Chicago is corruption king, once again
What is the matter with this city?
Until we imported Michael Jordan from North Carolina in 1984, Chicago’s most renowned resident was the Prohibition-era gangster Al Capone.
From the administrations of Richard J. Daley to his son Richard M. Daley, Chicagoans let a patronage system fester for decades — one in which it was virtually accepted practice for jobs and contracts to be meted out to the connected backers of the city’s political machine.
Corruption has seeped through the city and all the way to the state Capitol in Springfield. Three Illinois governors since the 1970s — including Rod Blagojevich who is currently serving a federal sentence in part for attempting to sell President Obama’s old Senate seat — have been convicted on corruption charges related to their time in office. A fourth governor, Dan Walker, was convicted years after he left office for federal bank fraud.
The city became known for doing things “the Chicago Way,” an expression immortalized by the character Jim Malone (played by Sean Connery) in the movie The Untouchables. It’s be- come shorthand for the city’s collective willingness to look the other way at graft and patronage as long as the snow is plowed and the potholes got filled.
Chicago once again has burnished its image as America’s most corrupt metropolis. Former Chicago Public Schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett is the latest to join Chicago’s rogues gallery after she was indicted last week on federal mail and wire fraud charges related to steering $23 million in contracts to former employers in exchange for a 10% kickback and college funds for her two grandchildren.
The latest bruise to Chicago’s image comes as the city is weighed down by nearly $500 million in unmet pension payments for teachers and as Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing for the biggest tax hike in modern Chicago history to meet a pension payment due for police and firefighters.
Byrd-Bennett, who has said through her attorney she intends to plead guilty to the corruption charges and cooperate with investigators, is scheduled to make her first court appearance on Tuesday. The former Chicago schools CEO previously led Cleveland and Detroit’s public schools.
The audacity of Byrd-Bennett’s corruption is astounding, even by Chicago standards.
Using her powerful position, she pushed the Chicago Public Schools to sign contracts for executive training programs with the suburban companies SUPES Academy and Synesi, firms for whom she had served as a consultant before joining the Chicago school system.
In emails between Byrd-Bennett and SUPES Academy owner Gary Solomon, who was indicted along with Synesi’s Thomas Vranas, the two detail their alleged conspiracy to bilk Chicago taxpayers and children for their own gain. Solomon was an adviser to Emanuel’s transition team after the mayor was elected to his first term in 2011.
“I have tuition to pay and casinos to visit (: [.],” Byrd-Bennett, who drew $313,000 in annual salary and benefits, wrote in one email discussing the kickbacks.
That email from Byrd-Bennett, who oversaw the closure of 50 schools in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods during her tenure, might be the knife twisting in the back of parents and the city’s 396,000 students (86% who the district says are economically disadvantaged). Questions about the training contracts first surfaced in the summer of 2013, when the education watchdog publication
Catalyst Chicago first reported on the unusually large no-bid contract going to a company that had close ties to Byrd-Bennett.
The city inspector general opened an investigation after the
Catalyst report, but news of a federal investigation didn’t surface until this April — not long after Emanuel managed to win a second term as mayor after being forced into an unprecedented runoff against a little-known and relatively sparsely funded opponent.
In the aftermath of the Byrd-Bennett indictment, Emanuel has lamented his handpicked CEO’s “criminal activity.” But he’s chafed at the notion of his responsibility in the mess.
Emanuel argues with merit that the mayor getting personally involved in awarding individual contracts is a recipe for disaster. The mayor also told reporters Monday that he “played a role” in selecting Byrd-Bennett, but he also stressed that his mayor’s staff asked Byrd-Bennett hard questions about the illfated contracts.
There may be room for debate about how much of this debacle should be pinned on Emanuel. But one thing is for certain, the mayor — and this great city — must destroy “the Chicago Way” once and for all.
Chicago can’t afford not to.