A vote for Jones, Lester

To the editor:

Crystal Nygard is running for the MEA Board of Directors. She talks about running MEA like a business, holding people accountable and getting results. But there are a few things everyone should know.

1. She’s taken nearly $2,000 from MEA management and their families, including money from the MEA corporate attorney (whom the board evaluates and supposedly supervises) and $750 from Assistant General Manager Tuckerman Babcock’s wife and in-laws (former Sen. Lyda Green and her husband Curtis Green). When you throw in Aaron Downing (the guy that just got finished unsuccessfully suing our co-op), that number jumps to $2,450.

2. She has spent thousands of dollars on signs, etc, yet showed zero expenditure on her MEA reporting for weeks after her signs were purchased and installed. The bylaws are very clear — when a debt is accrued, it has to be reported. Not weeks after the fact, once people start asking questions.

3. Her 31-day report was a week late being posted on the MEA website because she was a week late turning it in. It was due on March 25, and was dated by her campaign on March 31.

4. Unlike Kit Jones, Lois Lester and Marvin Yoder, Crystal Nygard’s reports are not date-stamped when they are received. Reception stamps everyone else’s reports, so why not hers?

5. Now, Lorali Carter’s mom and dad are writing letters of support for Crystal Nygard and each giving the maximum donation, while Lorali Carter is responsible for enforcement of the MEA election. They have every right to support the candidate of their choice, but they have to understand that reasonable people are looking at this and seeing a conflict of interest.

Crystal Nygard may be a wonderful human being with a good business background. But she is being supported financially by the people she wants us to elect her to supervise. She is openly violating our election bylaws, while MEA staff is failing to hold her accountable and may be actively helping her skirt the rules.

We’ve all seen this game played before folks. We know better.

Please vote for Kit Jones and Lois Lester, and vote no on the bylaw change petition brought forward by Aaron Downing, Bill Folsom, Lee Jordan and the rest of the “Friends” of MEA. MEA Bylaw Proposition 1 is a thinly veiled attempt to remove a rightfully elected member of the Board (Janet Kincaid). It targets a single member of the board but could keep thousands of qualified people from serving. The MEA Bylaws Committee recommends a no vote.

It’s your co-op, and every member matters. Go to www.itsyourcoop.org, get informed, and vote. Then go to the annual meeting at Palmer High School on April 25 and make sure your vote was counted.

Kevin Brown

Palmer