By Alabama Public Radio
Mobile, AL – A Theodore man has filed ethics complaints against three Mobile County school board members. Retiree Ronald Mattern filed the complaints earlier this week against David Thomas, Lonnie Parsons and Hazel Fournier. The Alabama Ethics Commission in Montgomery is already investigating a complaint filed by another Mobile County resident earlier this year against school board member John Holland. In that complaint, Holland was accused of voting in favor of a company where his son-in-law works. In the new complaints, Thomas is accused of voting to buy and swap land from Bishop State Community College. That's where he works. The board president is also accused of funding programs through the 100 Black Men of Mobile; he is a member of that organization. Fournier is also accused of voting in favor of the 100 Black Men of Mobile. That group hired her sister to oversee a program. Parsons, meanwhile, is accused of driving his County Sheriff's Department car to school board meetings and voting on matters related to the utility board where his stepson works. Alabama Ethics Commission attorney Hugh Evans says he's not sure whether the commission has received the complaints.