More on the Austin exit

Subject: Clarification

Dear Friends,

It has taken me several days, since my return to L.A. on Monday morning, to fully collect the facts related to Ben Austin's campaign for L.A. School Board.

The fact is Ben Austin is not my client. Burnside & Associates is not and has never been under contract to him or his Campaign. I have never met Mr. Austin.

I did not circulate or supervise Ben Austin's petition drive; I was on my honeymoon in South America.

An independent contractor misrepresented himself - without my knowledge or approval - as an employee of Burnside & Associates when he agreed to collect the signatures for Mr. Austin.

I am deeply pained that during my absence from the office this unfortunate situation occurred. I would like to express my sincere regret that his signature collection fell short of the requisite number and Mr. Austin did not qualify for the ballot.

It has taken me 20 years to build my firm and reputation; I have always taken great pride in the meticulous and strategic work I have done for our clients. Had I been in the office as usual, this simply would not have occurred.

Please feel free to call me directly if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Sue Burnside

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(From Ben Austin for School Board):

Today, I ended my campaign for LAUSD school board. But as friends and family, I wanted to thank you for your faith, love and support. I cannot begin to describe how much that has meant to me.

I am disappointed. As I'm sure you know by now, our signature gathering firm - the same firm used hundreds of times over by most elected officials in Los Angeles - gathered our signatures in the wrong district, by accident, and validated them against the wrong voter file, by accident. So I did not qualify for the ballot. This had never happened before (and I'm sure now will never happen again!).

I want to tell you how I feel about all this, and I want to tell you how we are still going to transform our schools and change the world.

I am obviously deeply disappointed, sad, and embarrassed. The main source of my disappointment is twofold. One, I believe we are living in a revolutionary moment where big, transformative change is possible - and I believed in the power of this campaign to make that happen. But I am also disappointed because of how good this campaign felt because of you. I don't think I have ever in my life felt more supported and loved than in the last few months. Friends went out of their way to help. But more important, they went out of their way to make me feel supported and loved in this great leap of faith - both in good times and in bad. I cannot tell you how much that has meant to me.

So, yes, I am disappointed. But I am not deterred. I believe that the true test of character is not whether you fall down, it is how you get back up.

I still believe we are living in a revolutionary moment. And I still believe we can transform our schools for Fiona (his daughter), and for all of our children. As the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Parents Union, I am going to make the same bargain with the parents of Los Angeles that I was making in my campaign: if you organize half the parents at your school to be politically involved in your child's education - to drown out the voices of the special interests and the bureaucrats with the voices of parents - then the Parents Union, working with Green Dot and other reform-oriented charter organizations, will guarantee you a great school for your child. The kind of great school I would send Fiona to. We have real credibility to deliver on this promise, and we will. I believe that through the power of that simple value-proposition, we can incentivize grassroots organizing across Los Angeles to take back our schools for our kids. And we will. Because we must.

I am sorry about how this turned out, and I am sorry for letting you down. But my goal was not a public office. My goal was revolutionary change for Fiona and the rest of our kids. I am more determined than ever to reach that goal.

Thank you,

Ben