The president of Jones County Junior College has been accused of using a state email account to encourage his fellow community college presidents to oppose Initiative 42 and to solicit contributions for an anti-Initiative 42 political committee.
The complaint against Dr. Jesse Smith was filed Thursday with the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor by Rana Mitchell, assistant superintendent of the Carroll County School District.
Mississippi law prohibits its employees from using resources, equipment and time to advocate or campaign for political issues.
“I’m not sure this affects Carroll County specifically so much as 450,000 children who don’t have anyone to speak for them,” Mitchell said.
If approved, the initiative would require the state to fund an “adequate and efficient system of free public schools” and would allow citizens to sue if funding falls short. Opponents say passage of Initiative 42 would require state agencies to slash their budgets.
In a Sept. 16 email sent to school presidents in the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges, Smith asks fellow community college presidents to oppose Initiative 42 by sending contributions to the Improve Mississippi Political Initiative Committee (IMPIC). In the email, Smith describes Initiative 42 as “the straw that could break the community college back.”
Smith’s email says the new political committee was created by Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn. The organization is being managed by Rebekah Staples, director of policy for Reeves’ office.
Spokeswomen for the speaker and lieutenant governor said Thursday that both have helped raise funds for the committee.
“If Lieutenant Governor Reeves and Speaker Gunn organized and sponsored the creation of the Improve Mississipi Political Initiative Committee while acting in their official capacities, and if Ms. Staples is indeed actively managing Improve Mississippi while working as the Lieutenant Governor’s Director of Policy, then clear violations of state law regarding elections and public servants have taken place,” said Mitchell in her official complaint.
Reeves and Gunn previously refused public records requests seeking their office emails.
State Auditor Stacey Pickering said Thursday that his office has received many complaints of education officials using public resources to advocate for and against Initiative 42.
In a statement, Pickering said, “We have communicated to them Attorney General Jim Hood’s opinion and applicable state law that says it is appropriate to educate their constituents, but it does not allow them to advocate, pro or con, on any issue, but specifically as it relates to Initiative 42.”
“I don’t think lawmakers are above their own laws,” Mitchell said. “I feel like the law applies to everyone evenly.”
• Contact Nick Rogers at 581-7235 or nrogers@gwcommonwealth.com.
Rana Mitchell's complaint
