Citizens for Bulldog Blueprint PAC report released, board votes down motion to not meet with vendors at IASB Conference

By Dani Tietz

Donations and expenditures of Citizens for Bulldog Blueprint from July 1 to Sept 30 were released recently by the Illinois Board of Elections. This political action committee was formed to support the June 28  Mahomet-Seymour School District referendum for $97.9 million. 

It does not appear that this group is leading the charge of promoting the $59.4 million referendum at this time. Signs in support of the referendum indicate a group by the name of Citizens for Mahomet-Seymour is behind this charge. 

During this time period, BLDD Architects, the firm behind the Bulldog Blueprint and the district’s architect of record which will design whatever the community ultimately decides on, gave $4,500; Jill Kellner gave $600, and Jama Grotelueschen a lead on the Bulldog Blueprint committee, gave $635.87. 

The committee self-reported spending $350 to Creative Entourage for media and $5,785.36 for brochures. Creative Entourage and BLDD were also hired by the Mahomet-Seymour School District to work on the Bulldog Blueprint. The referendum failed with a vote of 3,511 to 1,714. BLDD was paid $20,000 for that work and would have received another $40,000 if the referendum passed.  

The group also paid $379.10 to DecisionBricks, Inc. for telephone polling. 

Donations from March 30 to June 2022 came from Broeren Russo Builders, Inc for $500, Core Construction Services of IL for $2,500, Davis Electric for $1,000, Davis-Houk Mechanical for $1,000, and Harold O’Shea Builders, Inc for $3,000. When asked about bids for the Building Construction Manager that went out prior to June 28, Superintendent Kenny Lee said Broeren Russo, Core Construction, and O’Shea all would have been contenders for that position. 

Davis-Houk and Davis Electric frequently show up on the board of education’s monthly bill list. 

After spending a total of $ 6,783.62 to Martin One Source for mailers prior to the June 28 referendum, the Mahomet-Seymour School District has spent $2,101.02 on a “bond election mailer” in the October bill list. 

After a FOIA request for attorney fees, a line item showed that the district talked to their lawyers about the mailers. Part of the line item was redacted, but in a conversation with Lee, he said the blacked-out mark read, “district expenditure to support referendum.” 

According to the Illinois Counsel of School Attorneys (provided by the Illinois School Board Association), Illinois Election Code “bars the expenditure of public funds to advocate votes for or against a referendum, but permits use of public funds to disseminate factual data.”

The Election Code’s interference prohibition states: “No public funds shall be used to urge any elector to vote for or against any candidate or proposition, or be appropriated for political or campaign purposes to any candidate or political organization. This Section shall not prohibit the use of public funds for dissemination of factual information relative to any proposition appearing on an election ballot….”

This means that school district resources can be used for brochures, web postings, and other communications that describe the proposition, but not to urge a yes or no vote. 

“Communications using district resources should be factual and include relevant data, such as enrollment projections, comparisons with other districts, the status of current facilities or programs, and the district’s financial condition. These communications should avoid language which connotes or may be construed as advocacy, such as, urge, save, shatter, ensure, break, and devastating,” according to ICSA. 

Since learning about how the district asked Stifel Nicolaus, a brokerage and investment banking firm that earns payment when the district borrows money, to donate to the Mahomet-Seymour Education Foundation, and how the district spent money from donations made by Stifel, BLDD, Prairie State Bank to the Bulldog Bash, the Mahomet Daily has asked about what the web is spun. 

In communication with the Attorney General’s office, the Mahomet Daily asked the body to review the district’s donation list when Stifel, BLDD, and Prairie State Bank did not show up. There were several anonymous lines the publication wanted to be reviewed. It was stated that persons who give to the district are unlike businesses that may work with the district. 

The district told the AG’s office, “Of the 24 anonymous donations during the relevant period under the FOIA request, the District was unable to locate records that provide the identity of the donors in seven cases. Five of those donations were for $500, one was for $100, and one was for $800. Therefore, in those few cases, the District has no records to provide. In the 17 other cases, the District has records that identify the anonymous donors. These individual donors, however, affirmatively requested that their names remain anonymous. By their very request, they have expressed that sharing their names with the public would be an unwarranted invasion of their personal privacy. Therefore, the names are exempt from disclosure under Section 7(1)(c) of the FOIA. 5 ILCS 140/7(1)(c).”

Franczek went on to write, “In her request for review, the requester reasonably argues that the public may have an interest in the identity of donors if the donor is a vendor, affiliated with a vendor, or otherwise seeks to conduct business with the District. That, however, is not the case in this instance. The District has verified that none of the anonymous donors for which the District possess names are vendors, affiliated with vendors, or otherwise seeking to do business with the District. All are private individuals that desire to donate to the District related to their own altruism.”

How the donations to the district from those three vendors came is still a mystery.

Through a different FOIA asking for communication with Core Construction, it became evident that the district asked the vendor for $500 to help pay for staff t-shirts as students came back to school during COVID mitigations. Core gave $750. The disclosure for that donation, along with others, is not readily provided.

The issue of quid pro quo or the appearance of such was also discussed at Monday’s Mahomet-Seymour Board of Education meeting when member Colleen Schultz made a motion that board and staff who will attend the IASB Conference in Chicago in November would not take food, money or gifts from vendors. 

Mahomet-Seymour taxpayers spent $11,554.53 for Mahomet-Seymour’s Director of Student Support Services Christine Northrup, Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent Dawn Quinley, Chief School Business Official Heather Smith, Superintendent Lindsey Hall, Assistant Superintendent Nicole Rummel, and board members Justin Lamb, Max McComb, and Sunny McMurry to spend three days at the conference in 2021. Superintendent Kenny Lee was asked Monday night which board members and staff would attend this year, but the Mahomet Daily has yet to receive an answer.

Last year the Mahomet Daily reported vendors Bushue Human Resources, Ameresco, VEREGY (formerly CTS Group), BLDD, CORE Construction,  Franczek, Unland Insurance & Benefits, Miller, Hall & Triggs and Stifel all provided hors d’ oeuvres, and some provided dinner for the Mahomet-Seymour group. 

According to Board Policy 2:105 Ethics and Gift Ban

“Food or refreshments not exceeding $75 per person in value on a single calendar day; provided that the food or refreshments are: (a) consumed on the premises from which they were purchased or prepared; or (b) catered. “Catered” means food or refreshments that are purchased ready to consume which are delivered by any means.”

Schultz noted that there are school districts that do not mingle with vendors at the conference, and Mahomet-Seymour should take the same stance in order to avoid the appearance of or to avoid impropriety. 

Board President Max McComb said, “That’s going to be very difficult to do because one of the advantages of being up there is networking with people.”

McComb claimed that dinners provided by the vendors save the district money. In 2021, for example, BLDD took Mahomet-Seymour to Shaw’s Crab House. Though exact prices and receipts were not given for each meal, the dinner could have totaled $55-$100 per person.

The board’s policy allows for reimbursement from meal costs and tips up to $70 per day in Chicago.

The motion was voted down 3-2. Justin Lamb, Max McComb, and Sunny McMurry voted against it while Meghan Hennesy and Colleen Schultz voted in favor. 

Lee has not responded as to whether or not Mahomet-Seymour has plans to dine with vendors while in Chicago.