By John Berry
A transgender advocacy group used a federal tax loophole to not report a donation from an elected member of the Redlands Unified School District, California state records show.
In 2025, Redlands School District board member Patty Holohan donated $101.97 to Together for Redlands, a group whose members and allies have shown pointed and highly vocal disrespect toward three of the board members most at odds with the left-leaning Holohan.
That Internal Revenue Service loophole enables countless political groups to avoid reporting donations under $5,000; however, Holohan’s donation overtly reveals her support for an agenda that Americans — in polling as well as recent US Supreme Court rulings — overwhelmingly reject.
Throughout the year, a fair number of Holohan’s supporters have been escorted out of RUSD board meetings by district police officers who were on hand to keep order at the often raucous meetings, at least four of which lasted past midnight.
Holohan, the incumbent in the district’s Trustee Area 1, is running for re-election this fall with the avid support of Together for Redlands. During her 20-year tenure, Holohan has overseen a district that has drawn national attention involving an estimated 25 sexual predators costing taxpayers $45 million in settlements.
Also running this fall are Maria Montes and Ryan Schavrien, who are competing for an open seat to be vacated by Michelle Rendler, who represents Trustee Area 2 and has opted against seeking reelection in November.
Together for Redlands was not required to report Holohan’s donation despite publicly disclosing 55 other individual donations for 2025. The lowest was $20 and the highest $1,080. Overall, the group totaled $13,599.50 in donations last year, according to the required annual reporting statement, known as a California Form 460, filed with the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters.
Seeing that apparent contrast, I filed a sworn complaint with California’s Fair Political Practices Commission asking for an investigation to discover why Holohan’s donation was absent from her California Form 460.
After filing another California Public Records Request, I obtained a statement from River City Business Services, a Sacramento business representing Together for Redlands.
“This organization set up a PAC [political action committee] in 2025 to be able to report any political activity,” wrote Marissa Russell, as assistant treasurer for the Together for Redlands. “There was no reporting requirement by the PAC for this civic donation.”
Russell was correct because the political action committee is organized as a Section 527 entity, an Internal Revenue Code which requires groups to report donations of $5,000 or more.
Similar to political action committees, 501 (c)(4) organizations have a $5,000 threshold for reporting individual donors. Section 527 is an Internal Revenue Service designation for political organizations, while Section 501 (c)(4) is for social welfare organizations.
Together for Redlands itself organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit in 2025.
Robert Rego is a San Bernardino County accountant who handles required political reporting for more than 100 candidates and 50 political action committees. He said Together for Redlands did nothing wrong.
“They could have chosen to be fully transparent, but very few charitable organizations ever do that,” Rego said. “They don’t have to report anything under $5,000.”
Together for Redlands is required to publicly file an annual tax return, Rego said.
As of early September, Together for Redlands has yet to file its 2025 federal tax return, known as form 990, according to an IRS tax-exemption database. The deadline for that return was May 15; however, the IRS allows for automatic extensions through November 15.
On its upcoming federal tax return, Rego said Together for Redlands could add a list to its 990 listing their donors, but charitable organizations seldom do that.
Rego said tracking political donations can be confusing. He said public trackers just need to learn where to look.
To unearth information about the combative and elusive Together for Redlands, I filed two California public records requests as well as researching county, state, and federal records and making calls to state officials.
“You learn what you have to dive into; you have to be patient waiting for agencies,” Rego said. “And then you put it all together.”
On my sworn complaint to the FPPC, in addition to Holohan’s missing donation, I also reported how Together for Redlands fed hundreds of supporters throughout the year prior to school board meetings.
In 2025, Together for Redlands claimed $553.36 in expenditures on California Form 460. That lone expense was to Riverside City Business Services in Sacramento. Together for Redlands did not report any expenditures for providing pizzas and sodas.
The relevance of that expenditure to the school district is perhaps understood best in considering the bellicose tactics many Together for Redlands members utilize in “lobbying” the members of the school board who are on the opposite side of the political spectrum from them.
Rendler and two of the other board members, Jeannette Wilson and Candy Olson, representing trustee areas 4 and 5, respectively, can be accurately described as falling on the right side of the political spectrum. As a consequence, they have found themselves at odds with Holohan and the district’s other board member, Trustee Area 3 representative Melissa Ayala-Quintero.
Holohan’s and Ayala-Quintero’s supporters, a good number of whom are members of Together for Redlands or closely associated with it, have flashed middle fingers and shouted F-bombs at Rendler, Wilson and Olson when they have advocated policies or engaged in votes that moved the district away from the progressive agenda that Holohan and Ayala-Quintero favor.
The provision of food at the dinner hour to Together for Redlands members and their allies on the grounds of the district administrative headquarters at 25 Lugonia Avenue on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month serves as an incentive for those members to attend those board meetings which begin at 6 p.m.
In Russell’s letter to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, she resorted to bureaucratic finger pointing to justify not reporting Holohan’s donation.
“The C4 encouraging its members to be active in the community by attending school board meetings is not reportable activity for the PAC,” Russell wrote. “As this was not an activity of the PAC, any associated refreshments or food served would also not be reportable by the PAC.”
I do appreciate that the Fair Political Practices Commission took my sworn complaints seriously and for pressing Together for Redlands for answers. It took several weeks, but eventually I got them via additional California public records requests.
And as far as its public reporting is concerned, Together for Redlands can hide its donors because federal loopholes allow it. In effect, the group is taking advantage of the same laws that countless other political organizations already do.
But to be honest with the public, Together for Redlands should have reported its donation from Holohan as well as all costs associated with feeding its supporters.
Instead of being transparent, and by not reporting Holohan’s donation or food expenses, Together for Redlands reinforces the idea that they’re hiding a sinister agenda.
And it apparently is just that. Its wildly unpopular public arguments include placing sexually explicit books into school libraries, demanding that boys play in girls’ sports, injecting leftist flags into classrooms, and supporting harmful transgender policies for children.
For those reasons, I will keep watch on Together for Redlands and report discoveries in future articles.
In my 20 years in the newspaper business, I learned the value of chasing facts via public records to keep political groups honest and to let readers decide for themselves.
“Sunshine is the best form of antiseptic” was one of my favorite newsroom maxims that applies to Together for Redlands as it does to any other political group I’ve ever researched.
Together For Redlands Responds
Nothing made me happier during my newspaper years than a critic who reinforces your reporting – and happier still when they open fire and miss. Also, I appreciate that Together for Redlands acknowledging receiving money from Holohan.
“There is a significant factual error in the premise of the article: the $101.97 paid by Patty Holohan was for a ticket to a Together for Redlands nonprofit fundraiser,” Trisha Keeling, in a response to The Sentinel, wrote for Together for Redlands. “It was not an in-kind expenditure for refreshments at school board meetings. The donation in question was to the Together For Redlands non-profit, not the Together For Redlands PAC.”
According to the public record, Holohan’s donation on California Form 460 says, “Together for Redlands,” followed by a code for civic donations and the amount. The key word is “donation.” It doesn’t say Holohan’s intended purpose; the point is the public should have been made aware of it because it reveals Holohan’s connection.
Only by filing an FPPC complaint did Together for Redlands disclose its purpose.
In her letter, Keeling only says Holohan’s donation was for Together for Redlands’ non-profit, and not its PAC.
Keeling only says that; she fails to provide any proof – such as a ticket stub or credit card receipt. She did attach three documents diverting attention from Holohan’s donation, such as my $100 donation to Candy Olson’s 2024 campaign. (Keeling offers to provide further documentation and I welcome it.)
My contribution is not a revelation; it’s an accurate reporting of a long-published public record. In Redlands school board meetings as in my previous Sentinel article in 2025, I have been public in my support for current board members, Candy Olson and Jeannette Wilson, as well as current candidates Dale Broome and Maria Montes.
The entire impetus for this article is that Together for Redlands did not disclose Holohan’s donation despite managing to report 55 other supporters who gave amounts as low as $20.
In politics, $100 donations aren’t much. I don’t think the public cares whether Holohan’s donation was for a non-profit or a PAC. It was still money going from Holohan to Together for Redlands. The donation signals Holohan’s support for its unpopular agenda.
The significance to the public of Together for Redlands opting not to disclose a donation was to spare Holohan potential political damage during her re-election fight with challenger Dale Broome.
They’re competing for District 1, a Republican-leaning district with more than 19,000 registered voters, according to the Aug. 30 Weekly Report of Registration from the San Bernadino County Registrar of Voters.
According to the report, District 1 has more than 7,000 Republican registered voters and Democrats have nearly 6,600 voters along with nearly 4,000 voters listed as having No Party Preference.
Those numbers bode well for the conversative Broome and not the liberal Holohan because polls show that such left-leaning cultural issues, such as boys in girls’ sports, have fallen in steep disfavor with the American public.
And those voter registration numbers explain why Together for Redlands would not disclose its donation from Holohan.
In retrospect, I’m fortunate to have the newspaper background helping me resist the unprintable attacks from Together for Redlands and its supporters. Unlike my fellow parents standing up for children in Redlands’ schools, I’m experienced at sifting through public records and dealing with bureaucracies.
All of which evokes my favorite quote from Mark Twain: “Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.”
In the year 2025
In October of last year, I wrote a story for the San Bernardino County Sentinel headlined, “Civility Difficult to Find in Aftermath of Wilson’s & Olson’s 2024 Election to the Redlands School Board.”
I wrote that story to give readers a baseline explaining the growing chaos and discord surrounding school board meetings.
I also wanted to detail how board members Candy Olson and Jeannette Wilson fearlessly changed the direction of the board in face of vile and vicious attacks from Together for Redlands leaders and supporters.
Slurs hurled at Olson and Wilson, as well as fellow board member Michele Rendler, who often voted with the pair, included “Nazis,” “fascists,” and “white Christian nationalists.” One foul-mouthed youngster said Olson’s mother should have had an abortion.
During their first year on the board, Olson and Wilson championed policies and a resolution that:
• Created politically neutral classrooms by banning controversial flags like those from Black Lives Matter and Pride
• Improved the process how the public could review sexually explicit books
• Prevented sexually explicit and vulgar reading materials from reaching students, curriculum, and libraries
• Supported a resolution prohibiting boys from playing in girls’ sports.
Days after a bitter meeting in April 2025, the ARK Church in Redlands – where supporters of the conservate policies attend services – was vandalized with swastikas. The FBI investigated the attack as a hate crime.
In a KVCR report in May 2025, two anonymous opponents of Olson and Wilson told the public radio station that law enforcement had questioned them. The sources told the public radio station that “the agents knew they support progressive political causes…and oppose Redlands school board policies championed by two conservative Christian board members.”
No arrests were made, but a string of violent incidents targeting the church ceased after law enforcement investigated the swastika attack.
Together For Redlands Update
Since my story was published in October, several public documents involving Together for Redlands have since become part of the public record.
On December 9, 2025, Together for Redlands filed California Form 410, a statement of organization for a PAC after surpassing $2,000 in fund-raising.
Trisha Keeling is listed as the PAC’s executive director. In my October story, I reported San Bernardino County court records revealed how Keeling and friend Amber Easley cyber-bullied an autistic woman so viciously in 2024 that the Redlands woman suffered panic attacks.
“Trisha Keeling’s persistent harassment threats and cyberstalking have caused conditions from my disability to worsen, causing panic attacks and episodes of intense fear triggering physical reactions, affecting my ability to function at work and home,” the victim wrote.
That revelation was part of an effort from the victim’s family to obtain restraining orders against Keeling and Easley.
Also in San Bernadino County court records, Keeling was charged with failing to pay vehicle fees in 2024 as well as failing to appear in court. She was issued three notices to appear.
Michael Paisner is listed as the PAC’s secretary. At the end of 2025, Together for Redlands opponents – fed up with the incessant insults – sorted through all the public recordings from that year and tallied who said which slur. Paisner called school board members “Nazis” at least eight times, making him the leader in the use of that particular slur.
No More Swearing
In the school board meeting on July 21, Together for Redlands supporters – surprisingly — did not throw any F-bombs. They did not flash any middle fingers or scream “Nazi!” even once. No speakers were escorted out of the four-hour meeting.
The meeting focused on parents having the right to know about changes in student records and requiring that school employees be honest with parents.
These change are occurring in the context of successful court and procedural challenges to the current California Superintendent of Public Education Tony Thurmond’s recommendation that school districts accommodate students who are evolving their gender identity away from that which was attributed to them at birth and assist them in preventing their parents from learning of their newly assumed sexual identity by addressing them by whatever name the choose to use on campus but reverting to the student’s given name when interacting with that student’s parents.
Two of the items under discussion on July 21 were interrelated and somewhat interchangeable. One was a parental notification policy. The other was a no deception policy, which called for “full transparency.” It stated that “when making disclosures otherwise required by law, district policy, or district administrative regulation, all communications with parents and guardians will be truthful, accurate, and complete. Staff shall provide all relevant information, when it pertains to the health, safety, and education of their child.”
The contemplated policy also called for “no omission,” propounding, “Unless the disclosure is otherwise prohibited by law, district policy, or administrative regulation, intentionally withholding information or providing partial information that may mislead or create a false understanding is strictly prohibited.”
Together for Redlands supporter Pat Molnar, who is an English and French teacher at Redlands High School compared the proposed parental notification policy and no deception policy discussed by the school board that evening as something akin to the ravings of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda.
Said Molnar, with regard to keeping parents informed about how their children are comporting themselves while at school: “This is like some Goebbels garbage here.”
Molnar made three donations in 2025 to Together for Redlands totaling $280.
Although relatively civil on July 21, Together for Redlands supporters still make some zany claims in social media. So much so, that one supporter, NC Orozco, recycled a 2025 libelous online post aimed at me to smear current candidate Dale Broome.
“I sat behind Broome at a school board meeting where he was taking pictures of adults and minor’s butts, posting them on social media and degrading them based on his alt right beliefs,” the post said.
Laughably, that same defamatory claim – with an assist from a doctored picture – was posted on social media after I spoke in favor of a policy prohibiting political flags in classrooms. Further, Broome did not have an active social media account when the flag controversial was before the school board.
Together for Redlands supporters are still online, but their overwhelming numbers have disappeared from public meetings. In 2025, Together for Redlands’ pizza-fueled supporters dominated the packed, 60-seat room inside the chamber as well as among lines of people waiting outside.
On July 21, Together for Redlands members totaled less than two dozen – roughly the same number as their formerly outnumbered opponents.
Political Stunts
In an apparent effort to stop discussion of the two proposed policies, Holohan unexpectedly left the board meeting moments before the topics arrived for board comments.
Board member Melissa Ayala-Quintero then insisted the board couldn’t discuss the parental notification policies without Holohan being present. She claimed there was an understanding among board members that they wouldn’t discuss controversial topics without all five elected members being present.
Candy Olson told her that there was no such agreement.
Ayala-Quintero also claimed she didn’t have copies of the proposed policies despite board members having them and copies made available for the audience.
Michele Rendler, using the most diplomatic terms as the chairwoman, told Ayala-Quintero that she should start doing her homework – a comment that drew quiet laughter from the audience.
The discussion proceeded. Holohan did not return.
Campaign updates
Maria Montes recently announced her candidacy for RUSD Area 2, a central Redlands district with a prominent Spanish-speaking population. Montes said she finally decided to run after watching Ayala-Quintero attempting May 12 to remove “patriots” from a board resolution celebrating the USA’s 250th birthday.
“Right now, there’s been some semantic shifts,” Ayala-Quintero said. “’Patriots’ is a very loaded word right now.”
Ayala-Quintero was objecting to the resolution language that said, “Whereas, America’s history is one of perseverance, sacrifice, and achievement, in which generations of patriots have defended our freedoms, advanced prosperity, and upheld blessings of liberty.”
Olson sought clarification and wanted to ensure patriots were included in the final resolution language.
“The whole point of the 250th is patriotism,” Olson said. “It’s instilling a love for our country. It doesn’t mean you have to love the administration.”
Throughout the discussion, Ayala-Quintero attacked the resolution seeking a week-long celebration in district schools.
From home, Montes watched that meeting with her husband as they customarily do after work.
“We looked at each other and he said, ‘You have to do it,’” Montes said. “I took that as an insult to the military.”
Montes, whose family includes a line of veterans, is a paralegal whose four children have experienced Redlands schools.
Montes said the COVID era when students learned remotely caught her attention as to what was really taking place in schools.
“They were asking my son, ‘what were his pronouns?’” Montes said. “He said, ‘I don’t know, so I put down that I was a truck.’”
Montes said she looks forward to supporting the Spanish-language dual immersion program for students as well as fostering programs that teach skills artificial intelligence can’t erode.
Area 2 is an open seat after Rendler decided to step down. Montes’s opponent is Ryan Schavrien, whose website lists Together for Redlands as well as Holohan and Ayala-Quintero as supporters.
Dramatic Shift
I covered Redlands during much of my nine-years as a reporter for The Press-Enterprise. Even after getting laid off in 2009, I’ve kept an eye on its school board. It’s fair to say the board has generally been governed by liberal-leaning majorities.
In 2024, Candy Olson and Jeanette Wilson won their races, which in effect, created a new working majority with Michele Rendler, who generally voted their way. Many pro-family and common-sense proposals – all free of divisive lesbian-gay bisexual-queer-transsexual and leftist political influences — became policy.
That sudden shift caused Together for Redlands and its supporters erupt in disruptive and repugnant antics – all of which backfired.
One of their more spectacular flubs included an attempt to bully Rendler – the swing vote on most issues – by protesting at her church.
Together for Redlands has pretty much lost on every issue they advocated for since losing the new working majority. Pushing the soft-spoken and undaunted Rendler toward Olson and Wilson didn’t help their cause.
Now, the coalition supporting Olson and Wilson, Awaken Redlands, is on the verge of winning a solid, 4-1 majority, assuming Montes and Broome win their races. Both candidates are actively campaigning, but wins are never guaranteed.
“We could lose if conservatives don’t turn out to vote,” Broome said. “We need to get out and vote for the ‘parental rights’ candidates.”