After conducting

a secret ballot vote, Rick Melville was elected chairman of the Coweta

County School Board Tuesday night.

But, the use

of the secret ballot for electing officers may have violated the spirit

of Georgia's Open Meetings Law, said Georgia First Amendment Foundation

director Hollie Manheimer.

"It certainly

smacks of limiting access to the public," Manheimer said.

She's not aware

of a similar case being litigated in the state, but said the issue sets

a bad precedent.

"If we

deny the public the mechanism to see how things are done, it's not a truly

open meeting," she said.

School board

attorney Joe McNabb said the board has done secret ballots on issues before

and said the board is governed by Robert's Rules of Order, which allows

the secret election method.

"The Georgia

school board council does not believe it's a violation," he said.

In previous

years, the board has always taken nominations from the floor to elect

their slate of officers. This year, Superintendent Peggy Connell said

the board would use a secret ballot method, which is allowed in their

policies and procedure manual.

To be elected

to an office, a board member would have to receive four of the seven votes,

Connell said.

The voting

worked fine for the chairman's race and the vice-chair race, which went

to Smith Pass.

But when it

came time to elect a secretary, the race ended in a 3-3 tie between Allan

Payton and Marihope Troutman because board member Marihope Troutman was

not present for the vote.

Board member

than nominated Payton as secretary and Troutman as treasurer, which passed

the board unanimously.