Joe Leogrande is helping out a friend in need.

Leogrande, an Auburn Enlarged City School District school board member, sent out about 1,700 e-mails last week asking the community for $15 donations to help out Kent Brandstetter, whom he considers his best friend, get through a difficult time financially.

Brandstetter, who is the board of education president for the Cayuga-Onondaga Board of Cooperative Educational Services, sits on numerous civic boards and up until a year ago was a board member for the Auburn school board, owes $15,552.75 in back property taxes, City Treasurer Robert Gauthier said. He has until June to pay back about $7,605 before losing his Franklin Street home to foreclosure.

But in just one week Brandstetter is closer to that goal, receiving about $1,700 in donations from people willing to help. Donations came from people in Auburn, as far west as Canandaigua, and as far south as Rockland County and Long Island, Leogrande said. He even received a check from someone living in northern New Jersey.

Brandstetter said he feels touched by the compassion of community members who are willing to help him through a personal problem.

“The generosity of the community has been outstanding,” he said. “Every time I get a check I'm in tears. We're doing the best we can with what we got.”

Brandstetter delivered the money collected to city hall on Friday. Leogrande called it a showing of “good faith.”

Leogrande stated in his e-mail that Brandstetter is having financial troubles. “He just has been struggling just to make ends meet to support 10 children, trying to keep his house in order, keep his kids warm and fed.”

Though the two men sat on the Auburn school board together, Leogrande said their friendship began long before they were in the public eye. Leogrande's fundraiser is not from a board member trying to help another board member, he said.

“We are all supposed to help one another,” Leogrande said. “We are friends, first of all, and secondly, we happen to be board members. I think the friendship is more important than being a board member. That came before the board.”

Brandstetter is the Auburn Enlarged City School District representative on the BOCES board. Auburn school board President David Lansford and Long Range Planning Committee Chair Michael Stearns said there has been no discussion about Brandstetter's role on the BOCES board given his financial difficulties.

Lansford said it is a “personal issue” and the subject will not be broached.

“Mr. Leogrande is certainly trying to do what's right for his best friend,” Stearns said. “On a moral level, I believe Joe is doing what any of us would try to do for our best friend ... which is to help in whatever way we can.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net