A huge crowd of Douglas County residents is expected to pack Monday night’s Board of Education (BOE) meeting amid growing public concern over a recently televised report questioning fees paid by the board for legal representation.

Twenty-two people have signed up to deliver public input at the 7 p.m. BOE meeting. These speeches will follow the regular BOE business session, and each comment is limited to three minutes, under board rules. Requests for public comments must be submitted in writing by noon on the Thursday before the meeting.

The Fox 5 Atlanta I-Team telecast questioned the $295,275 annual contract approved by a 3-2 BOE vote on June 15 with the Sherrod and Bernard law firm to provide legal services for the school system. The TV report said the pay is at least twice that of other comparable size school districts in the metro Atlanta area.

TV reporter Randy Travis also challenged $1.2 million paid in legal fees for a 2007 school bond issue of $150,550,000.

Ken Bernard of Sherrod and Bernard said Friday that he feels the recent uproar has been fueled by a few people with political purposes and the TV report omits material facts. (See Bernard’s entire statement in a related sidebar story.)

Scott Powers, who runs the Douglasville Now Internet Web site, has been a prime force in recruiting people to attend the meeting and express their opinions.

Powers told the Sentinel Friday that the public outcry is “people voicing their own individual concerns and doing what they should do.” He said his Web site issued no talking points and he has no idea on the identity of the 22 who have signed up, other than himself.

“For whatever reason, we’ve become increasingly complacent as taxpayers and residents and we’ve taken at face value whatever was told by election officials,” Powers said. “People are becoming more aware at how money is spent and want to be more engaged in the process. Students and teachers deserve for every last penny to go to the bottom line for educating kids.”

He called the Fox 5 report as “the icing on the cake” for citizens to question how their tax money is being spent.

While nearly all past BOE votes have been unanimous on all issues for several years, including past approval of the legal representation contract, the June 15 vote on the Sherrod and Bernard contract was approved by a 3-2 margin.

Board members Larry Barnes and Mike Miller were the two who voted against the pact. Both Barnes and Miller had tried to get the contract tabled at that meeting so it could be studied further. However, after that motion failed, the two also voted against contract approval.

“In this time, when we’re furloughing teachers and getting state funding cuts, I felt we were just paying too much,” Barnes said Friday. “I wanted to be fair with who represents us, but at the same time, I wanted something in line with other systems.”

Barnes said his concern is not with Sherrod and Bernard’s ability as a legal representative.

“I think they’re a very good law firm,” he said. “But we’re not in line with other systems, and anybody who wants to do the homework will realize this.”

Nevertheless, Barnes said the board approved the contract and said he thinks “it’s not to anybody’s benefit for us to keep harping on it” until it comes up for consideration next June.

“I don’t like that it’s come out like this,” he said of the recent furor. “I hoped things could have been resolved in another way.”

Miller said Friday he also wanted to table the legal contract at the June 15 meeting so it could be compared to other school systems.

“I wanted to make sure we were getting good value for the amount we were paying,” Miller said. “We needed more time to evaluate.”

Miller said although it was the final BOE meeting before the July 1 fiscal year began, there was no rush for a decision.

“Bernard had a three-year contract in place,” he said. “We were replacing it with a one-year contract. It wasn’t like it was running out before July 1. In light of the potential for cuts under the economic circumstances, I feel we should have taken more time to evaluate.”

Miller said he feels the board overall tries to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money, and he hopes the entire board can “work together in the future in fully evaluating how we use taxpayers’ dollars.”

He said he’s looking forward to hearing the public comments Monday, and he hopes all people who signed up to speak are allowed to give their input.

BOE Chairman Jimmy Bartlett said Friday he is also interested in hearing the public input, but he regrets that the issue has become a “politicized matter.”

Bartlett said when he took over as chairman at the beginning of the year, the board started looking at all contracts, including the legal firm. He said several changes were made in the Sherrod and Bernard contract, including reducing it to a single year term and changing much of the language to “plain English.”

“The firm has done a great job for the school system for 11 years,” he said. “We’ve not lost a single case that’s been originated since they became our legal firm.”

Bartlett said as far as comparisons, there’s different ways to construct contracts.

“Ours is similar to Cobb County,” he said. “When we set a budget for legal expenses, it’s a targeted estimate. We don’t know what kind of legal suits will be brought. We don’t know what we have to defend at any time.”

He said many factors, other than just enrollment, are considered when contracting for legal services for a school system.

“We gather all the facts and make the best decision on what we gather,” he said.

Bartlett said the BOE will start looking at all contracts again in January.

“We have to balance getting the best service we can with the best price possible,” he said.