School Member Smith, Where Does She Live?

It seems that some members of the Monroe City School Board will go to any lengths to stay in power and continue to feed from the public coffers, while failing to give even a modest effort of perform in an honorable fashion the duties for which they were elected and are paid to perform. Thanks to Roosevelt Wright and the Monroe Free Press, the antics of Stephanie Smith have come to light. It seems as if Ms. Smith is representing a district in which she does not live. She maintains a house on South 6th Street, but lives in a $220,000 house outside of the city limits. Furthermore she appointed two members to the superintendent search committee who like she, lives outside of the Monroe City limits. Readers may recall during the last school board elections, questions concerning Ms. Smith's residency came up. At the time, for whatever reason, voters of her district ignored the question and re-elected her to another term. So what do the voters get in return, a school board member who blindly follows the orders of the Dastardly Duo (Shelling and Dupree) and their henchman (McFarland). It is also pointed out in the Free Press, that Ms. Smith's mother was promoted to a higher paying job when she was no longer eligible to serve as an aide. Was Smith's vote to retain Dupree payment for giving her mother a promotion? It would seem so. With all of the wheeling and dealing that has taken place over the past weeks, it would be nice if Governor Jindal would take this opportunity to test the effectiveness of his policy on unethical behavior by public officials. Surely he will find several likely targets warranting an investigation.