No Reporters. No Joe Moore. Possible Tax Law Violation.
Chicago, April 12 2007 - Good News Community Kitchen, a tax-exempt organization, may have violated tax laws today by electioneering for 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore, who faces Don Gordon in the April 17 run-off. Pastor Marilyn Pagan-Banks, director of the Good News Community Kitchen, helped organize an anti-Gordon/pro-Moore event at the Heartland Cafe in the Rogers Park neighborhood. Pagan-Banks is also a part-time associate pastor with the Good News Community Church.
The event was to be an anti-Don Gordon "press conference" 4:30 pm today, but it was a bust. There was nobody from the press there. About a dozen people showed up to support aldermanic candidate Joe Moore, and a similar number showed up from the Gordon camp, including Don Gordon himself. When the Gordon people arrived, the jubilant tone of the pro-Moore people became subdued, and seeing no members of the press there, the event quickly and uneventfully dissolved. Both sides handed out their literature without incident. Joe Moore was nowhere in sight.
The Heartland Cafe is owned by supporters of Joe Moore. Co-owner Katy Hogan told candidate Don Gordon that the event was "not ours," and the Pagan-Banks anti-Gordon group was "just using our space."
An email from "Marilyn" (below) is clearly electioneering. The phone number given in the email, 773-262-2297, is indeed the phone number of the Kitchen. The Kitchen’s fax number was also given. We phoned the number and were told that yes, the Kitchen was involved with organizing the event.
Pagan-Banks, or anyone, has a right to act as an individual to organize a political event. But let us be very clear: By using the Kitchen’s telephone and fax for the event, and by inviting people to call there for information, and by admitting on the phone that the Kitchen was organizing the political event, Pagan-Banks was acting as a functionary of the Kitchen. The Kitchen is a tax-exempt organization that is NOT allowed to engage in electioneering.
This is in stark contrast to what Pagan-Banks told an audience at the beginning of a candidates' debate on Sunday, January 29, 2006. She moderated the event, and strongly emphasized to the audience that the Good News Community Church would remain neutral and would not endorse any candidate. While it is the Kitchen that organized the event at the Heartland today, the event and Pagan-Banks’ behavior clearly violates the spirit of her pledge of neutrality. It also calls into question the validity of the Kitchen’s standing as a valid 501-c3 tax-exempt entity. “Northside POWER does not endorse any party or candidate,” she said. Northside POWER is a Rogers Park community organization which began in mid-2004 is organized by the Good News Community Kitchen. Both organizations are located at 7649 N Paulina Street in Chicago.
Here is the text of the Pagan-Banks email, sent out this morning:
Friends,
There will be a press conference TODAY at 4:30 p.m. at the Heartland Cafe denouncing the hate-filled and racist blogs posted by supporters of Don Gordon and asking him to do the same. A flyer is attached. We are speaking out as those that live, work and worship in this community...not as agencies...PLEASE JOIN US. Call me or email me to let me know if you will make it.
paz, amor y poder
Marilyn
Commited [sic] to Service, Collaboration, and Advocacy "Until All Have Plenty and No One is Left in Need"
To Help, Contact Us At: Good News Community Kitchen
7649 North Paulina Street Chicago, IL 60626
773/262-2297 phone
773/262-7872 fax
Good News Community Kitchen is part of Good News Community Church at 7649 N Paulina Street. They confirmed on the phone that they are involved, and that is a violation of tax law; it is illegal for tax-exempt churches to be involved in politics. Reverend Marilyn Pagan-Banks of the church is close to Moore supporter Jim Ginderske.
Most of Joe Moore’s supporters would have a problem with a reverend or pastor if he or she were electioneering for Gordon. They will not say a word, however, about Pagan-Banks and her involvement.
RELATED INFO:
Democrats back church IRS probe
Decry 'politically involved religious leaders,' while pastor stands firm
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Section 501(c)(3) charities are prohibited from participating in election campaigns
Section 501(c)(3) charities are prohibited from participating in election campaigns and, unlike lobbying where certain levels are entirely appropriate (See Ready Reference Page: “Lobbying Rules Create Opportunity for Charities.”) they can lose their exempt status for electioneering. (See Ready Reference Page: “Charities May Not Participate in Elections.”)
The Service found “confusion” in interpreting the statutory language that charities “may not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.” Especially in cases involving churches, it said, the phrase had been interpreted to mean that the prohibition on political intervention was limited to expressly endorsing or opposing candidates. The majority of the cases alleged against churches “suggested that the pastor made a conscious effort to avoid an express endorsement, yet made an indirect endorsement clearly conveying a message on behalf of, or in opposition to a candidate.”
In an effort to clarify the rules for the future, the IRS issued a new Fact Sheet (FS-2006-17) giving guidance on its interpretations. (See Ready Reference Page: “IRS Issues New Guidance on Electioneering” March 1-15, 2006 Ready Reference Page.)
Some of the specific instances of alleged political intervention included:
• Charities, including churches, distributing diverse printed materials that encouraged their members to vote for a particular candidate (24 alleged, 9 determined).
• Religious leaders using the pulpit to endorse or oppose a particular candidate (19 alleged, 12 determined).
• Charities, including churches, endorsing or opposing a candidate on their website or through links to another website (15 alleged; 7 determined).
• Charities, including churches, disseminating voter guides or candidate ratings that encourage readers to vote for particular candidates (14 alleged, 7 determined).
• Charities, including churches, placing signs on their property that show they support a particular candidate (12 alleged, 9 determined).
• Charities, including churches, giving improper preferential treatment to certain candidates by permitting them to speak at functions (11 alleged, 9 determined).
• Charities, including churches, making cash contributions to a political campaign (7 alleged, 5 determined).
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Help Wanted Ad from Chicago Metropolitan Association web site
(Posted 03/02/07)
SENIOR PASTOR: GOOD NEWS COMMUNITY CHURCH, CHICAGO (Rogers Park)
Good News Community Church (GNCC), a multi-racial congregation on the far north-side of Chicago, seeks a pastor who can provide leadership to its spirit filled Sunday worship, offer pastoral care to members of the congregation, organize outreach and evangelism efforts to grow the church, develop a youth ministry and represent GNCC in the neighborhood and city.
Good News Community Church has 42 official members, but regularly averages 55 in worship services. The most active ongoing ministry of the church is its gospel choir, which has 15 members, including the musicians. There is also a property committee and pastoral care teams. The Vacation Bible School program in the summer has drawn as many as 200 children in the neighborhood. The Church has great potential for growth.
Good News Community Church is truly a neighborhood Church. Almost all of the Church members live in the neighborhood and walk to Church. The neighborhood faces enormous challenges with drugs, crime and gentrification. The Church and its members are active in community affairs and seek a pastor who can help engage the Church in the neighborhood.
Good News Community Church owns a series of storefront buildings in the North of Howard neighborhood. The storefronts have been transformed into a sanctuary, a soup kitchen and classrooms. Good News Community Kitchen, started by the church but now an independent 501c3 organization, serves meals to 125 people per night, 365 days a year. Pastor Marilyn Pagan-Banks is full-time director with the Kitchen and a part-time associate pastor with the Church. The classrooms are rented by Howard Area Community Center, a neighborhood social service agency, for an alternative high school. Thus, the Church space is buzzing on a regular basis. Conversations are underway with these partners about building a joint building on property the church owns.
Long-term, the church desires a full-time pastor, but at this point it can only afford a part-time pastor. Ideally, the church would like someone who can work with the church to grow and expand its budget so the church can move the person to full-time. The church has budgeted a total of $44,000 for a new part-time senior pastor. This total figure can be divided however the person would like between salary, housing allowance and benefits.
