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City council candidate Myra Campbell has charged that some of her opponents on the A-Team ticket violated laws when campaigning on school grounds  — but it appears the state statute prohibiting such activity only applies to those who are running for the school board.

Campbell, who is running as part of the One Asbury ticket, made the charges at the Feb. 26 board of education [BOE] meeting. During public comment, she said some council candidates had distributed campaign literature at an inauguration event held at the Barack Obama Building.

The event, held on Monday, Jan. 21, was a celebration of President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. The Barack Obama Building, formerly known as the Bangs Avenue School, is used primarily for school staff members and the district’s Alternative School.

Campbell and others received campaign literature promoting the A-Team at the event, she said. A-Team candidates Remond Palmer, Jim Keady and Duanne Small were present. [From left, Keady and Small are shown at the event in photo.]

“I know that I received a flier from one of the members of the opposing candidates running for office,” Campbell said. “And at the end of the program, they en masse handed out their palm cards.”

This violates school board rules, Campbell charged. “There’s no question in my mind that everyone I mentioned knew that they were in violation or breaking the law or bending the rules,” she said.

But based on the state statute and board policy, no rules were broken, said John Napolitani, campaign manager for the A-Team. Napolitani contacted state-appointed school fiscal monitor Lester Richens and reviewed the school’s regulations.

“After reaching out to the school monitor and a careful review of the regulations, it is clear that there was no violation on the part of any of the members of our ticket,” Napolitani said in an email. “If this is the kind of cat-and-mouse politicking that Ms. Campbell and the One Asbury team chooses to engage in during such an important campaign, it shows how completely detached they are from the real issues.”

Both Small and Palmer declined to comment on the matter, saying they will only comment through Napolitani while campaigning.

At the BOE meeting after Campbell raised her concerns, state fiscal monitor Lester Richens read the state statute governing campaigning on school grounds, and read a statement of his own.

Title 18A of state statutes prohibits the distribution of “literature that promotes, favors or opposes the candidacy of any candidate for election at any annual school election,” as well as literature that promotes, favors or opposes “the adoption of any bond issue, proposal or public question submitted at any general, municipal or school election” on school grounds or in any public school building.

“The use of school facilities for partisan political purposes would be in violation of the Board’s policy,” Richens said after reading the statute. “Moreover, public school facilities should only be used for public school purposes. Private or political use of public facilities would therefore be prohibited. I know of no other law that specifically prohibits election activities beyond those cited above.”

Board policy dictates that the board must vote to approve a political event in school, but there is no policy that outright prohibits distribution of city council campaign materials to adults at a school event.

According to the board’s policy on special interest groups, the board does not permit the distribution of literature to or through pupils in the school district for any organization outside the school district, unless it has been approved by the superintendent or her designee.

Small was the only candidate to distribute the literature at the event, Napolitani said. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at Barack Obama School was “an open event to all residents, any candidate for office could have had their literature available,” he said.

At the board meeting on Feb. 26, board member Barbara Lesinski suggested the board send a memo to every school informing them that campaigning is not permitted inside the schools.

“But there was still no mention of sanctioning those individuals that did that,” Campbell said. “That’s beyond me, why the school monitor did not say, ‘We will send out a press release saying that the board did not approve or sanction the following candidates that did this.'”

Campbell commented further on behalf of her own ticket, which includes Talesha Crank, Joe Woerner, Amy Quinn and John Moor.

Campbell believes the A-Team’s members may have handed out literature on school grounds a second time, as well, because of a picture she saw on their Facebook page, depicting them with students outside Thurgood Marshall Elementary School.

“With the integrity of our team, you will not find us breaking the law,” Campbell said of her ticket. “You will not find us violating policy, and you will not find us bending the rules. We want to stay focused on our issues: curbing crime, stabilizing taxes, promoting a more transparent, open response in government, and also to help develop all parts of the community.”

Members of another ticket running for council also commented on the issue, with one saying the practice of distributing campaign literature on school grounds is “not ethical.”

“Whether it’s being done out of incompetence, thoughtlessness, or simply breaking the rules, passing out campaign literature in schools is low, even for Jim Keady,” Councilwoman Sue Henderson said in an email.

Henderson thinks the candidates “should know better,” she said in a phone call, especially because their campaign manager is the president of the city’s teachers’ union.

“I’m a member of our union,” said Henderson, who is a teacher at Ocean Township High School. “I know that that is not ethical. It’s not something that should be done, so I would never, ever do it.”

Gregory Hopson, who is a BOE member and a running mate of Henderson, called the activity “just plain wrong.”

“If this is true, then the group should know better,” he said. “Someone needs to answer for this.”

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