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Rebman v. District 279 United, OAH 8-6326-19989-CVFor the last two weeks, we have been defending District 279 United against complaints filed by school board candidate Kevin Rebman. Some of you may have seen related stories on Channel 12 news or articles in the local papers. Under advice of legal council, we did not discuss this with the entire group. Now that this is behind us, we feel it is important to present the facts. On Monday, October 20, the day of CEPAC's candidate forum, the three candidates endorsed by District 279 United and Tracy Krasnoff, District 279 United Co-Chair, received phone calls from Channel 12 requesting interviews prior to the forum to discuss a complaint filed by Mr. Rebman. The reporter indicated that Mr. Rebman issued a press release describing the legal action he had initiated against District 279 United, and she shared the content of the press release with us. Mr. Rebman's complaint alleges that District 279 United's name is too similar to that of the Independent School District 279, causing voters to mistake our endorsement for the Independent School District 279's endorsement. In addition, the complaint alleges that District 279 United has not registered as a political committee and has illegally provided money to endorsed candidates. Jennifer, Teresa, Mr. Rebman and Tracy were interviewed by Channel 12 prior to the candidate forum, resulting in a story that ran on Tuesday. In addition, Tracy was contacted by Wendy Erlien from the OMG Press, who also ran a story in this week's paper. To our knowledge, our name has not created the confusion alleged by Mr. Rebman. Neither the leadership team nor candidates we have endorsed have heard similar feedback. In addition, at no point did Mr. Rebman ever communicate any concerns about our name, nor did his concerns prevent him from actively seeking our endorsement. We believe that the financial aspects of the complaint are without merit. In accordance with election laws that apply to our local school board elections we were not required to file any form of report concerning District 279 United until we had reached expenditures of $750. At the time Mr. Rebman filed his complaint our expenditures had yet to exceed $500. District 279 United surpassed the $750 threshold the week the complaint was filed and all appropriate disclosures were filed with the appropriate authorities in a timely manner. Lastly, no contributions have been made by District 279 United to any political candidates. On Tuesday, October 21, we received a copy of the complaint, as well as notification of a probable cause hearing, the first step in the litigation process, to be held by conference call on Thursday, October 23. The Administrative Law Judge indicated that he did not have jurisdiction to investigate the financial aspects of the complaint and dismissed these allegations without prejudice. With the substantial and generous help of pro bono legal counsel, we prepared and filed the requested information in defense of District 279 United. The conference call occurred as scheduled. The judge asked each party to file documents relating to a case that Mr. Rebman cited during the hearing. On Tuesday, October 21, the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board dismissed the complaint relating to our finances. On Wednesday, October 29, the administrative judge dismissed the portion of the compliant relating to our name. Mr. Rebman issued a second press release. Channel 12 ran a follow up story, and both the OMG Press and the StarTribune published articles.
While we are pleased with the result, we regret the need to defend our grassroots organization and the candidates we endorsed against groundless charges. In addition, we were particularly disappointed with what appears to be Mr. Rebman's efforts to generate positive publicity for himself and negative publicity for District 279 United through his use of press releases. Co-Chairs,
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