Three Rivers BOE Candidates Address Conflict of Interest Questions

Whether real or perceived, conflicts of interest can sometimes be a concern for voters in an election. Watershed Voice reached out to three candidates for open positions on the Three Rivers Community Schools (TRCS) Board of Education (BOE) in order to get their input on the potential for such conflicts. 

One of the candidates holds another public position in Three Rivers. The other two are married to TRCS teachers. One of the candidates who is married to a teacher is an incumbent, while the other also holds a position in the St. Joseph County Intermediate School District (ISD). All three have been open about their other positions and relationships. 

Melissa Bliss is the City Clerk for the City of Three Rivers. Her position as Clerk is not elected, but rather is appointed by the Three Rivers City Commission. Julia Awe, who already serves on the BOE and is running for another term, is married to a TRCS teacher. Ben Karle is also married to a teacher and works for the ISD as the School Social Work Department Chair.

“Before I decided to run that was my initial concern, for one thing, making sure it’s transparent in any type of interview or when people ask,” Karle said. “So, I did some research before I decided to run to kind of double check, triple check on that.” A few of Karle’s colleagues at the ISD also serve on school boards elsewhere in the county. “That was very much encouraged as a school employee to benefit your community,” Karle said.

Karle’s wife, Nicole, teaches science at Three Rivers High School. “I asked multiple sources how that went for them, you know, people that have been on school boards and had spouses working in the district,” Karle said. “The answer that I got resoundingly was to be transparent about it. Let everyone know, but also know that you can’t vote on anything that would affect her or affect your family in any way.” Karle said he will recuse himself and abstain from votes on issues like union contracts.

Watershed Voice reached out to Awe about her history of voting on the BOE as the spouse of a teacher. As of publication time, Awe had not responded, but Karle said she was one of the people he reached out to for guidance, and who helped advise him about issues of transparency and separating himself from votes that would directly affect his wife and family. 

“She was definitely somebody I chatted with ahead of time, just because that is an issue that I wanted voters to know about,” Karle said. “If I were elected and she is too, with any vote, we both have to ask ourselves and our fellow board members if this is a ‘too close to home’ kind of thing, and then we wouldn’t do it.” Karle said he also reached out to another colleague in another district who serves on a school board and is married to a teacher, and who gave him similar guidance.

Karle also said it is important for people to know that his wife is happy in her work. “I’m proud to be married to a teacher in the district. She’s very happy in her job,” Karle said. “I’m in a family who is satisfied in their work, as opposed to someone who maybe was dissatisfied as a teacher and didn’t want to see continual improvements in their district or maybe had an ulterior motive in having their spouse on the board. That was not on our radar. Nicole has had amazing experiences as a teacher, and I’m proud of her. She’s one of the many amazing teachers in the district.”

Still, Karle said he thinks it is important to be aware of candidates’ potential conflicts. “It’s a really good idea, especially considering that three of us do have conflicts that we need to be transparent about,” Karle said. “I don’t know what the others have said in their interviews necessarily, but I think they’ve been open and talked about spouses and their other jobs, things like that. I’ve put it all in my video and paper interviews as well, so people are aware. It is important.”

Bliss does not feel her position as City Clerk will compromise her position on the board if she is elected. She has been the City Clerk since 2011, when she came to Three Rivers from a position with the Human Resources Department for the City of Portage. Bliss said her choice to run “is a personal decision,” and as City Clerk she has “little to no interaction with the school district,” and foresees no conflict of interest in serving on the BOE.

Regarding her response to Watershed Voice’s previously published Candidate Questionnaire, Bliss said, “I think I did a good job of stating my position and identifying why I’m interested in running. Like I said, it’s a personal decision. It really has no impact or effect on my job here. The requirements of a (BOE) member really are after hours from my normal working hours from the city.” Bliss said she doesn’t “personally have a financial gain from anything with the school. So as far as conflict of interest, there is really nothing.”

While she does not have the same educational background some other candidates do, Bliss said she thinks her position as Clerk will bring her unique perspective on how boards and budgets work, on public procedure and the laws that govern public bodies, and on the hierarchies, chains of command, and divisions of responsibility that define what she feels are and are not appropriate roles for BOE members to play.

Although she said she did not seek authorization or input from the City Commission or from City Manager Joe Bippus prior to running, Bliss said she has heard of no objections from either.

Bliss also serves as Executive Director for the Three Rivers Area Community Foundation. Through that position, she said, “I have worked directly with the schools to do the scholarship process.” However, she said she sees no conflict of interest between her Foundation and BOE responsibilities either.

Because Bliss’ role as City Clerk puts her in charge of managing elections within Three Rivers’ voting precincts, she will be at the polling station where ballots are cast in the BOE election. She appoints some of the personnel who will help oversee casting and counting of votes, and helps ensure that voters who show up on election day are properly registered and have not already voted. Those duties will not change as a result of her candidacy, Bliss said. 

Bliss does not necessarily manage the minute details at the polling station on election day. “Precinct Chairs are really the ones that provide a lot of the oversight as far as directly managing how the voting locations and voting processes are running that day,” she said. 

In keeping with typical practice, Bliss will also be transporting ballots to the Board of Canvassers afterward for official certification of the final counts. “At the end of the night, it has to be a Democrat or a Republican that turns the results over to the county,” she said. Typically, (Deputy Clerk) Teresa (Ives) and I will do that. We’ll head over to the county with the results. That includes all of our sealed bags. They’ll then get returned back to City Hall and go into a retention period until the canvass is done and the results are certified.”

Transporting the ballots is among several duties that require oversight from both major political parties. “There’s actually quite a few processes with the voting that require that,” Bliss said. “We’ll always have a worker that’s a Democrat or Republican to provide assistance.” She said finding enough Democrats to do the work has “been a challenge.” Typically, Bliss seeks input from the parties on prospective people to fill the positions, and then makes the appointments from whatever pools are provided.

Prior to being transported, the ballots are placed into containers which are sealed with the number of votes in each recorded. Election Chairs are responsible for that process. A receiving board consisting of a Democrat and a Republican makes sure that work is done properly. Each of the positions is appointed and sworn in on the morning of the election. To fill those positions, Bliss said she looks for prior experience and ability to troubleshoot quickly. 

City Commissioner Pat Dane is an example of a person Bliss said she relies on regularly to serve as a Chair. “She’s been at it since before I came to the city, so she has a good understanding of, at the end of the night, what processes need to happen in order to wrap up,” Bliss said.

With Bliss’ candidacy, the major difference in her duties on Election Day this year is that she will not be able to act as an election inspector. “If my name wasn’t on the ballot, I would be able to jump in as an actual election inspector,” Bliss said. “When your name is on the ballot, you don’t do that. You still provide oversight and management for the day, but you just can’t act as an inspector.”

Bliss said she has had some contact with TRCS since beginning her candidacy for the school board. “I was offered the opportunity to sit down with (TRCS Superintendent Ron Moag) to talk a little bit out the position and see if I had any questions that I needed an opportunity to ask,” she said. “He offered that to every candidate. It was really nice.”

Karle said he is proud to be running among what he feels is a good slate of candidates. “I think we’ve got a lot of good people. They are well intentioned candidates that have done their homework and truly have the best interests of the community in mind,” he said. “I’m impressed with the efforts thus far everyone has made to try to bring awareness to the importance of a local school board election. Whoever wins, I’m just glad that people have been paying attention to the importance of getting involved on a local level and knowing that the school board is a really important role.” 

Dave Vago is a writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.