Sending taxpayer paid postcards that “might” evade state law barring use of College funds to promote political candidates is ethically irresponsible; common sense tells us the College is promoting its two favored candidates for the Governing Board by sending the postcards
The Community College is rushing to complete postcards for individual Governing Board members featuring the current board member in a district, the member’s photo plus text written by the Board member. The publication has been described as looking like a political promotional piece for a Governing Board member.
The content of the newsletter/postcard provides an incumbent Board member with an unchallenged political platform with a photograph and an opportunity to extol his or her virtues, real or imagined.
The College is fully aware of the prohibition on using public funds to support political campaigns placed by Arizona law on Community Colleges in AZ. Stat. 15-1408 (2018). That statute bars the use of community college district resources to influence elections. Anyone with common sense knows the college is attempting to evade this statute by referring to the postcards as a Governing Board report.
Maybe the College Administration will be able to get away with its scheme. However, in doing so, it is modeling the type of gutter politics that one would hope is frowned upon by faculty and students at the College. Frankly, in the heat of the November election and the Administration’s fear it will lose two of its closest supporters, it is ignoring any meaningful ethical behavior.
Should the Administration and the College Governing Board exhibit the highest ethical standards at all times for its students, staff and faculty? Should it be a model of ethical behavior for the citizens of Yavapai County who support it? The answer is pretty clear: “No,” it prefers the political gutter and has no regard for ethical behavior.