Birmingham School Board President resigning - ABC 33/40 - Birmingham News, Weather, Sports

Birmingham School Board President Edward Maddox faces two charges that he used his office for personal gain. His attorney says Maddox turned himself into the Jefferson County jail Tuesday morning and released on bond shortly after he arrived.

Maddox has agreed to enter guilty pleas to two misdemeanor ethics violations. Even though his attorney calls the violations unintentional, Maddox is now resigning from his position as school board president.

It's been a controversial year for the Birmingham Board of Education and now their president is turning in his resignation.

Attorney Richard Jaffe says "The school board needs to run smoothly, it has to have firm leadership and he's accepted full responsibility for his mis-judgements and he did not want to put himself and everyone else through a lot of litigation."

Tuesday morning Edward Maddox entered a plea of two unintentional misdemeanor ethics violations.. and turned himself into police. One charge says he used city money to fund a charity that he founded... called "Woodlawn missions and more." The second charge says Maddox voted on a pay raise several months ago for his daughter, who works for the school system. Board members are not allowed to vote on personnel matters that involve relatives.

"There was a group of individuals and his daughter was included there. Mr. Maddox should have abstained, but unfortunately he was silent and that counted as a yes."

Jaffe says the vote was later taken back. He also says Maddox didn't realize voting on a group that included his daughter was a criminal act because it's public record. The issues came to the forefront during the recent school board investigation. "The controversy that occurred with the civil litigation of recent where he testified and it was contested and very contentious. As a result of that,  there was investigation revealed these infractions."

Jaffe arranged for Maddox to turn himself in after a series of discussions with the Attorney General's Office. State Appointed School Board CFO Dr. Ed Richardson is aware of the situation, but doesn't know all of the specifics. "Obviously that was part of my initial investigation, but we didn't get into anything but residency issues and I believe it must have been released to the D.A.'s office."

Dr. Richardson says a special election may be required to fill the board seat. If there's less than a year left on the term, the board could appoint someone. Maddox is expected to enter his plea tomorrow morning at 8:30