Something fishy is going on

The Jefferson County School Board will meet on January 14, 2019. At that meeting they will most likely vote to lease the Jefferson Elementary School to Sandra Saunders’ church group, for one dollar a year, for 25 years. This transaction will not be recorded at the Clerk’s Office, for some unknown reason.
The AME Church Association has a local Board of Directors but they are advisory only. The principals of this lease are in Jacksonville. The association will have use of the property "in accordance with the plan which is attached hereto as Exhibit B". Exhibit B is left blank.
There is a proposal there but, when asked if that was to be what the buildings were for, there is no answer. A public records request for all this material was also not answered. When the school board was asked if the principals of this lease would conduct ‘for profit’ businesses, there was no answer.
The written proposal is a huge laundry list from gun buy-back programs to social services, many of which are already available in the community. The proposal says they plan to rent to provide a source of income for the buildings. The proposal suggests hair salons, meeting and banquet rooms. Plays, fashion shows, marriage receptions and reunions may be held there.
The association made an oral presentation in which they said they would put a great deal of money into this building. But the lease only mentions painting and checking the air conditioning units.
The building has been vacant for several years. There was a fire there; there are water intrusion and mold issues. Board member Sandra Saunders refused to allow our local building inspector to look at the building for free.
This is an interesting twist on economic development. Jefferson County taxpayers will surrender the building valued at one and a half million, to a Jacksonville non-profit, with no sound business plan, for a dollar a year.
Let me add that Board members Boland, Watson, Brumfield and Superintendent Arbulu are trying to do the people’s business. However, with Board members Saunders and Washington as back-to-back chairwomen, this has become their bully pulpit. They excoriate the audience regularly. They often voice snarky asides whenever they disagree with a speaker. They are dismissive and refuse to allow reasonable questioning. Their rules do not evenly apply to everyone equally; their friends and admirers are often held to a different standard. Their oft repeated creed is “why can't we all work together?" The translation is “why don't you just go away and do what I want."
This self-appointed royal court does not seem to grasp or care that they are there to do the people’s business and protect taxpayers.
This new form of economic development, not offered to anyone else and not put out for bids, seems the rankest sort of cronyism. I urge Board members to vote against this folly. If you, the citizens of Jefferson County, agree, please contact your school board representative.