Recall organizers fined

“I felt like we were wrong and we should pay some penalty. I think the Ethics Board made the decision based on the letters Brenda and I wrote to them.” angie bonvillian, Calcasieu Parish teacher who led unsuccessful recall against governor

The Louisiana Board of Ethics on Friday levied fines of $500 each on two Calcasieu Parish school teachers who led unsuccessful recall efforts against Gov. Bobby Jindal and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley.

Angie Bonvillian and Brenda Romero had faced penalties of $1,000 each for the late filing of campaign finance reports.

Board members commended the recall leaders for exercising their constitutional rights, but said they did not want to set precedent by forgiving the entire penalty. Board guidelines allowed the reduction to $500.

Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, had written a letter to the Ethics Board asking for leniency for Bonvillian and Romero and dismissal of the fines.

“I’m satisfied,” Romero said. “I sent them a letter asking them to do anything they could do. But I really expected to have some fine. I think it’s fair ... I know we missed the deadline.”

Bonvillian said she is “grateful” for the board’s decision.

“I felt like we were wrong and we should pay some penalty. I think the Ethics Board made the decision based on the letters Brenda and I wrote to them,” she said.

The two educators started recall petitions last spring after the passage of laws pushed by Jindal and supported by Kleckley that Bonvillian and Romero said would harm public education. The laws expanded use of public dollars for private school vouchers and changed teacher tenure.

Bonvillian and Romero had told board staff that they had no experience filing reports and did not realize the deadlines they were under. The teachers missed the deadline for campaign finance reports required 45 days after the recall campaign began.

State Republican Party executive director Jason Doré had filed a complaint with the Ethics Board.

“I commend them for doing what every American citizen and Louisiana citizen has the right to do in reference to free speech. I also commend the speaker of the House that he understands why they did what they did,” said Ethics Board Chairman Blake Monrose of Lafayette.

“However,” Monrose continued, “I do not believe personally that we need to let these ladies off without paying some type of fine. If we do this we will be setting a precedent (in cases) where people say ‘We really didn’t know what we were getting involved in.’ ”

Board member Terry Backhaus, of Lake Charles, said he watched the recall campaign unfolding in his area. “I could pretty much forecast this happening.”

“I agree with the chairman that they were doing what this country was founded on,” Backhaus said.

Board members Steve Lemke, of New Orleans, recommended that all but $250 of the fine be suspended.

“They are intelligent people,” Lemke said. “There needs to be some accountability here.”

The board rejected the idea of the $250 fine with four members supporting the reduction and five voting against it. The board then, without objection, agreed to impose the $500 fine and suspended the remainder based on future compliance.

Comments

1) Comment by bourbon-soda - 17/11/2012

Naiveté or lack thereof is irrelevant. Either enforce the law or repeal it. If there are no actual teacher unions then whatever the LFT and LAE are could easily pass the hat to cover these trivial fines. This has been completely blown out of proportion, IMO. If you have be courageous to do what they did, then government is too powerful.

2) Comment by NearBarbarian - 17/11/2012

Bourbon Soda--you are not naive, even if your glib missives imply otherwise. If people or corporations or PACs, such as the Brothers Koch and ALEC, were to fail to file, there would be barely a murmur (if any) because they are allies and supporters of the current regime and its ideological allies; moreover, messing with entities like them might jeopardize future political support and contributions. As you know, there are two standards at work in these here parts. Moreover, just because one repeats something over and again does not necessarily make it true--such applies to your reference to the "unions." In Louisiana, as well as in many states, there are no actual teacher unions. The LFT and LAE are little more than professional organizations that are engaged in mild teacher/education advocacy. As you have probably noticed, they have had very little impact on education policy for quite a few years. Many teachers are not even associated with either. Back to the two courageous educators who admittedly made a relatively minor bureaucratic mistake: I'm confident the teachers will pay their fines. Alternatively, you can be confident that Mr. Jindal, Mr. White, and company will continue to get away without being held accountable for their failures and law "bending."

3) Comment by bourbon-soda - 17/11/2012

What risk? That they would have to follow the law? If a recall were sponsored by the Koch brothers & failed to file, there would be a hue and cry to add the death penalty to the fine. I can't believe the teacher unions aren't covering the fines.

4) Comment by twinkie1cat - 17/11/2012

Cousin Dave: I hope you are being sarcastic. If not you need to get on the substitute list for your local public school and go make an attempt to teach for a few days. You will probably walk out. What these ladies did was a remarkable and courageous action that made me have faith that maybe Louisiana will survive and eventually dispose of the extreme right and enter the 21st Century. They knew there was a risk in what they were doing and chose to do what was right in spite of it, setting a superb example for children to come. I only wish they had been successful so we won't be held back for another 3 years.

5) Comment by Warp7 - 17/11/2012

This negative reaction by Jason Dore and the Republican Party should have been anticipated. A party filled with hate and anger cannot except people expressing their constitutional right, when that right conflicts with the ideology of the right and the grossly over blown ego of Jindal. His mood of action is to always retaliate against those who do not agree with him. So what do these guys do, they go after two citizens who happen to be teachers and who probably don't make a lot of money. Once again the Republican Party shows it's disdain for the 47% of red blooded Americans! Way to go party of no!

6) Comment by bourbon-soda - 17/11/2012

Another tangent: if this regulation and pissant (to censors - please check dictionary) fine actually suppress grassroots political activity as alleged, what is the effect of the dozens of regulations, backed by financial penalties, promulgated daily by the federal government, on anyone trying to start or run a business?

7) Comment by bourbon-soda - 17/11/2012

In real money, the total fine is considerably less than that levied against the defendant in the Scopes trial. Surely this paltry amount could be raised by sympathetic Democrat and other reactionaries defending the status quo in public education. Tangentially, in researching the $100 fine, I ran across an interesting parallel description of the actual "monkey trial" and the depiction in _Inherit the Wind_.

8) Comment by jeffsadow - 17/11/2012

Interesting logic -- lower the fine because they are "intelligent?" Wouldn't "intelligent" people, especially ones who claimed they were being advised by experienced recall operatives and who claimed they had a network across over two dozen parishes, have learned about or would have made an effort to discover this law? @zealer99 it took me all of about 10 minutes to find and understand the legal requirements about this that formed the basis for the post I made just days after the reports initially were due, which this pair could have found easily if they had bothered to look: http://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2012/05/unmasking-soon-of-special-interests.html.

9) Comment by NearBarbarian - 17/11/2012

I am awed by the coureage of the two teachers and the examples of civic engagement that they are. The real lesson we all should learn from this is that one will not cross the governor's regime without being punished. Expect only more covertly aggressive retribution from Mr. Jindal and his allies during the remainder of his term. Regrettably, the extent of his corruption of the democratic process and his abuse of power will be known only after his term as governor--when it will be too late and when most will be too tired of him to care.

10) Comment by Whatnow - 17/11/2012

spqr, Smug? Who are you judging to be smug? Correcting someone's sentence structure in a comment section isn't smug??? Who are you, the comment police? And hey, I'm not a school teacher. I wonder if they would give their students an "F" for not following directions or for not doing their homework. I'm sure students use the excuse "I didn't know" all the time. It's called accountability and consequences, spqr. Sorry that you don't like my writing style. Maybe I can use the excuse that I didn't know perfect writing skills were requirements of the comment section. Get off your judgmental high horse.

11) Comment by Cousin Dave - 17/11/2012

These teachers should be taken out and shot for whay they tried to do to our governor. No wonder the public schools are in such shambles. The teachers are to busy trying to overthrow the government to teach our kids anything but bad manners.

12) Comment by twinkie1cat - 17/11/2012

Louisiana is run by our dictator Bobby Jindal. All of the boards and commissions are controlled by our dictator, Bobby Jindal The recall effort was an effort to get rid of Jindal and his clone, Chuck Kleckley, to engage in our constitutional rights to free speech and representation in government. Bobby Jindal is not happy about the attacks on his efforts to destroy the public schools. All indications are that he absolutely hates teachers, especially those who have tenure and feel free to work on behalf of their colleagues and students to improve education. He hates teachers because they tend to be moderate to liberal and they are highly intelligent and skilled in speaking out when they know something in wrong or unethical, like turning the schools over to conservative religious groups and for profit businesses to ensure votes and money for organizations that support Jindal and his clones. Remember how they were trying to get hold of the petitions so they would know who these peasants were who dared stand up to the dictator. Kind of reminds you of a communist country when government have a purge, and locks up all the dissidents in "re-education camps" doesn't it? It is not the amount of money, although that $500 each would have been better spent on school supplies. Teachers often spend at least that much out of their own pockets every year. It is that the dictator just had to quash the rebellion. I can almost guarantee if the petitioners had been some right wing religious group or business petitioning in support of the destruction of the schools, they would not have had to pay so much as a penny. We need to find some way to dispose of Pyush's political career, flush it into the sewer where it belongs so that he has to get a job in private industry never to be heard from again. And, in the next election, dispose of every legislator who supported his anti-life laws, starting with Kleckley and going through the entire ranks of his supporters.

13) Comment by spqr - 17/11/2012

@Whatnow...do not be so smug. Your sentence is poorly constructed.

14) Comment by zealer99 - 17/11/2012

My only concern is whether or not this information made available to people initiating the recall effort or if this a "got you" provisions that only professional politicians would know. This is the sort of thing that tends to make the regular person avoid politics which is good for politicians.

15) Comment by Whatnow - 16/11/2012

Well, I guess they get a C and not an F for not doing their homework.

16) Comment by tradewinns - 16/11/2012

while i disagree with those trying to recall those two, assessing them a $500 fine for not filing on time is an excess. it has been my experience that even long termed politicians miss deadlines, and they seldom if ever get fined. perhaps those in power have decided to turn over a new leaf and start enforcing the rules, we'll see.

17) Comment by 8point6 - 16/11/2012

Mr. Kleckley, your thank you notes from Angie Bonvillian and Brenda Romero are in the mail.