Tucson Unified School District Governing Board members Kristel Foster and Cam Juarez and their acceptance of large donations are being called into question by Board member Michael Hicks. According to the Three Sonorans website, Hicks is calling for an investigation by local election officials as part of “his continuing effort to increase the public’s trust in the Tucson Unified School District.”
“I met a number of public school supporters at various events in Phoenix during the fall of 2015. I accepted Mrs. Brooks contribution and thanked her for supporting my campaign,” claimed Foster in an email to the ADI. When pressed as to the appropriateness of accepting the donation and failing to disclose that the donor was the wife of an executive with a firm that had just been awarded a $21 million contract with the District, Foster would only reply, “I will let the Secretary of State lead the investigation.”
On Monday, in an interview on the James T. Harris radio show, TUSD Governing Board candidate Lori Riegel pointed out that any campaign contribution over $500 requires the donor to disclose spousal contact info with spouse’s occupation. Listen to the interview here
ARS 16-907: prohibited contributions; standing political committees; classification, makes any person who knowingly accepts a contribution made by one person in the name of another person guilty of a class 6 felony.
“By TUSD Board members Cam Juarez and Kristel Foster accepting campaign contributions totaling $10,000 from the spouse of an established vendor with TUSD, we risk losing all public trust. This has the potential to be a criminal act. We must hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards,” stated Hicks in a press release.
The $5,000 contributions made to each Foster, and Juarez were made by a Ms. Carly Brooks. Ms. Brooks’ husband, Mr. Rob Brooks, is the Vice President of Marketing for ESI. ESI’s contract was recently approved in a vote of Consent Agenda item. No discussion was allowed by Board president Adelita Grijalva.
In June, Ms. Foster and Mr. Juarez joined TUSD Board President Mrs. Adelita Grijalva in approving the $21 million contract with ESI, a company out of Phoenix that TUSD is now using to outsource its substitute teachers. In August, Ms. Brooks made the contributions, according to campaign finance records.
Retired TUSD teacher Lillian Fox pointed out that the ESI contract was approved on June 14, by Governing Board members Juarez, Foster, and Grijalva. “It’s not just subs. For $21 million, they’re leasing an assistant superintendent, multiple directors, principals, coordinators, supervisors and many other employees at all levels,” Fox told the ADI. “The approval of the $21 million ESI contract is an example of TUSD’s lack of transparency. The $21 million contract with ESI was not listed on the agenda and nor was there any presentation on this or 6 other multi-million dollar contracts. The ESI contract and 40 other vendor contracts were covered in one of 45 line items under Agenda Item 7. Line item K’s title was “Approval to use cooperative contracts for contracts $250,000 and above.” That was the entire agenda description for many millions of dollars in vendor contracts.”
Fox continued, “Only people who know to always ignore the Board Agenda and go straight to the TUSD website for “Agenda Items” could have discovered the two and a half page list of the vendors and contract amounts. But there was just a list, no contracts and no details.”
“I am demanding that we bring integrity and transparency back to the TUSD Board of Governors and to our election system, I will be filing a formal complaint with the Arizona Secretary of State,” said Hicks. “We must have an impartial investigation into these campaign contributions. We cannot afford further erosion of confidence in our public schools. Our kids’ education is at stake.”
TUSD Board member Mark Stegeman stated, “This administration has become such a jungle of conflicts of interest that I am not sure they could find their way out if they tried.”
| Candidate Putnam Hidlago released a video on the ESI contributions |
TUSD Governing Board candidate Betts Putnam Hidalgo stated in an email to the ADI, “This school board race is beginning to take on national-proportion levels of apparent corruption. Anyone who has watched these two incumbents on the Board is not surprised that no questions were asked…As if it was not outrageous enough that the original vote for the $21 million contract was almost in secret, now it appears that a VP working for the company that got that contract has enough money lying around to donate $10,000 to re-election campaigns, while substitutes scrounge to make a living and the District saves money. It may be legal for incumbents who directly benefit donors to accept their donations, but it certainly isn’t ethical. When its Congresspeople and others, we call it buying votes. What should we call it here? TUSD voters, you don’t have to wait to find out. Oct. 10 or November 8, you know what to do!!”
Rich Kronberg, a long-time educator and education activist stated, “To think that the Ms. Brooks made these contributions totaling $10,000 so her husband’s firm could make only a $2,500 fee for being the District’s Authorized Insurance Representative (AIR) is absurd. It does not pass the red-face test. Imagine how much insurance companies are going to provide in “gratuities” to Mr. Brooks and his firm for their recommendation to TUSD about which vendors to use for the District’s insurance needs. Those costs will, of course, be passed along to TUSD’s taxpayers and, ultimately, come out of the TUSD budget. One more way TUSD students are being cheated by a corrupt leadership…both elected and appointed.”
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Campaign Contributions To TUSD’s Juarez, Foster Raise Concerns