THE FACILITIES & TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE is one of the few independent-minded entities connected with the Cobb school district, where management by fear is the order of the day, according to many observers.

Now, however, school board member David Banks of east Cobb is out to geld the F&T Committee.

Banks is the board's liaison to the board-appointed F&T Committee, the system's SPLOST oversight committee. He uncorked a proposal at Wednesday's school board meeting that would allow the board liaison - himself, in other words - to select and nominate the committee's chair, vice-chair and secretary. In other words, it would eliminate the election of officers.

The Journal reported in February that Banks blindsided the board by proposing changes for the committee at its first meeting of the year. Banks asked the committee at that time to hold off on its officer elections until the changes were made. However, board Chairwoman Lynnda Crowder-Eagle - who usually is allied with Banks on the board - said he was premature since the board had not even seen his proposed changes at that point.

When he brought it back up on Wednesday, the reception was not much better.

When Dr. John Crooks, the previous board liaison to the committee, asked Banks why he wanted the liaison to choose the committee leaders, Banks answered that it would take out the "politics."

Countered Crooks, "Don't you want citizens to do the oversight? Don't you want objectivity?"

After a few minutes of debate, Dr. John Abraham, to his credit, said the board didn't have time for the proposal and should focus on more pressing issues like the budget and strategic plan.

To which Banks responded that he was happy to do whatever the board decides. But he was noticeably absent when his board colleagues went to lunch on Marietta Square during the meeting's break.

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A RECEPTION for Cobb Commission Chair hopeful Tim Lee is set for 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Strand Theatre on the Square. Suggested contribution is $100 per person. Lee, who now represents northeast Cobb on the board, plans to resign shortly after incumbent Chairman Sam Olens resigns in order to seek the GOP nomination for state attorney general. ... Meanwhile, a fundraiser is planned from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday on behalf of District Cobb Commission candidate Stephen Moon of northeast Cobb on Tuesday at the law offices of Lane & Karlo at 1827 Powers Ferry Road, Building 5. Moon, a Buckhead architect, is seeking the seat now held by Tim Lee. Also running for Lee's seat are Joanne Birrell and Earl Stine.

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A FUNDRAISING RECEPTION for state court judge candidate Rebecca Keaton is planned from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the law offices of Jimmy Berry and Vic Reynolds at 236 Washington Ave., Marietta. Keaton is running for the seat being vacated by retiring Judge Beverly Collins. Chairing the event are Lance and Sonja Cooper. Also running for Collins' seat are assistant U.S. prosecutor Reuben Green and deputy State Court solicitor Jason Fletcher.

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A LOT OF NICE THINGS have been said about Marietta High School's new head football coach, Scott Burton, but probably the ultimate compliment comes from a man in the striped shirt.

Republicans and Democrats praise each other more often than coaches and officials, but Bob Grubbs - who worked a lot of Burton's games when Burton led Highland Springs High School in Richmond, Va., and also when he was an assistant coach at the University of Richmond the past two years - sent a very reassuring e-mail to a Marietta High booster this week.

"Scott did a great job at both places," wrote Grubbs, a member of the Central Virginia Football Officials Association for 41 years, who is the umpire for prep games and carries the chains at Richmond home games.

"At Highland Springs High School, he was known for putting well-drilled football teams on the field, and he was also known to look after and guide his many players," Grubbs added. "He was a well-respected head coach among my fellow officials.

"He is a fine man, husband and father.

"I believe Marietta High School and their supporters will be very pleased with Scott."

A veteran official like Grubbs gains a lot of insight into a football program and how it is run, so his expert praise of Burton should add greatly to the confidence Marietta fans already have in their new coach.

Burton had a 77-26 record in nine seasons at Highland Springs and his 2007 team was undefeated. He joined the Richmond staff the next season and helped the Spiders win the Division IA national championship.

Burton plans to be at Marietta for the start of spring training next month. He and his wife, Meg, have three sons, ages 10, 8 and 5.

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CONGRATULATIONS TO NANCY INGRAM JORDAN, who will be sworn in as the 58th president of the Cobb Bar Association at noon Thursday at the Mansour Center on Roswell Street.

She will be sworn in by her sister, Superior Court Judge Lark Ingram, and her father, retired Supreme Court Justice and now Cobb Senior Judge G. Conley Ingram, will hold the family Bible.

Ms. Jordan is a graduate of the Emory Law School and practices at Brock Clay in Marietta. She and her father will be the first father-daughter duo to have headed the bar. He was its sixth president, serving from 1958-59.

The only husband-wife duo to serve as Cobb bar presidents at various times were the late Milton Grubbs and his wife, Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs. There has never been a father-son duo who’ve headed the bar.

Ms. Jordan has two sons, Lawton and Harrison, who attend the University of Georgia in Athens. Her husband, Bill, died two years ago from cancer. He was a graduate of Georgia Tech and was considered one of Georgia’s premier bridge engineers. The Cobb Commission recently named a bridge that is part of the East-West Connector in West Cobb the William G. Jordan Bridge.

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GOOFIEST IDEA OF THE WEEK: Cobb school board member Dr. John Abraham, who by his own admission has more degrees than a thermometer, wants the Acworth or Kennesaw city managers, or possibly the Cobb Chamber, to audit the school district’s troubled transportation department, which was roundly criticized by the most recent Cobb grand jury for its mismanagement.

Abraham’s idea popped out after board maverick Alison Bartlett brought up the grand jury report after it appeared Superintendent Fred Sanderson and board Chair Crowder-Eagle were about to adjourn the all-day meeting Wednesday without a peep about the report.

Never mind that the grand jury said it was high time the board and Sanderson got their hands dirty and got to the bottom of the “gross” and continuing “mismanagement ” of one of the largest school bus systems in the country

Apparently Abraham thinks Acworth city manager Brian Bulthuis and Kennesaw city manager Steve Kennedy have all the free time in the world, are awash in tax money, have no budget woes and sit around popping bon-bons all day at city hall waiting to be called in to clean up Sanderson’s and the board’s mess

What a spectacle: City managers, who probably make less than half of Sanderson’s $250,000-plus pay package, being summoned to the rescue. Don’t forget that when MDJ columnist Laura Armstrong first detailed mounting mismanagement and turmoil at the bus barn in December, Sanderson’s knee-jerk initial reaction was to send PR assistant Michelle Luckett to the MDJ office with a veiled threat of a lawsuit against Armstrong in the form of a “demand” letter. Had Sanderson been on the ball instead of in “hunker-down” mode, he would have been sending Armstrong a bouquet for alerting him to possible problems. Hindsight is 20-20, but that surely would have been a less embarrassing and more productive option for the system than turning a blind eye to the problems, then getting flattened by the grand jury.

As to a Chamber audit, let’s hope it doesn’t take the bait and get used by Abraham to pull the ever-controversial school board’s chestnuts out of the fire. First, the Chamber has zero expertise in auditing a $50 million transportation department. Secondly, the chamber should be a constructive critic of our school system — not a blind cheerleader for it. The system has plenty of cheerleaders already in the form of the school board. That mostly-toxic board continues to embarrass our county and our dedicated teachers and seems to be dragging our system down with its ineptness.

Unfortunately, several Chamber insiders were embarrassed several years back by then-school board Chair Kathie Johnstone, who later went down in flames with then-Superintendent Joe Redden thanks to the laptop fiasco.

New Chamber Chair Rob Garcia is focused on enhancing the Chamber’s raison d’etre — economic development. He and the Chamber don’t need to be sidetracked by Abraham into playing fireman for the school board.