Johnston County school board turns to DA after censured member refuses to resign
The Johnston County Board of Education will try to have one of its members removed after he refused to resign on Friday in light of allegations that he violated the board’s ethics policy.
Board member Ronald Johnson was asked to submit his resignation by noon Friday or face removal proceedings after the board voted 6-1 on Wednesday to censure him. Johnson hadn’t resigned as of Friday afternoon, Board Chair Todd Sutton told The News & Observer.
In response, Sutton said he had formally asked Susan Doyle, the Johnston County district attorney, to step in and review the findings of an investigation conducted by a law firm that represents the board, to determine if Johnson’s conduct had violated a state law governing public officials including school board members, and warranted his removal.
Johnson was pressed by the board to resign after the law firm, Tharrington Smith, submitted its findings that Johnson had secretly recorded conversations among board members in violation of the board’s ethics policy, and had abused his power by trying to have two special-education students removed from a school due to his personal issues with a parent.
During the board’s meeting on Wednesday, Johnson referred to the allegations against him as a “witch hunt,” and accused the board of ignoring the will of voters who reelected him to a second term in 2020 by trying to have him removed.
“This is outrageous,” Johnson said. “This is in strict conflict with what the people of this county said they wanted less than a year-and-a-half ago.”
Johnson did not return a request for comment from The N&O on Friday.
Also a detective in the Smithfield Police Department, Johnson was placed on leave on July 5 while the department conducted an internal investigation, before he was placed on unpaid leave on July 13 instead.
In addition to reviewing the results of the investigation into Johnson’s conduct as a school board member, Sutton also asked Doyle to review “whether the circumstances that led to” his suspensions with and without pay from the police department supported his removal from the board.
Investigation details allegations of ethics violations
As part of their investigation, Tharrington Smith attorneys looked into an allegation that Johnson had secretly recorded a board discussion during a closed session on May 31, when members were talking about administrator salaries. Johnson was accused of later playing part of the recording for an employee whose salary was being discussed.
In their report to the board, attorneys said the evidence they gathered by speaking to board members, staff members and administrators, indicated that Johnson had secretly recorded a portion of the meeting, in violation of a policy prohibiting members from making recordings about school board business.
The attorneys also said that Johnson had admitted during their investigation that he recorded conversations among board members on about 10 occasions since January.
Attorneys also looked into whether Johnson tried to remove two special-education students from their assigned school.
The principal at the school, which was not identified in the report to board members, told attorneys that Johnson had asked him to remove the students as a personal favor, due to issues between Johnson and one of the parents. According to the report, attorneys asked to interview Johnson about the incident at least twice, but did not hear back from him.
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This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Johnston County school board turns to DA after censured member refuses to resign."
