How Come BOE Candidate Stephen Austin Won’t Say What His Employment Is??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. Stephen Austin is the only candidate that was a FARMS kid himself. He is the only candidate with a Bachelor's of Fine Art and the only candidate that is a true finance professional.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well I think it is helpful to have diverse backgrounds on the board. He has kids in MCPS...which is more than a lot of the other old times on the BOE. It is time for new blood.

What part of his background would add diversity to the backgrounds of the people on the BoE? As far as I know, he's the only candidate who is a man and lives in Bethesda/Potomac area - is that what you're talking about?

What makes a person a "true finance professional" instead of a false finance professional?

Also, how is professional experience in making money by pushing other people's money around a qualification for a seat on the Board of Education? I'm not saying it's a disqualification, but I don't understand why it would be a qualification.

To me, someone with a financial background is comfortable with numbers. So analyzing and interpreting budgets would not be intimidating in the least. I don’t think ia background in finance work is necessary for being able to work with budgets, rather it’s more like a bonus.

Being comfortable with numbers is always good. But being comfortable with numbers doesn't mean you understand budgets or budgeting. Or administration.

MCPS is a big organization with a lot of inertia (I am trying to use neutral language here), and Steve Austin knows NOTHING about it. All he knows is how to yell at it.

LOL...Steve Austin already exposed Sunil for his fuzzy math (or lack of math) in some of his proposed strategies. Steve Austin is a quick study and he figures things out faster than any of the other clowns on the ballot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

LOL...Steve Austin already exposed Sunil for his fuzzy math (or lack of math) in some of his proposed strategies. Steve Austin is a quick study and he figures things out faster than any of the other clowns on the ballot.

"My superhero can beat up your dumb superhero," says Steve Austin's neighbor/cousin/whoever that guy is who has donated a lot of money and time to the campaign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Stephen Austin is the only candidate that was a FARMS kid"

If true, gets my respect.

Not so many of us that make it in the eyes of DCUM admit to this fact - especially in recent years when all of DCUM seems to equate FARMS with educational poison.

It's not true. For example: https://www.jayguan4boe.com/

Good point. I am currently undecided between voting for Stephen Austin and voting for Jay Guan. My main worry with Austin is whether he can work with others. My main concern with Jay Guan is whether he is able to win.

I agree. Steve has a much higher chance of winning. Guan has raised more money, but Steve has more universal backing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Stephen Austin is the only candidate that was a FARMS kid"

If true, gets my respect.

Not so many of us that make it in the eyes of DCUM admit to this fact - especially in recent years when all of DCUM seems to equate FARMS with educational poison.

It's not true. For example: https://www.jayguan4boe.com/

Good point. I am currently undecided between voting for Stephen Austin and voting for Jay Guan. My main worry with Austin is whether he can work with others. My main concern with Jay Guan is whether he is able to win.

I agree. Steve has a much higher chance of winning. Guan has raised more money, but Steve has more universal backing.

What evidence do you base this statement on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'm saying worst case scenario. I think he's competent, and I thikn he's good at financial stuff. I also think even if he's mediocre at those, he'll be better at those than any current board members. We don't need more ex-teachers on the board --we have plenty of those already.

Worst case: he's incompetent and is the lone dissenting vote
Best case: he pushes for more financial controls and auditing, and convinces other board members that's worthwhile so it passes

I'm willing to take that risk.

It all boils down to this, if you think MCPS is going in the right direction, vote for one of the equity candidates.

If you think MCPS is going in the wrong direction, vote for Stephen Austin.

Just look at the response from the candidates for question 7. Austin is the only that says that Jack Smith should not have been retained.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2020-primary-voters-guide/montgomery-county-board-of-education-at-large/

It boils down to this single issue... if you don't want adjacent clusters to be looked at to alleviate over crowding and would rather have your child in over crowded schools or have your taxes raised so they can build/expand schools then vote for Austin because he is against looking at adjacent clusters.

If you want your boundary to remain status quo in the cluster then sure vote for Austin. He's not a "shake things up" person. He's the "keep it status quo so that our property values are kept safe" person.

He also wants financial accounatbilty and an independent auditor. No idea why we havent' had that all along, but I guess that qualifies as "shake things up" given the BOE hasn't done this so far.

If you want more financial accountability why not advocate for an independent inspector general? The teachers’ union—yes the union—has been pushing that idea for years...but MCPS has opposed it. Teachers and parents working together get the Administration’s attention...separately...not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Poor guy. He really has had to put up with a ton of harassment from the club, hasn't he?

If you think asking to see a candidates qualifications for office is harassment, you have a very odd understanding of the word. I agree that some of the rhetoric is mean-spirited and unhelpful to voters. But asking for a resume is neither mean-spirited nor harassing. If he’d just give voters a work history then voters could decide whether he is the kind of “finance guy” they want handling taxpayer money. He could end much of the speculation about his qualifications if he would just put out his resume. But he hadn’t.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been watching this debate for weeks because I’ve heard how bad it is and want to know how to vote. I don’t care about seeing resumes, but I care about general backgrounds and stances on issues and pay careful attention to tone and tone of supporters. Those things speak volumes.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be a "don't vote for Jay Guan, it's a wasted vote; vote for Steve Austin cuz he's gonna win!" campaign going on on DCUM - although for all we know, it's all coming from one poster. Anyway, I think it's interesting. I haven't seen anything similar from people supporting any other candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a "don't vote for Jay Guan, it's a wasted vote; vote for Steve Austin cuz he's gonna win!" campaign going on on DCUM - although for all we know, it's all coming from one poster. Anyway, I think it's interesting. I haven't seen anything similar from people supporting any other candidates.

Nope...I posted just recently about Steve having a better chance than Jay. I noticed someone else had. So at least 2 posters lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If you want more financial accountability why not advocate for an independent inspector general? The teachers’ union—yes the union—has been pushing that idea for years...but MCPS has opposed it. Teachers and parents working together get the Administration’s attention...separately...not so much.

I didn't realize the union wants this too. The current BOE is mostly union-supported candidates. Why haven't they pushed for it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Well, Jay Guan has both raised and spent more money than Steve Austin. That's often a good indicator of competitiveness. In fact, he's raised the most money (over $27,000) of any candidate in the at-large race, and he's paying for a mailer.

Meanwhile, Steve Austin has raised about $20,500 and spent about $7,500. What's he waiting for? The ballots arrived last week. Lots of people have already voted.

Where are you finding these numbers? I've seen the last quarterly report, but that data is nearly 2 months old. Is there another place to see the latest campaign finance information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Well, Jay Guan has both raised and spent more money than Steve Austin. That's often a good indicator of competitiveness. In fact, he's raised the most money (over $27,000) of any candidate in the at-large race, and he's paying for a mailer.

Meanwhile, Steve Austin has raised about $20,500 and spent about $7,500. What's he waiting for? The ballots arrived last week. Lots of people have already voted.

Where are you finding these numbers? I've seen the last quarterly report, but that data is nearly 2 months old. Is there another place to see the latest campaign finance information?

https://campaignfinance.maryland.gov/Public/ViewFiledReports

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is turning into Trump and his tax returns LOL.

Is he on linkedin?

Not on LinkedIn. Try Stephen L. Austin or Stephen Leroy Austin. Nothing.

I’m pretty sure he is a former astronaut who now works for the federal government, but he also may be a pro wrestler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Well, Jay Guan has both raised and spent more money than Steve Austin. That's often a good indicator of competitiveness. In fact, he's raised the most money (over $27,000) of any candidate in the at-large race, and he's paying for a mailer.

Meanwhile, Steve Austin has raised about $20,500 and spent about $7,500. What's he waiting for? The ballots arrived last week. Lots of people have already voted.

Where are you finding these numbers? I've seen the last quarterly report, but that data is nearly 2 months old. Is there another place to see the latest campaign finance information?

https://campaignfinance.maryland.gov/Public/ViewFiledReports

Interesting that Steve has spent so little. Should be interesting if he does win while spending less. Having that Facebook group is a gives him a built in audience. I know many are saying that not all are supporters, but when you have 8000 followers and most are supporters, that's pretty impressive.

[Anonymous]

Didn't read the whole thread. However, the premise of the threat title is wrong - what business is it of anyone where Stephen Austin works? (yes, I know people have indicated where he does work, but I'm not going to repost that info). If Mr. Austin has complied with the requisite election and ethics disclosures, he has no obligation to disclose more. In this case, his non-disclosure is apparently warranted because some folks would like to misuse that information to get him fired.

If you're demanding to know where Mr. Austin works, and think he's being dishonest by not disclosing that information, then don't vote for him. Would knowing where Mr. Austin works really change your mind about him? Somehow I doubt it.

This goes for any politician. If you want information about a candidate that s/he isn't legally obligated to disclose, then you have two options: (i) advocate for a change in the disclosure requirements, or (ii) don't vote for that candidate.

Just because someone runs for public office doesn't mean every aspect of their life becomes an open book. Everyone has a right to privacy, except apparently where someone may want that information in order to ruin someone's life. Being a "public figure" doesn't entitle you to know their personal business.