Political groups spent $1.2 million on MPS referendum; now unknown funders back MPS recall

Political committees spent over $1.2 million to sway voters for or against the spring referendum to raise taxes for Milwaukee Public Schools, new finance reports filed this week show.

Now other committees are raising funds for another political battle over the future of MPS, a recall effort against half the Milwaukee School Board.

Here's what to know from the reports.

Political spending for and against MPS referendum topped $1.2 million

Before voters narrowly approved the April referendum for MPS, political committees had reported spending about $700,000 to influence the outcome.

Reports filed this week, the first to indicate any spending that happened after March 18, show spending ended up totaling over $600,000 for the referendum and over $600,000 against it.

The Vote Yes for MPS campaign, funded by the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association and other public schools supporters, reported about $658,000 in expenses supporting the referendum since January, including MTEA staff time, mailers, ads and canvassing support donated by Leaders Igniting Transformation, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, and Power to the Polls.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce's campaign against the referendum spent a total of about $618,000, reports show. Expenses included MMAC staff time, Blitz Canvassing, mailers, ads, communications work donated by City Forward Collective's partner 501(c)(4) organization, and a $25,000 donation to the Milwaukeeans for Affordable Housing committee that paid for a billboard, mailers and digital ads against the referendum.

Recall organizers advertised paid positions but haven't disclosed funders

Organizers of a current recall effort against four Milwaukee School Board members have rebuffed questions about how much money they've raised, and where any funding has come from, since advertising earlier this month that they were hiring canvassers.

The MPS School Board Recall Collaborative launched its recall campaign June 12, weeks after severe problems with the district's financial reporting came to light. The Collaborative accuses four school board members of mismanaging the district's budget: Marva Herndon, who serves as the board's president; Jilly Gokalgandhi, the vice president; Erika Siemsen; and Missy Zombor.

Now circulating petitions against each board member, the organizers must gather thousands of signatures by Aug. 12 to force the board members to face special elections for their seats.

The Recall Collaborative advertised that it was hiring on July 3. On its website, a job posting for petition signature collectors offered an hourly rate of $25.

Asked how many canvassers the group would be hiring, one of the organizers, Tamika Johnson, said it was "as many as want to come," but didn't have numbers.

Melissa Jasper, who signed up for a paid position as a canvasser at a July 6 event, said she took the job in part because she was unemployed and in part because she thought it would be a good way to strengthen her skills in community outreach and inform people about the recall process.

Asked whether she, herself, took issue with current school board members, Jasper, who has two children at MPS, said she didn't think her children were learning enough. She said it seemed like their schools didn't have enough interventions for bullying, which has been disrupting their classrooms. She was frustrated to hear that MPS was having problems with financial reporting.

"Whoever the leaders are haven't been doing their job properly when it comes to record-keeping and being able to present data so that funding can be dispersed among the schools as needed, and it's really disheartening to hear that," she said. "That needs to be addressed immediately."

Asked where the funding for canvassers was coming from, Johnson, who is the lead petitioner against Siemsen, said fundraising wasn't her "area," she didn't know whose area it was, and she didn't know who would know whose area it was. "We have a lot of people out doing different things," she said.

The group's treasurer, Janice Patterson, said last week she couldn't answer questions about funding.

On the group's first batch of reports on their spending, which were due Monday, they only needed to report financial activity through June 30. The reports didn't indicate any fundraising or spending to pay for canvassers or any paid positions.

The group's finance reports show they spent about $278 on each of three campaigns against three of the board members, with the report for the campaign against Herndon empty as of Tuesday. As the largest expenses, the reports show Johnson and another petitioner, Chantia Davis, paid about $200 for each of the three campaigns on June 18 for a website and printed materials.

When the Journal Sentinel called Patterson on Tuesday with questions about the finance reports, Patterson hung up.

Petitioners aim for a recall election in November, threaten board members with legal action

To a trigger a recall election for any of the board members, the group would need to collect a quarter of the votes cast in that board member's district in the 2022 gubernatorial election. That's 5,137 signatures against Herndon, 7,759 against Gokalgandhi, 6,809 against Siemsen, and 44,177 against Zombor, who holds the only citywide seat.

After the signatures are due Aug. 12, board members can challenge the legitimacy of the signatures. State law allows the city's election commission to take up to 31 days to review challenges, examine the petitions and certify them. If they find the petitions are insufficient, the petitioners will have a chance to correct issues. If the petitions pass, officials will call an election to happen six weeks later, on a Tuesday.

Nicole Johnson, the lead petitioner against Zombor, said the hope is to trigger recall elections this fall. She said she's heard a range of opinions and levels of familiarity with the school board while collecting signatures. Johnson said the main thing she hears from people who want to sign is frustration that "money is missing."

"That's the way you actually mobilize and motivate people is through dollars, right?" she said. "So we're telling people, have you been listening to the news? Do you hear what's happening with MPS? There are some issues with money or paperwork, and as soon as you say that, people are connecting with it. People know, our rent is going up, something is going up — what is causing this?"

Asked what money was missing, Johnson said she was referring to the district being overpaid last year because of the district's accounting errors, and the aid reduction this year that will offset the overpayment.

With state aid covering more of the district's budget than expected last year, the district allocated funds for a new community center at the former Browning School, the Wisconsin Policy Forum reported . With less state aid for the coming school year, the board will have to choose to make budget cuts, dip into its savings or raise local taxes.

Johnson, who previously ran a former charter school called Milwaukee Excel that had a contract with MPS, said she herself wouldn't consider running for Zombor's seat. She said a couple people have shown interest but she couldn't name them. Johnson said she'll be looking for a candidate who is "transparent": "having town halls, making sure we are engaged."

Chantia Davis, the lead petitioner against Herndon, she was frustrated with board members for "the lack of accountability and saying, 'You know what, we actually did mess up.' Just be honest." Davis said she wasn't sure yet whether she would run as a candidate if there is a recall election.

Board members have said although they knew staffing was a challenge for the district's finance office, they weren't aware of the severity of the office's problems or that MPS administrators were meeting daily with state officials about the issues.

On Monday, recall organizers threatened to file a slew of complaints against the four board members if they did not resign. They said they would launch a class-action lawsuit and file complaints about ethics violations with the District Attorney's Office, U.S. Department of Education, state health department and state "board of ethics." It was unclear whether they were referring to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission. They didn't respond to inquiries from the Journal Sentinel about the complaints.

The four board members, reached by the Journal Sentinel on Tuesday, said they were confident they had not violated their code of ethics.

Since the recall effort was announced, board members have said they remain committed to their posts . They are overseeing a corrective action plan to rebuild the district's finance office and preparing to launch a national search for a new long-term superintendent.

Contact Rory Linnane at rory.linnane@jrn.com . Follow her on X (Twitter) at @RoryLinnane .

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Political groups spent $1.2 million on MPS referendum; now unknown funders back MPS recall