Since 2002, a political action committee formed to support funding measures for the West Linn-Wilsonville School District fervently did so. That is, until it didn’t.

Rob Fernandez, who once served on the suburban district’s school board, was leafing through his Clackamas County voters’ pamphlet when he noticed the first statement of opposition against a school construction bond on this year’s ballot.

Some of the statement’s assertions seem fair, he told The Oregonian/OregonLive. But Fernandez was taken aback when he noticed the name and organization lobbying against the $207 million funding measure.

John McCabe. Coalition for Excellent Schools.

That’s the political committee created in 2002 that is known for supporting West Linn-Wilsonville school money measures.

“Well, that’s not really cool,” Fernandez remembers thinking when he came across the statement.

McCabe did not respond to written questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive regarding his actions.

The Coalition for Excellent Schools, established 17 years ago, had as its purpose, to “support West Linn-Wilsonville School District financial measures,” according to its filings with the Oregon Secretary of State’s office.

The organization lobbied in favor of various West Linn-Wilsonville funding measures in 2004, 2008 and 2014, according to state filings.

Yet this year’s voters’ pamphlet firmly had the organization in the “no” camp for a new ballot measure meant to fund the construction of a new district elementary school, a new middle school, expand overcrowded parking lots at West Linn High and install various safety upgrades, among other things.

McCabe, in his statement of opposition, argues the district doesn’t currently need a new elementary building because the district’s primary schools are below capacity and doesn’t need a new middle school because out-of-district students, not West Linn children, have crowded it.

He also alleges the district is misspending millions in development fees and that classroom dollars are paying for shortfalls on bond payments.

Fernandez disputes most of those claims.

Even though he concedes that district elementary schools are below capacity, Fernandez asks if it’s smart for West Linn-Wilsonville officials to wait until the buildings are overcrowded to address the problem.

“A number of points that he makes there are kind of true but there’s way more to it,” Fernandez said.

But the debate over the merits of the bond is neither here nor there, Fernandez said.

“That coalition, it means something,” he said. “You can’t say ‘let’s support our schools’ then turn around and oppose this.”

Rich Vial, a spokesman for the Oregon Secretary of State’s office, said McCabe’s opposition statement doesn’t violate state campaign finance laws.

“What a PAC chooses to support or not support is entirely subjective,” he told The Oregonian/OregonLive

A compliance specialist in the secretary of state’s elections division told Fernandez, via emails obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive, that McCabe would run afoul of campaign finance laws if the committee was actively “soliciting contributions or making expenditures to support or oppose a measure on the ballot” that contradicted its statement of organization.

McCabe hasn’t done either of those things, records indicate. Although it still holds a $4,000 war chest, the organization hasn’t raised or spent a dime in 2019, state records show.

Still, Fernandez argues the Coalition for Excellent Schools carries weight with enough voters to sway results, particularly in an off-year election, known for low turnout.

Fernandez told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he’d be perfectly okay if McCabe and the Coalition for Excellent Schools wanted to oppose school funding measures. He just wants the intent to be made crystal clear with voters and the West Linn-Wilsonville community.

“It’s because of the nature of it,” Fernandez said. “I think it’s deceptive. It’s just not right.”