October 19, 2023 02:26 PM UTC

Next Level Corruption in Colorado Springs School District

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’re taking a break from wondering if Congress will ever again function normally in order to point you to some absolutely breathtaking corruption currently taking place in one Colorado Springs school district. We haven’t seen any other reporting on this story, but we absolutely should; this is one of those tales that needs to be spread far and wide.

Kathryn Eastburn of the Colorado Springs Business Journal published a detailed story this week about some completely indefensible corruption involving the elected school board in Colorado Springs School District 11. It appears that at least $40,000 in taxpayer money was spent to hire a very shady public relations firm in order to make the school board look better ahead of next month’s election:

During public comment at September’s meeting, Chris Wallis, D11 parent and former board director, excoriated “a select few members of the board” for joining with Superintendent Michael Gaal to pay out $40,000 of district discretionary funds (Gaal’s budget is $100,000) for a three-month public relations campaign running from August to just before the November election, when four D11 board seats are up for grabs. Those include the seats of board President Parth Melpakam and controversial board Vice President Jason Jorgenson. (Jorgenson last year faced calls for his resignation and was forced to apologize for posting an offensive transphobic meme, and has defended his anti-LGBTQ stance.) [Pols note: Read more here]

Tsogt Research & Consulting LLC, the public relations business awarded the $40,000 contract, it turns out, was only incorporated in April and lists a residential address as its business location. District parents have raised concerns about the unknown firm’s qualifications and associations. [Pols emphasis]

The corruption is fairly obvious here: Spend taxpayer money to improve the image of school board members who just happen to be up for re-election in November.

Equally amazing (and obvious) is the ham-handed effort to offer a different explanation:

Contacted by phone and asked about the $40,000 contract and the public relations campaign on behalf of the school board, Michael Tsogt (the only contact for Tsogt Research & Consulting LLC) first said he was too busy to talk but he’d get back to us. Later he texted: “Regarding the proposed interview from this morning, as a contractor to the district that wouldn’t be appropriate for me to engage in.” [Pols emphasis]

Pushed to confirm whether he had worked on the most recent newsletter that went out from the board to D11 parents, Tsogt confirmed that “yes, we helped put that together,” then declined to answer further questions, including who composes “we.”

Unreal. A public relations professional refusing to talk to the media is like a car salesman intentionally ignoring a customer who walks onto the lot.

Michael Tsogt appears to be a Republican political consultant of some kind whose previous work includes…wait for it…helping right-wing dark money groups to elect right-wing school board members in districts just like D11:

Social media searches offer little information about 23-year-old Tsogt, except that he’s associated with Springs-based Joel Sorensen who, in a February Facebook post addressed to the El Paso County Republican Central Committee, identified himself and Tsogt, among others, as “Young Guns Sparking a Conservative Revival.” [Pols emphasis] Among the group’s accomplishments? Aiding numerous Republican U.S. Senate, congressional and presidential campaigns as well as Republican state House and Senate campaigns.

The group has worked to set up far-right community groups to fight equity in schools, and “[managed] an effort that got 9 conservatives elected in three El Paso County school boards in the 2021 election.”

One of those boards was D11’s. Dark money from local Republican operatives helped elect Loma, Sandra Bankes and Lauren Nelson to the board in 2021 campaigns that raised critical race theory —which is not taught in D11 schools — and COVID protocols as key issues. [Pols emphasis]

Nothing to see here!

Actually, that’s exactly the message that School Board President Parth Melpakam attempted to convey in responding to the Journal, claiming that “the Tsogt contract “supports high-level District/Board communications and strategy.” You’d think D11 could do without outside help here, given that the district already employs 15 people in its Communications and Marketing Department. 

It was for this very reason that board member Julie Ott objected to the $40,000 expense, which she says she only learned about after it was approved in secret by just a handful of board members.

Those right-wing board members are obviously really touchy about this entire subject. When a parent and former school board member named Chris Wallis spoke up at a recent school board meeting, he was greeted with venom from board member Al Loma in what was a pretty transparent effort to focus the room’s attention on anything else. Here’s what Loma said to Wallis DURING A PUBLIC MEETING:

“I’m also surprised that you’re now carrying the water for the [National Education Association], for the [teachers] union, you make a good water boy. The NEA you know, who supports trans, um, changing our boys to girls and girls to boys? That’s the one you’re carrying the water for?…

…So, when I hear you’re talking and attacking two fine gentlemen who are running for reelection, it just kind of um, not surprised. You know, sore losers do that…”

Yikes! Way to focus on the kids!

We haven’t seen such a stark example of corruption from a group of elected officials since the early 2000s, when Republican elected officials in the Jefferson County government were buying Escalades; spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on office renovations; and using taxpayer money to hire private investigators to harass their political opponents. Former Jefferson County Attorney Frank Hutfless once “joked” in 2006 about having a county critic killed — details of which emerged from a Colorado Bureau of Investigation report. Former County Treasurer Mark Paschall later had to defend himself in court on charges related to a complicated kickback scheme.

As The Denver Post editorial board wrote in July 2007, “Congratulations, Jefferson County. Your county commissioners have once again made Jeffco look like a backwater.”

Jefferson County voters eventually caught on to this corruption; today, there is no longer a single Republican elected official in one of the most heavily-populated counties in the state.

Jefferson County is a good example of how corruption can run rampant in local governments precisely because there aren’t always a lot of people paying attention. That may be what is happening in Colorado Springs School District 11; we wouldn’t even know about this story were it not for Kathryn Eastburn at the Journal. And just like we saw in Jefferson County in the mid- to late-2000s, once you start digging around, you tend to find a lot more of the ugly stuff.

Read Eastburn’s entire story at the Colorado Springs Business Journal, and then pass it along to others. Because sunshine truly is the best disinfectant in politics.