The Wake County school board is going for full transparency in its search for a lobbyist to represent its interests against the state legislative changes being proposed by commissioners.
The school board will vote on which firm will be hired. This is a followup to the Feb. 5 vote authorizing interim Superintendent Stephen Gainey to hire a lobbyist.
School administrators say the board wants to publicly vote on naming the lobbyist Instead of leaving it up to Gainey. School board policy would have allowed Gainey to hire the lobbyist without any board vote because the contract would be for up to $100,000.
That's how the county handled the hiring of its lobbyist where no public vote was held. As this memo from County Manager David Cooke and County Attorney Scott Warren shows, county staff hired Tom Fetzer as the lobbyist and notified the commissioners after the fact.
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The board will vote on hiring the lobbyist but, at least as of now, it's not on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.
