PICAYUNE — The controversy over whether City Manager Harvey Miller is violating a state law by serving both as a city employee and on the Picayune municipal school board this week made it all the way to the floors of both houses of the State Legislature in Jackson.

A chancery court judge filed a ruling on Tuesday saying that the law does not allow Miller to serve in both capacities. On Wednesday, the Mississippi House in Jackson voted down a bill that would have specifically exempted Miller from the law.

A measure that originated in the State Senate that would have exempted Miller from state statute 37-7-203 — which says a person can not simultaneously serve as a city employee and a member of a municipal school board — was voted down 63 to 52 in the House on Wednesday.

The bill, Senate Bill 2960, was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Ezell Lee of Picayune. The bill passed the Senate and then went to the House where it was referred to the House Education Committee, said Pearl River County Rep. Herb Frierson of Poplarville.

The bill was killed in committee last week, but negotiations brought it back to life this week. When the bill came out of the Senate and was transferred to the House Education Committee, it covered all city employees statewide but died in committee.

Sources say that after negotiations between Lee and the chairman of the House Education Committee, Cecil Brown, the bill was resurrected. It came out of committee, but had been changed this time to specifically exempt Miller, and no one else.

That form, with an amendment specifically exempting Miller, of the bill was voted down on Wednesday, Frierson said.

“It came over from the Senate and would have allowed city employees to serve on a municipal school board. The House committee amended it to refer specifically to the situation in Picayune and was unaware that the court had already ruled on it. They then brought it out on the House floor and it died (was voted down),” said Frierson.

Frierson said he voted for the bill but added that he would not have voted for it if he had known the court had already ruled on the issue. He said that the House was unaware of the court ruling when it debated the bill on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Chancery Court Judge Johnny L. Williams filed a ruling in Pearl River County chancery court saying that state law 37-7-203 did apply to Miller and that he could not serve both as a city employee and school board member at the same time.

In filing the ruling on Tuesday, Feb. 2, Judge Williams agreed with a State Attorney General’s opinion sent to Picayune officials on Aug. 14 that interpreted the law as meaning that Miller could not serve in both capacities at the same time.

The bill that failed on the House floor on Wednesday would have exempted Miller from the state law, 37-7-203, that was the center of the controversy.

Judge Williams was asked to settle the controversy in a Jan. 25 court hearing involving attorneys for the Picayune school board and the Picayune City Council after a private citizen, Frank Egger, appeared before the City Council several times charging that Miller was in violation of the law.

Miller charged at a council meeting that Egger was bringing the charges because he was involved in a 16th section land lease dispute with the school board, and Miller said he had a State Ethics Commission ruling that said he was not violating the law. The Attorney General told Picayune officials that the Ethics ruling did not apply to the case under consideration. Williams also agreed that it didn’t.

The school board voted on Sept. 8 to allow its attorney, Gerald Patch, to ask the chancery court judge for a declaratory judgment in the matter. City and school board attorneys then on Dec. 1 filed a 34-page complaint in chancery court asking for a hearing and a declaratory judgment on the case.

The City Council voted to follow the school board’s lead and join the case.

On Wednesday, only a few hours after the measure exempting Miller was voted down on the House floor, Frierson told the Item, “To me, city employees ought to be able to serve on the school board, but the committee didn’t see it that way.” Frierson is a member of the House Education Committee.

“The committee amended the measure and then reported it out to the House floor. The way I understood the measure it applied to the situation in Picayune,” said Frierson.

“The committee was unaware that the court had already ruled on it,” he said.

“I went ahead and voted for it. I was not all upset about it. But I didn’t know the court had ruled on it. Had I known that the court had ruled on it, I would not have voted on it,” he said. “We would have never took it up.”

Frierson said that when the bill was reported out of the Education Committee “it basically grandfathered him (Miller) in.”

Pearl River County State Rep. Mark Formby of Picayune said on Thursday that he voted present when the measure came up on Wednesday for a vote in the House. He said the vote was 52 for, 63 against, one present, and five not present.

He said he was not aware of the bill until it came onto the House floor and was “surprised.” Said Formby, “It caught me totally off guard.”

Formby said the measure was “still controversial” when it was brought up for reconsideration in the House Education Committee. “It did not pass unanimously with the amendment aimed specifically toward Miller,” he said.

“I voted present because this is an issue that was before the court. I did not know that the judge had ruled on it but I knew it was before a judge,” said Formby.

Formby said when the bill came up for debate on the floor he questioned the education committee chairman Brown. He said Brown said he did not know that there was a judge’s ruling pending on the matter.

“The main question I posed was that because there is a precedent in the House not to interfere in pending legal decisions before the court, I wanted to know if he was aware that this particular case fit that precedent,” said Formby.

“I have been very careful not to take a position on a case that is in the process of being decided by a court,” he said.

“The only thing I have ever said to Picayune city officials was to urge them to try and get the law defined and govern within the legal restrictions of the law,” he added. “I have never given an opinion on it because I am a legislator and not a judge.”

In the floor debate over the bill, Brown said he was not aware that there was a pending court decision or that one had been made.

Brown was questioned in other areas, too. He was asked during the floor debate whether he knew that Miller and Lee are related (Miller is Lee’s former brother-in-law), that the appointment was made by a previous council, and that the new council was seeking, along with the school board, a declaratory judgment from the court on the issue. Brown said he was not aware of any of those points.

Jim Keith, an attorney who with Picayune’s attorney, Nathan Farmer, and the Picayune school board attorney, Gerald Patch, argued the case before Judge Williams on Jan. 25 said that when the hearing was held he was not aware that Lee had introduced a bill targeting the issue before the court.

“Nobody told me about it; none of us (the attorneys) were aware of it,” said Keith, who was on hand at the Jan. 25 hearing representing the Picayune school board along with Patch.

Keith is also attorney for the State School Board Association.

Keith told Williams at the Jan. 25 hearing, “In reality, judge, you are being asked to clear up what the State Legislature should have cleared up a long time ago.”

“I personally think it is something that the legislature ought to take a hard look at, not only the situation in Picayune, but all around the state; maybe they will address it next year,” said Keith on Thursday from his Jackson office.

Immediately after the judge’s ruling was filed, Miller on Tuesday said he had no comment on the matter until he reads the judge’s opinion and talks to lawyers.

The city council also faces making another appointment or a reappointment when board president and member Edward Stubbs’ position comes up for appointment in March.

The Item on Thursday made attempts to contact Lee and Miller for comments on this story but was unsuccessful by presstime late Thursday.