Campaign Finance Law Violation Complaint Submitted By Brookline Woman

BROOKLINE, MA – A former Brookline town counsel and current town meeting member has submitted a complaint with the state claiming Brookline public schools violated the campaign finance law several times in connection with Brookline’s town election on May 2.

In a complaint filed on May 7 with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Joslin Murphy said messages from the public schools of Brookline (PSB) were illegally sent to parents of students at the schools with details about the Proposition 2 ½ ballot questions ahead of the town’s election.

In her complaint, Murphy wrote that around May 1 she learned “unsolicited correspondence” urging parents’ support for the debt exclusion and operating override questions at the May 2 election had been sent by PSB employees – including by Brookline Superintendent Linus Guillory – on PSB equipment, and by the PSB’s community email services such as Blackboard and Smore.

All but one of the messages – sent on March 24, April 7, April 27, April 30, and May 1 – were sent after the questions were placed on the ballot, and after Brookline Town Administrator Charles Carey had sent out a memorandum on March 31 cautioning against such conduct, Murphy wrote.

“Because the ballot questions have been finalized, Massachusetts campaign finance law
now applies,” Carey wrote in the March 31 memorandum to town department heads and the superintendent of Brookline public schools, Linus Guillory. “The law prohibits the use of municipal resources to influence the outcome of elections,” Carey wrote.

“As a general rule, you may not, while ‘on the clock,’ advocate for or against those questions. And you may never use Town or School resources to do so. Those resources include things that you would immediately think about, like printer paper or an office phone, but also less obvious things, like time spent on a Town-owned computer or your professional title,” Carey added in the memo.

Murphy said in the complaint that the email correspondences used taxpayer-funded public resources and are a violation of Massachusetts campaign finance law.

The messages included information about several ballot questions: Question 1, a debt exclusion question to rebuild the Pierce School, and Questions 2a and 2b, which asked voters to support one or both versions of an operating override that would help support Brookline public schools and other municipal departments. Voters approved both ballot questions, according to unofficial election results.

“Both questions correspond with Superintendent Guillory’s FY24 budget request to maintain PSB’s excellence as a school district, and fund investments in special education, culturally responsive practices, and social-emotional support,” Guillory wrote in a message sent April 7.

In another email, sent on April 27 to Brookline parents, Brookline High School’s Head of School Anthony Meyer wrote “If the 5/2 override does not pass, the district will make an additional $3.25 Million in reductions. This would likely result in Reductions in Force (RIFs) and various impacts on the high school’s course and program offerings and staffing plans.”

In the complaint, Murphy said she believes “that these communications from high level PSB employees not only violated the campaign finance law, but also severely compromised the fairness and integrity of the Town’s May 2, 2023 election with respect to these ballot questions.”

In addition, Murphy said the conduct by PSB was “an intentional, concerted effort on the part of the PSB to influence the results of the election by informing Brookline voters of the dire consequences that would be encountered by the PSB and its students - their children - if the debt exclusion and operating override ballot questions were to fail, and urging them to support these questions.”

She called for the matter to be investigated by the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance swiftly, as the Town Meeting’s approval of the bonding authorization for the construction of the Pierce School will be deliberated and voted on at the annual town meeting on May 23.