Traverse City’s outgoing schools chief is offering to personally pay nearly $14,800 to settle a campaign finance violation with the state, stemming from a district campaign mailer from 2012.
“The responsibility for what comes from the district is ultimately mine,” says Traverse City Area Public Schools Superintendent Steve Cousins. “I’ve always said I would take responsibility for it. So that’s what I’m doing.”
He says he’ll make the recommendation at the Monday night school board meeting, as part of a revised agreement with the Secretary of State that requires the district to raise $24,800 in “private funds” to reimburse taxpayers for the costs of designing and sending the postcard.
State officials say taxpayer funds should not have been used on a postcard that advocated a “yes” vote for the schools' 2012 millage.
Cousins says it was an honest mistake. He says today the district has its law firm review all campaign mailings.
The additional $10,000 from the agreement would come in the form of staff training in campaign finance, donated by the district’s law firm, Thrun Law Firm.