MPS recall petitioners say they have 37,000 signatures and backing of anonymous donors

Members of a group seeking to remove half the Milwaukee School Board said Wednesday they have collected 37,000 signatures on their petitions with the help of paid canvassers, but they're not saying where the money is coming from.

The group, MPS School Board Recall Collaborative , aims to collect over 60,000 signatures to trigger special elections for four school board seats, forcing those board members to face possible competitors for their positions before they would normally be up for re-election.

The group launched its recall campaign after state officials raised alarms about severe problems with the district's financial reports, which will cause MPS to receive less state funding this year than expected. Since then, top MPS officials have left the district: Superintendent Keith Posley , Chief Financial Officer Martha Kreitzman , and Comptroller Alfredo Balmaseda .

The recall group, which held a press conference Wednesday, is targeting four board members: Marva Herndon, who serves as the board's president; Jilly Gokalgandhi, the vice president; Erika Siemsen; and Missy Zombor.

"This recall is recalling incompetent board members who allowed corruption to happen on the back of our Black and brown and white children," said Tamika Johnson, a private school teacher and one of the four recall petitioners. "This recall is happening because, apparently, our system is not doing what they supposed to do."

Another speaker at the press conference, Beverly Williams, suggested the Milwaukee Common Council could remove board members under a statute that allows common councils to vote to remove "school officers." According to the state Legislative Reference Bureau, "school officers" were board members who, under now-defunct charters, were considered part of city government. Milwaukee's city attorney said the statute would not apply to the Milwaukee School Board.

Board members, who have said administrators kept them in the dark about the severity of the accounting issues, said they're implementing more accountability measures and don't plan to step down.

"I believe that over the last couple months, this board has shown a level of accountability to the district by parting ways with our superintendent, parting ways with our CFO, and inviting a new board clerk in," Gokalgandhi said Wednesday at a Milwaukee Press Club event.

Recall organizers say they have 37,000 signatures

The recall organizers said Wednesday that they've collected 37,000 signatures. They need to submit over 63,000 signatures by Aug. 12 to successfully trigger elections for all four board members they are seeking to recall.

Under state law, the group needs 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.

Organizers on Wednesday said they didn't know how many signatures they had for each board district.

Johnson said some MPS staff were interested in signing but feared retaliation. She said the group was assuring them they "would not be made public."

Recall petitions are public records, including signers' names and addresses. When there was an effort to recall school board members in Mequon , the district posted the petitions on its website . Paulina Gutiérrez, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said she plans to upload the petitions to the city website upon receipt.

Recall group says 'anonymous donors' will pay for canvassers

At the press conference Wednesday, organizers said the signatures have been collected by volunteers and paid canvassers. They said the canvassers have not been paid yet but would be paid by anonymous donors after officials verify the signatures they've collected.

"We have individuals who are willing to pay individuals, but nobody has been paid," said Nicole Johnson, a former charter school administrator and one of the four recall petitioners.

Asked why they wouldn't identify the donors, speakers at the press conference said no one there knew who they were. The treasurer of the recall committees, Janice Patterson, has said she can't answer questions about funders.

On July 3, the Recall Collaborative advertised job openings, offering a rate of $25 per hour for petition signature collectors. In a news release Tuesday, the group said paid canvassing work began July 20 at Brady Street Fest and Garfield Days.

Petitioners haven't answered questions about how many paid canvassers they have or how much money is available to pay them.

Recall group's finance reports don't show donors

Groups seeking to recall elected officials are required to file public campaign finance reports that log their donors and expenses.

The recall organizers filed reports in mid-July for their four committees, one for each board seat. Those reports only covered activity through June 30, while later activity will be reported on the next round of reports. They didn't show any fundraising or spending to pay for canvassers.

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 the largest expenses, the reports show two petitioners, Tamika Johnson and Chantia Davis, paid about $200 for each of the three campaigns on June 18 for the group's website and printed materials.

Gutiérrez said the recall committees will have to submit finance reports again ahead of any recall elections, though the exact timing will depend on when the signatures are submitted. After election officials receive the signatures, they have up to 31 days to review challenges, examine the petitions and certify them. If the petitions pass, officials will call an election to happen six weeks later, on a Tuesday.

Recall group accused of secrecy, campaign finance violations

Zombor filed a complaint against recall organizers last week with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, accusing Patterson and Nicole Johnson, the petitioner against Zombor's seat, of violating state laws governing the reporting of political spending. The commission told Zombor on Monday that her complaint had enough substance for it to review.

Zombor's complaint accuses the recall organizers of failing to report all the funds they raised and spent. She noted the group has been soliciting donations since mid-June but its finance reports don't show any monetary donations.

Zombor also noted that Davis, Patterson and Tamika Johnson, who each reported paying expenses for the committee, did not share their residential addresses, while state law requires committee contributors to share their "street addresses." Instead, they listed the same address used generally for the committee, a business called Pack N' Ship that offers mailbox rentals .

Zombor, who has started fundraising for her own defense against the recall, said in the last week she has raised about $1,760 from 26 contributors. She named contributors, including many current and retired teachers, who must be listed on her next campaign finance report. She called for more transparency from the recall group.

"The public has a right to know where they're getting the money from," she said. "The public has a right to know where the people who are contributing live. That's why these laws exist, for transparency, so that people know who is funding political campaigns and candidates."

The Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, the union for MPS staff, which backed Zombor, Herndon and Siemsen in their elections, also called on the recall group to share its donors.

"It is ironic that a group of individuals who claim to be upset about transparency and financial reporting at MPS themselves failed to file the most basic finance reports required of them, and now refuse to tell voters the truth about it," MTEA President Ingrid Walker-Henry said in a statement.

A lawyer for MTEA filed a separate complaint with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, accusing the recall organizers of publishing materials in support of the recall petition that didn't note the funding source of the materials. State law requires that materials that advocate for or against candidates must identify their funding sources.

The commission will ultimately decide whether to dismiss the complaints or launch investigations, which can result in a settlement agreement; litigation; a referral for criminal charges, depending on the violations; or dismissal. The process remains confidential until it is complete.

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," possibly referring to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission. The group hasn't provided any complaints.

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

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MPS recall petitioners say they have 37,000 signatures and backing of anonymous donors