Opinion ID: 481732
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Shared Responsibility and Control.

Text: 53 The city and county school boards are two separate boards having responsibilities to two separate school systems. The boards are made up of different people, occupy different offices, employ their own administrative staffs, operate under their own budgets, and have exclusive authority over their own personnel. Dist.Ct.Op. at 3. Notwithstanding this independence, the defendants argue that the city school board and city residents depend on various services provided by the county board, and thus the city residents should be able to vote in the county board elections. An analysis of the county programs utilized by city residents reveals, however, that the city has a quite adequate voice in the management of the programs, and does not need electoral influence. 54
55 The vocational center, operated as a joint venture between the two school boards, was created pursuant to an Agreement for Joint Venture. Plaintiffs' Exhibit D. Unlike in the Creel case, where the shared vocational center was under the exclusive control of the county school board, 531 F.2d at 287, the joint venture contract gives exactly equal control and responsibility for the vocational center to the county and the city school boards. 56 It is true that the city school board has informally withdrawn from full participation in the operation of the school. Nevertheless, the city has the fully equal contractual right to influence the vocational center, and the city's voluntary decision to forego that right cannot be used to explain why the city residents need to vote in the county elections. If the city wants to influence the vocational center, it can do so under the contract, without needing the vote. 4 57 In another important respect, the vocational center is quite unlike that in the Creel case. In Creel, the city had contributed $212,500 toward the construction of the vocational center, and thus the Creel Court reasoned that the city had made a substantial investment in the center. 531 F.2d at 287, 289. In this case, the situation is exactly the opposite. The establishment of the school was financed by state funds, but the county contributed 15 acres of land and a school building. Plaintiffs' Exhibit D at 2. This contribution by the county was worth over $300,000. Record, Vol. 2, at 31. As far as the record reveals, the City of Brewton made no financial contribution toward the establishment of the vocational center. Thus, unlike in Creel, the city has made no substantial investment in the center. 5 Whatever interest the city has in the center is fully satisfied by the absolutely equal control it can exercise over the center's operation. 58
59 The two school boards, by informal agreement, have divided responsibility for programs for multi-handicapped and trainable mentally retarded students. The city board operates a class for the multi-handicapped, while the county serves the trainable mentally retarded. The district court also noted that the county provides transportation for the city students in these classes. 60 While not governed by a formal contract such as the joint venture agreement controlling the vocational school, the city clearly has sufficient bargaining power to influence the operation of the county run school for the retarded. Presumably, neither the county nor the city want to operate both programs, and thus they are equally dependent on each other for the programs. As for the transportation, the county transports not more than ten city residents. Plaintiffs' Exhibit A at 2-3. Neither the existence of these programs, where both jurisdictions are equally dependent on the other, nor the transportation of ten students, is sufficient to create the requisite substantial interest. 6 61
62 Unlike the vocational and handicapped programs, the city residents do not, as far as the record reveals, have equal control over the summer school classes, which are operated solely by the county. The most direct power the city residents wield may be in the $30 fee that each student pays the county for the summer classes--it is possible that if the city residents withdrew from the county program, the county might be forced to close the one summer school that services Brewton residents. 63 Even conceding the limited control Brewton residents have over the summer program, the voting influence over the entire county school system still does not seem justified. If the city residents are unhappy with or feel too dependent on the county summer program, I would think that the proper response would be to lobby the city school board for a satisfactory program. And, because the city residents can in fact influence the operation of the vocational programs, the desire for influence over the summer program, combined with the small amount of student crossover, does not alone create a substantial interest. 64 Beyond crossover and control, the Creel standard considers finances. While the district court did not make detailed findings about the finances, the record reveals only a limited contribution by the city to the county system. 65