Campaign sponsorship of city event questioned

A post showing a

Bryant mayoral candidate’s campaign as sponsoring a city event was removed Thursday shortly after it was published.

On Thursday afternoon, the Bryant City Hall Facebook page had a post thanking the two presenting sponsors of Monday’s Christmas Tree Stroll and Tree Lighting event.

One of those sponsors was “Jason Brown for Mayor.” Brown currently serves as an alderman on the Bryant City Council and is the former president of the Greater Bryant Chamber of Commerce, in addition to being a candidate in the upcoming city mayoral election.

After realizing the potential conflict of interest, Interim Mayor Rhonda Sanders said on

Friday that she had the Facebook post removed.

“I want it perfectly clear, that we are not playing favorites,” said Sanders on why the post was deleted.

Sanders said that Brown offered to sponsor the event with his campaign at a Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Brown said Friday he was the one who gave Sanders the idea for the event. He said they had a first meeting and then a chamber meeting.

“Me being the ex-chamber guy, I have a good idea of how events go,” said Brown. He offered to pay for the backdrop for Santa Claus at the event.

Originally, Brown was sponsoring the event as a mayoral candidate. However, he is no longer sponsoring the event as a candidate, he is now doing it personally.

When asked why he originally sponsored the event as a candidate Brown answered “Why wouldn’t I?”

He then said there was no particular reason he changed his mind.

“There is no reason I decided,” he said. “I’m just trying to help the community.”

Sanders said the other candidate for mayor, Chris Treat, who is the

city of Bryant’s parks director, was given a fair shake.

Treat, however, does not agree that he was offered fair treatment. He said he was not offered a chance to sponsor the event until the post was taken down, and that he did not know that sponsoring the event with his mayoral campaign was even a possibility.

“I didn’t know anything about it until I saw the Facebook post endorsing my opponent,” said Treat. “This is a situation where

just because you can doesn’t mean you should. It’s a shame it happened in the first place. Beyond that, I’ll just let the ethics of it speak for itself.”

In a phone interview with the Courier, Sanders admitted that the post was a mistake.

“That is why it was pulled down very quickly,” said Sanders. “I have not come out in support of either of the candidates and I will not endorse anyone.”

Later Thursday night, the Sanders texted Treat at 5:20 p.m. offering him a sponsorship after the post had been deleted.

“So I want to be very upfront and open with

you. I did not ask Jason to sponsor anything with the Christmas event. He heard about it and volunteered to pay for the backdrop for Santa Claus. In order to be fair I want to offer you and your campaign to sponsor something,” the text from Sanders stated.

“I should have talked to you sooner and I apologize for that. I do not want to play favorites with either of you.”

Treat and his supporters were able to sponsor a tree for the event, however.

“My supporters and I were pleased to sponsor a tree when the event was announced a few weeks

ago and I’m looking forward to celebrating the season with the people of Bryant,” he added.

On Friday afternoon, Sanders sent out a statement on the incident, and added:

“In order to avoid any appearance of favoritism or impropriety we will only accept tree sponsorships that come from campaigns or campaign supporters. We will not accept support for other parts of the event from campaigns.

“The City of Bryant in no way endorses either candidate as we feel it is the electorate’s decision to make.”