is the one-mill tax increase, but it could review other issues with a majority vote of the school board.
But the board was still torn on the definition of independence, and whether district employees could volunteer for the committee.
The debate spilled into Tuesday’s meeting.
Two charters
Everyone seemed to agree that proper use of the tax money is paramount, but the details are a point of contention.
Miner’s proposed charter dubbed it the “Citizens Independent Millage Oversight Committee,” and his charter said the committee’s “exclusive mission” was to oversee the collection and use of millage funds.
The committee’s chairman took issue with the term “exclusive,” which might limit the group from reviewing other issues with approval by a majority of the board. Christopher also opposed a section of the charter that allowed committee members to be removed “for any reason as determined by the School Board.”
Christopher, to the agreement of board members, said he shouldn’t be removed because they “don’t like the color of my eyes.”
And, after months of debate, the definition of “independence” remained unclear. Miner’s charter said the committee would accept anyone, regardless of their employer, aside from school board members or district supervisors.
The committee’s charter barred district employees from joining. However, the members voted 11-0 on Sept. 18 to submit their charter and allow the school board attorney, Dye, to make technical changes that would allow two district employees to remain on the committee.
Those members are Pat Barber, president of the Manatee Education Association; and Deanna Howell, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Christopher said he was comfortable with their involvement because neither member could swing a vote of the 18-member committee. And though the committee was wary of their membership at first, he said, their was a change of heart.
“The two members, Ms. Barber and Ms. Howell, have been wonderful contributing members of the committee,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We appreciate their attendance, we welcome their input. It has been constructive in every manner.”
Their decision to keep both employees was never reflected on the draft charter included in Tuesday’s agenda. Miner said the draft should have been updated for public review and, regardless, it still restricted district involvement.
He said the charter treated “employees of this district as second-class citizens,” defined as “people they consider unworthy of sitting on this committee.”
Approved
After a confusing series of events, including a “motion to amend the motion to amend,” the committee’s charter was adopted.
The final charter, according to their amendments, should include a technical change that allows the two union representative to remain members.
And the original section on member removal should remain the same. Committee members can only be removed for a “lack of attendance” or a “repetitive failure” to fulfill their duties, it states.
Miner originally moved to approve his own charter. After an hour of chaos, the board chair made a successful motion for a “strike-all amendment,” erasing the text of Miner’s charter and replacing it with the committee’s language. The final charter, including several small changes, was then approved.
Miner said he felt he was steamrolled by the board chair, accusing Hopes of acting unprofessional. Hopes, who is up for re-election, said his fellow board member is actively trying to undermine the campaign.
“We have a chair that doesn’t know how to manage a committee,” Miner said. “He’s more interested in trying to push his own personal feelings as opposed to what’s best for the community.”
“We followed procedure,” Hopes said. “It’s not the procedure Miner wanted to follow, but we followed parliamentary procedure.
Both men share a history of bad blood. On Feb. 27, soon after a school board meeting, they argued outside the School Support Center on Manatee Avenue West. Hopes later filed a report with the Bradenton Police Department, accusing Miner of trying to run him over during the argument.
Miner said he was merely trying to leave the parking lot, and police closed the case after finding “that probable cause to file the charge of aggravated assault did not exist.”
As for the committee charter, Miner said he may revive the discussion at the next board meeting.
Christopher, caught in the middle of ongoing board drama, said his peers would not be deterred.
“What I can’t let it do is get personal and creep into the committee’s work,” Christopher said. “we’ve got a job to do, we’re going to do it.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2018 1:49 PM.