Lee School Board declines to consider ethics complaint against member Louis Hatcher

LEESBURG — The Lee County Board of Education on Monday declined to consider an ethics complaint against board member Louis Hatcher filed last week by a resident of the community.

Board Chairman Frank Griffin confirmed the complaint was submitted by Mike Sabot in regard to a story that appeared in the Oct. 6 Albany Herald and posts made on the Phoebe Factoids Facebook page, a site that unabashedly supports the creation of a new 60-bed hospital in southern Lee County.

Hatcher has not openly supported or opposed the proposed hospital, but he has voiced his concern on the impact the facility might have on Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, which he said in The Herald article would in turn have a detrimental effect on Lee County

Sabot said he filed the complaint because “(Hatcher) brought me into a story Carlton Fletcher wrote during an interview with Hatcher, plus he was making comments in regard to Will Geer (who contributes to the Phoebe Factoids website). That is not the job of a member of the school board.”

Sabot sent the complaint to Lee County School Superintendent Jason Miller last week, then emailed a copy of his complaint to The Herald on Tuesday:

Dr. Miller:

I wish to file a Code of Ethics violation complaint against Lee County Board of Education member Lewis (sic) Hatcher.

In specific,

Board Policy

Descriptive Code: BH

Board Operations

Code of Ethics

Date December 13, 2010

Conduct as Board Member

Take no private action that will compromise the board or school system administration.

• On October 6, in an article publicly published in the Albany Herald by Carlton Fletcher, Lewis (sic) Hatcher named in the article as Attorney Louis Hatcher and Lee School Board member of 15 years, did make numerous allegations against members of Lee County, parents of Lee County students, and members of the Lee County Board of Commissioners, by name with unfounded and untruthful statements. Against the policy students must follow, (Hatcher) did threaten bodily harm to a parent of a Lee County student (Will Geer), Lee County Director of Development, and 2 Lee County Commissioners, showing a poor role model for Lee County students.

• On Oct 2 (Hatcher) did commit cyber bullying in a public posting on Facebook of parents and residents of Lee County, calling a Lee County student’s parent a false prophet, detailing personal financial problems of a parent of a Lee County student, denigrating parents of Lee County students and Lee County residents, labeling them “sheeple,” saying they have never mattered to society and never done anything of consequence.

• On Oct 2 did slander fellow attorney, Lee County resident and Lee County Commissioners Billy Mathis in a public posting on Facebook. Specifically recommending people not go to said individual for legal advice and said individual was not trustworthy.

Lee County Board of Education Lewis (sic) Hatcher has since tried to cleanse his Facebook postings, but numerous copies still exist and are circulating. Publicly visible to all including Lee County students.

Mike Sabot

Hatcher responded at Monday’s board meeting.

“As a member of the Lee County Board of Education, my two priorities are to God and the people and children of my district,”Hatcher said. “The people of Lee County, and I, know I have served the county diligently. When people with twisted minds on the Factoids site dragged our family and children into this, they crossed the line.”

In other action, the BOE unanimously approved extending Miller’s contract to 2020.