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Ignoring IRS rules, Carlsbad church gave ,900 to school board candidates and urged congregants to do so, too – San Diego Union-Tribune
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Ignoring IRS rules, Carlsbad church gave $1,900 to school board candidates and urged congregants to do so, too – San Diego Union-Tribune

A Carlsbad church has requested the return of two $950 donations it made weeks ago to each of two school board candidates, despite federal rules that prohibit tax-exempt organizations like churches from supporting financially or to support any candidate for public office.

Missionary Church Pastor David Menard also urged his congregation during a sermon last month to donate to Carlsbad Unified’s two candidates, Jen Belnap and Laura Siaosi.

When the San Diego Union-Tribune asked about the donations in light of the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt rules, Menard said in an email Thursday that they were made in error and that the church had requested their return.

“To support our community, we recently contributed to the campaigns of two Carlsbad school board candidates. In doing so, we realized we had fallen outside the IRS guidelines for a 501(c)(3),” he said.

Belnap said in an email Friday that she learned Thursday that the church’s donation was illegal and that its treasurer later returned it. Siaosi said the church’s donation was “a lovely gesture of support” but that she, too, returned it as soon as she learned it was inappropriate.

Mission Church, which is registered as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization under the name Ezra Ministries, had donated the $1,900 on Oct. 15, according to campaign finance records of the county.

IRS Rules say tax-exempt organizations, including churches and religious nonprofits, are “absolutely prohibited” from donating to a political campaign or publicly expressing support for a political campaign.

The IRS adds that any financial contribution, as well as any verbal or written public statement of position, for any candidate for public office “clearly violates the prohibition on political campaign activities.”

When asked why the church donated to Belnap and Siaosi, Menard wrote, “The Missionary Church loves our town and our schools. »

Ménard has already explained his support for Belnap and Siaosi in more detail.

In a Sermon of October 13he outlined a plan for his church to take back a majority of the five school board members from candidates backed by the teachers union. The new board will soon have to hire a new superintendent to succeed Benjamin Churchill, who leaves this December for Poway Unified.

The church already has the support of one current board member, Gretchen Vurbeff, Menard said, so adding two more would establish a majority that the church supports.

He called the LGBTQ community “the opposition” and suggested they were responsible for appointing the current union-backed majority to the board.

“The opposition, the LGBTQ community, discovered the importance, long before us, of having the right people on the school board,” Ménard said.

He told his congregation it was important to bring “good values” back to schools.

“We must focus on the truth, and we must work to get our children back to science, math and core core subjects, and not bombard them with ideologies that destroy lives,” Menard said.

Menard also urged his congregation to donate to and vote for Belnap and Siaosi’s campaigns.

“I would like to ask you to support them, both with your votes and financially,” he said. He added that the Missionary Church financially supported Belnap and Siaosi “peripherally”.

Belnap and Siaosi also spoke during the sermon. Belnap, who is a Carlsbad high school parent, said she is running to prevent the board from having four or five administrators approved by the teachers union.

“I am running to ensure there is diversity of viewpoints on this board,” she said. “I am also running to ensure that we honor and respect the sacred role of family and the family unit in our community.”

Siaosi, who is also a Carlsbad high school parent and whose husband is a volunteer coach, likened her school board run to a battle between good and evil.

“I never really thought I would be politically active, but we are coming to a time where all it takes for evil to prevail is for good men and women to stand by and do nothing, and I can’t do anything,” she said.

The Mission Church, founded by Ménard in 2011, made headlines last year when it mobilized opposition to a school district diversity, equity and inclusion plan that had been drafted under Churchill’s leadership. The council ultimately approved the plan.

Belnap and Siaosi’s opponents, Ejehan Turker and Alison Emery, said they were surprised when they learned the two had received donations from the church.

Turker, a parent running against Siaosi, said she believes the fact that Siaosi and Belnap chose to accept donations is unethical and indicative of how they would serve on the school board.

“Also, how far will they go, if elected, to advance their own political agendas? Turker said.

Siaosi said his critics used the church’s donation “to continue their relentless attack on my character.”

“I find it disturbing that the very people fighting for diversity, equity and inclusion here in Carlsbad see no hypocrisy in their attacks on people of faith,” she said.

Turker and Emery both said that if elected, they intend to be a “stabilizing presence” on the board to prevent groups from creating “chaos” at school board meetings to make advance their own political “ideologies”.

They said they are concerned about Mission Church’s involvement in their opponents’ campaigns, as they see the church trying to advance a religious agenda in public schools and “sow division” in the district. They said schools must make all students feel safe, supported and included and believe the Church’s goals run counter to this.

“I just want to calm the chaos, lower the tone and the rhetoric, bring it back to those educational philosophies and best teaching practices,” said Emery, a Carlsbad parent and Solana Beach teacher who is also in the teachers union in Solana Beach. negotiating team.

Both Turker and Emery are supported by the Carlsbad teachers union.

Originally published: