Newberry government, citizen clash over charter conversion comments 

Newberry City Commissioners Mark Clark (right) and Ricky Coleman at the Aug. 27 City Commission meeting.
Newberry City Commissioners Mark Clark (right) and Ricky Coleman at the Aug. 27 City Commission meeting.
Courtesy city of Newberry

On behalf of the city of Newberry, an attorney sent a cease-and-desist letter to a Newberry resident for comments made during public comment at a meeting. 

The resident’s lawyer has responded with a letter of his own, saying that the city’s letter is an example of prior restraint and suggesting a corrective letter. 

The letters spring from an argument during commissioner comment time at the Newberry City Commission’s Aug. 27 meeting. Conversation turned to the effort to convert Newberry Elementary School into a charter school, after Commissioner Ricky Coleman brought in a list of questions from a citizen to ask Mayor Jordan Marlowe. 

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After Marlowe had responded to the questions about the conversion, Coleman concluded his comment time and Commissioner Mark Clark used his comment time to speak about the conversion and its opponents. Clark said the conversion was driven by parents and that its opponents, organized into a nonprofit called SOS Newberry, were “digging.” 

To illustrate his point, Clark pointed to citizen Brandy Oldman, who was sitting in the front row of the commission chambers. Oldman is a consistent attendee of commission meetings and a vocal member of SOS Newberry. 

“You sit here and smile, little lady, so I’m gonna point at you,” Clark said. “Y’all are digging, in this group that y’all got, on everybody else but yourselves.” 

Oldman began to speak back to Clark from the audience, asking if he was speaking directly to her, but Marlowe instructed her to wait until citizen comment time to speak. 

Clark said the SOS group has “stirred the pot” and turned to personal attacks, saying if “you got my child involved, you got the blue-eyed devil, too,” pointing to himself. 

Clark’s daughter, Chelsea Leming, is set to be the non-voting chairperson of a new governing board for the charter school, selected by the pro-conversion nonprofit Education First for Newberry before it dissolved in June. 

NES teachers also nominated one member for the board, and the City Commission appointed the other four. 

“What I’m saying is, if you want to get me, get all you want to get, that’s all I’m gonna tell you,” Clark said. “Because when you come after me and my family, it’s all good. And listen, I leave here, I walk right out on that street to anybody, I’m a man. So whoever thinks they want something, come right out there.” 

Oldman waited through commissioner comment, in which Commissioner Tim Marden encouraged Clark to let the situation roll off his back, and Marlowe expressed concern over the community’s poor conduct online. 

When it was her turn to speak, Oldman stepped up to the podium and said she has not “come at” any of the commissioners disrespectfully online, and has not “dug anything up” on Clark’s daughter. 

“I have not ever been a rude person online, I have not made a meme about anyone,” Oldman said. “I do have some information that I would like to add, though, since I find it interesting, since he thinks I brought his daughter into it.” 

Oldman proceeded to tell the commission that Leming is behind on her property taxes, saying she thought it “worth everybody’s time to know you’re loaning her, also, $200,000,” which Oldman said she had obtained because it is public information. 

At that point, the mayor said the situation was “past civil discourse” and asked Oldman to sit down, banging the gavel when Oldman did not stop speaking. 

“You told me to catch you outside… you don’t ever, ever treat a constituent that way,” Oldman said to Clark. “We don’t ever treat a person, a woman— you’re a Marine. Okay, so catch me outside.” 

In a letter dated Sept. 12, attorney Scott Walker wrote to Oldman on behalf of the city of Newberry, demanding that Oldman “immediately cease and desist from making any such further defamatory statements about Commissioner Clark, Ms. Leming and City Staff and Officials.” 

Walker wrote that Oldman had falsely asserted that Newberry’s public funds were diverted to Leming for her personal benefit, when the money was really transferred to the Newberry Community School Board for “assistance with relevant legal matters, project management, financial application services, and any other required steps to complete the application for a public to community-based charter school.” 

“Your public dissemination of false statements constitutes slander per se, as they impute both professional incompetence and moral misconduct, which are grounds for legal action,” Walker wrote. 

Attorney Gary Edinger, a member of the First Amendment Lawyers Association, responded to Walker on Oldman’s behalf in an Oct. 1 letter, calling the cease-and-desist demand “more than a little puzzling” and saying that government cannot be defamed or bring a defamation claim in its own name. 

Edinger wrote that the demand was clearly formal government action, and that it is prior restraint as it seeks to prevent Oldman from future speech. He said Oldman also “vehemently denies” that her comments were slanderous, and noted that the entity registered with the state as “Newberry Community School Board, Inc.” is actually controlled by Oldman. 

“The group with which the City apparently signed a memorandum of understanding does not appear to have any legal existence… While the City’s Payments may be allocated internally to ‘legal matters’ and ‘project management’, the reality the school’s funds are fungible… Unless [Leming] will be serving in a pro bono capacity, any compensation she may receive can be traced back, at least indirectly, to the City’s financial assistance,” Edinger wrote. 

Edinger said Walker’s letter is focused on the interests of Clark and his daughter, and asked for a separate letter if that is who Walker is meant to represent in a private capacity. He suggested that the city ought to issue a corrective letter to state that it will not take action against Oldman for her remarks at the August meeting. 

“It is sent; the deed is done and the bell cannot be unrung,” Edinger wrote. “However, it is not appropriate for this prior restraint by a government actor to go unremedied.” 

The cease-and-desist letter sent from the city of Newberry to resident Brandy Oldman sent on Sept. 12, 2024.
The cease-and-desist letter sent from the city of Newberry to resident Brandy Oldman sent on Sept. 12, 2024.

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Raymond Mellott

In this entire ‘charter school’ thing, I’ve never heard what the problem is with the schools in question, and how converting them to charter would solve said problem and benefit the students. It also seems to me that, based on this particular reading, there might be something more than meets the eye about who is leading the initiative and why.

Bill Whitten

The Commission decided quite some time ago to cease being a neutral party in the school takeover. Considerable City resources have been (and continue to be) spent on this. It’s worth asking which commissioners actually ran on that issue and advocated for it prior to being elected. Other than the 145 parents who got to directly vote for the takeover, did anyone else get a vote?

Fred

Wow, this commission…what a bunch of thin-skinned bullies. That’s now 2 commissioners that have threatened physical violence to the community, the other being Coleman when he bullied a bunch of bank tellers. It’s really sad that the city is misappropriating tax payer dollars like this. If Newberry Elementary is that bad, why doesn’t the city donate all this money they are spending on lawyers, other people’s taxes, and pedophile project managers to the current school? At least half of the city doesn’t want the dumb charter school but Marlowe is on a mission whether anyone likes it or not.

Gary Nelson

Without commenting on the merits of arguments reported here, I must say the reporting is top notch. This is the kind of event that validates the axiom “all politics are local” and underscores the value of solid local news reporting. This story lays out a clear set of facts, shares the various positions and gores all oxes equally. Thank you, Glory Reitz and Mainstreet.

Secession Coming?

As you read about the childless bickering of these commissioners, remember they have a plan far beyond taking their school away from the ebil libs in Gainesville. These same anti criticism folks want to secede the western half of Alachua County into “Springs County” withe THEM as the people in control. It scares me to think of these commissioners paying themselves $300K a year in salaries to run a County as badly as they run a charter school