Hoping to defuse suspicions that it paid for a series of deceptive campaign websites, the advocacy group Capistrano Unified Children First has released a webhosting receipt from the Internet company involved in the controversy.
The invoice shows Children First paid $134.61 to Internet host GoDaddy.com for its own domain names, not the sneaky website addresses that led visitors to incumbent school board candidates' and the Children First websites.
Questions remain about the possible involvement of a Children First volunteer, Chris Korpi.
that Korpi's company was listed as the registered owner for at least two of the deceptive domains:
- www.juliecollier.com, which redirected visitors to CUSD President Gary Pritchard’s campaign website. Collier runs a nonprofit called Parents Advocate League, which works for educational reforms opposed by Children First.
- www.parentsadvocateleague.com, which redirected traffic to Children First.
And, on Friday, school district critic Dawn Urbanek learned from GoDaddy that the now-disabled www.dawnurbanek.com domain, which directed visitors to Trustee John Alpay's campaign site, was also registered to Korpi Marketing Services, with all of Korpi’s contact information attached.
Korpi has denied purchasing the domain names, blaming an impostor.
Korpi is a volunteer with Children First who took a public role in the November 2010 election. This time, he is working more in the background and actively sends out email blasts. Alpay has paid him more than $2,500 this year for "campaign management services."
GoDaddy indicated in its letters that it cannot confirm the accuracy of the names given at the time of registration. GoDaddy declined Patch's request for the name on the credit card used to pay for the sites.
However, attorney Wayne Tate, who is representing Collier, her organization and another called Hold CUSD Accountable, said he will pursue the identity of the person who paid for the misleading websites.
As for Korpi’s assertion that someone used his name and contact information to purchase the domains, Tate said: “It doesn’t seem plausible.”
Children First included a $134.61 transaction with GoDaddy among its financial disclosures released Oct. 5. The receipt sent to Patch on Friday shows the same amount spent securing three versions of the Children First domain, in the dot-com, dot-net and dot-org configurations.
On Monday, Children First President Fran Sdao told Patch: “We have no control what individuals do on their own. There are rogue characters in every campaign."
Six of the seven misleading domain names have since been disabled. The other, http://www.holdcusdaccountable.com/, still takes visitors to the Children First website.
whoisjohnalpay.com
This closes this line of inquiry. However, SOMEONE paid for those sites. We should have that information soon, I'm hoping.
Chris Korpi has adamantly denied this, but he is most certainly not part of Children's First. He doesn't not sit on their board, etc. But you know, all these details don't matter, Penny's already written it down and it's been reported as case closed it seems.
BBQ, GoDaddy.com says the registrant name is Chris Korpi. We shall get the name on the billing information soon. Whatever it is, we will report it honestly. CF had a receipt to GoDaddy listed among their financial disclosures, but according to this receipt, it's clearly for their own domains, with the .com, .org and .net versions.
You id'd a big issue with CUCF-its tough to know exactly who they are. Their site says Fran Sdao is the president. My quote is taken from an e-mail she sent in 2010 where she refers to Korpi as an "incomparable Children First colleague". "… To those of you who are teachers or school employees - we appreciate your dedication to your profession and your enthusiastic support of our campaign. Times are still tough for education in California. Significant budget problems persist. However, you now have new team members who are interested and willing to talk to you. ….. To my Children First colleagues, Trudy Podobas, Linda Verraster, Erin Kutnick, Kevin Kirwan, Marilyn Amato, Saam Alikhani, Kathy Westling, Mary Fortmeier, Linda Kirwan, Pete Espinosa, Ross Chun and the incomparable Chris Korpi - thank you. … Last summer we focused our efforts on our Commitment to the Capistrano Unified School District Community. (Click here to read Our Commitment.) We found individuals who shared that commitment to restore integrity and excellence to CUSD... We hope that John Alpay, Gary Pritchard and Lynn Hatton will share the commitment they made to all of us with their colleagues on the board. Together we can all begin the journey to restore CUSD. Sincerely, Fran Sdao, Capistrano Unified Children First Inc" We see how their candidates have restored integrity and excellence. Not surprisingly the link for their "commitment" is inactive, lol.
Fran Sdao's November 2010 complete email is too long for Patch's posting character limit but I'll forward the whole thing to you for your records if you'd like.
http://patch.com/A-yRkp