Decatur School Board Candidate Disclosures for September
Decatur Metro | October 13, 2009Here are the campaign disclosures (in PDF format) for Decatur School Board candidates for the month of September.
At-Large
Valerie Wilson – Total Sept. Contributions – $700 / Total Sept. Contributions less than $101 – $550
Rob Pope – Total Sept. Contributions – $1341.13 / Total Sept. Contributions less than $101 – $772.23
School Board District 1
Mark Wisnieski – Total Sept. Contributions – $1045 / Total Sept. Contributions less than $101 – $645
Garrett Goebel – Total Sept. Contributions – $1365.36 / Total Sept. Contributions less than $101 – $33.25
School Board District 2
Bernadette Seals – Total Sept. Contributions – $0 / Total Sept. Contributions less than $101 – $0
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What do people think of Valarie and Rob? I’ve seen a few endorsements of Rob on the basis of what seem to me personal relationships, but what do the people who actually know both candidates and who know the issues think?
I’d urge you to look at the voting record of incumbents, the websites and platforms of all candidates, and then attend the candidate forums (Oakhurst October 26) and (Central Office October 29) and ask lots of questions. There’s also lots of Meet and Greets for all of the candidates floating around town.
Valarie Wilson recently blanketed Coventry Road mailboxes with door hangers.
That’s not good for either (i) street litter / street spam or (ii) the law — which says you cannot use any part of mailboxes (inside or out) for advertising.
How do you (or anyone else for that matter) feel about small flyers taped to front door handles? Better than mailbox attachments?
The law says that you can attach a flyer to the post (tape, rubber band, etc…), but not to the mailbox itself. I learned this from one of our city’s favorite informed citizen’s when I started my real estate career years ago and travelled the neighborhood putting magnets on mailboxes. He informed me that each magnet I attached was a federal violation even took my to his filing cabinet to cite the actual code.
The good news is we became friends over the years and I always know who to go to to clear up matters like this:)
I think I disagree with you, Sean. Here’s the law, as it is written:
The postal code (DMM 3.1.3) —
“no part of a mail receptacle may be used to deliver any matter not bearing postage, including items or matter placed upon, supported by, attached to, hung from, or inserted into a mail receptacle.”
The post is — in my opinion — “part of” the mailbox. It’s certainly not part of anything else.
In any case, the Wilson doorhanger was placed inside my mailbox.
I support Rob. I think we need some fresh eyes on the board who can objectively review past decisions of our board. (The board’s refusal to admit even the possibility of any errors in their estimates and decisions of five years ago stands as stark evidence of their inability to consider all reasonable options going forward.) Rob is someone with a history of great involvement in our schools, strong understanding of the issues we face and a proven ability to work with folks of all stripes. That being said, for two reasons, don’t hold the mailbox flyers against Valarie. First, she may not know about them. It is virtually impossible to manage everything down to the detail, and it’s likely that someone “helping” her left the offending flyers. Second, even if she knew, just cut her some slack. Sean states the rule correctly as interpreted by the Postal Service — the post is not considered part of the “receptacle” and is available. However, it is enormously important for as many folks as possible to learn about candidates. It slows things down dramatically to affix them onto the posts. To take flyers to the door cuts in half the number of households that can be reached. The harm of the flyer placement is fairly small, and the usefulness of the information is potentially great. Just help all candidates by making doing them the favor of making sure their flyers don’t end up on the ground.
At the risk of beating a very dead horse, Tom, here is the official USPS statement on mailbox posts:
“Advertising on a mailbox or its supporting post is prohibited.”
(Source: http://www.usps.com/receive/mailboxstandards.htm)
[...] Shared Decatur School Board Candidate Disclosures for September. [...]
“The harm of the flyer placement is fairly small, and the usefulness of the information is potentially great.”
So Tom, do you like having every candidate, charity, house-painter, pizza delivery place and dog-walker think — because they are offering useful information — they can use your mailbox, door front, and driveway as their free advertising space?
No wonder we are subjected to a constant stream of street spam.
I guess, then, Russ, we should have the board of the Oakhurst Neighborhood Association arrested and jailed for distributing the Oakhurst Leaflet every month. They just place it inside or on my mailbox every month.
I think somone’s priorities and sensitivities are out of whack.
Pete, I’m certain you are not aware of my priorities and sensitivities based on my comments. This is not a priority for me, but I did mention it because it was responsive to the question raised by John Rose.
I certainly don’t think that well meaning people should be arrested — they should be reminded to use a postage stamp.
The problem with flyers placed on my mailbox and door handle is that I travel often and it really shows would-be burglars that no one is home if they remain there for a period of time. Now I can have the post office hold my mail, but my brother has to make special trips just to remove the street spam.
I certainly don’t think that well meaning people should be arrested — they should be reminded to use a postage stamp.
Maybe it would be more efficient for groups like the ONA to just get a bulk mail permit instead of using volunteers to distribute their monthly newsletter. Some even advocate going all electronic, even though they know that most of our seniors do not get on the internet and the Leaflet is the only way they keep up with neighborhood happenings. But I’m sure the ONA has looked at that, and the costs are prohibitive to mail and they don’t want to keep a third of the population in the dark by going electronic. Many of our seniors look forward to one of their neighors delivering the Leaflet every month as much as anything!
If you are SO concerned about it Russ, how about you just hire one of the neighborhood kids to check your house and mailbox every couple of days and leave the rest of us alone.
Hey Pete — I’m not sure why you are angry with me. I just want to have a cleaner, safer neighborhood — less speeding, less street spam and litter, less crime.
I don’t have an easy solution for the ONA, but it’s probably the same issue faced by struggling restaurants, shops and charities — so they all illegally use our mailboxes.
When you say leave “the rest of us” alone, you imply that the majority of people somehow like street spam. I really doubt that’s the case. Some of the seniors you mention might really enjoy getting the ONA newsletter but they might hate the pizza delivery coupon taped to the same mailbox.
Hey Russ,
If you think that the leaders of the ONA are engaging in “illegal activity” as you phrase it, then I think you should inform the Decatur Police and see if they’ll make an arrest. It is not like they’ve made an innocent mistake, they have only been engaging in this illegal behavior for a decade or so.
I agree with Russ. He’s read the law and has an expectation that “Nobody is going to put crap solicitations on my mailbox or POST because that is the law”. I do the same.Unfortunately, I get crap solicitations on my mailbox and POST. I respect and operate w/in the law and expect others to do so. Especially those who would like to represent me. Or want to deliver my take-out. If some folks think they are above the rules, so noted.
If it is so illegal, call the police and have these criminals arrested.
See how far that gets you.
Russ, it does seem a priority for you, I have seen many postings in the past from you about this. Honestly, prioritize things and pick your battles and move on with your life. There are way more important stances to take than this one. Simply throw out the flyer and call it a day.
We all have our pet-peeves. Russ is certainly entitled to his own. Plus, I think he has a point about flyers and stuff as an indicator to burglars that you’re out of town.
Rebecca, I can only echo my earlier comment. It’s not a priority for me. I’ve been online for ten years (I run several websites, comment here often, Kudzu, TripAdvisor, etc.) and I’ve probably written about street spam maybe 5 times.
I could run through any number of people who comment on DM and imagine they have an unhealthy fixation with local sandwich shops or other Decatur trivia. But that would be considering their lives far removed from their normal everyday context.
So I could specify here (for your benefit) my priorities in life, but that would be boring and off topic, because this is a blog about local issues, neighborhood gripes, etc. It would seem to me a very good place to raise the issue of neighborhood street spam without having my mental health questioned by someone who does not even know me.
Well, the mailbox fodder even if it is illegal, or doorknob fodder doesn’t bother me. I have occasionally used services from these folks, and learned about businesses and people I now value. Had those tidbits of info not been placed there, I wouldn’t have known about them. While the being away from home/target issue is understandable, as it the item flying off being pollution. I simply ask my neighbors to take away those items and get my mail when I am away. As I do it for them as well, and I pick up stray items off my street often, so it isn’t a big deal.