McHenry County Blog

Archive for the ‘Mary Garcia’

The Grayslake School Board Incumbents’ Campaign (Email) Trail – Part 3

May 05, 2011 By: Cal Skinner Category: Alex Finke, Andrew Kohl, Colleen Wade, Edward Tivador, Election, email, Ethics, Grayslake, Grayslake Unit School District 46, Jim Beam, Karen Weinert, Keith Surroz, Lennie Jarratt, Mary Garcia, Megan Craig, Miohael Carbone, Nate Carter, Ray Millington, Sue Facklam, Suzi Schmidt

In our examination of political emails involving the re-election of Grayslake School Board members Mary Garcia, president of a Skokie school district’s union, and Sue Fackham, we are now about two weeks away from the April 5th election.

Fackham was re-elected, coming in third, while Garcia was not, placing fourth.

Images, remember, can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Earlier collections of emails can be found in Part 1 and Part 2.

That the Lake County State’s Attorney is investigating the matter is found here.

School Board incumbent has a list of Grayslake School District 46 employees for which incumbent running mate Sue Facklam request. One wonders where the list originated.

A proposed letter to Illinois Education Association (teacher union) members was discused on March 16th in an email from Bob Garcia, an employee of the school district with his School Board wife. While some might think it strange for a school board member to have a spouse on the payroll, it is less rare than one might think. Taxpayers do not seem to see any conflict of (or convergence of) interest.

The incumbents are still trying to tap into the resources of the Lake County Democratic Party's Votebuilder on March 17th. The suggestion from incumbent Sue Facklam to incumbent Mary Garcia is to call their consultant, Alex Finke, to whom they have now sent a check.

This email (subject line: "the campaign") from Sue Fackham tells last name withheld "Lisa" and Mary Garcia that her son's friends are willing to pass out literature...for a price. Facklam also solicits senders of friend-to-friend endorsement cards for which postage will be supplied.

"Prohibited political activity" is the topic of this email from Lennie Jarratt to District 46 School Board members and other school district personnel. Attached evidence was apparently not provided by the school district Freedom of Information Officer. See the rest of the email below.

This is a continuation of the email from Round Lake Beach's Lennie Jarratt above.

With the election about a week away, after the warning email from Lennie Jarratt, School Board President Mary Garcia begins to be cautious about using school district email addresses.

Email traffic with Grayslake School District addresses stops showing up about ten days before the election.

The next one–right before the election–is from the office of Republican State Senator Suzi Schmidt.

It conveyed a letter about “alleged ethics violation of Mary Gracia” concerning a March 5th email. It was sent to Northbrook/Glenview Elementary School Distrrict 30 Superintendent Ed Tivador and Board President Jim Beam and members of the Board of Education. District 30 is where Grayslake School Board President Mary Garcia is President of the teachers’ union.

The last email is from Chicago Tribune reporter to defeated School Board President Mary Garcia.

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Lake County State’s Attorney Looking into Grayslake School Board Members Campaign Emails

May 05, 2011 By: Cal Skinner Category: email, Grayslake, Grayslake Unit School District 46, Joyce Synek, Lake County State's Attorney, Lou Bianchi, Mary Garcia, Sue Facklam

That’s what the Trib Local scribe Andrea Brown is reporting.

An official investigation has begun.

You may remember that the Special Prosecutors of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi spent $225,000 we know of looking into the alleged use of official resources for Bianchi’s political benefit.

I believe Quest Consultants International examined over 5,000 emails and found less than ten that were of a political nature. One I remember was from a web hosting company that was told to use a non-government email address to communicate.

Special Prosecutors Henry Tonigan and Thomas McQueen argued that Bianchi assistant Joyce Synek was running Bianchi’s campaign out of the courthouse.

In cross examination of former Criminal Division Chief Nichole Owens, testimony was elicited that Synek’s campaign roll was baking cookies.

In Grayslake, from the email published by McHenry County Blog so far (see “The Grayslake School Board Incumbents’ Campaign (Email) Trail” – Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), there is a much stronger case to be made.

Indeed, if as much evidence had been found flowing into and out of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office, I doubt there would have been a directed verdict of not guilty.

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The Grayslake School Board Incumbents’ Campaign (Email) Trail – Part 2

May 04, 2011 By: Cal Skinner Category: Alex Finke, Election, Ellen Correll, email, Grayslake Unit School District 46, IEA, Illinois Education Association, Kip Evans, Marchell Norris, Mary Garcia, Nancy Shepherdson, Postcard, Ray Millington, Rochelle Gordon, Ronald Jarvis, Shannon Smigielski, Sue Facklam, Suzi Schmidt, Yard Sign

I became interested in a series of emails from and to incumbent candidates running for re-election on the Grayslake Unit School District 46 Board.

They are of interest, first, because they were sent on two school district email accounts and, secondly, they give a pretty good indication of what happened when during a teacher union-backed election campaign.

2011 election returns for Grayslake Unit School District 46. Challengers Kip Evans and Shannon Smigielski ran second and first. Incumbent emailer Sue Facklam placed third. Her running mate Mary Garcia came in fourth.

I have noted previously that in low turnout elections, relatively small, but well-organized groups like teachers unions can have disproportionate influence on outcomes. In McHenry County, it would surprise me if any school district’s board did not have a majority whose members were not supported (officially or unofficially) by its local teachers’ union.

Yesterday, we looked at emails for the first week of March, a month before the April 5th election. (Part 3–the end of the campaign–can be found here.)

This week there was an action-packed meeting that you can read about here and here.

But let’s look at some more emails. As usual, you can enlarge any image by clicking on it.

First, let me post one from March 3rd that should have been in the first article.

Both the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education have a common interest in the re-election of the incumbents. Instructions are given to form a Political Action Committee "once you have raised $1,000."

Republican State Senator Suzi Schmidt shows up in this email.

As of March 7th Republican State Senator Suzi Schmidt is still in the loop.

The incumbents running for re-election sought help from Lake County Democrats. They wanted access to Votebuilder. Campaign consultant Alex Finke is identified as having worked on Democratic Party campaigns in McHenry County. An email sent to 8th Congressional District Committeewoman Nancy Shepherdson is included. 8th Congressional District Democratic Party Committeewoman writes Sue Facklam, "I fear the Tea Party in your race, as well." Of course, Tea Party activists have been blamed (credited) with Congresswoman Melissa Bean's 2010 defeat.

There is reference to a letter to Illinois Education Association (IEA) members in this email. the school district seems not have supplied an attachment.

Literature for Mary Garcia and Sue Facklam is discussed here. One signer of the piece is fellow Board member Ray Millington, who was elected President of the new board.

An exchange about yard signs and flyers from Grayslake School District employee Ellen Correll to North Chicago Unit School District Ph.D. Douglas Parks is in this email.

The teacher-supported candidates reveal why liberals only want written questions. It's so their liberal friends can screen out embarrassing questions. " I definitely want written questions," emails Sue Facklam, the incumbent who won re-election. "I do not want questions from the audience," writes losing Board member Mary Garcia.

School board member Ray Millington (now District 46 Board President) sends the opposition's post card via the Grayslake School District email server.

Sign placement was the topic of this email to Grayslake Village Trustee Ron Jarvis, who won re-election.

More tomorrow.

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The Grayslake School Board Incumbents’ Campaign (Email) Trail – Part 1

May 03, 2011 By: Cal Skinner Category: Alex Finke, Campaign, Campaign Contributions, Campaign Disclosure, Campaign Literature, Campaign Manager, email, Grayslake, Grayslake Unit School District 46, Mary Garcia, Sue Facklam

What caught my interest today was an article on the Lake County Tea Party site by Paul Mitchell about Grayslake Unit School District 46.

It is based on emails sent to and from the school district’s email server and shows the planning and execution of the re-election campaigns of incumbent school board members Sue Facklam and Mary Garcia.

I dipped into the email source documents (which can be accessed at the bottom of Mitchell’s article) obtained through a Freedom of Information request and found some that I would like to share with you.

In long, long documents like state budgets, I start at the bottom and work my way up. That’s works for budgets, because legislative leaders often bury bad things near the end.

It works for emails because the last one sent responsive to the FOI request is on the bottom. For you though, I’ll put them in chronological order starting about two months before the April 5, 2011, election.

What I find most interesting is the interaction between consultant Alex Finke and the candidates. (In any of these emails, you can click to enlarge them, if you can’t read them.)

This March 1st email from incumbent Mary Garcia to consultant Alex Finke seems to give advice on how to evade the Illinois Campaign Finance Disclosure laws.

This email from incumbent Sue Facklam tells of how gift cards were give to high school students who registered to vote. She notes that practice "is probably illegal."

This email tells how the incumbents reached out to Lake County Democrats for data base help.

A retired teacher apparently sent a letter to the editor. The reaction was to try to find out how much of a salary bump he got before retiring.

Teachers are filling out "friend-to-friend" post cards. The union will pay postage.

Lake County Democrats are unwilling to share Votebuilder because Mary Garcia, one of the incumbents, did not vote in the Democratic Party primary election.

"You won last time doing nothing."

Campaign FaceBooking about noon at school.

Here's a campaign appearance invitation.

"Is it illegal for me to forward this??" asks Diane Elfring, the District 46 teacher union president.

The Patf's Pizza fund raiser does not have the required campaign disclosure telling where one can purchase a copy of the political action committee's campaign disclosure report.

What follows–in two parts–is an email telling how a joint campaign might avoid filing campaign disclosure reports.