The "Citizens Investing in J Plus C," formed Jan. 26, consists of Jefferson City residents campaigning in support of the Jefferson City Schools District's two high school plan on the April 4 ballot.
Voters will decide whether to support Propositions J and C that present the district's two high school plan. Proposition J will ask voters if they want to approve a 65-cent tax levy increase to fund a $130 million bond issue to pay for building a second high school and renovating the existing one to make it an equitable facility in terms of square footage, design and safety. Proposition C will ask voters if they want to approve a 45-cent operating levy - 20 cents to cover needs like textbooks and mental health support within the existing school system and 25 cents to pay for the operating costs of a new high school.
Gregg Bexten is the treasurer for Citizens Investing in J Plus C. Bexten is the regional president of Hawthorn Bank.
The group had taken in $69,634 in total receipts, as of the most recent Feb. 23 Missouri Ethics Commission (MEC) report.
The Civic Progress Committee of the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce has been the largest contributor to Citizens Investing in J Plus C. The committee donated $10,000 in late January and another $15,000 in early February, for a total of $25,000.
Almost all contributions to Citizens Investing in J Plus C have totaled about $1,000 or more:
Capital Region Medical Center and Hawthorn Bank each gave $4,505;
HG Southridge LLC and Modern Land Company LLC, $3,000 each;
Modern Litho Inc., $2,750 - Modern Litho provides printing services;
Philip Freeman - owner of Freeman Mortuary - and Mid-Jeff Properties Inc., $2,703 each;
Scruggs Guhleman Lumber Co. and Matthew Krause, $2,000 each - Krause is a speech pathologist at the University of Missouri;
The Architects Alliance, Naught-Naught Insurance Agency, Kolb Properties, Central MO Professional Services, N.H. Scheppers Distributing Co., Wren Solutions and Jefferson City Coca-Cola Bottling Co. each gave $1,802. Central MO Professional Services specializes in engineering, surveying, material testing and GIS services. N.H. Scheppers distributes Anheuser Busch products. Wren Solutions' products are security systems, including camera housings, mounts, monitors and perimeter detection systems;
Southern Hills Townhouses & Apartments LLC, $1,000;
Riley Chevrolet Cadillac Inc., Riley Toyota Scion and Williams-Keepers LLC, $901 each. Williams-Keepers are certified public accountants and consultants.
Graves and Associates, CPAs, LLC also gave a total of $901 with two contributions - $100 and then $801 early in February. Graves and Associates performed JCPS's most recent audit for the past fiscal year;
Darrell Moore, $250 - Moore is listed in the MEC report as manager of Modern Litho. He is CEO and president of Modern Litho-Print Co., which sponsored printing of the mail fliers sent to Jefferson City residents' homes.
Citizens Investing in J Plus C had $53,894 on hand as of the Feb. 23 MEC report, having spent $15,740.
Of these expenses, $10,000 went to Unicom Arc of St. Louis for a telephone survey, and another $5,700 paid MyGrid Technologies of St. Joseph for social media consultant services. The remaining $40 went toward food and beverages.
The Feb. 23 report also notes several refunds to be officially reported on MEC's 8 Days Before Election Report. The refunds are noted as voluntary addendums on the latest report because the checks for them were issued after the Feb. 18 cutoff date for reporting.
"We had intended to set (Citizens Investing in J Plus C) up as a PAC," or continuing committee, as MEC classifies it, Bexten said. PAC stands for political action committee. When the group realized they had instead filed as a campaign committee, they refiled and submitted the paperwork to make the change Feb. 22.
MEC's online system reflects the changes.
To be in compliance with the change from campaign committee to PAC, Bexten said, the group had to refund the checks it had received, but "all those companies have since (contributed again what they originally gave)."
The six school board candidates running for three available seats did not have any new campaign finance information to report. The six candidates are Steve Bruce, Paul Graham, Scott Hovis, Lori Massman, Don Salcedo and Victoria Sterling.
As of the last report, Massman had been in the lead in terms of money raised, followed by Bruce and Sterling.