{"id":8110,"date":"2017-01-24T12:58:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T17:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/?p=8110"},"modified":"2017-01-24T13:08:09","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T18:08:09","slug":"8110","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/24\/8110\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaint filed with Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren against Cobb County School District and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale today – Adult Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 24, 2017<\/p>\n

Official Complaint<\/strong>
\nCobb County School District
\nMr. Chris Ragsdale, Superintendent<\/a>
\nViolation of OCGA 50-36-1
\nViolation of OCGA 50-36-4
\nViolation of Georgia\u2019s Open Records Act — OCGA 50-18-70<\/a><\/p>\n

To: Neil Warren
\nCobb County Sheriff
\n185 Roswell St NE,
\nMarietta, GA 30090<\/p>\n

Dear Sheriff Warren,<\/p>\n

Please regard this as my official complaint against Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and my request for investigation and enforcement action and that this complaint be shared with the Cobb District Attorney the state Attorney General\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

It is my educated opinion that Superintendent Ragsdale is in violation of OCGA 50-36-1 due to the fact that CCSD is and has been conducting Adult Education classes<\/a> in violation of state law put in place to insure tax dollars are not used to provide public benefits to ineligible recipients.<\/p>\n

Under existing state law, Adult Education is a public benefit. Any administration of public benefits requires that affidavits<\/a> attesting to eligibility (due to U.S. citizenship or lawful presence status for a non-citizens) be offered and collected by the agency administering the public benefits – and that secure and verifiable ID <\/a>be collected from the applicant to verify that eligibility.<\/p>\n

In part, OCGA 50-36-1 :<\/p>\n

(k) It shall be unlawful for any agency or political subdivision to provide or administer any public benefit in violation of this Code section. Agencies and political subdivisions subject to the requirements of this subsection shall provide an annual report to the Department of Audits and Accounts pursuant to Code Section 50-36-4 as proof of compliance with this subsection. Any agency or political subdivision failing to provide a report as required by this subsection shall not be entitled to any financial assistance, funds, or grants from the Department of Community Affairs.<\/p>\n

I have sent a valid open records request<\/a> to CCSD and spoken to the open records clerk there. Today, I received a response saying that the copies of the above-described documents are somehow exempt from Georgia\u2019s Open Records act.<\/p>\n

I want to take this opportunity to commend all concerned at CCSD for their resourcefulness in attempting to dodge the request and to conceal what I believe a lawful investigation will show: The requested documents do not exist, because CCSD is and has been in violation of state law on the administration of the Adult Education public benefit. To be clear, I am of the opinion that the response from CCSD is an effort to conceal that violation.<\/p>\n

I attach the reply I received via email today (8:59 AM) here:<\/p>\n

Mr. King,<\/p>\n

I am responding to your email submitted under the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. \u00a7 50- 18-70 et. seq. Your request is included below.
\nThe records being requested are not subject to disclosure under GORA, pursuant to O.C.G.A. 50-18-72(a)(1), because they are specifically required by federal law to be kept confidential.<\/p>\n

Regards,<\/p>\n

Kelly Moore
\nOpen Records Clerk
\nPolicy, Planning & Student Support
\nCobb County School District
\nPhone 770-514-3870
\nFax 678-594-7778
\nKelly.Moore@cobbk12.org<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is my opinion that this refusal to honor my request and the reply also puts CCSD in violation of Georgia\u2019s open records laws in that it attempts to mislead me into the belief that the required documents, if they exist, are exempt from public view. The contention from CCSD is that documents serving as proof of eligibility for public benefits required under state law are \u201cspecifically required by federal law to be kept confidential.\u201d I note that CCSD does not cite this \u201cfederal law.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have been involved in the creation, passage and implementation of Public Benefits laws\/OCGA 50-36-1 in Georgia since 2006. Including SB 529 (2006), HB 2 (2009), and HB 87 (2011).<\/p>\n

Sheriff Warren, please know that I am in the large majority of Georgians who values the hard work and courage shown on a daily basis by you and your Deputies and entire staff.<\/p>\n

Please contact me with any questions on my complaint and know that I am anxious for a reply. Each day CCSD is allowed to violate state law on this matter, taxpayers are not only losing needed funds, but the rule of law is degraded here in Cobb County<\/p>\n

Very respectfully submitted.<\/p>\n

D.A. King<\/p>\n

Marietta, Ga. 30066<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 24, 2017 Official Complaint Cobb County School District Mr. Chris Ragsdale, Superintendent Violation of OCGA 50-36-1 Violation of OCGA 50-36-4 Violation of Georgia\u2019s Open Records Act — OCGA 50-18-70 To: Neil Warren Cobb County Sheriff 185 Roswell St NE, Marietta, GA 30090 Dear Sheriff Warren, Please regard this as my official complaint against Cobb […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8110"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8128,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8110\/revisions\/8128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}