Angeliina Lawson is the sole progressive on the Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees (JCCC) in Kansas City, Kansas, trying to be fiscally accountable and transparent. She proves an adage that is becoming real to most. Progressives are generally the ones that keep the house in order.
Angeliina Lawson, a progressive making conservative accountable
Lawson is currently under duress on a board that continues to work in a very non-transparent manner. Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees are attempting to censure her on February 20th for persisting to get answers for taxpayers.
Why is this happening? Angeliina Lawson is standing up to keep the voice of the people from being silenced. Angeliina wants to scrutinize checks of $1.3 million, $1.4 million, and others totaling $6.8 million before taking a vote to approve them. She voted no as she was denied doing her elected duty.
“The people lose big,” said Trustee Angeliina. “Because their representative is denied doing their job. No constituent likes to feel taken for granted or shut out and then given the bill to pay as if that is all they are good for is a check. I am will not stand for that.”
The board continued to deny Trustee Lawson the answers to important questions on fiscal and fairness issues after requesting it multiple times to understand exactly what monies and outlays they are asked to vote for throughout the sessions. The board has become too confident with its conservative majority. It has created a power vacuum that is not good for teachers, staff, or taxpayers.
As an example, the board has more in reserve than is required by law. Why is it not used for assisting more students or providing tax relief?
Trustee Lawson’s action should be no surprise. After all, she is the author of the article “Wanting transparency at JCCC is no ‘radical socialist agenda’“
Students with educational opportunities are less likely to fall into poverty and to need public assistance. Employers benefit by having a better-educated talent pool to fill their jobs. When people have better jobs, they will spend more money in our community.
That’s not socialism, that’s capitalism. Proactive investments in the future of our community will build a stable and growing tax base that provides our companies with better employees, benefiting every business.
Johnson County residents need to cut through the fear campaign. They have an opportunity on Tuesday to cast votes for JCCC trustees who will be working on the side of transparency, new voices and new ideas.
I’ve already cast my ballot — and this year, I’m proud to say, I voted for change.
Many stakeholders have been approaching Trustee Lawson in confidence with their concerns and questions. The board thus far are inhibiting the ability to get the information clearly.
Angeliina Lawson will not be deterred. She intends to continue to serve her constituents and root out the arrogance of the board and with that stunt corruption.
Progressive’s are not awash with big corporate dollars. We are lean, mean and dependent on our grassroots. Please consider contributing to the Lawson For Kansas campaign at https://www.paypal.me/LawsonForKansas.
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Any organization with a big budget attached is ripe for corruption because of human nature. There is no political philosophy that includes corruption as a party platform. Even altruistic political philosophies like socialism or progressive-ism include humans that are sometimes corrupt. That is why we need checks and balances on every for-profit, non-profit, government, coop, collective, and community organization board. Brothers will cheat brothers. Kids will steal from parents. Humans have a great capacity for low-down shenanigans.
We see race and class bias assigned to conservatives here as well. That is its own special kind of corruption and warrants specific laws to check this, again, very human characteristic.
We need objective accounting for fiscal, racial, and class corruption, and real pain as a consequence.
Calling this a problem with conservatives, or of a failure of the human spirit, misses the point. This IS human nature. We evolved to be be really good a stealing, killing, and raping. This is a failure to implement a clear system of checks and balances on human nature, which is what every law code from Hammurabi to Moses to the US Constitution is all about.