Kelly and Guerrero allege Adler broke the law in endorsements

[ad_1]

Photo by ATXN. Image from the December press conference held by Mayor Steve Adler.

Thursday January 5th, 2023 by Jo Clifton

Councilman Mackenzie Kelly and former City Council candidate Linda Guerrero filed complaints with the Texas Ethics Commission and Travis County District Attorney Delia Garza alleging Mayor Steve Adler broke the law when he endorsed Zo Qadri and Jos Velsquez in a press conference broadcast on city television. channel, ATXN, Dec. 1.

Attorney Bill Aleshire is representing Kelly and Guerrero, who also filed a lawsuit with the city attorney alleging a violation of the city charter.

The video is available on the city’s website as “Austin Mayor Vote News Conference” and says ATXN employees filmed. However, Adler told the Austin Monitor on Wednesday that he did not ask city employees to be there or invite them to the press conference.

The press conference begins with Adler saying that December 1 is the first day of early voting in the December 13 second round of elections for mayoral and council candidates. After encouraging people to vote, Adler said that he also wanted to warn Austinites of a fraudulent petition related to police surveillance that would have the opposite effect of the previous petition already scheduled for a spring election.

Adler then said that because he lives in District 9, he would vote in that race. He said he would vote for Zo Qadri, describing him as smart, knowledgeable and problem-focused. He noted that he couldn’t vote in the District 3 race, but if he could, he would vote for Jos Velsquez.

Qadri and Velsquez won their races, with Qadri finishing the evening 352 votes ahead of Guerrero out of an estimated 14,200.

Adler said positive things about the two mayoral candidates, Kirk Watson and Celia Israel, saying he wouldn’t endorse either of them. At the end of the press conference, which was held in the plaza outside City Hall, Adler invited Qadri to join him inside where early voting was taking place.

Complaints filed with the Ethics Commission indicate that Mayor Adler had the same free speech rights as any other member of the public and the same access/restrictions to city resources as other members of the public for purposes policies. City staff, equipment and website are not available for political advertising, such as candidate endorsements, to the general public or anyone else. As a city official, Mayor Adler has control of certain city resources by virtue of his position. Mayor Adler abused his position as mayor to commandeer city staff, audio-video equipment, and the website to engage in his own political endorsement of candidates.

In their complaints, Guerrero and Kelly state, “In good faith, Complainant asserts that prior to his December 1, 2022 press conference, Mayor Adler was advised by City Counsel that members of council are not not authorized to expend or authorize the expenditure of public funds for political advertising, and the prohibition includes the use of municipal equipment, computers, copiers, supply resources, ATXN, Channel 6, etc. Mayor Adler was surely aware that this press conference had been organized, recorded and archived on the city’s website in violation of the ban on political advertising.

In addition to the complaint filed earlier today, Aleshire supplemented the complaints directed at Garza by adding an allegation that Adler violated the Texas Election Code prohibition against campaigning within 100 feet of the exterior gate. of the town hall when it was a polling station. He also complained that Adler used an amplification device within 1,000 feet of the polling place for political speech and campaigning. Such violations are a Class C misdemeanor. The other complaints allege a Class A misdemeanor.

Austin Monitors’ work is made possible through community donations. Although our reports occasionally cover donors, we are careful to separate commercial and editorial efforts while maintaining transparency. A full list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here.

Join your friends and neighbors

We are a non-profit news organization and we put our service first. This will never change. But public service journalism requires the support of the community of readers like you. Will you join your friends and neighbors in supporting our work and our mission?

[ad_2]