MARIETTA - Cobb County School Board member David Banks halted the election of officers to the board-appointed Facilities and Technology Committee at its meeting Monday night.

The 16-member SPLOST oversight committee was scheduled to elect its 2010 officers at its first meeting of the year Monday, but Banks asked the committee to wait until next month, after the school board reviews the committee's policy and role.

Banks told the committee Monday that the board is looking into rewriting the policy that spells out the committee's scope, the way it reports to the board, and its process of electing officers and removing officers from the committee if there is a conflict.

"Until the legal services gets through with it and the board has a chance to review it and adopt it, or not adopt it or make any changes to it, I'd just like to see us wait," Banks said.

Committee secretary David Wilkerson, who was presiding over the Monday meeting, said, "This is news to me."

And the recommendation was even news to School Board Chairwoman Lynnda Crowder-Eagle, who informed Wilkerson on Tuesday that the board has not yet made a decision to rewrite the policy. Crowder-Eagle said Banks has submitted the recommendation to the board, but she has not had time to read it, nor has the board had time to review the changes. She said the board plans to look at Bank's recommendation at its March 10 work session.

In an e-mail written Tuesday morning from Crowder-Eagle to Wilkerson, obtained by the Journal anonymously, Crowder-Eagle wrote, "I spoke with Mr. Banks this morning and shared my concern that perhaps he had spoken prematurely to the F&T Committee, since no action has been taken at this time."

In November, then-F&T Chairman Chuck Casto announced his resignation from the committee, leaving F&T member Angie May, the committee's vice chair, to serve as acting chair. The F&T Committee does not meet in December or January.

So when May, a Cheatham Hill Elementary School mom, couldn't attend Monday's meeting because of illness, the acting chair position fell to the next ranked officer on the committee, F&T secretary David Wilkerson, a former chairman of the Cobb Democratic Party who is running for state Rep. Don Wix's (D-Mableton) seat in the July primary.

Many of the F&T Committee members expressed their concerns about the proposed policy changes Monday.

"I have some concern about the independence of this group if we were told how our own leadership is to be done," said committee member Susan Pearson, who was appointed by board member Holli Cash.

While the committee did vote to wait on the elections until its next meeting in March, Wilkerson said it did so with concern.

Wilkerson's own issue with the decision was that the committee was not informed ahead of time that possible policy changes were in the works.

Wilkerson said if changes are going to be made regarding the committee's policy, he would ask the board to consider input from F&T Committee members before deciding on those changes.

"I think some of the members were upset," Wilkerson said. "(Banks is) supposed to be a liaison, not interpreting his own opinion of what should be happening."

Wilkerson also speculated that Banks was trying to remove board members who are running for public office, which would include Wilkerson.

May said Tuesday she was surprised officers hadn't been elected at the meeting and vowed, as acting chair, that they will be elected at next month's meeting unless the board for some reason voted to change the committee's policy.

While this was Banks' first committee meeting as the liaison, Wilkerson said Banks did attend about half of last year's committee meetings. Dr. John Crooks was the previous board member appointed to the committee. Crooks served as the liaison for three years and stepped down in from the position in January.

Crooks said Tuesday that he was not aware of Banks' proposal to change the committee's policy and that the current policy clearly outlines the committee's function, operation and its process of electing officials at its first meeting of the year. Crooks said the policy also states that the committee takes its direction from the board chairman, and not the liaison if there is a change regarding operation.

The 16-member F&T Committee is made up of citizens who serve as watchdogs to the Cobb School District's SPLOST program. Each of the seven board members and the superintendent are allowed to appoint two members to serve on the committee.

The committee has bucked the wishes of Superintendent Fred Sanderson from time to time. For instance, in April 2009, the school board voted 7-0 to accept the F&T Committee's report and recommendation to in-source SPLOST III work. Sanderson has opposed in-sourcing, complaining it would delay SPLOST projects while he assembled an in-house team to handle the work. Sanderson's appointee to the committee, lobbyist Wallace Coopwood, tried to sway the committee in favor of Sanderson's argument, but was outnumbered by such members as Angie May and Virginia Gregory.

Jon Gillooly contributed to story.