Watching the Detectives - Allegations

Tom Swift is a St. Paul engineer and Republican gadfly. He's one of a small, dedicated group of fellow muckrakers who are wondering where in the hell all of the St. Paul Public School district's money goes.

He went looking for answers. He found something.

Progressive Minnesota is a failed political party that has morphed into a PAC and organizing group working for liberal causes. Progressive Minnesota receives donations from all of the major liberal candidacies - everyone from Jay Benanav for Mayor to Wellstone for Senate appears on their donor lists - in exchange for providing legwork and organizing for the candidacies and their causes. Roy Magnuson of the St. Paul Teachers Federation sits on the Progressive Minnesota Board.

Since May of 2002, Progressive Minnesota has also been a non-profit organization, entitling it to act as a community organization rather than just a Political Action Committee, for legal, regulatory and tax purposes. Remember that date.

In November of 2001, the SPPS paid $3,000 to Progressive Minnesota. The payment was labelled (in the School District's documentation, copies of which Mr. Swift sent me) as "Dinner and Organizing".

The problem with this? Progressive Minnesota didn't have non-profit status - legally necessary to receive donations for such services in any capacity but as a PAC - until this past May. That's six months after the payment was made.

When pressed, the school bureaucracy's cooperation in allowing Mr. Swift access to the information was, at best, grudging. When pressed, one school board member said the money was for "Latino Outreach".

According to Swift, the money had nothing to do with Latino Outreach - Progressive Minnesota has no recognized Latino Outreach program. It was for help in getting out the vote for the referenda on new school taxes, to raise more money for the Saint Paul Public Schools. That is illegal.

The levy referendum passed. When it did, Progressive Minnesota threw a "pre-victory banquet", as it was called in the invitation that was sent out (and of which Mr. Swift has a copy). The Saint Paul Public Schools sent a check for $180 for a number of school board members and staff to attend this "pre-victory banquet".

So - to date, the Saint Paul Public Schools seems to have sent $3,180 to Progressive Minnesota, for political, not educational, services.

Tom Swift confronted the St. Paul School Board last Tuesday night with his information. The board was silent, except for board chairman Al Oertwig, who, to "keep things in perspective", reminded the board that many organizations have both political and civic arms; Oertwig cited the Chamber of Commerce as an example.

However, Oertwig failed to note for the audience and the record that Progressive Minnesota legally did not have a civic arm until they obtained non-profit status - six months after the funds changed hands!

At the very least, this would seem to be a waste of money that's much needed elsewhere. However, in the worst case, these payments are illegal - because Progressive Minnesota was a Political Action Committee at the time the payments were made.

Swift has filed a criminal complaint with the Ramsey County Attorney's office, and is in contact with the staff of Pat Awada - incoming state auditor.

The board sat quietly, as Swift (and Greg Copeland, and former board candidate Georgia Dietz) spoke about the allegations. None rose to defend Progressive Minnesota or the expenditure (although to be fair this may be because of the pending criminal complaint). However, it's worth noting that Progressive Minnesota is not in the least bit shy about their ties to at least three St. Paul School Board members.

There is much more to this story - including separate allegations of campaign fraud that are being forwarded to the Campaign Practices board. We'll go through that next week.

I'll continue covering this as it develops.

Posted by Mitch at November 21, 2002 10:19 AM