Crowley ISD trustee Mia Hall faces accusations of misusing public funds and school district resources for political campaigning.
In a filing with the Texas Ethics Commission, Melondy Doddy-Muñoz, who is running against Hall for her seat, formally announced March 20 an ethics charge against Hall.
The complaint alleges Hall used public funds to repurpose a video produced and published by Crowley ISD for use in her own reelection campaign. The video was uploaded to the Crowley ISD YouTube page Oct. 16, 2023, and is titled “Board Spotlight: Dr. Mia Hall.”
On March 18, Hall took the same video and published it to her political candidate page. The only difference between the two videos is the inclusion of an image at the end of the candidate video that includes the words, “Re-Elect Dr. Mia Hall… political advertising paid for by the Dr. Mia Hall for Crowley ISD campaign.”
As of March 25, the video was removed from her Facebook page. Hall told the Fort Worth Report that she believes she did nothing wrong.
“I would never do anything nefarious intentionally,” Hall said. “It’s my belief that the video was a part of public space and was to highlight board service.”
Doddy-Muñoz filed the charge because she’s committed to the responsible use of public funds, she said in a statement.
She claims that — as the video was produced by Crowley ISD on district property — taxpayer money was used in financing Hall’s political campaign.
“I find the deliberate actions … by Dr. Mia Hall and her campaign extremely troubling,” Doddy-Muñoz said. “It is the duty of public servants to uphold the highest standards of ethical behavior and ensure that taxpayer money is used appropriately and lawfully,”
Katie Anderson, partner at Dallas law firm Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, said this issue is tricky for districts and trustees. Because the video was filmed on district property during working hours and using district equipment, this could appear to be a case of taxpayer dollars used to fund a political campaign, she said.
During fall 2023, Crowley ISD produced board spotlight videos about each of the seven trustees, in celebration of their selection as an Honor Board by the Texas Association of School Administrators, the district said in a statement.
All seven videos are posted online for the public to view on the district’s website, social media channels and YouTube, Crowley ISD said.
That means the video is already in the public domain, Anderson said, and there were no extra costs associated with the video’s production.
“Once they’ve filmed it and paid for it, is there an additional expense for the district in using it at other times and places? Probably not,” Anderson said.
Another aspect the Texas Ethics Commission will focus on during its investigation is whether the video looks like an endorsement from the district, she said.
It helps Hall that the board put a spotlight on all seven board members. The fact Hall is the principal actor in the video, discussing her own achievements, puts her in a safer position, Anderson said.
“That leans in favor of it not being a violation,” Anderson said. “I don’t have any serious, significant concerns.”
Hall said she or her campaign did not pay to produce the video of her, or any of the other board spotlight videos posted to the Crowley ISD YouTube page. Since the video was posted to public domain, she should be free to use it how she wants, she said.
“The suggestion that I’m doing something wrong by accessing public domain to highlight the work that I’ve been doing is preposterous,” Hall said.
William Schlitz, campaign manager for Doddy-Muñoz, said part of the issue with the reuse of the video by Hall was the message edited onto the end. The message, which states she paid for the political advertisement, misleads the public, he said. District taxpayers paid for the video, Schlitz said.
The disclaimer was added not because she paid for production of the video, but because the video was hosted on Meta, Facebook’s parent company, Hall said. As Hall and her campaign team pay for Meta, the team must disclose it paid to host the video on the website, she said.
“With campaign guidelines, if there’s money spent to do something with the campaign, you have to disclose that,” Hall said. “I didn’t pay for the video, but I’m paying for the video to be aired on Meta. So, I had to disclose that.”
In the complaint, Doddy-Muñoz urged the Texas Ethics Commission to conduct an “immediate” and “comprehensive” investigation into the allegations.
Hall welcomes any investigation. She emphasized that she feels she did nothing wrong.
“All I did was repost something that has been publicly shared already and followed the rules that govern how you do that in an election,” Hall said.
Doddy-Muñoz disagrees. As the race for Place 3 on the Crowley ISD school board creeps to the finish line, this could become a talking point, Anderson said.
Both candidates said they just want to focus on the issues that matter: those that affect students.
Early voting begins April 22 and ends April 30. Election Day is May 4.
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @MatthewSgroi1 on X. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.