Today, three former elected officials filed an ethics complaint against School Board President Gloria Reyes because she had a conflict of interest when she voted for the police in schools.
On Friday the Cap Times reported that I had filed a complaint and Blaska was wringing his hands that I was going to sue.
“Madison’s rightie blogger David Blaska fears that former Madison alder Brenda Konkel will litigate the school board’s vote to keep cops in the city’s four high schools. He notes that she has filed an ethics complaint, insisting the tiebreaker vote by member Gloria Reyes violated city and school board ethics rules. ”
None of that was true. See below for the truth. Oh, and still waiting for my open records requests!
Here’s the email.
from: Andy Heidt <afheidt@gmail.com>
to: mwbell@madison.k12.wi.us,
jcheatham@madison.k12.wi.us,
board@madison.k12.wi.us
cc: Andy Olsen <andyo1960@gmail.com>,
Andy Heidt <afheidt@gmail.com>,
Brenda Konkel <brendakonkel@gmail.com>
date: Jun 18, 2019, 4:48 PM
subject: Ethics Complaint
Please note the attached ethics complaint regarding Gloria Reyes participation in the vote on the contract to have City of Madison police in high schools. As a city employee she should not be able to vote on a contract with the entity she works for.
Sincerely,
Andy Heidt
Andy Olsen
Brenda Konkel
Here’s the attachment
To: Attorney Michael Matthew [sic] Bell, Madison School Board Members. Superintendent Jennifer Cheatam
From: Andy Heidt, Brenda Konkel, Andy Olsen
Re: Ethics Violation
Date: June 19, 2019
Please consider this correspondence a formal ethics complaint against School Board President Gloria Reyes.
On June 11, 2019 the Madison School Board met to consider the School Resource Officer
(SRO) contract with the City of Madison. School Board President Gloria Reyes chaired the
meeting, made the motion to approve, was the only person on the school board to speak to the item and voted on the matter before them.
School Board Policy 9000 – Ethics, Code of Conduct clearly states:
Conflict of Interest
2. No employee or member of the BOARD OF EDUCATION whose non-DISTRICT employment or independent contracting is compensated by a DISTRICT vendor shall participate in or attempt to influence the DISTRICT’S purchasing process in matters involving such vendor.
School Board Policy 1540 – Ethics, Expectations for School Board members further states:
17. … When a conflict of interest arises during a REGULAR meeting, the affected BOARD MEMBER will state the nature and extent of the conflict or appearance of the conflict, shall physically remove him/herself from the table during the portion of the meeting during which the issue is being discussed, and refrain from participating in any discussion of or voting on the issue giving rise to the conflict.
The vendor in this case is the City of Madison or “CITY”. Gloria Reyes currently works for the City of Madison in the Community Development Division. The rules clearly state that she should not “participate in” the purchasing process involving this vendor. Furthermore, she did not state the nature of the conflict or remove herself from the table for the discussion.
As former elected officials with training and experience in ethics laws and conflicts of interest, we recommend that the matter be resolved by reconsideration of the SRO contract by the Board, with the School Board President abstaining from all motions, discussions and votes. We also recommend that all members of the Madison School Board attend ethics training as soon as possible.
Since the ethics policies do not address how to file a complaint, the complaint process or who makes the determination about any complaint. Please advise at your earliest convenience if you need further information or action from us to proceed with this complaint.
