The Fairfield County School Board is divided, both on whether or not to hire a lobbyist to help them oppose local legislation and on whether or not that hire has already been made.

According to three board members, the board voted 4-3 at a special called meeting Tuesday night to hire former attorney Ernest Yarborough to lobby on their behalf at the S.C. Statehouse. The three board members – Henry Miller, Polly Parker and Danielle Miller – voted against the measure.

Board Chair Annie McDaniel, Vice Chair Rickey Johnson, Board Secretary Marchella Pauling and Catherine Kennedy all voted in favor.

Yarborough was disbarred in 2008 following a conviction for obstruction of justice for offering an alleged victim $500 to drop charges against his client.

“This just shows SACS that we don’t have any leadership,” Henry Miller said. “We’re going to hire someone like that? We’re going to take taxpayer money and hire someone like that?”

According to the S.C. Judicial Department Web site (http://www.judicial.state.sc.us/opinions/displayOpinion.cfm?caseNo=3938), “Yarborough was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, suspended on the service of six months, two years probation, and payment of $1,000 in costs and assessments.”

Johnson made the motion Tuesday night, but said later that the motion was to give the executive committee the authority to consider hiring Yarborough, and was not a motion to actually hire him.

“It was never a done deal,” Johnson said. “He’s not on the payroll.”

Johnson said he was aware that Yarborough had been disbarred, but did not know he had a criminal record.

“I know he’s been disbarred,” Johnson said, “but I’ve got no intention of him being an attorney for the district.”

Yarborough, however, said Wednesday that his services had been retained.

“They appointed me,” Yarborough said. “And there’s a difference. They’ve given me the authority to talk on their behalf.”

The cost of Yarborough’s services has not been set, Yarborough said.

“It’s not an issue of compensation, it’s an issue of right and wrong,” he said. “But I’m not expected to assist in an issue of this magnitude for free.”

Prior to Tuesday night’s executive session, Yarborough made a lengthy and impassioned presentation to the board, stating his intentions to fight against local legislation penned by Sen. Creighton Coleman and Rep. Boyd Brown.

The two bills, which received their first reading at the Statehouse Wednesday afternoon, establish an independent finance committee to oversee the board’s budget, and creates two new appointed seats on the board.

“I am playing the race card tonight, and I’m not afraid to say it,” Yarborough said Tuesday night. “This is racism. This is racism. This is racism.”

Danielle Miller called the hire “wasteful spending,” and said “it showed our poor character to hire him to represent the school district.”

McDaniel clarified that Tuesday night’s vote was not to hire Yarborough, but to begin the process of hiring him.

McDaniel also said she was unaware that Yarborough had been disbarred or that he had a criminal conviction.

“I thought he had just been suspended,” McDaniel said.

In light of revelations of Yarborough’s record, McDaniel said he would probably not be hired after all.

The executive committee is scheduled to meet this afternoon at 4 p.m. at the District Office to discuss the matter.