Dallemand arbitration proceedings will be open to the public

The American Arbitration Association will not block public access to the upcoming proceedings involving former school Superintendent Romain Dallemand and the Bibb County school board.

The association has agreed to comply with Georgia’s Open Meetings Act following an Aug. 7 letter from Amanda Jones, an assistant state prosecutor, that disagreed with the arbitration panel’s previous ruling.

That ruling barred The Telegraph and the public under the association’s confidentiality rules.

Jones said that stance ran counter to Georgia law.

“The (arbitration) panel determined that the Open Meetings Act does not apply to this arbitration,” Jones wrote in her letter. “Respectfully, I cannot agree with this determination.”

Jones requested a response from the panel within 10 days acknowledging the determination by the attorney general’s office.

She told The Telegraph she received a call from the association in recent days, and a representative confirmed that the group would abide by Georgia’s sunshine laws.

Provided that there is a quorum of board members -- at least five members -- then the state law governing open meetings will trigger a right of public access.

In January, Dallemand filed a $10 million claim with the association contending that school board members had violated provisions of his severance agreement with the district.

The Telegraph sought access to the proceedings through legal briefs and letters to the association requesting that the hearings be open. The school board’s attorney, Jerry Lumley, also filed a brief arguing for public access to the proceedings.

Dallemand opposed opening up the proceedings and, until recently, the arbitration panel held that the sessions would be confidential.

The next phase of the arbitration process, according to documents obtained through Open Records Act requests, will be the discovery period from Aug. 31 to Dec. 30. During that time, each party will exchange documents and conduct depositions, or witness testimony made under oath.

It is unlikely that the official arbitration hearings will begin before next year.

To contact writer David Schick, call 744-4382 or find him on Twtiter@davidcschick.

This story was originally published August 25, 2015 at 10:37 PM with the headline "Dallemand arbitration proceedings will be open to the public ."