Controversy between Semmes Mayor Brandon Van Hook and Mobile County School Board Commissioner Johnny Hatcher originated long ago

 

 

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

Mobile County School Board Commissioner Johnny Hatcher denied accusations that he threatened Semmes Mayor Brandon Van Hook last week in a profane tirade and said a police report vindicates him.

“The allegations made against me by the mayor of Semmes are false,” Hatcher said in a text message to the Call News on Tuesday.

In contrast, Van Hook said the origins of the incident date back more than a year but hopes the rancor smooths into reconciliation.

Hatcher said his attorney, Dennis Knizley, advised him not to comment publicly on the specifics of the case because Van Hook filed a police report and could pursue criminal charges, although none have been filed.

But Hatcher said the fact that he hasn’t been contacted by police investigators shows he is innocent.

“I don’t think they’ve reached out to me because they felt they didn’t have a need to,” Hatcher said. “They got everything they needed to vindicate me.”

In his text message, Hatcher said claims made by Van Hook in the Mobile Police Department incident report were designed to sully his reputation.

“I believe the police report contains claims about my conduct that are false and misleading,” he wrote. “Available surveillance video provides evidence regarding what actually occurred, including the mayor’s conduct towards me during the incident. I also believe these allegations are politically motivated and were made with the intent to damage my reputation.”

But Van Hook said the verbal sparring with Hatcher began long before their altercation at Mobile County Public School System headquarters last week.

“He’s had it out for Semmes for two or three years now,” Van Hook said of Hatcher, citing Hatcher’s public indignation over not being invited to a groundbreaking last summer for a Wawa store in Semmes and what Van Hook said is Hatcher’s opposition to Semmes leaving the MCPSS and forming its own city school system.

Van Hook vowed there is no stopping that.

“Semmes is going to separate from the Mobile County Public School System,” declared Van Hook, who provided data from a recent survey showing overwhelming support for such a move. “My job is to provide the best for our community and if I think a school system is that, then that’s what it is. … Johnny has shown opposition for it just through social media posts, through recorded phone calls or just phone calls.”

The strong feelings boiled over on Aug. 12, when the school board voted 3-2 to uphold a mandatory transfer for embattled former Mary G. Montgomery head football coach Zach Golson.

Golson was removed from his job by the MCPSS in May during an investigation into what the Alabama High School Athletic Association ruled were recruiting violations. Golson has sought appeals to clear his name to no avail.

 

‘Do you have a

problem with me?’

 

Hatcher told Golson after the hearing that he had done everything he could for the coach, a claim Van Hook and a female witness repudiated, according to the incident report that Van Hook requested. Hatcher asked to speak to Van Hook afterward and they went into a meeting room.

“(Hatcher) shut the door and he said, ‘Do you have a problem with me?’ And I set my phone down and said, ‘As a matter of fact, I do have a problem with you,’” Van Hook said.

“I thought we were just going to talk man to man and he says, ‘Well, the door’s shut, mother******, what are you going to do about it?’ I said, ‘Johnny, I know you’re not bringing me in here to threaten me.’ And he says, ‘Oh, there is no threats’ or something along those lines. He was cussing back and forth and I said, ‘I am going to pull my phone out (to record) just so the people will know how you act.”

Van Hook said he told Hatcher he was going to get a witness but Hatcher stopped him at the door, put his fist near Van Hook’s face and boasted, ‘I am about to beat your fat ass, mother******.’

“His face was half an inch from my nose and his fist was up to my face in front of the door and it took me getting verbally loud with him for their security guards to open up the door on us,” Van Hook said.

MPD officers responded to MCPSS headquarters at about 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 12 on a harassment call. Hatcher was not arrested and there is no proof of what happened between Van Hook and Hatcher inside the meeting room, according to the incident report.

A witness said she had heard yelling from inside the room, according to the incident report.

An MCPSS security guard obtained video of the incident that captured only the hallway and once they exited the room, Van Hook approached Hatcher in an “aggressive manner,” according to the incident report.

“Of course, I am pissed at this point because he just had threatened me in a corner with his fist up to my face,” Van Hook said. “I remember this just as plain as day — he had his fist up and two or three people were holding him back but the police report says (security officers) didn’t see that. I asked if I could get a copy of the video and (an officer) said, ‘Well, we don’t have a copy of it.’ When the police went to talk to the staff who witnessed it, they said that they didn’t want to fill out a witness statement. These were employees, of course. They all work for the Mobile County Public School System.”

 

Problems with Semmes?

 

Hatcher has a smorgasbord of grievances with Semmes, according to Van Hook.

At the hearing, Hatcher questioned why Golson was paid a supplement by the city and had earlier inferred he was irritated because the coach acted as if he worked for the city and not the MCPSS, Van Hook said.

However, Hatcher and Commissioner Lonnie Parsons voted against Golson’s transfer from MGM.

The City of Semmes allocated $90,000 in coaching supplements for Golson and his staff — a common practice in public schools — during fiscal-year 2027. That continued a city policy MGM’s administration requested to help the school attract Golson as its head coach in 2022, Van Hook said.

Van Hook said Hatcher also took issue with the city asking the Alabama Legislature to allow Semmes to annex property to boost its population past 5,000 residents, which state law requires for a municipality to form a school board. The city’s population was 4,900 in the 2020 U.S. Census but is estimated to be 6,200 now, according to the census bureau.

Hatcher also posted his displeasure on the Voices of Semmes Facebook page last August that no school board commissioners were invited to the Semmes Wawa opening despite the fact he voted to sell MCPSS property to start the development.

“I am extremely disappointed that the city of Semmes decided to have a grand opening for the new Wawa, and never extended an invite to the MCPSS Commissioners,” Hatcher wrote. “We currently lease the City of Semmes several properties at a minimal or at no cost. And what thanks do we get for this, The Mayor of Semmes, just this past legislative session, tried to annex MCPSS property’s (sic) through a legislative act.

“I am not going to continue to partner with the city of Semmes if they continue to show such blatant disrespect to the MCPSS Commissioners who have helped them in every way imaginable since the conception of Semmes.”

Van Hook said a recent survey of 201 Semmes residents showed 75% of the respondents want a school system with local control, 63% have a very unfavorable or somewhat unfavorable opinion of the MCPSS and 52% said Semmes schools don’t get fair funding from the MCPSS.

Of the respondents, 91% were white, 75% had some college education, 69% were between the ages of 18 and 54, 58% were female, 54% said they have lived in Semmes for 20-plus years and 78% aligned themselves with the Republican Party.

 

Wants reconciliation

 

At the hearing, Van Hook said the school board seemed more interested in Semmes paying MGM coaches supplements and its maneuvering to form its own school system than Golson’s plight.

“(Hatcher) asked multiple times (about the supplements),” Van Hook said. “You could tell that Hatcher was getting pissed off. … I said in the meeting that we don’t hire coaches, we’re there to subsidize their income. That’s our tool to have a winning football program and attract a better coach. A principal was involved in this deal and a school board member was involved in this deal or none of this would have been voted on or approved. We just don’t go out there looking for coaches on our own.”

Parsons said multiple times during the hearing that Semmes needs its own school system, Van Hook said.

“But even after him questioning about the (city) school system, I said, ‘With all due respect Mr. Parsons, I am not here for your school system questions. I hope you make your decision based off of what we’re here for today and what we’re saying about Zach Golson versus us trying to separate from Mobile County Public Schools.’”

Despite the imbroglio, Van Hook said he wants a calm meeting with Hatcher to work through the issues.

“I would hope Johnny Hatcher and I could have a civil conversation in the future and sit down like grown adults without one person yelling at the other,” he said.