Whither Manatee County School Board Elections?

In this special guest editorial, Karen Carpenter, who served on the Manatee County School Board as a well-respected member from 2010 to 2017, offers her insights on this year's school board elections.

The Choices: at the beginning of July, TBT profiled, with a picture, each of the seven candidates, including two incumbents, seeking to be elected to a four-year term on the District School board. The choices are Mrs. Messenger incumbent or Ms. Mendel in District 1; District 3 has Mr. Miner, incumbent, challenged by Mr. Boyes, Ms. Dawson, Ms. Foreman, Mr. Murphy.

This opinion piece looks both from a distance, and with an insider’s history, at the voters’ options, including the status of the district, the challenges, the choices, candidates’ disclosures, campaigning in the age of a Pandemic, and some of the questions each voter should compare and contrast when reviewing the ballot, and when making that very important decision. PLEASE VOTE!!

The Elections: August 18 is Primary Day. Ballots are in the mail, some have been mailed back, some hand-delivered to the Supervisor of Elections Office. Early voting starts at six countywide locations on August 8 and runs a week. The results: one candidate, either the incumbent or the challenger will prevail on Primary Day in District 1. District 3 is more crowded, with an incumbent and four challengers: to prevail on Primary Day, one candidate must receive more than 50 percent of the vote, which most observers think is unlikely so the resulting runoff will see the top two out of the five continue to the November 3 election. What is important in this year’s elections is that all voters in the county get to vote for all school board candidates, one for each district the candidate is supposed to live in. This will change in the next election cycle when there will be district only elections, similar to the County Commission numbered districts.

Campaigning in the age of COVID: we hope this year is atypical. During most election years, the typical activities can occur which center on the candidates’ exposing themselves in order to garner both voter support and financial contributions. It is usually a face to face, group interaction, glad-handing process. NOT this year, so far anyway. It’ll be interesting to compare voter participation rates. It is too early to compare the use of non-in-person interactions like robocalls, internet marketing, and signage.

Signs show the way a candidate reaches out, including who might be supporting him or her. Hands down, candidate Miner wins the sign wars, some of which he’s recycled from his two most recent prior school board races; in addition to his prior races from 1990 to 2010. He has been an enthusiastic, energetic glad-hander at charity dinners and lunches, handing out emory boards to sharpen nails, as well as his signature chocolate covered cherries. My 90-year-old father devoured them. But there are no parades, galas, road races, just the sound of one hand clapping. Other Ônormal’ candidate gatherings are the meet and greet, coffee and crumpets, and wine and cheese in homes of supporters. Not happening.

So the seven candidates are particularly challenged this year. It’s much harder work than normal. Being a candidate is very hard, both brave and foolish, costs real money, creates tension amongst families and neighbors, and evokes attacks and real nastiness. Kudos to all those who have stepped forward offering their services. Although the sign wars are won by Mr. Miner, there’s been some uniqueness in placement and design. Mr. Boyes has the cutest sign, with the "yes“ highlighted at the end of his name. Some candidates place signs on rights of way, on vacant lots and empty buildings not bothering to get permission. Others double up their signs with an opponent’s, figuring no one will notice. Really?

The Facts: The really important info is on the Supervisor of Elections website, detailing contributions, sources, expenditures, along with the Form 6 Financial disclosure. These are supposed to be truthful and complete, but can be amended if someone finds an error. A quick review reveals that all candidates paid for the filing fee, not bothering to collect signatures in this period of social, or antisocial, isolation. Everyone put in their own money in a Ôloan’ of sorts with the hope that it might be eventually paid back should the sweepstakes occur.

There’s a wide range in dollars: Messenger loaned her campaign $17,450. Spent it on the typical stuff like marketing signs. She has a few $1,000 contributions from her family. totaling $20, 920 with 12 contributions. The other incumbent, Mr. Miner loaned his campaign $2,000, but reaped five $1,000 donations from business interests, including Pat Neal and Willis Smith, making his total $10,160. With 21 contributions. His expenditures are typical and his Form 6 is very detailed, including his tax return.

Candidate Boyes' total was $4735, including a $3000 loan, 11 contributions; his expenditures are also typical. Mr. Murphy shows a loan of $1600, with no contributions. He’s reusing his signs from his run in district 4, covering the number with a 3.

Christine Dawson shows total contributions of $8541, including Attorney CJ Czaia for two donations totaling $1,500. She loaned her campaign $60 and has 49 contributors. Both she and Mendel each received $1000 from Native Tile and Stone. Mendel received $250 from Attorney Czaia. Dawson, like Mendel, has lots of outside Manatee county contributors. Dawson shows former candidate Shaun Lahoe as a consultant for a total of $1650. Signs and Facebook ads make up the bulk of expenditures. Mendel has 55 contributors.

Mary Foreman loaned almost as much as Messenger to her campaign, $15,000 with four $1000 contributions (Robert Spencer, Connie McClure, and two from Medallion Homes addresses on Whitfield), to total $20,920, with Typical expenditures of marketing internet advertising, For full disclosure and because of her long term volunteer role with the audit committee, my last born, I have donated to her campaign ($100).

All of this disclosure is the public’s business in order to monitor possible points of compromise, bias, and conflicts of interest, and it is available for review. If a candidate doesn’t believe in himself and put serious cash into his/her campaign, why should anyone support him or her? If outside special interests which are doing business with the district or want to do business with the district amount to a significant percentage of the amount contributed so far versus what the candidate has put in, that’s a red flag. Basic math will reveal the percentages.

The District:First, the district is large, among the top 100 nationally in terms of students, over 50,000 of whom receive some form of education from kindergarten to technical college. The impact in the county in terms of employees, buildings, and dollars is also large: the biggest budget, the biggest employer. There are over 8,000 employees, the budget is over $850 million. The value of the real estate occupied by over 60 schools and support buildings removes well over a billion dollars in value from the tax rolls. Teachers and paraprofessionals account for less than 1/3 of the total number of employees, with the remainder being support staff, buses, maintenance, food service, Administrators, consultants, etc.

There’s been much turbulence in the superintendent’s office in terms of finances. From 2010-20, seven superintendents occupied the office on the fifth floor although that turnover slowed in the past four years. In addition to staff turmoil, finances have been a mess along with operational challenges. There have been some recent improvements. In 2012, a $3 million alleged shortfall quickly became a $50 million one. An ill-planned poorly managed computer system projected to cost $10 million is now around $30 million and still climbing and not working. Oversight in the form of citizen committees and audit functions has not been welcomed. Transparency and accountability are elusive at best. Yet the manatee voter and taxpayers continue to support the district so that it is awash in money: voters renewed the 15-year half-cent sales tax and voted in four-year millage money plus board- voted bond indebtedness obligations to finance three new schools.

The questions and challenges for the voter: this is a paid job, about the same as a first-year teacher, not volunteer as in many other parts of the county. How do you check references and past board performance? Once the candidate is voted in, it’s not like a job with a 90 day trial period, but for 4 years. The board hires three people, superintendent, auditor, and lawyer, votes on contracts, sets policy, holds hearings on student suspensions, personnel matters, Legal settlements in executive session.

The Two Incumbents: Big questions: why replace them? Is the district better off now than 4 years ago? Are students showing good gains in learning? Is 50 percent at grade level reading sufficient? Is the checkbook balanced? Accounts not reconciled for much of 2019? As of Wednesday’s audit committee meeting, district bank accounts STILL have not been reconciled. Either this is continued incompetence or something worse? Hidden figures?

Questions continue about numbers, financial, and student data. Is it true that outside legal fees have ballooned to $5 million? And how is this verified? How’s the computer modernization going? Or is it 'going, going, gone'? How about requests for public information? Are they stalled, costly? Timely? Responsive? How is the public treated at board meetings? Emails returned? Complaints abound about board comments being moved to the Ôback of the bus’/end of the meeting.

During this time of COVID, there were peculiar blackouts during important board meetings: were they intentional, especially since the agenda topics were very controversial, like a recent discussion on school reopening and the Palmetto charter school closing? Mysteriously, the broadcasts didn’t occur. Was that intentional? Some think so. Were the blackouts so that the blacks could be kicked out off-camera?

Board Dynamics:Watch the board meeting: Are there serious deliberations? Florida’s Sunshine laws demand that the public’s business be conducted in the public, with few exceptions. A board member must convince in the open discussion two of his or her colleagues to support an idea or motion.

Are the incumbent members prepared, well-read on the documents, contracts, and budgets, or do they come in at the last minute, exhausted from another job, and fall asleep? It’s all on tape, most of the time, except during some mysterious blackouts.

Recusals are required if there's a conflict or potential conflict. For example, I got a big campaign donation from a district contractor or my spouse got a big promotion or my brother in law wants a jobÉall these can color independence and integrity. A little research can uncover conflicts of interest, some available on the candidates’ contributions list. Incumbent Messenger says the district is in great shape, both financially and educationally. Certainly, her family is, with her husband getting a big promotion and raise and, as the youngest member, producing a new child, eventually headed to district schools.

How’s the relationship of the incumbents with the superintendent? Independent or cozy, who’s the watchdog, and who are the sheep following Bo Peep? Is every board member a watchdog, or a guide dog, a mad dog, an attack dog, or transformed into sheep following the leader, a dynamic charismatic articulate, smart superintendent? Who’s really the boss? The superintendent filtering information, making decisions to be rubber-stamped? The so-called Ôconsent agenda’ is one of the most important parts of the board actions.

If the reader who plans to vote is happy with the status of the district, student achievement, read no further, just put the mark next to the two incumbents.

The Challenger Choices:Read as much as you can about the challenges, both financial and their statements on their websites, their answers to questionnaires like the League of Women Voters Voters Guide, other endorsements

The facts:In addition to reviewing board meetings where the incumbents all have great visibility and advantage: pundits say that there is a 1 percent chance of defeating an incumbent. Some questions for the challengers, all good people, with advanced degrees, eager to help the district in some way.

Mr. Boyes: He knows how to improve student scores at multiple elementary schools, is engaging, enthusiastic, and relates well with students and staff. Two questions: are these skills relevant and transferrable? And if he’s done the work he’s said he’s done, why hadn’t he been promoted to an administrative leadership track to help other principals? He’s certainly got an insiders track onboard information since his current wife is the school board administrator and pillow talk trumps all.

Cynthia Dawson: She has moved around the district allegedly doing every job except bus driver or cafeteria worker. This raises questions about her effectiveness, is she a jack or jill of all trades and master of none? The really substantive concern is her role as board chair at the Lincoln Charter School in Palmetto, which was one of the messiest, operationally and financially, with investigations and lawsuits still not resolved. As chair and a board member, she had a fiduciary responsibility. What happened?

Mary Foreman:Does a CPA automatically deserve a spot on the board after years on the audit committee? She knows all the details and problems, but why does she think she can be more effective as a board member than she’s been as audit committee chair.? Will her voice be heard and heeded as a board member? Maybe, maybe not.

Bridget Mendel:She takes her fervent passion and advocacy to adversary levels, almost the same kind of watchdog/mad dog mode seen in an incumbent who’s now a lapdog. How effective would she be in convincing colleagues of the merits of her concerns? Her background in economics is reassuring. Due to her strident criticism, she is definitely not welcomed on the dais by the administration. Is that a concern or a benefit?

Rick Murphy: He is the most intriguing candidate, as he was prior from the other district he tried to represent. He’s been an elected superintendent, a school board member, a teacher, a principal, and obviously has a lot to offer. Is he or his experience welcomed and transferrable to Manatee?

The choices of the voter are difficult but critically important. Who does the board work for? The students and their education? The taxpayer? The superintendent? The results of the voters’ choices reflect community values. And those values and this community depend on the voters' choices.