San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Fix SAPD’s funds mostly anonymous
Bulk for group targeting union ability to bargain is from a 501(c)(3) charity
A group of San Antonio organizers who want to strip the police union of its ability to negotiate a contract with the city raised nearly $300,000 last year — most of it from anonymous sources.
Fix SAPD outraised its chief opponent, the San Antonio Police Officers Association, and had more money in its piggy bank at the end of last year, campaign finance reports show.
The overwhelming bulk of Fix SAPD’s fundraising haul from August to December — $250,000 in cash donations — came from the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund, an arm of the Texas Organizing Project, a progressive grassroots group that specializes in community and election organizing.
Because TOP’s education fund is organized as a 501(c) (3) public charity, it doesn’t have to make its donors known to the public.
That makes it nigh impossible to know who so far has bankrolled the Fix SAPD campaign, which coordinated a petition drive to gather enough signatures to get two measures on the May ballot that would effectively neutralize the police officers association.
The use of so-called dark money — political donations that can’t be traced to specific donors — has been on the rise within the past decade as politically active nonprofits increasingly adopted the technique of shielding the identity of donors from the public.
“When dark money flows into politically active groups, voters are left in the dark about who is trying to influence them,” said Michael Beckel, research director for Issue One, a bipartisan campaign finance
reform group. “That’s a large chunk of money from unknown sources flowing into Fix SAPD.”
Leaders of Fix SAPD and TOP denied that the $250,000 in contributions fit the colloquial definition of “dark money,” at least in the negative sense typically associated with the term.
“There is no dark money, there has been no dark money in Fix SAPD, there will be no dark money in Fix SAPD,” said Ojiyoma Martin, who heads the organization.
The TOP-related money came out of the education fund’s general pot of donations it receives year-round to provide financial support for community outreach efforts on issues such as health care access, immigration and housing, TOP executive director Michelle Tremillo said.
In other words, the nonprofit wasn’t specifically raising money to back Fix SAPD.
“We’ve received no contribution from any individual or entity attempting to hide their identity,” Tremillo said.
John “Danny” Diaz, the incoming president of the police officers association, seemed disinterested in the source of Fix SAPD’s money.
The union’s political action committee raised more than $280,000 and spent roughly $164,000 in all of 2020, filings with the Texas Ethics Commission show. The union’s PAC ended the year with close to $96,000 on hand.
Fix SAPD, on the other hand, raised $299,880 from August to December, according to its first campaign finance report filed with the city. The organization spent about $207,000 in that time. At the end of the year, Fix SAPD had more than $130,000 in the bank.
“Wherever they get their money from, that’s on them,” Diaz said. “My concern and my focus right now is to educate the citizens as much as possible on the truth, and not lies or misrepresentations of our policies and procedures.”
Typically, 501(c)(3)s can’t give to political campaigns. But the IRS carves out an exception for “lobbying” efforts, which experts say can include giving donations to ballot initiatives such as the Fix SAPD drive — so long as they don’t spend too much.
Under Texas law, public charities generally don’t have to disclose their donors when it comes to political activity.
It’s possible that TOP’s education fund won’t continue giving to Fix SAPD, Tremillo said, given that the money would have to come out of the organization’s lobbying budget — which it needs for lobbying state lawmakers convening this year in the biennial legislative session.
Nonetheless, TOP so far has had an outsize role in the campaign and is beefing up its role in seeking local police reforms.
Fix SAPD spent more than $183,000 last year on signature-gatherers from another arm of TOP, per their campaign finance filing. Three years ago, TOP gathered 140,000 signatures to put an ordinance on the ballot to mandate paid sick leave for San Antonio workers who don’t receive the benefit. The City Council instead adopted the ordinance outright, avoiding the ballot initiative, though the ordinance was later tied up in the courts.
Fix SAPD has sought to gather enough signatures to put a pair of measures on a citywide ballot: one to strip the police union of the right to bargain collectively over wages and working conditions, the other to challenge firings and disciplinary action before arbitrators. The idea behind both measures is to take away the union’s ability to influence how officers are disciplined.
This month, Fix SAPD turned in more than 20,000 signatures from those who want the collective bargaining matter placed on the May ballot but wasn’t able to get the necessary number of signatures for the other measure.
The city clerk is still verifying whether the 20,000 signatures are valid.
In a questionnaire, TOP pressed mayoral and council candidates to take a position on the repeals sought by Fix SAPD and to agree they wouldn’t seek endorsements from the police union.
“Police officers deserve an ability to negotiate their salary and benefits, and we support their right to do that,” Tremillo said. “However, thousands across San Antonio agree with us that no contract should allow anyone to escape accountability for misconduct.”
Fix SAPD’s proposed charter amendment doesn’t differentiate. If it makes it onto the May ballot and wins, the amendment would repeal the provision that allows collective bargaining under state law. If that happens, backers say, the union could still have a contract with the city. But it wouldn’t be required.
TOP wasn’t Fix SAPD’s sole donor. The petition campaign got $25,000 from a consulting firm owned by veteran political strategist Christian Archer and $10,250 from startup investment firm Scaleworks, owned by TechBloc cofounder Lew Moorman.