Officials Urge Probe of Election Mailer

A group of city and school district officials called Thursday for an investigation into possible violations of election law by district officials in support of a $107-million school bond measure on April’s ballot.

Speaking at a news conference, Mayor Omar Bradley and other elected officials called attention to a memo sent from the district’s communication office to elementary and middle school principals.

The memo asked principals to sign a form letter encouraging parents to register to vote. The principals were also asked to add to the letter a list of “at least three major items that bond moneys would provide for your school.”

District spokesman Fausto Capobianco, who wrote the memo, declined to comment, saying that he did not want to jeopardize any possible investigations.

Election law prohibits school districts from spending public funds on any mailer that, when “taken as a whole and in context, unambiguously urges a particular result in an election.”

Although the controversial letter did not ask voters to support the measure, City Atty. Legrand Clegg said that, in context, it provided an obvious endorsement of the bond.

“There is no mention of pros and cons [of the bond],” he said. “It is unambiguous that the message [the letter] sends is that the bond should be supported.”