By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
PITTSBURG, Kan. — Pittsburg State University officials announced Tuesday that they are halting a long-standing policy that allows political candidates, as members of the public, to pay for the university’s printing and postal services for producing and mailing campaign literature.
Political candidates and parties will no longer be allowed to obtain the university’s printing and postal services to produce and distribute political literature, according to PSU President Tom Bryant.
The action apparently was prompted by some complaints that Linda Grilz — an instructor at PSU and a candidate for the 2nd District commissioner seat in Crawford County — used the university’s metered postage stamps to send out election material by bulk mail.
The university operates a contract postal unit on campus that provides most of the same services as the U.S. Postal Service office in Pittsburg, including bulk mailings.
The university’s post office administrator, Kevin Elrod, and Pittsburg’s postmaster, Bob Beasley, said Grilz paid the appropriate rate for a private bulk mailing, and that she did not receive any discounts or nonprofit rates.
“It’s PSU and USPS compliant,” Elrod said.
In a message to all campus employees Tuesday, Bryant made reference to a recent memorandum from Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that addressed the prohibition of using state funds to further a political campaign.
“The spirit of the memorandum and the state law it cites is to avoid the perception that any state agency supports a particular candidate running for office or one political party over another,” Bryant wrote.
The policy does not affect politically affiliated campus groups, but it would apply to all students, faculty and staff members who are running for public office, according to Ron Womble, the university’s director of communications.
Womble said the university was responding to public concerns that the policy might give a false impression that the university endorsed one candidate or party.
He, too, emphasized that Grilz did not break any rule or obtain anything that would not be afforded anyone else. He said the change was based solely on the potential for false perceptions.
“If we believed that the law had been broken, we’d be taking more action than this,” Womble said. “It’s been practice for a while, and never seemed to cause a problem. But if it causes a perception, it’s certainly something we need to look at.”
Grilz, who is making her second bid for the County Commission seat after losing a close primary election in 2004 to then-incumbent Tom Moody, said she thinks it is unfortunate that the university is changing its policy.
“I think it’s kind of unfortunate because they do provide a service,” she said. “For anybody to think that I would have done something illegal really disappoints me. I wouldn’t have done anything to damage the university or my campaign.”
One of Grilz’s opponents said he believes there may have been an unfair advantage because his post office, the one at Arma, does not offer the bulk-mail options that the PSU contract office does.
Chuck Ales did say that he was aware that the PSU post office is open to the general public, and that he could have used the same service, but he chose not to do so.
Another candidate, John Kovacic, said he was unaware that PSU provided bulk-mail services. He said he supports the university’s decision to change its policy.
State law
Carol Williams, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, said as long as Linda Grilz paid the “same rate anybody else would, there’s really no state benefit that’s being provided.”
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