McGhee resigns as Madison Co. superintendent

The resignation will take effect Friday. McGhee will be paid three months salary plus his accumulated vacation time.

— For more on the resignation, see the July 29 print edition of The Madison County Journal.

— Here is the front-page article from the July 22 Madison County Journal:

"McGhee's 'affair' e-mails distributed"

An open records request has revealed tampering within Madison County School Superintendent Mitch McGhee’s public e-mail account to hide evidence of the school head’s extra-marital affair.

Athens attorney Alan M. Alexander Jr. — representing an anonymous client — received differing versions of requested school system e-mail records, the first of which omitted sexual discussions and rendezvous plans between McGhee and a north Georgia educator (see editor’s note). Only after threatening legal action did Alexander receive the full-length version with damaging details.

McGhee agreed to meet at The Journal office July 18 for a face-to-face interview on the allegations of an affair and records tampering to hide the relationship.

“My wife and I have had long discussions on it,” said McGhee. “Anyone that I have offended, I apologize to. I am remorseful for any actions that came across as hypocritical. And I may have had behavior that was hypocritical. I can assure everyone that is not the case any longer. And those that I’ve offended that can find forgiveness, I ask for that. Beyond that, anyone who wants to come and talk to me individually, I will be open and honest with them.”

McGhee said he was advised by the school’s law firm, Harben, Hartley & Hawkins, that editing the e-mails was allowable since they didn’t pertain to school business.

“We were told that really it should only be things related to school business,” said McGhee. “So, they (the e-mails) were heavily redacted and things taken out that didn’t relate to school business. At that point in time, it became apparent they weren’t really interested in school business. It was a personal attack. They were trying to get dirt. And once that became apparent, we took the view of very little redactions.”

RECORDS REQUEST FILED IN MAY

Alexander, who won’t reveal who has hired him to investigate McGhee, filed several open records requests May 20 with McGhee, who has been in charge of the county school system for three years. The attorney requested all e-mail correspondence dating back to July 1, 2008, between McGhee and an education administrator in another north Georgia county. The attorney also requested pay stubs for McGhee, assistant superintendent Bonnie Knight and school board chairman Jim Patton.

Alexander received McGhee’s e-mail records in early June through Harben, Hartley & Hawkins. But the attorney replied to the school’s legal representatives June 10, saying it was clear that someone had doctored the documents.

“It is plain to me someone has heavily edited the e-mails,” wrote Alexander to the school attorneys. “There are large gaps where words should be. Some of the sentences make no sense. I do not wish to file suit to contest the response, but unless I receive the unedited e-mails within three business days from today, that is what will happen. The school district can rest assured this matter will not be resolved until the district fully complies with the request as the law requires. No more requests, no more letters, the lawsuit is next unless the district fully complies.”

Alexander received the unedited version of McGhee’s emails from Harben, Hartley & Hawkins on June 16.

“Enclosed you will find a disk that has been provided to me by the Superintendent containing unedited e-mails, which are responsive to the above-referenced request,” wrote attorney Cory O. Kirby.

McGhee said he was told there was precedent to block information that is “embarrassing or could cause harm” that has no bearing on school business.

“There is some precedent for being able to block those, but that might require a lengthy court battle,” said McGhee. “And so I wasn’t willing to spend school system money to that effect.”

ATTORNEY SAYS TAMPERING IS CRIME

Georgia Press Association attorney David Hudson said altering e-mails after receiving an open records request for such material is a crime.

“Intentional destruction of public records after receiving an ORA request would at least be a criminal violation of O.C.G.A. § 50-14-6 (a misdemeanor),” wrote Hudson. “Also, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-102 has a criminal provision for ‘alienation, alteration, theft or destruction of records by any person or persons in a manner not authorized by an applicable retention schedule.’ That then raises a question of whether the county/city in question had an approved record retention schedule as required under O.C.G.A. § 50-18-92, et seq.”

On July 19, The Journal requested a dollar figure on school system money spent defending the superintendent from the open records requests. McGhee said the law office bills per month and that the bill is not broken down by issue. He said Harben and Hartley generally takes in $1,500 to $2,000 per month from the county school system. He estimated the total legal cost of his defense on the records request at $967.50.

A PACKAGE ARRIVES

On Friday, July 16, a three-inch thick black binder with all the open records documents was delivered to MainStreet Newspapers publisher Mike Buffington in Jefferson. There was no name or return address provided. (MainStreet Newspapers, which prints six area papers, is the parent company of The Madison County Journal.) The binder included approximately 160 pages of front and back documents in plastic page protectors. There is a glossary and index. All edited e-mails were placed next to unedited versions to show where record tampering had occurred. The tampered portions were highlighted in yellow. The records included a three-page cover letter dated July 14 to Buffington, saying that the newspaper company had failed to adequately dig into the BOE chairman’s insurance coverage issue. The letter writer did not offer a name, signing the letter “a concerned citizen, parent and Madison County alumnus.”

“Don’t you guys get it?” the letter writer stated. “Supt. McGhee has been letting Chairman Patton have free health insurance for how long we don’t know.”

The letter writer said McGhee has also been spending school time exchanging lewd, sexual emails with an educator in another county. The writer took issue with taxpayers footing any of McGhee’s bills.

“Why do we the taxpayers have to pay for the school board attorney to work for Superintendent McGhee on a personal matter, particularly considering the first set of e-mails was an obvious attempt to keep me from reading the ‘real’ e-mails that contains all the sexual banter…” wrote the letter writer.

WRITER’S ATTORNEY SPEAKS

Attorney Alexander said July 20 that the records sent to The Madison County Journal are legitimate. The binder includes two CDs sent to the attorney, one with edited e-mails and the other with the unedited version.

Asked if he thought the tampering of e-mails constitutes a crime, Alexander said he has received instructions not to comment on the matter at this time.

“I have received instructions from my client not to comment,” he said.

Alexander said he cannot reveal his client’s identity “at this time.” He cannot say whether he is representing one person or multiple people. Asked if his client or clients may reveal their identity in the future, he responded, “absolutely.”

Alexander was asked if his client may pursue further legal action in the case, he said: “Yes, that’s been discussed. Exactly what’s been discussed, I can’t go into that.”

WHAT THE E-MAILS SAY

The bulk of the public documents obtained by Alexander for his client are correspondence between McGhee and the north Georgia educator. Both are married with children. Both used public school e-mail addresses to converse. Many of the conversations took place during school hours.

The e-mail documents include many major discrepancies between edited and unedited versions. Many of the edited versions exclude sexual discussions included in the unedited emails, such as a message from the woman to McGhee: “miss you very much, long to lie naked with you and don’t know the rest…”

There was no profanity spelled out in the e-mails. However, there were numerous instances of sexually explicit language. McGhee and the woman frequently used a code in their e-mails, which was edited out of the initial versions sent to the attorney. For instance, in one email exchange between McGhee and the woman between 1:35 and 2:37 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009, a school day, the woman questioned what the “B” stands for; the reply was “beg.”

“Don’t make me beg, just fmh!” she replied.

The e-mails included numerous arrangements for meetings between the two. The details of those arrangements were edited out of the initial records request.

“Sunday night the 22nd could be a possibility?” wrote McGhee to the woman.

Another altered e-mail included the removal of the woman’s recounting of a family member using her cell phone to call a friend and accidentally calling McGhee’s office instead.

“Before I knew it, I heard ‘You have reached the Madison County BOE,’ and he said, What the?’” the woman wrote to McGhee on Oct. 13, 2009. “I grabbed the phone and said evidently that was not the number. But he wanted to question, ‘Who was that?’ … My face was blood red I’m sure.”

MCGHEE AGREES TO INTERVIEW

After receiving the lengthy binder of documents July 16, The Journal reviewed the material the following day and contacted McGhee July 18, to request a sit-down meeting in The Journal office that afternoon, an opportunity for McGhee to review the documents and respond.

As he looked through the heavy black binder in The Journal office, the superintendent said he’s very disturbed that the person or people behind the records requests and numerous mailouts around the county did not contact him first.

“Nobody has come to me face to face on this,” he said. “I certainly have my faults, my mistakes and my issues that I am dealing with, first between me and the Lord, second me and my wife and family and third me and the board of education. But the nature of this attack, if I knew who it was I’d go talk to them face to face because I think they’re doing wrong as well.”

McGhee was asked whether he regretted not carrying out his correspondence with the woman on Gmail, Yahoo or another free e-mail service available on the Web. The fact that the conversations with the woman were on a taxpayer-funded computer on a public e-mail account made them available for public review.

“I have thought of that and quite honestly, in one respect, that would have been a lot easier on me personally,” said McGhee. “I’ve told several people this, but as much as I think this person is behaving unethically, in many respects, I owe them a debt of gratitude. It’s made me refocus on the priorities in my life: God and family … I don’t think this was very ethical in how it was handled. However, in many respects, it may have saved my soul, saved my life, and allow me to be an even better superintendent for the school system.”

McGhee said he informed the school board of the records requests and his relationship a couple of months ago. He said he felt the board would be willing to work with him as he corrects his personal mistakes.

“The board and I have had several conversations in this regard and, the majority of the board — and I don’t want to speak for the board — but the consensus here is that I’ve made some personal mistakes, that I’m in the process of correcting and I do believe that in the end, that not only am I going to be a better person for this, I’m going to be a better superintendent,” said McGhee.

The superintendent said he feels the person behind the records request is probably affiliated in some way with the school system.

“It certainly appears there’s someone inside the system,” said McGhee. “Maybe they’re not the person who’s sending in stuff or who hired the lawyer, but they’re a party to it. I’ve approached the central office personnel and basically said that to them. ‘I’m not really worried about who’s behind it. It’s obvious somebody is. And I just want to move forward.’”

The superintendent said he is focused on “healing some divisiveness we’ve had.”

“I’m not going to go on a witch hunt and use up my time and energy to try to find out who’s behind this,” said McGhee. “My motto for this upcoming school year is in addition to the motto of ‘putting children first,’ is ‘building trust and believing the best.’”

McGhee said he has felt great anxiety about the situation but has found some comfort after confessing to those who matter most to him.

“Really, since I confessed any sins I had towards the Lord, towards my wife, with the board, I have gotten a peace over that that the Lord has given me,” said McGhee.

MCGHEE’S WIFE OFFERS SUPPORT

McGhee’s wife, Tracie, contacted The Journal July 19 to speak in support of her husband. She said her husband has erred, but she said that issues in their relationship are personal, not public. She said she worries about the effect that negative public attention will have on her children: one who recently graduated, one who is still in Madison County schools.

“He’s a great father and a great husband despite the mistakes he’s made, and he’s gotten right with God,” she said.

Tracie, a cancer survivor, said she and her husband have been through a lot together. She said feels her husband has done a lot for the community and the school system and she doesn’t understand why the person or persons behind the mailouts of the e-mails have taken action against her husband.

“This is a very personal attack,” she said, adding that she is very upset by the anonymous nature of the mailouts.

BOE CHAIRMAN SPEAKS

BOE chairman Patton spoke by telephone July 19 of his delinquent insurance payments, as well as McGhee’s situation. While the primary focus of the open records requests centered on McGhee’s e-mails, the anonymous person who filed the requests also took great issue with Patton’s health insurance arrangement, saying it essentially compromised the board’s integrity in dealing with McGhee, who is appointed by the board, not elected.

The 2009 state audit of Madison County schools noted Patton’s delinquency in paying insurance. But Patton says his insurance situation is not a purchase of his loyalties by McGhee, but a matter of a person falling on hard times.

Patton said he is a cabinetmaker, who has been hit hard by the recession. He said he fell behind on insurance payments by $13,000 and is now making monthly payments to cover that debt.

“I did get behind on insurance payments,” said Patton, whose premium is approximately $750 per month for his family through the school system. “When the tough economic times hit, I didn’t have the money to pay the premiums. And I tried to catch up, but like people who have fallen behind on house payments, I didn’t have the money to cover it.”

Patton’s current payment arrangement includes a 10 percent payment on the $13,000 he owes — or $1,300 a month — plus the cost of his $750 premium. His $257.22 take home pay as board chairman also now goes to the insurance payment. So, his monthly payment right now is roughly $1,800.

“It’s very stressful coming up with $1,800 a month,” said Patton.

That payment plan was not arranged until the 2009 audit report came out in the spring. The $257 the chairman receives each month was not deducted until May, according to pay stubs obtained through Alexander’s law office through the open records requests.

On July 20, the county school board considered a change to board policies regarding BOE benefits. A proposal to discontinue health insurance benefits after a board member falls two months behind on premiums was shot down after BOE member Robert Hooper said the group should discontinue such benefits after only a month of delinquency. The board unanimously agreed with Hooper and voted to take an official vote on the policy in August.

Patton contends he has not been in McGhee’s pocket — as indicated in the anonymous letter submitted with the large black binder of records.

McGhee says the same.

“The insinuation that Mr. Patton’s insurance wasn’t paid so he would vote to do things I wanted to do was pretty ludicrous, if you know Mr. Patton,” said McGhee. “That would have no bearing on him.”

McGhee said the board generally doesn’t disagree on issues, but when it does, Patton has often provided the lone dissenting vote.

“The few votes that have been ‘no’ votes have been Mr. Patton,” said McGhee. “I think voting records and those things don’t support that.”

Patton said he and McGhee have had a good relationship. He noted that he has received agendas for BOE meetings prior to those meetings. When there has been something on the agenda he did not agree with, he would call McGhee. And those items were often stricken from the agenda.

“It was not something where he could do whatever he wanted,” said Patton. “For instance, in the past, he would present the agenda for the upcoming meeting. If I saw something I thought the board wouldn’t agree with, I’d call him up and say I don’t think the board will approve this, and he’d pull it from the agenda.”

CHAIRMAN DISAPPROVES OF E-MAILS

Patton said July 19 that he is aware of what is in the e-mails that McGhee exchanged with his mistress. But he said he will not read them.

“I’ve been told that a good bit of it is R-rated if not X-rated,” said Patton. “I’ve been told enough to know what’s in it and I don’t want to expose myself to it … My pastor read some of it and said he was uncomfortable with it, and that’s enough for me. I’ve had enough people tell me what’s in it and it’s pretty convicting.”

The BOE chairman said the bottom line regarding the e-mails is this: “Is it something I’d want my 10 year old to read?”

Patton said McGhee offered some general information about his situation to the board weeks ago, but that he’s learned more about the relationship over time. The chairman said he doesn’t feel comfortable with McGhee remaining at the head of county schools, but he said there’s nothing in the superintendent’s contract that relates to immoral or unethical behavior.

“There’s nothing in the contract that says we can fire him, so we have to be careful how we go about that,” said Patton.

However, he said he feels McGhee should offer his resignation.

“I think it would be the honorable thing for him to resign,” said Patton, who added that he planned to make that recommendation to the superintendent.

He said he thinks the impact of the negative publicity on McGhee’s family is too much for them to bear. He said he feels very sorry for the son entering middle school and noted how cruel middle school children can be at times.

“My personal counsel is to think of your family,” he said.

NO ACTION TAKEN JULY 20

McGhee and the school board met July 20, with about 30 people on hand. The board moved through the agenda with no discussion of the e-mails and McGhee’s situation. Only routine business was discussed in open session. But the board met for an hour and 20 minutes in closed session with McGhee. About 20 people remained for meeting, but after the closed session dragged on, the crowd dwindled to five or six. Board member Leslie Neal called those who waited back into the meeting room, then the board adjourned the meeting with no discussion.

McGhee was asked after the meeting if anything could be revealed about the talks with the board. But he said he couldn’t say anything about that.

(Editors note 1: The educator’s identification has not been revealed here, since she is not a Madison County public official.)