Missouri Ethics Commission fines past SPS board candidates for campaign finance violations

Correction: An initial version of this story referenced a school board member in error. The billboards put up by Curtis Jared benefited Chad Rollins.

After investigating, the Missouri Ethics Commission found "reasonable grounds" Springfield school board candidates Landon McCarter and Chad Rollins violated campaign finance laws in connection to billboards placed around the city on their behalf.

Both were assessed a fee for the violation, which they have paid.

Billboards supporting McCarter, Rollins — as well as Maryam Mohammadkhani, who was running for a second term — were an in-kind contribution from Jared Outdoor, LLC, a company owned by real estate developer and investor Curtis Jared.

McCarter and Rollins ran for the board in 2023 and 2024 but the complaint — and the consent orders recently issued by the MEC — were for the most recent campaign.

Each candidate set up a campaign committee registered with the MEC and regularly filed reports that detailed financial and in-kind donations and how it was spent.

McCarter and Rollins each reported an in-kind contribution of $7,500 in January. The LLC was not classified as a corporation under federal tax code and it was not registered with the MEC, a required step. They said the requirement was a change to state statute.

"We thought we did the right thing and then we got a letter that said the rules had changed and LLCs can't donate in-kind. We amended the actual MEC filing, because that is what we thought we needed to do, to an individual that did donate and then that spurred some sort of a case that they wanted to investigate," McCarter said Tuesday.

In late November, as part of separate consent orders, a fee of $7,500 was imposed against McCarter and Rollins. They were given the option of paying $750 within a 45-day window to have the rest of the fee waived.

"Since I'm not running for school board this year ... I just ended up paying," McCarter said. "I heard from MEC that everything is resolved now, which is what I intended."

The consent order stated if the MEC found "probable cause" of any further violation of campaign finance laws by McCarter and Rollins in the next two years, they would be required to pay the rest of fee.

"It's unfortunate that people come after community leaders that are just trying to do the right thing by serving on the school board and to get wrapped up in this stuff is really sad, in my opinion," he said.

McCarter said he is not a "professional politician" and while he appreciated the billboards, he would have reported the gift differently, had he known.

"I would not make the reporting error," he said. "All I guess I needed to do different was to report it from an individual instead of an LLC, which is what we ended up doing to amend our MEC filing."

The consent order for Rollins was filed Nov. 22 and the one for McCarter was filed Nov. 25. Both were later uploaded to the MEC website, making them visible to the public.

"Being new to this, I didn't know all the different ins and outs," Rollins said Tuesday. He said the billboards are owned by one of Curtis Jared's business.

"At the time I took the in-kind donation and reported it, they weren't registered (with the MEC) and I honestly didn't know they needed to be," Rollins said. "Down the road, somebody filed a complaint. I don't even know if that was their main complaint."

Rollins said he has paid the $750 fee. He was asked if the billboards were helpful to the campaign and if he would have done anything differently.

"It was a good way to put my name out there a second time and let people see that I was running," he said.

Jared has become a major donor during recent Springfield school board races. He was involved as a founding member of the opaque Truth in Politics group, which funded TV attack ads prior to the 2022 election. Later he provided support using his own name and companies.

Through a mix of financial or in-kind donations, Jared supported Mohammadkhani's successful bids for the board in 2021 and 2024, plus campaigns for Kelly Byrne, Steve Makoski, McCarter and Rollins.

The 2024 campaign billboards for Mohammadkhani, McCarter and Rollins first appeared more than a year ago, before candidates were eligible to file petitions to be on the ballot. They remained up along major thoroughfares through the election.

McCarter and Rollins were not elected to the board in 2023 or 2024. Neither plans to run in 2025.

Mohammadkhani reported a $7,500 in-kind contribution from Jared Outdoor LLC in late January. An amendment filed in mid-March noted the gift was from Curtis Jared, not the company. Complaints filed with the MEC are not public and it was unclear Tuesday if she faced scrutiny over the gift.

More: After investigation, SPS board member fined, required to file financial disclosure reports

Earlier this year, board member Shurita Thomas-Tate was also fined by the MEC for failing to file routine financial disclosure reports for 2020 and 2021. She was first elected to the board in April 2020.

She was ordered to file the required reports and pay $200 of the $2,000 fee imposed as part of a consent order.

In May, board member Makoski — who will not run for a second term when his first one ends in April 2025 — cited a "public outcry" in asking if Thomas-Tate was going to be censured by the governing body. At his request, the issue was discussed in a board meeting but no call for a censure emerged.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: MO Ethics Commission fines McCarter, Rollins for campaign violation