Investigation into alleged ethics violation by Onaway school board member ends
Trending
ONAWAY -- On Tuesday, during an Onaway Area School Board of Education special meeting, the board voted to not to continue an investigation against board member Lorrie Kowalski and to reinstate Thrun Law Firm as its legal counsel.
Kowalski was accused of violating the board's code of ethics due to some remarks she allegedly made against a teacher during a committee meeting. Board President Jim Reiger stated that in accordance with the board's rules, he spoke to Kowalski and, after some conversations with the legal counsel, believed that there was no violation from Kowalski.
"I spoke to Lorrie about these alleged violations, we had a pretty good conversation," Reiger said. "Thrun's attorney was there. He corrected a few mistakes and he answered some other questions. With the answers I received, I don't feel that there was an ethics violation."
A motion to continue the investigation was brought to the board. During the discussion before the vote, board member Annette Porter expressed a desire for the investigation to continue claiming that she had seen video of the incident and that Kowalski did what she was accused of doing.
"This is not me just guessing," Porter said. "She violated the rights of the teacher in the school to violate older media."
For the motion to continue, a majority of the board needed to vote in favor of it. With Kowalski abstaining, the board vote was split three-to-three, meaning the motion for continuing the investigation failed with Porter, Jeremy Veal, and Mike Hart voting in favor of the motion and Reiger, John Palmer, and Erin Chaskey voting against it.
After the vote, Porter then accused Rieger of committing an ethics violation of his own, but didn't specify what violation, if any, had been committed.
The board then addressed its situation with Thrun Law Firm and ultimately reinstated the firm as its legal representation after a vote.
On Sept. 30 the board ended its relationship with Thrun Law as its legal representation. Some board members expressed confusion, believing that Reiger had made the decision unilaterally without discussing it with them. Reiger denied this, insisting that the decision to remove Thrun as legal counsel was the product of a 30-day notice given by the board in August.
After discussion, a motion to reinstate Thrun as legal counsel was brought forward. In a five-to-two vote, the board voted to reinstate Thrun as legal counsel with only Kowalski and Palmer voting against it.