Complaint Filed over Martha O’Bryan Political Activity

Following emails sent by Marsha Edwards of the Martha O’Bryan Center asking for volunteers and/or paid canvassers for School Board candidates endorsed by Stand for Children, complaints have been filed with the IRS and Tennessee Attorney General by MNPS board member Will Pinkston.

Nate Rau of the Tennessean reports:

In a letter to Attorney General Herb Slatery, Pinkston said Edwards’ emails constitute a violation of the federal law that prohibits direct or indirect political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits. Pinkston told The Tennessean that Edwards should apologize to the school board and resign from her job.

“Through her actions — including forwarding Stand for Children’s email request to all of her tax-exempt organization’s employees — Ms. Edwards caused Martha O’Bryan Center to directly or indirectly participate in political campaigns on behalf of (or in opposition to) multiple candidates for elective public office,” Pinkston wrote in his letter outlining his complaint. “As email correspondence indicates, Ms. Edwards not only forwarded Stand for Children’s email request to all of her tax-exempt organization’s employees, but she also identified her preferred candidates as being ‘friendly to charters.'”

Edwards has denied any wrongdoing.

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Marsha Responds

In response to allegations that her organization (Martha O’Bryan Center) coordinated with political group Stand for Children by recruiting volunteers for Stand’s endorsed MNPS School Board candidates, Marsha Edwards released the following statement:

Today’s story in The Tennessean references an email I forwarded to employees of The Martha O’Bryan Center for an opportunity to work as a paid canvasser in the upcoming School Board election, so that it could be passed on to students in our programs or anyone in our organization looking for paid work this summer. I felt that this was an employment opportunity for young people and we would pass along this type of opportunity for ANY candidate and will continue to do so. I added to the email what knowledge I had of the few candidates that I had met and the organization that was hiring. While I have been assured by our legal counsel that this email did not constitute “political activity” as defined by the IRS, I do see how the personal context included in the email could be misunderstood, and I truly regret that.”

“The Martha O’Bryan Center does not engage in political activity and our track record supports that. We are an organization that has been serving the Nashville community for over 120 years and continues to do so without political bias. At Martha O’Bryan we are about breaking the line of poverty through education, employment and family support, not politics.”

Her statement comes even as one of the supported candidates has asked MOB to stop volunteer recruitment.

Additionally, the email from Edwards notes that all the candidates are endorsed by Stand for Children and are “friendly to charters…”

Here’s some more insight as to why Edwards might want more Board Members who are charter-friendly.

Finally, she notes that one of the candidates, Jane Meneely, is a paid consultant for MOB and would be a “strong, smart, well informed, and thoughtful board member.”

I’m curious to know what Edwards would have done had Will Pinkston, Amy Frogge, Christiane Buggs, or Jill Speering asked for her help. Would she have advised them that such recruiting was political, and therefore out of bounds for MOB? Her statement claims she would have passed along the information for ANY candidate who asked.

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Christy Calls on MOB to Stop Asking for Campaign Help

Yesterday, it was revealed that Marsha Edwards, CEO of the Martha O’Bryan Center, had sent emails requesting volunteers for School Board candidates endorsed by political group Stand for Children.

At least one of those candidates, Miranda Christy, is speaking out, calling on the group to stop sending such emails.

In a Facebook post she says:

The Martha O’Bryan Center is a wonderful institution providing critical services to District 5 families. I have always been inspired by their work in alleviating poverty in District 5, and I would never want them to put their tax status in jeopardy. Our campaign had no knowledge that they were circulating a request for volunteers, and we would never encourage it. We have only one volunteer (and no staffers) who to our knowledge has ever worked at the Martha O’Bryan Center (and he is a longtime friend of mine), and we ask that they stop making such requests for volunteers.

For their part, Both Martha O’Bryan’s Edwards and Stand for Children’s Dan O’Donnell deny any coordination.

It will be interesting to see if the other candidates endorsed by Stand call on MOB to stop the volunteer recruitment for their campaigns.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport