Outrageous. It's outrageous that Cobb school board member John Crooks violated state law in calling for a vote on a 150-foot high cell tower at Eastvalley Elementary School.

It's even more outrageous that Crooks insulted his constituents by declaring "it would have probably caused a circus" if he had put the cell tower question on the school board agenda earlier - or "as far in advance of the meeting as reasonably possible," as the Georgia Open Meetings Act mandates.

So rather than hear from his constituents, as citizens have every right to expect of an elected official, Crooks gave them the back of his hand.

It's outrageous that the entire board voted unanimously to support Crooks' illegal action.

It's beyond outrageous that school board attorney Glenn Brock, according to board chairman Dr. John Abraham, advised the board that its vote on July 23 without any public notice was legal. This is legal advice worth $2 million a year?

It's outrageous and inexcusable that citizens had to hire a lawyer and go to court to make Crooks and the school board do the right thing. Three of Crooks' constituents, Dr. Ricky Welkis, Ben Skaggs and Jonathan Young, parents of students, filed a lawsuit seeking simple compliance with the law.

They won hands down. Judge Michael Stoddard ruled Monday that indeed the public "did not have proper notice of the cell tower proposal." He issued a 30-day restraining order against the school board moving forward with construction of the tower.

This is all about open, honest government, and that prompted the Marietta Daily Journal to intervene as amicus curiae, or friend of the court. The crux of the issue, as MDJ attorney Robert Fortson said, was that the failure to post the cell tower item on the agenda in advance "effectively silenced any voice of opposition."

The publisher of this newspaper, Otis A. Brumby, Jr., a strong proponent of open meetings and open records in the public interest, pointed out: "Basic fairness and Georgia law both require advance public notice through an advanced agenda release." He said the public, "whether at the national, state or local level, is increasingly fed up with more and more shenanigans and deception from too many of our elected officials."

Yet even in the face of the judge's ruling, Crooks said he had "never backed off" the "circus" remark. Then he had the gall to assert that the most important thing to him as a public servant "is that there's unity and cohesiveness in my district."

And the way to do that is by silencing opposition to proposed action by the school board?

The remedy for violating the law is a revote by the board. The school board should save more legal expenses and rescind the vote for the cell tower at tomorrow night's meeting.

Then if Crooks wants to put it back on the agenda, the board should schedule a full public hearing.

Next the voters can consider a revote on John Crooks.

dmckee9613@aol.com