It looks like Wake County school board member John Tedesco will be avoiding any potential ethics concerns by turning down gifts being solicited in his name by the Wake County Republican Party.
As noted in today's article, Tedesco said he didn't know in advance that Wake GOP Chairwoman Susan Bryant would send out the request Thursday. Tedesco said people should instead send gifts and donations to his former employer, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle.
“While I appreciate their generous offer, I can’t accept it,” Tedesco said. “I know there are many other people having difficulties right now.”
But Tedesco said he'll definitely like to hear about any potential job offers he can explore.
Legally, there would have been nothing stopping him from taking any gifts.
Gary Bartlett, executive director of the state Board of Elections, said the gifts wouldn't have been a campaign donation that would have had to been reported.
Ignore the code of ethics for school employees. School board members are the employers. Focus on the code of ethics and the conflict of interest policy for board members. The only mention about gifts is that they can't be solicited for board contracts.
But groups would have raised a fuss about Tedesco taking gifts, especially from school employees and groups that do business with the school district.
“While it might not be illegal, it doesn’t exactly pass the smell test,” said Jane Pinsky, director of the non-partisan N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform.
Pinsky said she had never heard of a similar solicitation being made for any public official in North Carolina.
Jay Bryant, a spokesman for the Wake GOP, said he didn't seen any problem asking people to give gifts along with birthday cards to Tedesco.
“Public officials don’t stop being human beings,” Jay Bryant said. “This is a man who has dedicated his life to helping children. At some point, we wanted to show we loved him.”
BTW, Tedesco is sticking by his April statement that he resigned from Big Brothers Big Sisters to pursue his school board duties. He had said in March that diversity policy supporters were pressuring Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Comments
Tedesco's first good
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 10:39 — jeannie84Tedesco's first good decision -- it's about time!
Class Act!
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 09:23 — Jeff_morseJohn Tedesco was Once again shown me that he is a Great GUY. We are lucky to have him on our School Board!
Thank you John for being a Stand up GUY.....
Tedesco is indeed a class
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 09:25 — woodstockTedesco is indeed a class act. He demonstrates that time and again.
Such a class act
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 10:56 — FSandYOUthat I have no doubt his resolve to achieve better for our children has only been strengthened by the hate groups and personal attacks from the scum bag local media. John's not going anywhere and will probably double the votes he got in the last election the next time around.
Way to stay strong John. You'll find work and things will get better for you personally and thanks to you maybe our children will get a chance for the stability they deserve and the better education that most of us demand. That is, once the obstructers are removed from the process and Ms. Goldman decides what she wants.
Thank you John Tedesco!
You forgot about his
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 09:48 — user12345You forgot about his constant complaining about his colleagues on the radio and TV and his belittling Debra about her pink hair in public and on his Facebook page.
I wonder...
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 08:54 — bpuli9999if the BGBS organization has been inundated with calls since yesterday from GOP donors. Or did they just want to give to JT?
That's the big question
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 11:03 — shank56Will citizens respond to the GOP request to help John and/or will they donate to BBBS in JT's honor? (Pope fam could write a big check as a show of support!)
I am glad that...
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 08:15 — bpuli9999this has been clarified. So we can all send gifts to our elected officials (and to-be-elected officials too - since they don't have to abide by any code of ethics) any time we feel like it. It would be a win-win - we can write it off on our taxes and they don't have to report it either. Why all these campaign finance rules and regulations? All we had to do was to send them "gifts" (not political contributions) any time we felt like it.
State officials have a more
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 09:50 — KeungHui (author)State officials have a more restrictive rules on taking gifts than local officials like school board members.