The union that represents Chicago’s teachers on Friday said school leaders were hypocritical for slashing the budget and laying off staff members while board presidents were using taxpayer credit cards to charge thousands of dollars in meals, travel, gifts and artwork.
The Chicago Teachers Union’s criticism follows Tribune disclosures detailing the spending habits of Mayor Richard Daley’s last two board presidents, Rufus Williams and Michael Scott. Scott committed suicide last fall.
The credit card expenditures were in addition to the yearly spending allowance each man received — $19,200 for Williams and $36,000 for Scott in public money.
Documents obtained by the Tribune show a $2,500 gift to Daley’s Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee, despite the mayor’s repeated assurances that no public money was going toward financing the bid, and numerous meals at notable Chicago restaurants.
Rosemaria Genova, union spokeswoman, said the board’s spending shows a disconnect between management and the teachers in the classroom, where many use their own money to buy supplies for their students.
Genova noted that the revelations were on top of Tribune reports this month that schools chief Ron Huberman used two taxpayer-funded vehicles, including an SUV with satellite radio and heated seats.
“The leadership at the board needs to set the tone for the rest of the employees by being frugal in their spending,” she said. “When you have the board president spending (money) on art, Huberman driving around two cars and Michael Scott spending money on lavish dinners, you really have to wonder what these folks are thinking.”
Williams, in an interview, defended his charges, saying they all related to school business.
“My credit card use was fully proper,” he said. “There is clearly reasonable and rational explanations for each charge. Each related to our children and to our schools.”
Williams declined to answer questions about items attributed to him, such as more than $6,000 charged in September 2008 with the vendor who supplies food and beverages at Soldier Field; a $650 limousine ride in August 2008; and a $640 tab in January 2009 at Table 52, an acclaimed restaurant on the city’s Gold Coast.
Scott, who had replaced Williams as board president in March 2009, charged about $1,000 on average each month for meals and alcohol at notable city eateries such as the Chicago Firehouse, Rosebud Prime Restaurant and Spiaggia, according to documents.
The Tribune previously disclosed that Scott improperly used his board credit card to pay for a trip last fall to Copenhagen to lobby for Daley’s failed bid for the Summer 2016 Olympics. After the newspaper’s inquiries, Scott began to repay those charges.
CPS officials, including David Pickens, Scott’s chief of staff, declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
Documents show that Steven Washington, a former board staffer, approved many of the purchases, including more than $5,300 in artwork bought from Gallery Guichard, in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood. The gallery’s co-owner, Andre Guichard, declined to talk about the purchases.
Washington, former chief of staff under Williams and briefly under Scott, said the expenses he approved were at the direction of his bosses. He said the Olympic donation and the art gallery charges were at Scott’s direction.
“Quite honestly, I don’t have a thought process on inappropriate or appropriate as it relates to the presidents of the board wanting to spend funds that were apparently made available for them to spend,” Washington said.
Washington said events held at Soldier Field related to school business functions such as football classics and youth violence prevention.
In addition, according to the documents, the board credit cards were used to make thousands in donations to charities and to at least one charter school. The Mercy Foundation received $3,000 in October; more than $1,800 went to the juvenile diabetes organization in November; and Williams gave $1,000 to Urban Prep Academies in September 2008.
“Had there even been a policy in place at the board that outlined what was appropriate and what was not, I imagine the president would not have done that,” Washington said.
Disclosures about the board’s spending come at a time when the district is cutting programs and laying off teachers and staff members. More than a thousand school employees were expected to be out of work by the end of the year, and millions of dollars in programs have been trimmed because of a shortage of money.
The Tribune’s inquiries into the board’s spending habits last year fueled an investigation by the district’s inspector general and prompted the board to hire an outside lawyer at $295 an hour to investigate. Both of those reviews are ongoing.
Williams said the inspector general’s office interviewed him late last year.
Scott, a Daley loyalist, died Nov. 16 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before he could be interviewed. Sources said investigators with the inspector general’s office were to interview Scott on Nov. 20.
Why Scott took his life remained a mystery. Police said they have not found a note.
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