Was the 2012 MV school board oath legal?

When the Mount Vernon Board of Education met for its organizational meeting in January 2012, it was missing something very important: A copy of the oath of office.

As even Chief Justice John Roberts could tell you, it’s probably better to have a copy of the oath in front of you than to try to wing it.

Nonetheless, Superintendent Steve Short decided to wing it. Or, as he put it, “We’re making this up as we go.”

The 2012 oath of office

Here’s what happened at the opening of the meeting:

Dr. Margie Bennett: Are you going to give us the oath of office?

Steve Short: I don’t have it.

MB: We may have to wait. … Because we won’t have a quorum.

SS: We need to. Go ahead, and I’ll give it if that’s OK.

MB: OK

SS: We’re making this up as we go.

MB: Is it legal, then?

SS: Well, as the treasurer is not here, and I don’t anticipate her getting here until close to 7:30, I can go ahead and ask the question; what do you guys think, would you rather wait—

MB: Are you going to do us together, or do you want one at a time? You probably wouldn’t say the same thing three times.

SS: Let’s all do it together. How’s that? Let’s go over here. And let’s put the left hand on the Bible; raise the right hand. ‘I swear to do the duties of a board member of the Mount Vernon City Schools.’

MB, Cheryle Feasel and Jody Goetzman: I do.

SS: I hereupon decree that you are a board member of the Mount Vernon City Schools. Thank you.

(See here for a video clip from the meeting.)

The oath as reported in the official record

Here’s what was recorded in the minutes of that meeting:

“Do you solemly (sic) swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio; and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge your duties as a member of the Board of Education of the Mount Vernon City School District, Knox County, Ohio, to the best of your ability, and accordance with the laws now in effect and hereinafter to be enacted, during your continuance in said office, and until your successor is elected and qualified?”

For you math folks, the oath reported in the minutes showed a 418.75% increase in word count over the actual oath administered.

The board subsequently approved the minutes of the meeting.

During research for this article, AccountabilityInTheMedia.com submitted a public records request for copies of the relevant minutes.

Due to several tell-tale shadow lines around a group of signatures on the minutes of the organizational meeting, AccountabilityInTheMedia.com requested to examine the original at the school’s district office.

The examination of the original document showed that the signatures had been physically cut-and-pasted onto the document.

(The Mount Vernon City Schools occasionally uses cut-and-paste signatures, such as those shown in this photo.)

“The signatures are authentic, as you saw,” Short told AccountabilityInTheMedia.com in an email. “To place the document in the minutes book it had to be reduced.  The Board members signed the oath and those signatures were placed in the minutes book after the original was signed.  It was simply a process that allowed the oath to be printed in the minutes book.”

Research by AccountabilityInTheMedia.com did not find anything in Ohio law that specified that the oath was required to be signed or that signing the oath would substitute for a properly administered oath.

Ohio law and board bylaw

As noted earlier, Bennett raised the following question at the organizational meeting: “Is it legal, then?”

Both Ohio Revised Code 3313.10 ("Oath of office of member") and board Bylaw 0142.1 (“Oath”) require that the oath be taken before entering into the duties of the office:

O.R.C. 3313.10: 

Before entering upon the duties of his office each person elected or appointed a member of a board of education shall take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of this state and that he will perform faithfully the duties of his office. Such oath may be administered by the treasurer or any member of the board.

Board Bylaw 0142.1: 

Before entering upon the duties of a member of the Board, each elected or appointed member shall make the following oath, which may be administered by the Treasurer, or any member of the Board: 

I, __________________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support The Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio; and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge my duties as a member of the Board of the Mount Vernon City School District, Knox County, Ohio, to the best of my ability, and in accordance with the laws in effect during my term of office until my successor is chosen and qualified.

Both O.R.C. 3313.10 and board Bylaw 0142.1 include explicit reference to supporting the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Ohio.

The oath administered by Short did not include any such explicit reference: “I swear to do the duties of a board member of the Mount Vernon City Schools.”

Although someone could attempt to argue that supporting the Constitution is implied through the words “the duties,” Ohio law makes a distinction between the wording and the content of the oath.

O.R.C. 3.21 (“Form of oath”) says, “Subject to any section of the Revised Code that prescribes the form of an oath, a person may be sworn in any form the person deems binding on the person’s conscience.”

However, O.R.C 3.23 (“Contents of oath of office”) says, in its relevant part, “The oath of office of every other officer, deputy, or clerk shall be to support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of this state, and faithfully to discharge the duties of the office.”

The oath administered by Short closely matches the wording of the second half of the required content of the oath: “[F]aithfully to discharge the duties of the office.”

The flexibility allowed in the form or wording of the oath would conceivably allow the second half of the oath’s content to be worded as, say, “I’ll never let you down.” That flexibility in the form of the oath, however, does not negate that both the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Ohio are included under the required content.

Of possible relevance to the impact of an incorrectly administered oath are O.R.C. 3.01 (“Continuation in office until successor elected or appointed and qualified”) and O.R.C 3.22 (“Oath of office”).

O.R.C. 3.01 says, “A person holding an office of public trust shall continue therein until his successor is elected or appointed and qualified, unless otherwise provided in the constitution or laws of this state.”

Two out of the three people given the oath in January of this year had been re-elected to the position. Assuming they had been given a valid oath previously, O.R.C. 3.01 would seem to allow them to continue in office.

O.R.C 3.22 says, in part, “The failure to take such oath shall not affect his liability or the liability of his sureties.”

AccountabilityInTheMedia.com has requested comment from the Ohio Department of Education regarding the legality of the oath administered by Short.

Additional information

Emails to and from AccountabilityInTheMedia.com regarding the oath of office

Julian & Grube, Inc 2011 audit of the MVCS

The signed minutes of the Jan. 10, 2012 MVBOE organizational meeting

The signed minutes of the Feb. 13, 2012 MVBOE regular meeting

UPDATE 10-22-2012:

John Charlton, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Education, declined to comment on whether the wording used by Short complied with Ohio law.

Charlton did comment on whether Short was qualified to administer the oath: “The superintendent is not qualified to administer the oath, unless the superintendent also is a notary public.”

According to research done by a person from the Knox County Clerk of Courts Office, no one by the name of “Stephen Short” is listed as a notary public in Ohio.

Short told AccountabilityInTheMedia.com in an email this afternoon that he is not a notary:

“My administration of the oath was purely ceremonial for the public meeting, I am not a notary.  I gave them a verbal representation of the oath.  Our Treasurer fulfilled the requirements of giving the oath that night when she presented the incoming board members the oath and had them sign it.  The minutes reflect the actual oath given by the Treasurer which she had the incoming board members execute.”

AccountabilityInTheMedia.com has requested comment from Judy Stahl-Reynolds, the school’s treasurer, regarding whether she administered the oath of office.

(See here for part two of emails to and from AccountabilityInTheMedia.com regarding the oath of office.)


UPDATE 10-24-2012:

Stahl-Reynolds said that she officially administered the oath of office by way of having Bennett, Feasel and Goetzman sign a copy of the oath:

The Oath of Office was officially administered to the newly elected/re-elected Board members by me on January 10, 2012.  As you know, Mr. Short administered a modified version of the Oath of Office verbally because I was not at the meeting in time.  After I arrived, all three members in question signed, witnessed by me, the Oath of Office stating the following:

“Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio, and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge your duties as a member of the Board of Education of the Mount Vernon City School District, Knox County, Ohio, to the best of your ability, and in accordance with the laws now in effect and hereinafter to be enacted during your continuance in said office, and until your successor is elected and qualified.”

Based on the information supplied by the school, what remains of the document signed is the signatures pasted onto the minutes of the organizational meeting.