PDF: Stanbery endorsement
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — A Bradley County school board member and former chairman is accusing the current chairman of acting unethically by sending a political e-mail to schools employees.
Board of Education Chairman David Kelley and Vice Chairman Terry McGuire sent the e-mail supporting Lisa Stanbery for county mayor last week.
Mr. Kelley said the letter was written on a private computer on his own time and sent from a private e-mail account to school system e-mail addresses in the public domain.
But school board member Troy Weathers said the e-mail shows a double standard in the school system. Most teachers read e-mail during the school day, he said.
“It’s two-faced,” Mr. Weathers said last week before a debate among the candidates for county mayor. Incumbent D. Gary Davis and newcomer Chris Weir are the other candidates.
“I had a principal call me last Friday,” Mr. Weathers said. “She was very upset. She had been telling her staff that they can’t put political signs in other school mailboxes. She felt like they (Mr. Kelley and Mr. McGuire) had slapped her in the face,” he said.
Mr. Kelley said in a telephone interview Thursday he is not a school system employee and that he has a First Amendment right to support any candidate.
“I am a politician. Politicians endorse candidates all the time,” he said.
Mrs. Stanbery said Friday that Mr. Kelley and Mr. McGuire did nothing wrong but “now face retribution by a fellow school board member.
“If Mr. Weathers wants to protest the content of the letter, that is his right, but he ca not protest their right to free speech,” Mrs. Stanbery said.
Mr. Davis said the e-mail issue isn’t about the mayor’s race at all.
“The story is about the teachers, about how they are upset,” Mr. Davis said.
Mr. Kelley said he felt a responsibility to send the e-mail supporting Mrs. Stanbery.
“I was in a very unique position,” Mr. Kelley said. “I was privy to information that the public did not have.” The letter stated that Mrs. Stanbery had helped figure out how to fund big school construction and renovation projects.
Mr. Weathers said he is planning to allege at Thursday’s school board meeting that Mr. Kelley has a conflict of interest by serving on the school board. He said Mr. Kelley is an elected position who also heads the Family Resource Agency, which oversees the regional Head Start program. Since that office gets federal and local funding, there is a conflict, Mr. Weathers said.
He said Mr. Kelley has a Stanbery sign on his truck, which he parks at the Head Start office.
Mr. Kelley said he didn’t know what Mr. Weathers means by the the charges.
“He was chairman of the school board when I ran. At the time, we researched all of that. The Hatch Act doesn’t even begin to touch that,” Mr. Kelley said.
The federal Hatch Act dictates what political activities are allowed by those who work for the federal governorment or for agencies that get federal funding.
And Mr. Kelley said he now parks his truck in a private lot next door to his office.