COLD, HARD CLA$ H
Former CPS CEO Vallas launches campaign by attacking Rahm’s management of city finances
Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas got an early rise out of Mayor Rahm Emanuel by accusing the mayor of “punting” Chicago’s $ 36 billion pension crisis during his first term, making the problem infinitely worse.
Now Vallas, 64, is launching his campaign by intensifying his attack on the issue Emanuel views as his greatest strength: stabilizing city finances.
He argued that Emanuel’s failure to push a “pension equity bill” for Chicago Public School teachers while Democrat Pat Quinn was still governor will cost taxpayers an additional $ 1.5 billion.
“If he would have done that and combined that with a legislative agenda to ensure that the Chicago teachers retirement system was equitably funded through Springfield instead of waiting seven years, the city would be in much better shape and we wouldn’t be facing another financial cliff three or four years down the road,” Vallas told the Sun- Times.
“Politics drives everything in this administration. . . . Everything is focused on fundraising. Everything is focused on getting through the next election.”
Emanuel has “hinted strongly” at another wave of post- election tax increases to keep four city employee pension funds on the road to 90 percent funding. But he won’t “talk about on who and howmuch,” Vallas said.
“Do you really trust him to make . . . decisions on where to go to get those revenues that are not going to adversely impact working families? Look at the tax increases. They have no relationship to one’s ability to pay,” Vallas said.
Vallas hammered the mayor for reneging on a 2011 campaign promise to hire 1,000 additional police officers and allowing police manpower to dip to dangerous levels before embarking on a two- year hiring blitz after the murder rate soared.
The mayor also balanced his first budget by closing police stations and eliminating more than 1,400 police vacancies.
“When I was city budget director, we built the police force to 13,500. We had 1,200 detectives on the street,” Vallas said.
“They have played the attrition game and allowed those positions to plummet. . . . I’ve seen numbers as low as 600. Others have told me 800,” he said. “What they did for four or five years was totally de- stabilize the police department.”
Emanuel was elected in 2011 on the strength
PAUL VALLAS ON RAHM EMANUEL’S POSSIBLE POST- ELECTION TAX INCREASES: “DO YOU REALLY TRUST HIM TO MAKE … DECISIONS ON WHERE TO GO TO GET THOSE REVENUES THAT ARE NOT GOING TO ADVERSELY IMPACT WORKING FAMILIES? LOOK AT THE TAX INCREASES. THEY HAVE NO RELATIONSHIP TO ONE’S ABILITY TO PAY.’’
of the black vote and re- elected after African-American voters forgave him for closing a record 50 public schools.
Vallas is now hammering away at the issue of school closings, well aware that Emanuel’s handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting video will make it difficult for him to get a third chance with black voters.
“If you’re gonna close schools, why open schools simultaneously?” Vallas said of the mayor’s plan to close four under- enrolled high schools in Englewood and build one new high school.
Vallas noted that enrollment “grew by 30,000” — to 434,000 — under his watch. That’s 62,618 students more than the 371,382 who attend Chicago Public Schools today. CPS opened 15 charter schools on 18 campuses during his six- year tenure. The system nowhas 122 charter schools.
“They’ve continued to open schools while enrollment has declined, creating over- capacity, which hurts all schools,” he said.
“If a high- performing school is struggling, figure out a way to give more students access. . . . Work with that school to develop a plan and give them a timeline for boosting enrollment. And if you finally decide you have to close a building, then for heaven’s sakes have a strategy for re- purposing that building so you’re just not leaving a vacant building in the heart of a community that’s already under- served.”
Emanuel has already branded Vallas the “architect of kicking the can down the road.”
His response to Vallas’ campaign launch had a similar ring.
“As he did in Philadelphia and New Orleans, Paul Vallas left Chicagoans a fiscal time bomb. . . . Paul Vallas planted the seeds of the pension crisis when he raided pensions to pay for expenses” and “eliminated the dedicated funding set aside just for pensions,” the mayor’s campaign spokesman Peter Giangreco wrote in an email.
“Mayor Emanuel and the taxpayers of Chicago have spent years unraveling Vallas’ damage, fought to restore this funding and generated new revenue to finally put CPS back on solid financial ground.”
Vallas showed up at a Sun- Times interview Monday prepared to defend his tenure at CPS.
He said he left CPS with “hundreds of millions” in cash reserves and a fully funded pension system that triggered “12 bond rating upgrades.” He left the system with “78 new and replacement school buildings” after “six years of improved math scores, five years of improved reading scores” and higher graduation rates.
Nine weeks ago, Vallas’ youngest son died at a substance abuse treatment facility in Huntington Beach, California.
The death of 24- year- old Mark Vallas had political pundits questioning whether Vallas would have the stomach for the grueling 2019 campaign after living through a parent’s worst nightmare. But Vallas said therewas “never any doubt.” All three of his boys— the surviving two are
RAHM EMANUEL’S CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN PETER GIANGRECO ON PAUL VALLAS’ TENURE AT CPS: ‘‘ PAUL VALLAS LEFT CHICAGOANS A FISCAL TIME BOMB. . . . PAUL VALLAS PLANTED THE SEEDS OF THE PENSION CRISIS WHEN HE RAIDED PENSIONS TO PAY FOR EXPENSES.”
police officers, one in San Antonio, the other in suburban Wheeling— were “the strongest advocates for me running,” Vallas said.
“I wanted to make sure that everybody was comfortable with it and my wife was comfortable with it. So obviously, we needed some time to reassess and get other things in order. But if anything, we’re probably more enthusiastic about doing it now,” Vallas said.
Vallas served as revenue director and budget director under Daley before being dispatched to CPS in a dream- team pairing with then School Board President Gery Chico, who had been Daley’s chief of staff.
The career bureaucrat hopes to stand out in a crowded field of mayoral challengers by wowing Chicago with his breadth of knowledge and experience.
Why, then, kick off his campaign without offering a single solution of his own?
Vallas says he’s trying to be “disciplined”— not exactly his strong suit.
“I could rattle off six or seven or eight things that I would do in a very disorganized way. [ But I would ] rather have a specific discussion about budget and finance, about pensions, about public safety, about infrastructure, about what I’m gonna do to revitalize the Chicago Public Schools,” he said
“What I’m hoping for is that, when I do start talking about the issues, that I’m able to focus on them one at a time.”
Notoriously thin- skinned, Vallas also tried to explain away the close ties he developed with now- convicted education consultant Gary Solomon.
Solomon worked with Vallas at schools in Philadelphia and New Orleans. In Chicago, he’s better known for masterminding a contract kickback scheme with then- Schools CEO Barbara Byrd- Bennett. Both Solomon and Byrd-Bennett are now in prison.
“Gary was the vice president for Princeton Review, one of the largest education service firms in the country. They did business with hundreds of superintendents,” Vallas said.
“I’m not the one who gave Gary Solomon a $ 20 million, no- bid contract.”
At City Hall, Vallas earned the nickname “Dr. Yes” for his propensity to say “yes”’ to virtually every request, then find the money to pay for it after the fact.
The reputation followed him to Philadelphia, where Vallas left “significant deficits that were never revealed before,” said former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a City Council member during Vallas’ tenure there who took over as mayor after he left.
“He never saw a dollar that he wasn’t willing to spend three times with three different people,” Nutter said Tuesday.
“He over- spent and over- promised with regards to school construction, programs and activities. It was spend, spend spend. And it ultimately caught up with him.”
During the Sun- Times interview, therewere plenty of “no’s” from Dr. Yes.
“No” to Emanuel’s plan to build a high- speed rail line between downtown and O’Hare Airport. “It’s more P. R. than reality,” and there are “a lot of other infrastructure needs.”
“No” to $ 175 million in infrastructure improvements for the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, although a “reasonable” level of support is needed.
“No” to Emanuel’s “cruel” phase- out of the 55 percent city subsidy for retiree health care without a replacement plan in place.
“No” to civilian police review that gives an elected board the power to establish police policy and fire the police superintendent.
And “hell, no” to a $ 2.25 billion incentive package to lure an Amazon’s second headquarters to Chicago.
“There’s what I call the mini- Amazons out there. There’s existing businesses or potential businesses that could have located in the city with those type of incentives,” he said.