TUSDKidsFirst has come under scrutiny ever since Tucson Unified School District Governing Board members Kristel Foster and Cam Juarez were forced to return contributions totaling $10,000 to a District vendor, much attention has focused on campaign finances.
Almost immediately after TUSDKidsFirst’s signs promoting their endorsements popped up all over town earlier this month, within a 24 hour period, both the Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Weekly published articles seemingly critical about the group.
TUSDKidsFirst, an independent expenditure committee, is funded by both large and small donors, who hope to elect independent-minded members to the Board. To that end, the group has endorsed Independent Mark Stegeman, Democrat Betts Putnam Hidalgo, and Republican Brett Rustand.
In the past, only Board member Adelita Grijalva had substantially benefitted from donors outside the District, due to the donations from her father, Congressman Raul Grijalva’s connections. This year, not only did Juarez and Foster receive money from the Phoenix-based TUSD vendor, ESI, but those donations totaled up to 80 percent of the money they received.
The donations to TUSDKidsFirst show contributions from only Tucson area business persons and other residents. In his article, ‘TUSD Kids First’ Amasses $35,000 War Chest From Large Donations, David Safier writes that the group is “the loudest, most visible and best financed voice in the TUSD board campaign.” Safier makes this claim despite the fact that Grijalva has used her position on the Board to promote the re-elections of Foster and Juarez while on the dais and through public events sponsored in part by the District. Grijalva has even gone so far to silence members of the public who are critical of the incumbents.
The Dietz Neighborhood Association is sponsoring a TUSD Board Candidates Forum on Tuesday, October 4, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. at Palo Verde High School, on 22nd St. and Kolb. This forum will include all candidates and is open to all TUSD residents and interested parties.
As a result, an independent expenditure committee is one of the safest and most effective ways to give the public a loud voice in this race. It was Grijalva’s decision to have security personnel escort education activist David Morales out of one meeting this year that confirmed for many that only through a joint effort could outsider candidates have a chance at being heard at all.
While implying something nefarious about an independent expenditure committee being formed for the race, Safier takes a shot at Jimmy Lovelace. Safier claims that Lovelace, who formed TUSDKidsFirst with friends, who had kids in District schools or owned properties within the District’s boundaries, “has a connection to TUSD, and a grievance.” Safier explains that Lovelace “was the chair of the district’s Audit Committee until he and another member were forced off the committee when a residency requirement was added by the three-member board majority which the group opposes.”
While Safier’s statement about Lovelace is mostly true, it is incomplete. By all accounts, Lovelace was doing a phenomenal job. After Lovelace, a well-respected CPA, who was demanding more transparency and accountability from the District, was forced off of the Audit Committee with still much work left to do, he was replaced by anything but an independent member. Lovelace was replaced by Ricky Hernandez, who has both personal and professional conflicts. Members of his family work for the District, and he is the CFO of in the Pima County School Superintendent’s office, which oversees schools’ finances.
Now, the Audit Committee is nothing more than a rubber stamp for the administration and its questionable accounting practices.
Safier also leaves out another important fact; he is a contributor to Foster’s campaign and has for years, acted as a Grijalva camp apologist on the web pages of the Tucson Weekly tabloid. When confronted about his failure to disclose his contributions by David Morales, the publisher of the Three Sonorans blog, Safier posted in the comment section below his article:
Three Sonorans, you’re correct that I donated to Kristel Foster’s campaign and would have donated to Cam Juarez’s campaign as well except that his website wasn’t working properly. I didn’t put that information in the post because it is a fact-based post rather than one that expresses an opinion on the TUSD race. However, I probably should have disclosed my support of the two candidates anyway.
Safier’s failure to disclose pales in comparison however to what Juarez and Foster’s campaign finance reports do disclose. Foster received a contribution from an attorney with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Robert McCright, while the District was under investigation by that office. McCright could not have been effectively shielded from the investigations because they have been the subject of wide-spread media attention. He may not have worked on the investigations, but unless he is living in a cave, he surely knew of them. There is nothing that prevents an employee of the State of Arizona from contributing to a campaign, the appearance of an Assistant Attorney General making a contribution to a subject of his office’s investigations, is less than appropriate.
An inquiry has been sent to Ryan Anderson with the Attorney General’s Office as to the propriety of McCright’s contribution.
Mary Alice Wallace, who works for the entire Board but answers only to Grijalva, donated $300 to Foster. While there is nothing illegal about school employees contributing to school board races, Wallace’ s contribution lends credibility to those who have had concerns about the handling of Board communications and requests for information. And while there is nothing illegal with the contributions, there is some question as to the propriety of contributing to a superior.
Despite the fact that there are three open seats and Putnam Hidalgo is extremely pro-union, and Stegeman has regularly voted against administration salary increases and in favor of teachers, the administration-controlled teachers union (TEA) has only thrown its support behind Juarez and Foster. Because the union does not now, nor has it represented enough teachers in the district to be legally certified as a partner in collective bargaining, it is at the mercy of Grijalva. Until another more attractive union can secure a seat at the TUSD table, the district-controlled TEA will continue to support Grijalva’s team in order to maintain the little relevance it currently enjoys.
Corky Poster, whose firm made considerable money off the controversial closing of neighborhood schools, is also a contributor.
According to a 2011 article in the Arizona Daily Star:
Tucson Unified School District contracted with Poster Frost Mirto in December, agreeing to pay the consultants $90,000 to solicit and analyze proposals, work with the community and negotiate deals.
On Tuesday, the Governing Board unanimously approved another $21,000 be spent to solicit new proposals for three of the campuses that did not receive acceptable responses the first time.
The sites are Rogers, Van Horne and Wrightstown elementary schools. As part of the new contract, the consultant group has also been charged with evaluating the potential use of Duffy Elementary as some type of district facility.
In addition to extending the contract for those four sites, the board was asked to consider whether the consultant group should solicit proposals specific to TUSD headquarters, 1010 E. 10th Street. That option came with a price tag of more than $14,000.
Board member Mark Stegeman supported the efforts for Rogers, Van Horne, Wrightstown and Duffy, but not for the 1010 proposal.
Poster has not donated to Stegeman’s campaign this year or ever.
Stegeman, who voted no on the ESI contract, also did not receive any contributions from ESI Vice-President Rob Brooks, which strengthens the suspicions that Foster and Juarez received pay-to-play type contributions.
The truth of the matter is that school board races are now important for a number of reasons and everyone has their own reason for getting involved on a monetary level. Some have no financial interests in TUSD other than healthy schools make for healthy communities as in the case of TUSDKidsFirst. Lovelace has been active in and served on the District’s Bond Fiscal Oversight Committee, and was treasurer of the District’s 2008 and 2009 override initiatives. His dedication to the health of the District and its continuing future is unmistakable.
TUSDKidsFirst has endorsed an “R,” and “D,” and an “I”. It is difficult to imagine a more nonpartisan group. And that is the way it is supposed to be in nonpartisan school board races.
Related articles:
Foster Blames Student Flight On TUSD Board Acrimony, Not Poor Choices
Hicks Calls For Investigation Of Juarez, Foster, TUSD Vendor Campaign Contributions